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seema

literary escapism addict ✨🌈

10400 points

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Cozy Fantasy
Spring 2025 Readalong
Reading...Total Cat Mojo: The Ultimate Guide to Life with Your Cat
My Taste
The Starless Sea
The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
The Bear and the Nightingale (The Winternight Trilogy, #1)

seema commented on a post

1h
  • I’m Glad My Mom Died
    Before Reading Thoughts

    I’m a little worried about this one. I never had TV growing up so I never watched the shows like icarly or Sam and cat that so many people know and love Jennette from. With that, I worry I won’t be able to be as invested in this book as most people are. I guess I’ll see!

    11
    comments 8
    Reply
  • seema commented on a post

    12h
  • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
    Thoughts from 27%

    I am actually struggling with this one... I just can't seem to get into it. Should I push through it?

    5
    comments 9
    Reply
  • seema commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

    12h
  • Reincarnation as a book character

    Who would you like to be reincarnated as and from which book and why?

    8
    comments 11
    Reply
  • seema commented on a post

    12h
  • I Who Have Never Known Men
    Bu_.206
    Edited
    I'll start reading It

    It's been in my tbr for a while but i had finals so i couldn't read it. Im excited to read it honestly I've been on and off from reading since las month, didn't have the time to finish it but I'll try now !!

    9
    comments 2
    Reply
  • The Cat Who Saved the Library (The Cat Who..., #2)
    Thoughts from 55% (page 109, end of The One Who Was Created)
    spoilers

    View spoiler

    3
    comments 0
    Reply
  • The Cat Who Saved the Library (The Cat Who..., #2)
    Thoughts from 31% (page 53, end of The One Who Walks Beside Us)
    spoilers

    View spoiler

    4
    comments 0
    Reply
  • The Cat Who Saved the Library (The Cat Who..., #2)
    Thoughts from 17% (page 23)
    spoilers

    View spoiler

    3
    comments 0
    Reply
  • seema commented on a post

    1d
  • Lessons in Chemistry
    Thoughts from 5% (page 20)
    spoilers

    View spoiler

    3
    comments 4
    Reply
  • seema commented on a post

    1d
  • The Priory of the Orange Tree (The Roots of Chaos, #1)
    Thoughts from 15% (page 127) 😷
    spoilers

    View spoiler

    6
    comments 2
    Reply
  • seema commented on seema's review of If We Were Villains

    1d
  • If We Were Villains
    seema
    May 28, 2025
    5.0
    Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 4.5Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.5
    🎭
    🎓
    💩

    Reading this book is like watching a car crash, or screaming at the stupid person in the scary movie, where you know something awful will happen or is happening and yet you just cannot bring yourself to look away. It grabs you and holds on, and I'd absolutely recommend it. Regarding the setting and format: this book takes place on a college campus within its theater conservatory program, and the cast is limited to 7 senior students in this program plus a handful of supporting characters. I was really daunted by the amount of Shakespeare I knew would feature in the book, but honestly I'd say any preexisting theater or Shakespeare knowledge isn't a prerequisite for understanding and enjoying the book as much as it would be a further enhancement to it. Regarding the characters: I loved to hate this cast. As much as the setting made me nostalgic for my theater and college days, seeing the absolute hot mess of these interpersonal relationships reminded me how glad I am to be out in the other side. These characters are intriguing and complex and often extremely dumb and unlikeable, but they each have their part to play. I found myself thinking a lot more than I expected about the secondary characters and the role they had in the tragedies that played out. The internal transformations that the main characters experienced were also really gripping and well done, a bit more of that below. Finally, regarding the plot and pace: I was really surprised when what I thought to be the books climax took place so much earlier than expected, but then the tension continued to build without a very obvious direction. I chewed this over quite a bit before reviewing because I couldn't quite tell if this threw off the pace. Ultimately what I've come to is recognizing that to me the book felt split into two primary sections: first, Acts I-II which are mostly plot driven, then, Acts III-V which are much more character driven. I find that at the end of the day the upending of the readers expectations of the books rhythm was worthwhile, because it brings you so much closer to the characters' experiences of paranoia and frustration and the sense that there's no real end in sight. I don't think I'm out of line comparing some of those more character driven chapters to classics like The Picture of Dorian Gray or The Talented Mr. Ripley, because the descent into madness that we see play out is just incredibly well done. Because I'm a nitpicker, I'll also say there were a couple plot holes and a key aspect that I didn't feel got properly explained, but they didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book. I think it's a really worthwhile read for anyone into dark academia and thrillers, and I'll definitely be looking for more like it!

    15
    comments 7
    Reply
  • The Cat Who Saved the Library (The Cat Who..., #2)
    Thoughts from 12% (page 12, end of How It All Began)

    Immediately I am LOVING this MC and the set up compared to the first book. I love that Nanami is confident and observant and it seems that she will be the driving force in saving the library, compared to the first book where it started off with the MC as a barely-willing participant who really needed saving himself (still a wholesome story don't get me wrong, but I expect I'll prefer this one)

    3
    comments 0
    Reply
  • seema commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

    1d
  • dinority
    Edited
    How do you guys read a short story collection?

    Reading them linearly feels painful to me in a way I can't describe. It feels as if the book will never end. It's not exactly hard to see the progress as usual, but I feel like I'm starting something and ending something over and over again, which brings about this feeling of desperation in me. My brain immediately wants to be done with the book entirely after finishing a story, but there's still more shorts to go. But then again, skipping around the book is not perfect either. I end up feeling extremely disorganised. Randomly opening up a story, reading it and then randomly picking up another irks something in me that wants to see the stories finished like dominoes, one at a time. It's hard enough being spontaneous to read a short story collection in the first place, you know I usually do end up skipping around the book regardless, and reading alongside another book to make the whole thing feel like a side quest. But I would love to know how you tackle anthologies on your own. Also, any good recommendations? So far, I've been reading from authors I'm obsessed with and haven't ventured to anthologies from a collection of authors.

    8
    comments 14
    Reply
  • seema commented on a post

    1d
  • Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
    Thoughts from 13% (page 48)

    I have already gotten teary-eyed, this book is going to murder me.

    14
    comments 3
    Reply
  • seema commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

    1d
  • Emoji Problem

    I was wondering if anyone else has encountered the issue I find myself having with the emojis. So when I’m reviewing a book sometimes I will write out my thoughts first and then put emojis. But sometimes when I go to put emojis I realize there isn’t one that fits so I decide to exit the emoji box. However when I do this I get a pop up saying “ You have unsaved changes! Are you sure you want to exit?” and when I say yes it deletes everything I’ve worked on. Is there a way to avoid this and exit that page without deleting anything? Thanks in advance, lol.

    7
    comments 13
    Reply
  • seema wrote a review...

    1d
  • If We Were Villains
    seema
    May 28, 2025
    5.0
    Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 4.5Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.5
    🎭
    🎓
    💩

    Reading this book is like watching a car crash, or screaming at the stupid person in the scary movie, where you know something awful will happen or is happening and yet you just cannot bring yourself to look away. It grabs you and holds on, and I'd absolutely recommend it. Regarding the setting and format: this book takes place on a college campus within its theater conservatory program, and the cast is limited to 7 senior students in this program plus a handful of supporting characters. I was really daunted by the amount of Shakespeare I knew would feature in the book, but honestly I'd say any preexisting theater or Shakespeare knowledge isn't a prerequisite for understanding and enjoying the book as much as it would be a further enhancement to it. Regarding the characters: I loved to hate this cast. As much as the setting made me nostalgic for my theater and college days, seeing the absolute hot mess of these interpersonal relationships reminded me how glad I am to be out in the other side. These characters are intriguing and complex and often extremely dumb and unlikeable, but they each have their part to play. I found myself thinking a lot more than I expected about the secondary characters and the role they had in the tragedies that played out. The internal transformations that the main characters experienced were also really gripping and well done, a bit more of that below. Finally, regarding the plot and pace: I was really surprised when what I thought to be the books climax took place so much earlier than expected, but then the tension continued to build without a very obvious direction. I chewed this over quite a bit before reviewing because I couldn't quite tell if this threw off the pace. Ultimately what I've come to is recognizing that to me the book felt split into two primary sections: first, Acts I-II which are mostly plot driven, then, Acts III-V which are much more character driven. I find that at the end of the day the upending of the readers expectations of the books rhythm was worthwhile, because it brings you so much closer to the characters' experiences of paranoia and frustration and the sense that there's no real end in sight. I don't think I'm out of line comparing some of those more character driven chapters to classics like The Picture of Dorian Gray or The Talented Mr. Ripley, because the descent into madness that we see play out is just incredibly well done. Because I'm a nitpicker, I'll also say there were a couple plot holes and a key aspect that I didn't feel got properly explained, but they didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book. I think it's a really worthwhile read for anyone into dark academia and thrillers, and I'll definitely be looking for more like it!

    15
    comments 7
    Reply
  • seema commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

    1d
  • dinority
    Edited
    Spoilers As It Relates to The Feed

    I always spoil my posts if I absolutely have to, but I know some people consider things that are in the blurb NOT spoilers. But what if the stuff I want to talk about is in Books 2 and 3 of a trilogy, and they are on the blurbs, but are spoilers for book one. And people who see updates on their main feed, who haven't read the fiest book but want to one day will get spoiled! This isn't really a question, but a funny scenario I thought after I posted a post in the Thunderhead book forum. Ordinarily, what I posted is nothing that true fans don't know. But thinking back, if anyone ever wanted to read Scythe, they would know way in advance one of the major plot points revealed in book one, if they followed me ☝🏿😀 I think it was discussed that books on your tbr might be taken out of the main feed? Is that right

    10
    comments 7
    Reply
  • seema commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

    1d
  • reader's block

    unfortunately my brain works in compartments and now I entered the "movies" one and the "books" one is just closed at the moment. so I'm on reader's block but I finally unlocked the movie watcher's block ??? I missed movies tbh but now I feel horrible for all the books I bought. do you think it is fair to call this "reader's block"? does it happen to you? how do you deal with it?

    11
    comments 10
    Reply
  • seema commented on a post

    1d
  • What's your favorite sapphic book?

    So excited for this quest! I wanted this to be a collection for both people who've never read a sapphic book and don't know where to start, and also for avid readers of sapphic stories that are looking for more recommendations. Feel free to suggest more books to be added! Now the real question: what's your favorite sapphic book or one that made a big impact on you?

    10
    comments 13
    Reply