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Amb

@apaperhaven

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I'm friendly 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸
👩‍🦽Disabled, 26, Yorkshire
📚 Fantasy, Horror, Nonfic and other genre surfing

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A very different post for me! I've been mulling this over for waaaay longer than I want to admit. Leaving this caption short because I think I've yapped enough on the slides 😭

Share your thoughts with me? Pretty please?

#bookstagram #bookishopinions #bookstadiscussabout by @apaperhaven

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a month ago

(some of) My Tattoos as Book Recommendations!

I definitely got tagged in this by a few people so booksta, please forgive me, because it's taken me so long to get round to this I've forgotten who 🫠
so tagging people that *might* have tagged me already and who may enjoy this challenge lol and lmao

@gloomandgrimoire @pekoesbooknook
@bookishbrighton @the.readingrose @megs_library23

#tattoosasbookrecs #bookrecommendations📚❣️
#vampirebookrecs #mytattoosasbookrecs

This is actually one of my oldest tattoos and easily a fav, everyone, meet Glen

It's cheesey but it's ✨trueeee✨

😏

This Grady Hendrix is SUCH a strong rec holy moly guys.
Also shout out if you recognize what character this is 🦇 by @apaperhaven

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3 months ago

HIIII booksta,

Guyyyys I'm not good at this. 😭
Reviews I've got down; introductions, I fear, evade me.

Welcome to my lil book bloggg,
and if you've been here with me this whole time, thanks for sticking around, muah mauh, ily

Besides reading, I am into video games, art, and I recently began learning to crochet 🧶🎨🖥
✨️I'm disabled ♿️
✨️ I'm Anti gen-AI, I hate it so much lmao
✨️ I'm big on joy, and believe that joy is resistance

anyways that's enough about me, over to u guys

📚QotD: If you could magically wipe your memory, which book would you love to read for the first time again❓️

#bookstagramintro
Bookstagram introduction, Booksta reviewer, by @apaperhaven

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7 months ago

I've legit been saving quotes and card combos in my notes for over a month and finally caught up with reviews enough to get creative! Yaaay

⁉️📚Have you read any of these? Would you agree with my pairings? 👀

#booksta #tarotcardreading #bookishtarot by @apaperhaven

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3 hours ago

Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo 4.5⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

I will buddy read with you til the end of days, @shona_reads_in_devon , and forever.

📖Let it be known, I am picky. I love horror, but I won't pick up any old slasher. I love historical fiction, but I don't read anything set in an old building. I love fantasy, but I have shrugged off plenty of the most loved fantasy series around, unimpressed. Sometimes I worry that my pickiness is looking for a blend of genres too specific, a book that doesn't really exist.

But Ninth House. Hell Bent. Dead Beat. This is easily an all time favourite series.

It just does everything, and it does it well. The fantasy is incredible, and the way it's written into the world, the effects it has on it, make sense. It's clever. Political. The themes of academia and the elite are expertly explored through my favourite MC, Galaxy "Alex" Stern. She provides an excellent lens in which you scrutinise privilege and power through.

The romance is just beautiful, the yearning is to die for. The found family and friendships even more so. The characters stay fleshed out, they don't turn to mush, nor do they become caricatures (Re: Flanderising) of their archetypes.
There are plenty of books that I've enjoyed where the characters feel like just that - characters, not people. But this cast feel *real*.

These are good books in the truest sense, the ones you lose yourself into the magic of, yet learn more about the real world through. They're balanced.

Yeah, I had a couple of bones to pick. I find it hard to gauge whether wanting more is because of needing more in the story or simply being hungry for more of this content. But its only the sort of complaint that would be worth discussing after, because it's rife with spoilers.

#deadbeat
#leighbardugodeadbeat #DeadBeatReview #Ninthhouse #hellbent by @apaperhaven

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4 days ago

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
1.5⭐

📚❓ Have you read this one?

This started quite brilliantly, immediately sinking it's teeth into issues surrounding
womanhood, motherhood, and feminism. Throughout there are these really sharp quotable sections.

And then it does nothing.
Around the 40% mark I began to wonder where this was really *going*, but it became, and continued to be, a repetitive bore that didn't do anything else that it hadn't done in the first 15%. It felt like it could've been a high star book, and slowly trickled down into mid.

And then the ending.
To me, personally, it was an absolute mess. It undid any work that the author had previously put in, any build up of reality or fantasy. It felt like the author was arguing AT me, like they already knew I wasn't buying it. Telling me how good the work is whilst still in the work ruined what little immersion remained, the book became rife with telling and no showing.

I wanted so desperately for this book to go out with a bang, to round out its point, to snap it's jaws suddenly on my mind, but it felt like it actually threw a temper tantrum instead.
I think it would have really benefitted from a good edit, because it felt about 200 pages longer than it actually was. Had it stuck with what it did early on this could've easily been a 4 or 5 star short story for me. But it just repeats, meanders, and then insists so ridiculously upon it's own "brutality" and "darkness" and "violence" that it discredited it's initial points by making me cringe.

I think it's also worth adding that the horror elements in here did not work for me. Some of the acts of violence in here felt weirdly incongruent with the plot and themes, thrown on the end for shock value; again I find myself feeling that this discredited what I felt it was actually trying to do as a story.

And, madly, I LOVE the film. I watched the film before the book, and I watched the film again after, just to balance things out. The films works exactly as I hoped the book would, and it's shocked me because how rare is it's truly, that the film is BETTER!?

#nightbitchreview
#nightbitch #weirdgirlhorror #rachelyodernightbitch #feministhorror by @apaperhaven

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8 days ago

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix ⭐⭐⭐

I figured out the twist 6 pages in, and thought "Well, Grady Hendrix wouldn't do this to me, surely?" and despite having a gut feeling, I continued on, telling myself it must be a red herring.

This is my third Hendrix, with my previous two reads setting the bar very high, but unfortunately this one didn't massively work for me.
Guessing the twist so early on certainly didn't help, but ultimately I think this has all the pieces of a Hendrix without it coming together as one (the friendships, found family, diversity, trauma, the feminism and critique on how society treats women or certain women).

It was alright, I did enjoy it and get through it and if you're a thriller lover or a horror movie lover I would probably still recommend this to you. But it didn't have that bit of magic tying it all together.

#thefinalgirlsupportgroup
#gradyhendrix #thefinalgirlsupportgroupreview #finalgirlbooks
#thrillerbooks by @apaperhaven

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11 days ago

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

Kicking off the Witches series with a bang! Pratchett never does me wrong

Effortlessly readable, beautiful and witty prose, wonderful politics and themes, you just can't go wrong.

I think there was a great exploration and critique of gender essentialism and sexism here. Plot wise it's simple but done well, which you can't go wrong with. I love that this story focuses on the women, I have always loved how Pratchett writes characters but I am very much looking forward to spending more time with the women in his stories now that I've finished The Watch Series.

I looove granny weatherwax, she honestly reminds me of my own nan so much, brash and witty and loving in a loud way, so there was an extra layer of warmth in the nostalgia I found.

Shout out to my fellow buddy readers @shona_reads_in_devon @dustjackingit ! Bring on the next one

#TerryPratchett #equalrites #equalritesreview #thewitchesdiscworld #discworld by @apaperhaven

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14 days ago

If We Tolerate This - Daniel Trilling @trillingual
⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was a brilliant read.

Wonderfully written in an incredibly accessible way- I think nonfics, especially political nonfics, can sometimes seem intimidating, but this is not in the slightest.

There is just the perfect dash of personality in the prose whilst remaining objective and factual throughout. Trilling has this wonderful composed tone that really worked for me.
It asks the questions many are thinking and expertly breaks down the answers into easily understood chunks; revealing an organised, clear picture.

Despite how dire things may seem, I left this book feeling a little bit more hopeful, a little more supported and a little more able to support others.
And, unsurprisingly, I think that a book that can do this is a special one indeed.

A strong recommendation that I was inspired to read after @freyreadsbooks posted about it! And god am I glad I did

#ifwetoleratethis
#hopenothate
#IfWeTolerateThisDanielTrilling #danieltrilling by @apaperhaven

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16 days ago

Legit this post could've been 10 slides longer but I had to reel it in a bit.

Disclaimer: There is no wrong way to be a booksta or to read a book! This post is not intended as an attack on any reader or their blog. Some of my fav content is seeing my book besties go on charity shop crawls, do book inspired crafts, post stacks to raise awareness for causes, etc etc. There is plenty of nuance that I cannot fit on these little slides.
These are just some of my thoughts that have been bouncing around my skull like the DVD screensaver. I love and have posted plenty of content that is review-less, and will probably post plenty more, because it's fun to do, and I can, and why the hell not.

❓📚: What are your thoughts? Do you find one type of your posts do better than others? I'd love to know what people think!

#bookstadiscussabout #bookstadiscussion by @apaperhaven

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19 days ago

Victorian Psycho - Virginia Feito

With the exception of some annoying Americanism's (setting a book in 1800s England and then writing "It was fall" 7 pages in, and using terms like gooseflesh) this was exceptionally well written.
Snappy chapters and witty prose that suited the time period wonderfully, I enjoyed this.

It does exactly what it says on the tin, this is American Psycho but Victorian, although there's also some extra plot in there to ensure the book doesn't coast on gimmick alone, and it worked for me.

It got a little bit hazy at the end and I wasn't as blown away by it as I'd hope, but it was a good read! I'd love to see more of this prose developed over a longer tale, I think the main thing missing for me here is a little more character development, but as it's a short book I can't fault it too much for what it did in under 200 pages, which was deliver a punchy, I-Support-Womens-Wrongs horror.

📚❓Has anyone got any ride or die horror recommendations for me? It's been a minute since I've read a really outstanding one and I'm getting desperate

#victorianpsycho #victorianpsychoreview #virginiafeito #horrorbooksta #historicalhorrorbooks by @apaperhaven

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21 days ago

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams

My dad has been begging (nagging) me to read this since I was, like, 7. Probably since I was born, actually, but I can't remember that far back.

If you like comedy, satire and sci fi, this will be so exceptionally up your alley I probably don't need to recommend it because you'll have already read it and you loved it.

I'm glad I've finally read it, it does what it says on the tin. BUT, I've seen the movie, multiple times, and recently too; it must be a good adaptation because I don't feel like the book added much more depth.
I went into it knowing all the punchlines and that meant it didn't have a great chance at blowing my mind, and it didn't. Buuut I can appreciate how mind blowing it has been for so many other readers, so I don't have anything negative to say about it, all in all.

❓📚Have you read this one? When it comes to satire, I definitely prefer a Pratchett, but I imagine this is a lot of sci fi lover's holy grail.

#thehitchhikersguidetothegalaxy
#douglasadams
#thehitchhikersguidetothegalaxyreview #scifibookreview #modernclassic by @apaperhaven

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25 days ago