#4.0-4.4

[romanreadsbooks]

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides - Review

TL;DR

4.1 Stars

Pros: Interesting main characters, Greek tragedy allusion, entertainment

Cons: Alicia's relationships, depiction of psychotherapy, bigotry

Spoilers in review? Yes

Opinions going in/why I picked it up:

There's kind of two reasons I picked this book up.

One: A good friend of mine HIGHLY recommended it to me. She and I have basically have opposite reading tastes so I was hesitant to read it -- so much so that, while I bought a copy from a thrift store, I put off actually reading it off for multiple years.

But then for a reading challenge I was doing (Orilium Academy Autumn Equinox 2025) I was require to spin a genre wheel and then read a book of whatever genre it landed on. I got 'Suspense' as my genre, googled 'Suspense books' because I wasn't even sure I owned any suspense books (I wanted to only read books off of my physical TBR) and The Silent Patient was the first book on the list.

I do not have a good track record with thrillers or mystery novels, so I also got the audiobook from the library to help me get through it. Additionally, I have two other friends who read thrillers regularly and had very 'meh' opinions on this book and so my expectations were very, very low.

Likes:

Overall, I did really like the book. My biggest complaint with most thrillers (and mysteries) is that we go so fast that by the time something "thrilling" happens I don't really care because the author never took the time and convinced me to give a fuck about the characters its happening to. I'm only ever going to be worried for a *person*, not a name on a piece of paper, so authors need to make me see their characters as people well before they start sprinting along their plot. (I have since seen much criticism that this book isn't even really a thriller, so maybe that's why I liked it LOL)

As such, I *really* liked how this book really let us sit with the characters and ruminate with them. Both Theo and Alicia has interesting thoughts, for the most part. (Again, some say this is boring monologue (and presumably not common in psychological thriller), but I'm gonna be honest -- I love a good villian monologue.)

Additionally, I have very little background in Greek mythology or tragedies -- we studied it in school a bit but I never cared much for it and that lack of interest has continued into adulthood. In this story, though, Alicia's story is kind of an allusion to/retelling of the story of Alcestis. I found the comparison fascinating. It was very heavy handed and I 100% get why those who are mythology buffs don't like that, but as someone who never got into mythology it is a nice change of pace when an author doesn't assume that I am familiar with Greek tragedies/myths/stories/etc. and all the symbolism associated.

Dislikes:

Alicia's relationships with others can almost be entirely boiled down to: Family (they abuse her), Men (they all lust after her), and Women (they don't get along). That and how she sees to always paint women nude (including herself), but never men -- even the one where she portrayed her husband as Jesus on the cross. Very much a woman written by a man.

The depiction of Psychotherapist and "therapy vs medication" argument is kind of wild. I'm no professional, but I've been in a psych-ward and uhhhhh. I have concerns about how this was portrayed. I lack the knowledge of the subject matter to properly articulate what my exact concerns are, but it did leave me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Additionally, the way some of the characters were spoken about in regards to the race, weight, etc. had me raising an eyebrow. I don't think I could point out many phrases that were explicitly awful (including Theo's description of Alicia's aunt, Lydia, who is fat and so there for must be described as disgusting and evil and bad >.>) Again, I struggle to articulate it, but it was something that stuck out to me in a negative way.

With the bigotry and the pyschotherapy points, you could argue that it is because Theo is telling the story and he is very much not a good person, but ehhhh. I don't think that the way the author wrote it would support that stance -- those lines dont appear to be evidence of Theo's or Alicia's flaws, but 'just the way things are'.

Rating Breakdown:

All in all, I would not necessarily argue that this is a technically *good* book, but I had fun -- which, to me, it important. I think I enjoyed this book because the story was dramatic and interesting and something new to me despite its many flaws.

I feel this review is not useful for others, but this blog is, first in foremost, for me. This is just the best I can do at the moment when it comes to explaining my opinions on the book immediately after reading it.

Characters: 9

Atmosphere: 7

Writing: 8

Plot: 9

Intrigue: 10

Logic: 6

Enjoyment: 9

Dialogue: 8

Total: 8.3/10 or 4.1 Stars

[romanreadsbooks]

Weight of Blood by Tiffany D Jackson - Review

TL;DR

4.2 Stars

Pros: accurate prediction of how racists white people behave in private, very good audiobook narrators, prose

Cons: soft magic system (personal preference)

Spoilers in review? No

Opinions going in/why I picked it up:

Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D Jackson was my favorite book of last year so I was already eager to read another one of her books, then BookTok creator, Madi Lim, mentioned in one of her audiobook recommendation videos that Weight of Blood was a great listening experience.

I am typically reading three books at any given time, one physical, one digital, and one audio, so when my audiobook slot because vacant, I started listening.

Likes:

Without going into too much detail, as to no dox myself, I grew up in a mostly white southern town and was in highschool in the same years that this book takes place. And while nothing as egregiously racist as what takes place in this book ever happened at my highschool, the more subtle forms of bigotry (microagressions, savior complexes, colorism, etc) were horrifyingly accurate.

I cannot comment on how the conflicts within the black community are portrayed in the book (i.e. how Maddy's white-passing appearance is perceived by different black characters), but the way the white characters are written and the difference in their dialogue when in front of media vs. black people vs. other white people is way too familiar to how some of the student at my highschool would speak.

To give an example, this was over Thanksgiving break my freshman year of college, my (at the time) partner and I were visiting our hometown and the Friday night after Thanksgiving we met at one of his friends houses and were playing some kind of Jackbox game that I don't remember the name of. The one where you make an invention to solve a problem.

I remember on the drive over I voiced some concern that I "didn't think his friends humor was similar to mine," and oh boy.

Throughout the night there were some questionable jokes, to be sure. but it all lead up to this one. I cannot remember the exact prompt, but it was something along the lines of "I just really wish I could _ _ _ _ _ _ again!"

And to my horror the player filled the blank in with "own people".

This just goes to show what is said behind closed doors when people think they're with a like-minded crowd. This was not some group of edgy 13-14 year olds with unfiltered access to the Internet, this was a group of grown white men who knew better. But because they were "among friends" they felt comfortable making that 'joke'.

On the drive home I questioned my partner about it and all he should say was "yeah, it was pretty bad. But it's just a joke, they don't actually think that."

All that to say, the books depiction of how white people act in private with other white people hit the nail on the head. Everything is a 'joke' and they 'dont mean it like that' and when you try to call them out on it you're either excluded or become the new subject of the 'jokes'.

Additionally, Jackson's writing of things that are horrifying, gore-y, or generally grotesque was so visceral and vivid, that I would imagine those without aphantasia might feel nauseous. I am both fortunately and unfortunately saved from those mental images.

And I do have to mention that the high praise for the audiobook it completely warranted. Every narrator did an absolutely fantastic job bringing the characters and story to life

Dislikes:

This is more of a personal thing, rather than any kind of objective criticism, but I don't like how magic was incorporated in this book. I don't tend to like either magical realism or soft magic systems, so having both in this book was just not really my thing.

All it does for me is take me out of the story and interrupt the flow of a contemporary or historical fiction novel to interject a random magic system that's barely developed.

Rating Breakdown

Characters: 10

Atmosphere: 9

Writing: 9

Plot: 9

Intrigue:8

Logic: 7

Enjoyment: 7

Dialogue: 8

Total: 8.375/10 or 4.2 Stars

[romanreadsbooks]

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - Review

TL;DR

4.4 Stars

Pros: gorgeous writing, incredibly poignant

Cons: A little flowery (something I like but other might find boring), open ended (personal preference)

Continue the Series? Yes

Spoilers in review? Yes

Opinions going in/why I picked it up:

Almost a year ago I read Manacled, the Hermione X Draco fanfiction, and I knew it was loosely based off of The Handmaid's Tale, so that is what initially made me curious. That and also just the overall premise sounded very interesting, so I mentioned it to my mother that I might start reading it.

She, not being a reader and usually only displaying mild interest in the books I read, surprised me by responding enthusiastically.

She told me that she was watching The Handmaid's Tale show and it was very, very good. We don't have that similar of taste, but it would be something we could both talk about in our weekly calls, so I figured why not pick up the book. Plus, I want to read more classics anyway.

Likes:

Overall my number one thing that I love the most about this book was the prose of it. Margaret Atwood is incredibly descriptive and sensory with her writing. Taste, smell, sight, sound, and touch -- all of it is done immaculately well. It even encouraged me to incorporate some of these more descriptive terms in my own writing.

As for the characters I thought they were all very real, though a few of them felt a little bit flat. Or I guess just villainous for the sake of it?

Then again Offred could not be very direct and open with them and so that in it of itself makes it harder for us as the audience to get a lot of information about a lot of characters.

I'm not entirely sure how to articulate it, and this is me being incredibly nitpicky, so that just goes to show how masterfully Atwood wrote all of her characters.

Dislikes:

I personally don't love when a book has an open-ended ending. It too often feels like author indecisiveness rather than a deliberate, meaningful choice. 9 times out of 10 I would rather the author just pick an ending, even if it's a little lackluster.

In this case, though, it makes sense within the context of the story, especially with the epilogue. After OfFred leaves this version of America, she likely does not have access to continue these tapes that she made that became The Handmaid's Tale. That said, I still had that annoyance that I typically had with open-ended ending where the story felt incomplete.

The one thing I did like about the open-ended ending is that it is quite hopeful. At the very least, Offred had the chance to escape. We don't know if that escape was successful, per se, but at least the chance was there and there was some hope for her.

If it had been a completely open ending, where it was very likely that she did not escape,then I would have disliked the ending a lot more than I did. This is not to say it's a bad ending, it's just not my preference

Other Notes:

I am very curious in the rise and fall of this post-american society that Atwood describes. We get quite a bit of information about how it started -- a lot of which has very frightful echoes of what's happening in modern day, especially with the limitation of women's health rights -- but I wish there was a little bit more especially with the fall of it all.

The fall is covered in the epilogue a little bit, but they don't say much past that the society simply fell due to a lot of infighting amongst the community and lack of children even with this new system with the handmaids.

I do know there are more books in this series, so I might continue them in the future, but since this is such a... not necessarily sad... stressful maybe? Solemn perhaps? A book that put and kept me in somber mood when reading it. As such, I need a little bit of a break with something more lighthearted, if not more fun.

I would like to return to this world, though, when I feeling more brave.

Rating Breakdown

Characters: 9

Atmosphere: 10

Writing: 10

Plot: 9

Intrigue:8

Logic: 8

Enjoyment: 8

Dialogue: 8

Total: 8.75/10 or 4.4 Stars

[romanreadsbooks]

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid - Review

TL;DR

4.1 Stars

Pros: Characters (Especially Evelyn Hugo), LGBTQ+ representation

Cons: POV Character (Monique), lackluster twist and ending

Spoilers in review? No

Opinions going in/why I picked it up:

The main reason for picking this book up now was that it was February's bookclub pick, but it's also been on my TBR for ages.

I've read Carrie Soto is Back and Daisy Jones and The Six by Reid prior to reading this and they we rated 4 and 5 stars, respectively, so I had high hopes for this one. That said, I didn't actually start the book until the day before bookclub and thus binged the whole thing in one day.

I heard the audiobook for this book was good, so that's how I consumed most of the book, but I did tandem read with the physical copy for a few chunks here and there.

Likes:

Just the characters man (with one notable exception that I will get into in the dislikes section). It's not surprising given that this book was was written by TJR. I adore just about every character she's written -- they all feel complicated and real. Both sympathetic and absolute assholes at the same time.

As for our title character: Evelyn Hugo fits the above perfectly. She is not a "good" person and does not pretend to be, but there are still admirable qualities in her. The members of my bookclub were on the fence as to whether she was a likable character, but in my personal opinion, that kind of doesn't matter. While it can help my enjoyment, it doesn't really matter if I like a character as a person. The biggest thing for me is if a character is interesting and I think Evelyn Hugo, like Daisy Jones, is absolutely fascinating.

There are a few LGBTQ+ characters we meet along the way and I do like they're portrayal. Reid does not downplay how dangerous it was to be openly a part of that community and how even the rich and famous would not be immune to the consequences of being found out. I enjoyed the mix of characters who were more optimistic about society's reception/thoughts toward the LGBTQ+ community and those who were more realistic and guarded/protective.

I also appreciated that Reid portrayed some of the bigotry bisexual individuals, in particular, face from both cishet people but also from within the LGBTQ+ community. The way they are often deemed "actually just straight" or "gay and in denial" and thus rejected from both communities. It's a very real issue that bafflingly still exists, despite this book being set 4+ decades in the past.

Dislikes:

The POV character, the one interviewing Evelyn, is named Monique is unfortunately both unlikeable *and* uninteresting. Or rather, her actions and reactions just feel inconsistent and irrational. Not to mention, in the first few chapters she makes a comment that she's lost a noticable amount of weight as a result of depression around her separation from her husband. She then frames it as a good thing because 'at least shes skinny and hot now' (not a direct quote, paraphrasing). And this is during the modern day portion of the novel, not the 60s/70s/80s. Call me crazy, but I don't think losing a substantial amount of weight due to depression is a good thing.

And I'm sorry the last like 10% of the book is just horribly uninteresting.

When your book has a larger than life character such as Evelyn Hugo (who the book is named after and takes up 90% of the plot), it feels weird to have the "twist" of the book be about Monique. And her subsequent reaction to the reveal of the twist feels very blown out of proportion. Like on a logical level, I totally get why she is upset, but to have such an intense reaction? It just feels weird.

Again, I think this is because Monique is very much not the focus of the book and thus we did not spend enough time with her to understand how big of a deal this was.

I've seen very mixed reviews for this book online and after reading that ending, I totally get why. I still really enjoyed my time with this book but I know it is common for a lackluster ending to ruin a book for some people.

Rating Breakdown

Characters: 9

Atmosphere: 8

Writing: 8

Plot: 8

Intrigue:9

Logic: 8

Enjoyment: 8

Dialogue:7

Total: 8.1/10 or 4.1 Stars

[romanreadsbooks]

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros - Review

TL;DR

4.1 Stars

Pros: Characters (mostly Ridoc), Xaden's Character Arc, acknowledgement of the toxicity in relationships

Cons: Violet's reaction to Andarna, who lives and dies (feat. My probably unpopular opinion)

Continue the Series? Yes

Spoilers in review? YES MAJOR SPOILERS

Opinions going in/why I picked it up:

I picked up the series pretty late into it's popularity, reading Fourth Wing in July of 2024 followed shortly by Iron Flame in August of the same year. I was in the mood for an easy to read, fun fantasy and it fit the bill perfectly.

The characters are fun, the world is interesting enough to make up for when romance gets boring and vice versa. As a lover of both romance and fantasy, I actually struggle with the romantasy genre as a whole. Most of the time I just find that instead of bringing the best parts of both fantasy and romance into one engaging story, books in the romantasy genre just do both halves of the portmanteau poorly.

I had always assumed I just hadn't read the right romantasy and The Empyrean series gives me hope that it's true.

Is Fourth Wing a literary masterpiece? Is it a immaculate example of complex world building? Or a love story that can rival the best of the best? No, of course not. But it's *fun* and *engaging* and makes me actually give a shit about the characters, which is not a common occurrence for me. Overall Fourth Wing and Iron Flame were a good time and earned 4.5 and 4.75 stars respectively (and yes I did like IF more than FW).

All that to say I was excited to read Onyx Storm and I went into the book with my head completely empty of theories and ready to have another good time. I did not do a re read ahead of starting the book and only watched a single two minute tiktok that gave me the spark notes of what previously happened in the series.

Likes:

As I referenced above, I really like all of the characters in this series, my previous favorite being either Sawyer or Imogen but my lord did this book make me love Ridoc. I of course liked his jokes and one-liners, but I also love the moments when he was serious, both with his concern with Xaden and Violets increasingly toxic relationship and his confrontation with the rest of the Iron Squad not seeing him as capable/powerful because he is humorous/fun loving. That said, I have been pronouncing his name wrong this whole time. I thought it was like the name Murdoc/Murdock (like from the band Gorillaz and the game Paragon), so 'Rye-doc' and it is not -- it's "Rid-ick".

To jump to another character, Xaden's arc over this section of the book was great. I enjoyed his struggle with the inevitability of his turning both feeling completely defeatist about it and still holding out hope, if only for Violets sake. And I assume by the end of the five book series, he will be saved/turned back, but I like that he still gave in this moment.

As he and Violet were traveling with Quest Squad (so happy for Ridoc that the name stuck lol) I started growing a little uncomfortable at how codependent and toxic their relationship was becoming. It felt like as Xaden was turning more and more venin, he was losing care for everything other than Violet. Some might find that romantic, but I personally find it to be more than a bit much. Which brings to mind two things: 1) I love that the woman who gave Violet the books completely called her out on how unhealthy the relationship was. 2) I glad that Ridoc stepped in and forced Violet to make a boundary and set up a support system for when Xaden eventually fully turns.

Dislikes:

Most of my "dislikes" are simple me being frustrated that we won't have answers to so many questions until we get the next book in the series, so they aren't really negatives. Those will be in the 'other notes' section. I do have a couple of problems though:

First, I don't like how quickly Violet got over the severed bond. Like we were told she laid in bed for four days, but that's about it? She was up and back to normal way too fast in my opinion. Like it seemed like she grieved Liam far longer than she did Andarna. I know she knew Liam for longer and that Andarna didn't die, she just left, but Andarna was bonded to Violets very *soul*.

The lore of the world makes it out to be that losing a dragon is worse than losing a spouse, even without the whole 'if your dragon dies, you die' part. I understand being a soldier and having work to do, but I just would have liked to see her grieve more for Andarna.

And speaking of grief, this may be a hot take, but Mira should have died. Or at the very least,

we should have had a more major death in the last battle. Like the most major death was Quinn and, while her death actually made me nearly cry, she wasn't *that* major of a character.

I need something irreversibly devastating to happen to Violet. Not like Liam, who she is kind of paying reparations to by taking care of Sloane. Not like Brennan, who came back to life. Not like Andarna who would eventually come back, even if she had actually stayed away for a few years. Not like Xaden who Violet will never give up on trying to turn back human. Not like her mother who she already had a complicated relationship with.

I need someone Violet loves to be gone with nothing to be done about it other than grieve. Some one irreplaceably important to Violet, namely either Mira or Rhiannon or (if Yarros wants to really hurt me) Ridoc. I want Yarros to have me nearly quitting the series because I am so upset over a death of a character. This thing with Mira being brought back from the brink has be worried that I won't ever get that major, heartbreaking death.

Other Notes:

I'm gonna be honest, when I first read Xaden's chapter at the end I was Very Confused™. Obviously now that I've seen other people's reactions, I'm aware that we don't know who the referenced 'brother' is, but at the time I thought I just wasn't understanding the words and I had missed the part where they said who the brother was. Since Panchek was there and he was the one giving information on Violets whereabouts to the Venin I assume he was the new brother? I don't know, with this series I like to complete avoid theorizing and just enjoy the ride, but I think I had leaned into the 'no thoughts, head empty' a bit too much.

I used to try and predict every book I read because I liked feeling smart, but it made me not like reading. It was almost like I had looked up a the twist of a movie and then went to see the film anyway. Obviously the twist can be impactful even if you know it ahead of time, but it makes it a lot harder to enjoy it in my personal experience.

In a similar vein, I also don't really enjoy watching/partaking in fandom theory-crafting or trying to get information out of authors for future seasons. I want to experience the story in its final form, not from Yarros hinting at future events/lore etc. I have seen a few theories as to who this mysterious brother is and a few about Andarna and her role in the last chapters plan, but honestly until the book is out -- I don't want to speculate. Others are 100% free to speculate and theorize and ask Yarros questions, but I'm gonna stay out of it.

Rating Breakdown

Characters: 10

Atmosphere: 8

Writing: 7

Plot: 7

Intrigue: 9

Logic: 9

Enjoyment: 9

Dialogue: 8

Total: 8.3/10 or 4.1 Stars