(some spoilers further down which I’ve done my absolute best to mark)
Ugly Love – Colleen Hoover ★★
Verity – Colleen Hoover ★★★✭
The Girls Are All So Nice Here – Laurie Elizabeth Flynn ★★★✭
Tender is the Flesh – Agustina Bazterrica ★★★★✭
In my Dreams I Hold a Knife – Ashley Winstead ★★★
A Short Stay in Hell – Steven L. Peck ★★★★
The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides ★★★✭
In order of worst to best with a (kind of) short review.
Ugly Love – Honestly every time I read a Colleen Hoover book I ask myself why. The characters are empty with little to no personality outside of their love stories. I can’t tell you a single thing about Tate other than the fact that she was obsessed with this man. The only thing I liked was >!Miles’ conversation with Rachel about moving on after losing their child.!< 2.5 stars for a (somewhat) sad story and quick read.
In My Dreams I Hold a Knife – it’s not the worst book ever, it’s just also not the best imo. It wasn’t particularly memorable and the twists felt somewhat predictable. All in all it was okay.
Verity – Okay Colleen Hoover redeems herself a little with this one. This made me want to read other thrillers by her despite the fact that I swore I’d never read another one of her books. I think I would have rated it higher had it not been for the bonus chapter at the end which I have personally decided to disregard. But honestly I actually really liked the story, I feel as though Colleen is a great storyteller but just not a good writer. The divide between >!Manuscript or letter!< really makes the story I think. On a side note >!Verity standing at the top of the stairs watching this woman and her husband!< was EERIE and probably the best part of the book.
The Silent Patient – So this one had me from the beginning but ultimately had so many plot holes and story points that didn’t make a lot of sense, and characters that just led nowhere. But, I still enjoyed it a lot. I kept trying to put the clues together while I was reading as to what the twist was going to be and when I read it, it completely floored me. >!I mean yes I picked up on some weird stuff in Theo’s chapters about his wife but put it down to the countertransference they kept speaking about as therapists and assumed that he was just holding onto too much from his sessions with Alicia. It wasn’t until he mentioned sneaking into a summer house that I put the pieces together.!< Conclusively still worth the read I think.
The Girls Are All So Nice Here- the writing in this one was fantastic. I felt both disgusted and fascinated by the main characters and their actions. Some of the lines from the book were just so amazing and relatable as a woman. It was a library book so I don’t have highlights from it but I wrote this into my own notes, >!”I don’t know if it’s disgusting or impressive that girls can do that for each other. That we can achieve that level of deceit in the name of sisterhood”!< But the ending let it down a lot, it felt rushed, and kind of cliché. I still believe it’s worth the read for the writing alone however.
A Short Stay in Hell – I really loved the concept of this one, I just wish there had been more. >!I wanted to read about him finding his book and making it to heaven. Though in the end when he didn’t I theorized on whether it was actually possible, or whether that’s what hell was supposed to be, an impossible quest that kills any hope of happiness at every turn, taking away everybody you love in one way or another. Still allowing you to feel unimaginable pain, hunger, thirst, hopelessness, depression, making you question your morals and beliefs.!< But, that’s what makes this book so great, it sits with you in so many ways and makes you question your own life. The imagery was fantastic >!The never-ending library, the endlessness of the whole thing depicted with weeks and weeks of falling and just how long it would take to find a book with even a passage that made any sense at all.!< I could honestly talk forever about this one. Very impressive story to fit into 100 pages.
Tender is the Flesh – oh man, where to even begin with this one. This was true, real horror and definitely not for the faint of heart. Everything I read in this book made me feel like it couldn’t get worse, and then it did. It was both terrible and fantastic all at once. There were a couple of times that I contemplated putting it down because of how graphic it was and how I felt reading it, but after sitting with it for a while I’m glad I didn’t. Because not only is the writing great, the twist at the end was great too. >!It lulls you into this false sense of security, believing this man is going to change something in how the world has developed by “saving this woman” and then he does a 180 and consumes her in a different but still awful way!<
Sorry this was so long, thanks for reading if you made it this far
Edit: spoilers
by KindaQute