this is my america, by kim johnson
fiction, young adult / teen audiences / 5 stars
this book is..........it's fucking amazing in a way that will absolutely hurt you and you won't be okay, and not just because of the feels you will have for the protagonist, seventeen-year-old tracy beaumont who is trying to get innocence x (a fictional organisation) to look into her father's case and get him off death row, and her entire family and how mass incarceration actually affects families, but also
i would leave me if i could, by halsey
poetry | 5 million stars ✨
tw: rape and sexual abuse, substance abuse, abusive relationships, miscarriage
i feel like at this point everyone knows how much i love halsey and her music (and, well, if you didn't you know now). she's my favourite artist (right up there with solstafir) and her songs, her lyrics have always been really fucking relatable to me. so i had to mentally prepare myself to read her poetry collection because i had a feeling i
city of thieves, by david benioff
historical fiction, war, adventure | teen audiences | 5 stars
this is a story set during the nazi siege of leningrad (if you’re not familiar with it, it was brutal and long (one of the longest in history) and a lot of people died because of it). due to the siege, nobody has much in terms of food and other necessities and lev beniov gets arrested for looting (grabbing food and drinks and a knife from a dead german paratrooper) and thrown into a cell togeth
the moon is a harsh mistress, by robert a. heinlein
science fiction, politics | teen audiences | 5 stars
god i love this book so damn much. it’s one of my favourite science fiction classics because it’s relevant today, it doesn't age and it doesn’t feel old even though it was originally published in 1966. and that's mostly because, yeah it's science fiction but a lot of the story focuses on the characters and their actions, goals and what drives them, even the supercomputer (actually, esp
six suspects, by vikas swarup
mystery, thriller | teen audiences | 5 stars
this is a gripping murder mystery set in contemporary india, with six suspects and one investigative journalist who we also follow during the investigation. and the murder victim is a terrible person so you’re ultimately rooting for the murderer.
but, back to the beginning - seven years before the novel starts, vivek ‘vicky’ rai, the son of the home minister of uttar pradesh, murders ruby gill in a new delhi r
a man called ove, by fredrik backman
humour, friendship | teen audiences | 5 stars
*smol spoilers ahead*
tw: mention/depiction of depression and suicide
ove is the grumpy old man that will make you love him after he firsts tries to make you really fucking hate him.
he’s a curmudgeon, he’s bitter (supposedly), he’s the neighbour from hell. he’s got principles, he dislikes a lot of things and he generally seems pretty damn unlikeable.
but when a young couple with two young
the hottest dishes of the tartar cuisine, by alina bronsky
family, dark humour | teen audiences | 5 stars
*smol spoilers ahead*
tw: forced abortion
this book is a little bit difficult to explain why, exactly, i specifically like it. i grew up with someone similar to the narrator of this book, rosa achmetowna, but in reality someone much worse than rosa (in some ways, not in others...), so i feel like it doesn’t make sense that i would like a book featuring this nasty narrator but i
zoo station: the story of christiane f., by christiane f.
autobiography, young adult | mature audiences | 5 stars
*some spoilers ahead*
this is a brutal book, i have to say that as a preface. if you haven’t heard about it, it’s about a teenage heroin addict - christiane f and her life in the 1970s berlin and the drugs and sex work scene there.
the book was written with the help of transcripts from when two journalists, kai hermann and horst rieck met christiane f in a trial. she
the mistborn trilogy [the final empire, the well of ascension, the hero of ages], by brandon sanderson
fantasy, young adult | teen audiences | 5 stars
brandon sanderson has crafted this really vast world / universe with its own history but i feel like the most notable part of the entire trilogy (it’s actually a saga but i haven’t read the other books except the first three and they make up one whole so) is the magic system he created.
let me back up a little bit before i get in too d
best served cold, by joe abercrombie
fantasy, grimdark | mature audiences | 5 stars
*some spoilers ahead*
best served cold is joe abercrombie’s fourth book and it’s set in the first law universe, but it’s standalone so you don’t have to read the first law trilogy first to understand this book. and it’s a phenomenal book, i think my absolute favourite by joe abercrombie and i’m the person who literally devours his books.
it’s dark, and gritty and there’s war and blood and bloody
quicksand, by malin persson giolito
mystery, young adult | mature audiences | 5 stars
*some smol spoilers ahead*
this is a courtroom thriller but it’s also a story about a toxic relationship between eighteen year old maja norberg and sebastian fagerman. they’re both from a rich sweidsh suburb, going to the best school there is, but obviously things are *bad*, or they get bad.
sebastian is the son of a billionaire and his father is abusive, but maja is totally sucked in into s
red rising saga, by pierce brown
science fiction, dystopia | mature audiences | 5 stars
*spoilers ahead but not too much*
i feel like i’ve been obsessed with these books ever since i first read them so i thought that besides my occasional way too excited but random ravings about these books, they deserved a proper book review.
the series follows darrow, a red miner from mars, as he takes on the society divided into castes based on colour. the colours are all genetically modified