about this page
i read a lot and find myself forgetting details of the books i read. this page is my attempt to slow down, and to engage more with the things i read. my goal is to record at least a sentence for each new book i read. with that being said, my reviews will mostly be fragments of thoughts that help me recall why i felt a certain way reading a book---not so much a critical overview of a text. books arranged with my most recently read at the top.
recommend me books in the chatbox to the right (under the sleepy kitty)!
click on the pink stars for my thoughts, and covers for an offsite link to a bookshop.org page that holds more information on the book.
this book was fun and i mostly enjoyed reading it but it was a let down from the first book and there were some things that frustrated me:
firstly, this book follows all the same plot points as the first one while being waaaay more obvious. kira goes to a new planet where she has to prove herself to her father’s house (even though she literally saved a planet in the previous book) while uncovering an undercover tsavitee agent. her illness felt more like plot convince to keep her nerfed during the trials (where she only ever climbs some stairs and runs?)… which she still always succeeds in the most extreme way possible.
there were some action scenes i really enjoyed (like kira luring primus devon in the obstacle course) but kira comes close to death SO MANY times in this book that eliminates any real tension. her martyr complex in this book is actually so frustrating because we’re constantly told how important her secret mission is to her but she’s going yolo 🤪 every chapter
jin and kira’s relationship was my fav part of the first book but honestly they were annoying the heck outta me in this book! we’re told over and over how serious a crime it is that jin trespassed onto this planet and they need to keep it secret but they’re always yapping and not at all acting undercover. like why did no one question how kira was able to take away the visualization technology from rheya to show the rothchild battle. kira has the attention of everyone in this massive lecture hall on her when she whispers to jin to help her—even though we are constantly told how good the tuann’s hearing is. this was such a dumb moment i was sooo taken out.
some of this wouldn’t be so bad if the overarching plot wasn’t so obvious either. like the sea dragon being angry because she was trying to protect her child (why did only kira realize this… you shouldn’t be making every other character dumb as rocks to show the intelligence or cunningness of the main character) or that dude bullying devon being the secret tsavitee or the council member that is most loudly against kira being the betrayer in the tuann. im begging for the next book to not having a villain that is so obviously twirling his mustache for everyone to see. on that note i also just realized this series is longer than a trilogy which makes sense because idk how this was all going to be wrapped up in one more book
it felt like there’s some retconning of kira not knowing she was tuann. why is she suddenly described as having pointy ears (in comparison to other tuann she meets).
graydon and kira’s relationship was a highlight. that man is down BAD and just begging kira to have some normal hobbies that won’t put her in the medbay every 24 hours. them in the ocean 💙💙
other small thoughts:
- blue and raider kinda piss me off idgaf. it’s hard to accept the friendship of the curs with kira when we’re only TOLD about their past friendship and we only SEE them be a dick to kira
- i didn’t like that rheya, who is really the only woman contender in the trials besides blue and kira, was described as having heart eyes at graydon and then was bitchy to kira because of her jealously. very 2010s other woman character which was not fun
- graydon has got to stop teasing kira by calling her an infant cause that is just gross
- im curious to see what affinity kira’s ki has because quillion is def keeping something hidden about that sapphire
firstly, this book follows all the same plot points as the first one while being waaaay more obvious. kira goes to a new planet where she has to prove herself to her father’s house (even though she literally saved a planet in the previous book) while uncovering an undercover tsavitee agent. her illness felt more like plot convince to keep her nerfed during the trials (where she only ever climbs some stairs and runs?)… which she still always succeeds in the most extreme way possible.
there were some action scenes i really enjoyed (like kira luring primus devon in the obstacle course) but kira comes close to death SO MANY times in this book that eliminates any real tension. her martyr complex in this book is actually so frustrating because we’re constantly told how important her secret mission is to her but she’s going yolo 🤪 every chapter
jin and kira’s relationship was my fav part of the first book but honestly they were annoying the heck outta me in this book! we’re told over and over how serious a crime it is that jin trespassed onto this planet and they need to keep it secret but they’re always yapping and not at all acting undercover. like why did no one question how kira was able to take away the visualization technology from rheya to show the rothchild battle. kira has the attention of everyone in this massive lecture hall on her when she whispers to jin to help her—even though we are constantly told how good the tuann’s hearing is. this was such a dumb moment i was sooo taken out.
some of this wouldn’t be so bad if the overarching plot wasn’t so obvious either. like the sea dragon being angry because she was trying to protect her child (why did only kira realize this… you shouldn’t be making every other character dumb as rocks to show the intelligence or cunningness of the main character) or that dude bullying devon being the secret tsavitee or the council member that is most loudly against kira being the betrayer in the tuann. im begging for the next book to not having a villain that is so obviously twirling his mustache for everyone to see. on that note i also just realized this series is longer than a trilogy which makes sense because idk how this was all going to be wrapped up in one more book
it felt like there’s some retconning of kira not knowing she was tuann. why is she suddenly described as having pointy ears (in comparison to other tuann she meets).
graydon and kira’s relationship was a highlight. that man is down BAD and just begging kira to have some normal hobbies that won’t put her in the medbay every 24 hours. them in the ocean 💙💙
other small thoughts:
- blue and raider kinda piss me off idgaf. it’s hard to accept the friendship of the curs with kira when we’re only TOLD about their past friendship and we only SEE them be a dick to kira
- i didn’t like that rheya, who is really the only woman contender in the trials besides blue and kira, was described as having heart eyes at graydon and then was bitchy to kira because of her jealously. very 2010s other woman character which was not fun
- graydon has got to stop teasing kira by calling her an infant cause that is just gross
- im curious to see what affinity kira’s ki has because quillion is def keeping something hidden about that sapphire
read july 8 2026 - july 11 2026
this was really fun!
it was both silly and fun, while being adventurous and having some edge. there were some moments that were so campy i laughed, like when kira describes herself, and her gray-purple eyes: “They saw her delicateness of her features, the burgundy color of her hair and gray-purple eyes that changed colors in certain light, and made certain assumptions.”
kira reminds me a lot of a bioware protagonist—i was getting big shephard and hawke vibes. big mass effect vibes all around tbh.
i love kira and jin’s relationship
there was one moment in the beginning of the book that i was like really kira??? when the tuann people are introduced, jin quickly points out that “wizard” is a derogatory term, but then kira keeps internally referring to tuann people she interacts with as wizards until like half way in the book… girl 😭
this book seems to flirt with a serious discussion of discrimination and xenophobia in the early world-building stages, but kira and her mysterious past and powers take the limelight—im hoping the next two books think more seriously about the cultural politics of the world now that we know more about kira with this book’s ending
it was both silly and fun, while being adventurous and having some edge. there were some moments that were so campy i laughed, like when kira describes herself, and her gray-purple eyes: “They saw her delicateness of her features, the burgundy color of her hair and gray-purple eyes that changed colors in certain light, and made certain assumptions.”
kira reminds me a lot of a bioware protagonist—i was getting big shephard and hawke vibes. big mass effect vibes all around tbh.
i love kira and jin’s relationship
there was one moment in the beginning of the book that i was like really kira??? when the tuann people are introduced, jin quickly points out that “wizard” is a derogatory term, but then kira keeps internally referring to tuann people she interacts with as wizards until like half way in the book… girl 😭
this book seems to flirt with a serious discussion of discrimination and xenophobia in the early world-building stages, but kira and her mysterious past and powers take the limelight—im hoping the next two books think more seriously about the cultural politics of the world now that we know more about kira with this book’s ending
read july 9 2026 - july 9 2026
i really wanted to like this book but instead found it very frustrating to read to the point of giving up on it
i am so down with infrastructural media theory and media ecology, and i found the history that peters's weaves in the introduction chapter to be really promising but then the following chapters are composed and reliant on an annoying amount of of anecdotes and factoids that don't do the intellectual rigor of actually making an argument---putting two marginally related observations together for thought provocation is fun every now and then but shouldn't make up the entire book
i'm also just so confused about the point of chapter 2. why do we need a ted-talk on dolphin biology to understand the point that our bodies and our material surroundings shape the way we are able to live in the world, and the type of world that we can imagine??
the implicit placement of human adaptation vs. animal adaption (as seen in chapter 2) also forms some reductive worldbuilding of an ontology of "human" or "civilization" that i don't think is earned when the chapter is purely focused on cetaceans with the "human" for taken for granted. he dedicates an entire chapter to cetaceans to "show us by contrast how intertwined our being is with our material environment" (79)--but doesn't really do much work moving from them (the cetaceans) to us (humans).
i also found some of peters's comparisons to be just icky. take for instance, the way he randomly drops in the sentence "rather like native peoples, who often get suffused in a romantic glow of nostalgia once they have been wiped out, whales and dolphins went from harpoon fodder to spiritual objects rather quickly" (69). I think the conflation of indigenous folk to the treatment of animals is already dangerously reductive, but especially because peters's has no other discussion of indigenous folk in this chapter. he just drops that line and moves on!
and this is why i find the style of writing rooted in a succession of observations ended with a sudden argumentative statement to be so frustrating--putting two things together does not do the work of the argument for you ):<
i am so down with infrastructural media theory and media ecology, and i found the history that peters's weaves in the introduction chapter to be really promising but then the following chapters are composed and reliant on an annoying amount of of anecdotes and factoids that don't do the intellectual rigor of actually making an argument---putting two marginally related observations together for thought provocation is fun every now and then but shouldn't make up the entire book
i'm also just so confused about the point of chapter 2. why do we need a ted-talk on dolphin biology to understand the point that our bodies and our material surroundings shape the way we are able to live in the world, and the type of world that we can imagine??
the implicit placement of human adaptation vs. animal adaption (as seen in chapter 2) also forms some reductive worldbuilding of an ontology of "human" or "civilization" that i don't think is earned when the chapter is purely focused on cetaceans with the "human" for taken for granted. he dedicates an entire chapter to cetaceans to "show us by contrast how intertwined our being is with our material environment" (79)--but doesn't really do much work moving from them (the cetaceans) to us (humans).
i also found some of peters's comparisons to be just icky. take for instance, the way he randomly drops in the sentence "rather like native peoples, who often get suffused in a romantic glow of nostalgia once they have been wiped out, whales and dolphins went from harpoon fodder to spiritual objects rather quickly" (69). I think the conflation of indigenous folk to the treatment of animals is already dangerously reductive, but especially because peters's has no other discussion of indigenous folk in this chapter. he just drops that line and moves on!
and this is why i find the style of writing rooted in a succession of observations ended with a sudden argumentative statement to be so frustrating--putting two things together does not do the work of the argument for you ):<
started reading on may 5 2026, dnf'd on july 9 2026
okay i really loved the horror intrigue aspects of this and the setting of a small rural town with mining history. nenia is so great at building dread that lets out into a horrific reveal
but my god nadine is so frustrating!!
nadine is constantly described as holding in her emotion and the moments when she gets angry are notable so i was really hoping there would be some sort of conclusion where she stopped bottling all of her anger and anxiety in and actually acts in regards for her sister and the countless other victims… but that’s it??? other reviewers are right for calling her dumb as a rock but girl have some self-respect. she should’ve killed cal, his brother, his sister, and his father or at least tried, idgaf. poor noelle
but my god nadine is so frustrating!!
nadine is constantly described as holding in her emotion and the moments when she gets angry are notable so i was really hoping there would be some sort of conclusion where she stopped bottling all of her anger and anxiety in and actually acts in regards for her sister and the countless other victims… but that’s it??? other reviewers are right for calling her dumb as a rock but girl have some self-respect. she should’ve killed cal, his brother, his sister, and his father or at least tried, idgaf. poor noelle
read july 4 2026 - july 5 2026
gabriel takes over as ceo of the business that charlotte works for, and sparks fly from the moment she throws a stapler at him.
what i liked: gabriel recognizing charlotte's competence, and the fiesty notes that charlotte and gabriel pass between each other when gabriel makes charlotte his new secretary.
what i didn't like: this book just felt soooo long. i liked the realistic depiction of charlotte's trauma, but the book just became boring when nothing was happening BESIDES charlotte and gabriel facing trial and error with intimacy. i also found gabriel to be boring---okay you're an ex-ruby player turned ceo hustler (lmao) and your only personality outside of being a bossy grouch is to watch your family play rugby? snoozefest. the side-plot of gabriel/his birth father was boring, and then when gabriel started being an ass to charlotte at the end of the book because she wanted him to work less i was over it. the pining and slowburn means nothing when you become a boring ass the last fourth of the book!
what i liked: gabriel recognizing charlotte's competence, and the fiesty notes that charlotte and gabriel pass between each other when gabriel makes charlotte his new secretary.
what i didn't like: this book just felt soooo long. i liked the realistic depiction of charlotte's trauma, but the book just became boring when nothing was happening BESIDES charlotte and gabriel facing trial and error with intimacy. i also found gabriel to be boring---okay you're an ex-ruby player turned ceo hustler (lmao) and your only personality outside of being a bossy grouch is to watch your family play rugby? snoozefest. the side-plot of gabriel/his birth father was boring, and then when gabriel started being an ass to charlotte at the end of the book because she wanted him to work less i was over it. the pining and slowburn means nothing when you become a boring ass the last fourth of the book!
read june 11 2026 - july 1 2026
okay i was so into thiago chasing tess and was eating up their banter but then thiago shoots tess's best friend trying to get her to tell him where tess is... and tess moves on from this so fast what the hell.
girl he shot your BEST FRIEND, wtf?? also i hate hate hate when books have an attempted rape scene followed by a sex scene and this book has that /:
girl he shot your BEST FRIEND, wtf?? also i hate hate hate when books have an attempted rape scene followed by a sex scene and this book has that /:
read july 1 2026 - july 1 2026
i thought the first half of the book, where addie is having to learn how to survive on the planet by herself, was fun. (my love for surival goes way back to reading gary paulsen's hatchet as a kid...) however, addie has been on this planet for like three years and never thought to learn about it until everyone around her ends up dead??
what's up with addie referring to every form of housing as a "teepee"?... major ick
lydia hope has the craziest endings. i loved the slow build up between addie and zoarak but then it ends right when it gets good ):< give me some fluff after all this suffering
while this was fun, i cant help but to think of it as a weaker version of the last hour of gann. i don't see myself revisiting this because i can just reread tlhog
what's up with addie referring to every form of housing as a "teepee"?... major ick
lydia hope has the craziest endings. i loved the slow build up between addie and zoarak but then it ends right when it gets good ):< give me some fluff after all this suffering
while this was fun, i cant help but to think of it as a weaker version of the last hour of gann. i don't see myself revisiting this because i can just reread tlhog
read june 29 2026 - june 30 2026
every book in this series just gets worse and worse imo. i thought leila and vlad were so fun in the first book but every new book leila loses more of her personality outside of loving vlad and vlad becomes more of a controlling ass.
so much happens in this book: leila gets kidnapped and tortured, leila and vlad travel to new orleans, blah blah---but i was just so bored the whole time because leila and vlad are so stale. i think vlad and leila's story would have been better as a duology.
so much happens in this book: leila gets kidnapped and tortured, leila and vlad travel to new orleans, blah blah---but i was just so bored the whole time because leila and vlad are so stale. i think vlad and leila's story would have been better as a duology.
read december 28 2025 - june 28 2026
something must be wrong with me because why do i reread r lee smith's books when i need a comfort read...
i started my reread of this right after i turned in my last seminar paper for the semester. i wanted a dark book and r lee smith provided! kane is such an interesting character.
i was still only interested in the kane/raven bits and found tagen/daria to be boring---it's the only reason this is 4 stars instead of 5!
i started my reread of this right after i turned in my last seminar paper for the semester. i wanted a dark book and r lee smith provided! kane is such an interesting character.
i was still only interested in the kane/raven bits and found tagen/daria to be boring---it's the only reason this is 4 stars instead of 5!
reread may 19 2026 - june 27 2026
this was a mega disappointment after the first book. what was that ending?? so anti-climatic and makes me dislike the first book with the knowledge we get from this one... you mean to tell me all of this was just to get tristian and morana together?? so rereading the code drama from the first book is all pointless? and i hate that we have to read the spinoff couple books to get to the bottom of the stolen girls. like that is a crucial aspect of tristian's plot---we should get closure in tristian's book!!
i thought tristian and morana were fun but the plot was such a snoozefest this was not enjoyable and nothing had stakes
i thought tristian and morana were fun but the plot was such a snoozefest this was not enjoyable and nothing had stakes
read may 26 2026 - june 26 2026
the first half of this book was a bit of the slog to get through and maggie was a bit stale to me and sometimes gave me the ick… im not a big fan of the army brat background and i didn't really feel the connection to maggie's family ALSO maggie talking about fighting for democracy was giving white liberal red flags---it's the same with her constantly reflecting on her beginnings as a criminology major. im sorry but criminology is just a pipeline to the fbi. maggie is constantly talking about how the system needs to change, but much of her background philosophy is rooted in conservative individualism that doesn't consider the system *as* the problem!
i also feel like this narrative relies TOO much on maggie saving children to hamfist that she is a kindhearted and selfless person. kaidan was cute tho
another ick: when she told Isadau that being called "my woman" wasn't a bad thing... girl this lady was just imprisoned in her body for two years shut up
but everard got a hold on me … even if his name is stupid
also lute and will must be protected at all costs... when lute offered the mop rag as a sitting carpet i was gagged as hell
i also feel like this narrative relies TOO much on maggie saving children to hamfist that she is a kindhearted and selfless person. kaidan was cute tho
another ick: when she told Isadau that being called "my woman" wasn't a bad thing... girl this lady was just imprisoned in her body for two years shut up
but everard got a hold on me … even if his name is stupid
also lute and will must be protected at all costs... when lute offered the mop rag as a sitting carpet i was gagged as hell
read june 21 2026 - june 22 2026
screaming crying throwing up because how was it possible for this to have a crueler ending than the first book
i ate up the last half of the book BUT the constant pov switches was frustrating—did we really need so much pio and caracalla? and rae my funny silly girl why were you acting so dumb in this 😭😭
i ate up the last half of the book BUT the constant pov switches was frustrating—did we really need so much pio and caracalla? and rae my funny silly girl why were you acting so dumb in this 😭😭
read may 17 2026 - june 20 2026
i didn’t really enjoy the first half of this book as it read a bit too much like it was meant to be taught in a graduate seminar—it seemed like the characters were more mouths for references than characters—but getting closer to eternity was really something
christina joining her sisters, and the echoes of mali and her mother, and yonghun and prasert got me emotional fr
christina joining her sisters, and the echoes of mali and her mother, and yonghun and prasert got me emotional fr
read may 30 2026 - june 20 2026
review under construction! come back later
read june 16 2026 - june 19 2026
morana and tristian are such fun enemies to lovers in this. tristian is all like, ONLY I can be ur enemy morana... no one else. the ending ultimatium scene was so good, and was such a clever way to solidify the transformation of their relationship from "enemy" *to* "lover."
i didn't like how morana is constantly described as being a genius. authors have got to stop calling their most average character a genius because it only calls attention to the exact opposite.
i didn't like how morana is constantly described as being a genius. authors have got to stop calling their most average character a genius because it only calls attention to the exact opposite.
read may 26 2026 - may 26 2026
quick recap bc i binged these: lana and jake scare delaney grove by making them think that victoria came back as a vengeful angel; the town people finally leave and victoria and jake have a shoot out with the perpetrators; logan and his crew can only watch in the fbi quarters because of fbi director-johnson corruption drama; big explosion and people think lana is dead; sike lana isn't dead; logan finds out that the REAL serial killer is jake's father and jake has been poisoning him; and lana/logan and hadley/jake have a HEA epilogue in greece... with lana managing her murder compulsions with vigiantilism.
this was a fun series but honestly by this book i was bored of lana's revenge plot---this book really drew it out. i wanted more focus and development on lana and logan's relationship; it was so undercooked. instead, we get a fake death scene where readers know that lana is still alive. with the way that logan reacted in the last book to finding out about lana, i wanted more discussion/grovel/yearning and instead everything just gets patched together and we're quickly told that lana is all logan cares about. but this doesnt feel earned!!
i kind of wish we had like one more book that focused specifically on logan's conflicted feelings because this one is a bit bloated having both logan's resolution/the ending of lana's revenge plot.
and then the reveal about jake's dad was just okay because there wasn't any narrative focus on finding the original killer, so when we're told it's jake's dad, it felt anti-climatic and forced.
this was a fun series but honestly by this book i was bored of lana's revenge plot---this book really drew it out. i wanted more focus and development on lana and logan's relationship; it was so undercooked. instead, we get a fake death scene where readers know that lana is still alive. with the way that logan reacted in the last book to finding out about lana, i wanted more discussion/grovel/yearning and instead everything just gets patched together and we're quickly told that lana is all logan cares about. but this doesnt feel earned!!
i kind of wish we had like one more book that focused specifically on logan's conflicted feelings because this one is a bit bloated having both logan's resolution/the ending of lana's revenge plot.
and then the reveal about jake's dad was just okay because there wasn't any narrative focus on finding the original killer, so when we're told it's jake's dad, it felt anti-climatic and forced.
read may 25 2026 - may 25 2026
quick recap bc i binged these: lana is coming to the end of her revenge plan; the investigation into the scarlet killer takes logan's crew to lana's hometown, delaney grove; logan brings lana along, which is exactly what she wants; while lana and jake are making lightwork of the remaining names on lana's list, logan is learning more about victoria's (lana) past.
okay this was working to be my favorite book out of the series... until the moment that logan finds out that lana is the scarlet killer. i HATE the miscommunication trope and that happens here in the most awful way. logan ties up lana and uses her body to air out his anger with sex. bro, this is just assault. then he berates her and leaves her without letting her speak??? idc if he didn't realize that lana was victoria and thought she was obsessed with victoria and committing revenge in her name. be mad at lana but idc this was SO unnecessary and cruel to lana. even if logan didn't yet know that lana was victoria, he DID consider that she might have been a rape victim---what logan did is not okay for any person, but especially someone you think might have been a previous victim of rape!!
and of course because logan just left her tied up, she gets away right as hadley rightfully gives logan shit and tells him lana's real identity. lana has been betrayed by so many people in her life---im not interested in reading about logan becoming one of those people too.
okay this was working to be my favorite book out of the series... until the moment that logan finds out that lana is the scarlet killer. i HATE the miscommunication trope and that happens here in the most awful way. logan ties up lana and uses her body to air out his anger with sex. bro, this is just assault. then he berates her and leaves her without letting her speak??? idc if he didn't realize that lana was victoria and thought she was obsessed with victoria and committing revenge in her name. be mad at lana but idc this was SO unnecessary and cruel to lana. even if logan didn't yet know that lana was victoria, he DID consider that she might have been a rape victim---what logan did is not okay for any person, but especially someone you think might have been a previous victim of rape!!
and of course because logan just left her tied up, she gets away right as hadley rightfully gives logan shit and tells him lana's real identity. lana has been betrayed by so many people in her life---im not interested in reading about logan becoming one of those people too.
read may 25 2026 - may 25 2026
quick recap because i binged these: lana kills the boogeyman (so epic you get him girl) but oops now hadley knows that lana is the scarlet killer... but they work that out after hadley discovers that lana killed hadley's child-thieving, pedo father; logan and crew's investigation points them to the small town of delaney grove
read may 25 2026 - may 25 2026
quick recap because i binged these: logan and lana are growing closer as a couple (which jake gives lana shit for); logan is unknowingly tracking lana, but the scarlet angel takes a backseat in this book as logan's crew hunts for "the boogeyman"; logan becomes public enemy #1 for the boogeyman, putting the target on lana's back as his public partner; while all this is happening, readers learn more about lana's past as she works through her list.
the boogeyman plot is fun---a serial killer mystery in a series about a serial killer! i loved how lana was trying to find ways to handle the boogeyman herself while logan is worrying to the bone about trying to protect lana---as if she needs that LOL. and the hadley cliffhanger!!
the boogeyman plot is fun---a serial killer mystery in a series about a serial killer! i loved how lana was trying to find ways to handle the boogeyman herself while logan is worrying to the bone about trying to protect lana---as if she needs that LOL. and the hadley cliffhanger!!
read may 25 2026 - may 25 2026
quick recap bc i binged these: lana and logan's beginning!!! ahhhh. lana and logan run into each other at a coffee shop after lana shuts down the flirting from logan's partner; from here, we're thrown in a plot about a serial killer who attacks and mutilates random young men. who could the killer be???
fuck the fbi but this book was a really enjoyable turn-your-brain off thriller romance.
fuck the fbi but this book was a really enjoyable turn-your-brain off thriller romance.
read may 24 2026 - may 24 2026
i wanted pretty art and fluffy romance with a bottle of white wine, so i picked this up at talking leaves bookstore based on ciara's recommendation. this was NOT good... what in the 2011 wattpad 😭
persephone's clothes in this are sooo crazy. like why are you making her suffer like this, rachel? and hades is a creep. actually every man in this book is a sexual creep. and persephone has rocks for brains and suffers sexual predation left and right. skip!
persephone's clothes in this are sooo crazy. like why are you making her suffer like this, rachel? and hades is a creep. actually every man in this book is a sexual creep. and persephone has rocks for brains and suffers sexual predation left and right. skip!
read march 28 2026 - march 28 2026
i read this for my grad course, "games, gender, and culture." i wrote about this book in two reflections, so i'm going to paste them here:
As we worked to define what casual meant to each of us in class, we all came up with different criteria: things that feel cozy because of nostalgia for a time or style (think of *Stardew Valley*’s aesthetic reliance on something like *Harvest Moon*); things that feel small, and thus easier to manage because they are slowly paced (for instance, *Animal Crossing*’s accordance with a real 24-hour time system or the Kim Kardashian mobile game’s energy system) or because the goals feel scaffolded and less overwhelming; or things that feel casual because they rely on small, repetitive tasks.
I think with the rising popularity of casual/cozy games and the general acceptance of “casual players,” what counts as a cozy game becomes increasingly difficult to define or categorize. If one defines a casual game as that which has simple mechanics and is easy to play, then a game like *Stardew Valley* might not count—even if casual players cite *Stardew Valley* as their beginning into the genre. Another issue that complicates how we categorize games or gamers is the unique orientation to play. By this, I mean that we all have weird and interesting connections to games or play because of our orientation to the game for a specific thing it’s offering. For instance, if I want to wind down, I may start a new character on *Bloodborne* or *Dark Soul II* even though FromSoft is most known for creating “hardcore” games. To me, the world, music, openness, and boss fights are nostalgic and cozy. In a similar vein, when I play *Stardew Valley*, I’m very much the “hardcore” gamer that Chess describes—I enjoy minimaxing playthroughs and catching legendary fish. I’m not unique in any of these regards. I’m sure many of us have to explain the unique way that we play games, or the unique feeling that we connect to a game when talking with friends.
More to Chess’s book—I wonder if the difficulty describing a game as casual/cozy might be because of the way that games/gaming cultures are marketed versus the way gamers play with said games. Chess’s focus on “designed identities,” the constructed player according to the gaming industry (5), is helpful for thinking about how games or genres also have constructed identities. A lot of the cozy games I gravitate toward are indie developed, but as the genre has gotten more popular and lucrative, I’ve noticed that a sort of constructed idea of what it means to be a successful cozy game has formed—think of all of the *Stardew Valley* rip-offs.
One of the parts of Chess’s chapter that I thought was especially interesting was thinking about how Player Two type games emphasize choices that help others, and “[create] joy in life” (Chess 99). As Chess says: “the player is constantly doing the work of emotional labor: fixing the problems of those who cannot help themselves” (106). So, for example, in *Diner Dash*, Flo’s obtains hearts from making her customers happy---the hearts represent other lives (customers) made happy rather than Flo's own health or happiness. Or, in the Kim Kardashian mobile game, your fame ranking is based in how many “correct” decisions you make---those decisions are often rooted in doing work for others. Or, in a hidden puzzle game, the player must click on a bunch of items to “tidy” up the room.
This is different, but also similar: when I play games like *Life is Strange* or *Baldur’s Gate*, even though the mechanics don’t strictly enforce you to make decisions that make the most people happy, I end up picking choices that still try to make people happy: the “nicest” choice. I have fun watching others do an evil run on *Baldur’s Gate*, but I just can’t make those choices---it almost feels physically impossible, there’s no way I’m able to press the “x” button on a choice that will make Shadowheart sad.
While Chess’s book is more interested in seeing how game design constructs gameplay for “player two,” I think it’s interesting how even in games that wouldn’t be traditionally counted as a player-two game (like *Baldur’s Gate*), my own disposition (being a woman, being an older sister, being trained to work in service industries) urges me to follow a player two game mechanic: balancing the emotional well-being of the characters for the “happiest” ending. In our last session playing *Life is Strange*, we ended by thinking about how a game can be both a player-two game and not-a-player two game---here, I wonder if anyone else can think of how they might engage with what I might call “player two play” in a non-player two game?
reflection 1:
Since our last few discussions in class, I’ve been thinking about “casual” and “cozy” games. Although they’re two different things, I tend to use “cozy” in the place of “casual” because of the pejorative atmosphere that encompasses “casual.” I’ve noticed other people online that play and enjoy what might be traditionally marketed as “casual games” also tend to call these games “cozy games” as well. For instance, r/CozyGamers has nearly 300k community members.As we worked to define what casual meant to each of us in class, we all came up with different criteria: things that feel cozy because of nostalgia for a time or style (think of *Stardew Valley*’s aesthetic reliance on something like *Harvest Moon*); things that feel small, and thus easier to manage because they are slowly paced (for instance, *Animal Crossing*’s accordance with a real 24-hour time system or the Kim Kardashian mobile game’s energy system) or because the goals feel scaffolded and less overwhelming; or things that feel casual because they rely on small, repetitive tasks.
I think with the rising popularity of casual/cozy games and the general acceptance of “casual players,” what counts as a cozy game becomes increasingly difficult to define or categorize. If one defines a casual game as that which has simple mechanics and is easy to play, then a game like *Stardew Valley* might not count—even if casual players cite *Stardew Valley* as their beginning into the genre. Another issue that complicates how we categorize games or gamers is the unique orientation to play. By this, I mean that we all have weird and interesting connections to games or play because of our orientation to the game for a specific thing it’s offering. For instance, if I want to wind down, I may start a new character on *Bloodborne* or *Dark Soul II* even though FromSoft is most known for creating “hardcore” games. To me, the world, music, openness, and boss fights are nostalgic and cozy. In a similar vein, when I play *Stardew Valley*, I’m very much the “hardcore” gamer that Chess describes—I enjoy minimaxing playthroughs and catching legendary fish. I’m not unique in any of these regards. I’m sure many of us have to explain the unique way that we play games, or the unique feeling that we connect to a game when talking with friends.
More to Chess’s book—I wonder if the difficulty describing a game as casual/cozy might be because of the way that games/gaming cultures are marketed versus the way gamers play with said games. Chess’s focus on “designed identities,” the constructed player according to the gaming industry (5), is helpful for thinking about how games or genres also have constructed identities. A lot of the cozy games I gravitate toward are indie developed, but as the genre has gotten more popular and lucrative, I’ve noticed that a sort of constructed idea of what it means to be a successful cozy game has formed—think of all of the *Stardew Valley* rip-offs.
reflection 2:
Out of all of the chapters in Shira Chess’s *Ready Player Two*, I probably enjoyed reading Chapter 3: “Playing with Emotions” the best. Reading Chess’s chapter and playing through *Life is Strange* in class has me reflecting on how I usually play through choice-based narrative games.One of the parts of Chess’s chapter that I thought was especially interesting was thinking about how Player Two type games emphasize choices that help others, and “[create] joy in life” (Chess 99). As Chess says: “the player is constantly doing the work of emotional labor: fixing the problems of those who cannot help themselves” (106). So, for example, in *Diner Dash*, Flo’s obtains hearts from making her customers happy---the hearts represent other lives (customers) made happy rather than Flo's own health or happiness. Or, in the Kim Kardashian mobile game, your fame ranking is based in how many “correct” decisions you make---those decisions are often rooted in doing work for others. Or, in a hidden puzzle game, the player must click on a bunch of items to “tidy” up the room.
This is different, but also similar: when I play games like *Life is Strange* or *Baldur’s Gate*, even though the mechanics don’t strictly enforce you to make decisions that make the most people happy, I end up picking choices that still try to make people happy: the “nicest” choice. I have fun watching others do an evil run on *Baldur’s Gate*, but I just can’t make those choices---it almost feels physically impossible, there’s no way I’m able to press the “x” button on a choice that will make Shadowheart sad.
While Chess’s book is more interested in seeing how game design constructs gameplay for “player two,” I think it’s interesting how even in games that wouldn’t be traditionally counted as a player-two game (like *Baldur’s Gate*), my own disposition (being a woman, being an older sister, being trained to work in service industries) urges me to follow a player two game mechanic: balancing the emotional well-being of the characters for the “happiest” ending. In our last session playing *Life is Strange*, we ended by thinking about how a game can be both a player-two game and not-a-player two game---here, I wonder if anyone else can think of how they might engage with what I might call “player two play” in a non-player two game?
read march 24 2026 - march 26 2026
this was so cute and fun. sadie is a volunteer at a dog shelter but everything goes wrong when her favorite dog is stolen by a gang. so sadie "kidnaps" dav, the son of a mafia don, and threatens to hold him hostage unless he helps her get her dog back. dav is tickled by sadie and allows her to take him. following this, the kidnapper becomes kidnapped and chaos ensues.
usually i don't like fmcs who are "innocent" because it is usually just an excuse to write a naive and dumb character who gets walked over. for this book, i think it works because everything is so outrageously absurd and silly. like yeah sadie is not realistic, but nothing in this book is lolol.
one of my fav moments is when dav allows sadie to pull him into a funeral for her beloved plant.
usually i don't like fmcs who are "innocent" because it is usually just an excuse to write a naive and dumb character who gets walked over. for this book, i think it works because everything is so outrageously absurd and silly. like yeah sadie is not realistic, but nothing in this book is lolol.
one of my fav moments is when dav allows sadie to pull him into a funeral for her beloved plant.
read feb 26 2026 - feb 26 2026
better than the first book! penny is so fun to follow, and her first meeting where she cons rafael out of his watch is iconic.
i also thought it was fun that this book mainly takes place on a big BOAT.
i also thought it was fun that this book mainly takes place on a big BOAT.
read feb 25 2026 - feb 25 2026
is this book good? no. but was it fun to read? yes!!
i love the slow burn between angelo and aurora "rory" (lamo). my biggest qualm about mafia romance is that it usually is just instalust and erotica. i need yearning and angst and this book does that well!
the obsession that rory had with birds was a bit much, but in a stupid fun way. not her saying "oh my goose."
i love the slow burn between angelo and aurora "rory" (lamo). my biggest qualm about mafia romance is that it usually is just instalust and erotica. i need yearning and angst and this book does that well!
the obsession that rory had with birds was a bit much, but in a stupid fun way. not her saying "oh my goose."
read feb 24 2026 - feb 25 2026
i reread this for comfort when i should have been working on a seminar paper. i didn't love it as much as the first time i read this book, but it's still a certified fav. faith and aron are perfect and i love their slowburn. i need more portal fantasy romance!!
this book also has one of the silliest covers of all time and i wish the physical copy i bought had the OG cover instead of the revised boring one.
this book also has one of the silliest covers of all time and i wish the physical copy i bought had the OG cover instead of the revised boring one.
reread jan 14 2026 - jan 18 2026
i loved maggie but i wish there was real development in the relationship instead of instalust. also vito feels less like mafia, and more like a businessman who is only mafia in this book for "thrills."
also its still so funny to me that this took place in upstate new york LMAO.
also its still so funny to me that this took place in upstate new york LMAO.
read jan 10 2026 - jan 10 2026
on the cover, this is everything i hate... but i just discovered i love a chase and grovel! dario was an unexpectedly interesting character. dude's a certified sociopath, and reading about him realizing he does have certain feelings was fun.
read jan 8 2026 - jan 9 2026
i LOVED nenia campbell's dark vampire book, through a glass darkly, and i was craving a book that was more horror than romance, so gave this a shot. unfortuantely it wasn't for me. val was just a bit too ignorant for me. like gavin was mustache-twirling obviously bad news. i do think writing children/teenagers is hard, and that's a big reason why i didn't really care for val or the other characters either. it just felt so unreal.
read jan 7 2026 - jan 7 2026
i was chasing the high of the last hour of gann and really wanted another dark scifi romance, so picked this up based on all the amazing recommendations... but this was SO disappointing. genuinely don't get all the praise.
gemma is in a bad spot. she's poor and living with family that hates her while working a dead-in job at a prison for aliens. she notices that an inmate, simon, is starving--he doesn't eat, and no one feeds him. so, she starts secretly nursing him back to health and things proceed from there.
i was intrigued by this book at the start, but as gemma and simon start interacting, i was left feeling frustrated. gemma just frustrates me overall tbh. the romantic scenes were written so awkwardly, and this book has one of the worst first-kisses i've ever read. gemma just straight up assaults simon. there was no real connection between gemma or simon.
halfway through the book, simon does escape the prison, and gemma is thrown out by her family and left to fend for herself. simon of course finds her and she huddles with him while he finds pieces to rebuild his ship so they can fly away. this book has the CRAZIEST ending ever. like it's not even an ending. they make it off of earth and we think they're going to be shot down but when the rix recongize simon that's it: that's the ending?? right when you think simon and gemma's relation might progress, the book ends lol.
gemma is in a bad spot. she's poor and living with family that hates her while working a dead-in job at a prison for aliens. she notices that an inmate, simon, is starving--he doesn't eat, and no one feeds him. so, she starts secretly nursing him back to health and things proceed from there.
i was intrigued by this book at the start, but as gemma and simon start interacting, i was left feeling frustrated. gemma just frustrates me overall tbh. the romantic scenes were written so awkwardly, and this book has one of the worst first-kisses i've ever read. gemma just straight up assaults simon. there was no real connection between gemma or simon.
halfway through the book, simon does escape the prison, and gemma is thrown out by her family and left to fend for herself. simon of course finds her and she huddles with him while he finds pieces to rebuild his ship so they can fly away. this book has the CRAZIEST ending ever. like it's not even an ending. they make it off of earth and we think they're going to be shot down but when the rix recongize simon that's it: that's the ending?? right when you think simon and gemma's relation might progress, the book ends lol.
read jan 6 2026 - jan 7 2026
i needed to feel something during the winter break of my first year of my phd... so of course i decided to reread one of the most devasting books i've ever read!
the experience was even more soul crushing (positive) on a reread. i love you amber and meoraq ❤︎
the experience was even more soul crushing (positive) on a reread. i love you amber and meoraq ❤︎
reread dec 29 2025 - jan 1 2026