Strange Pictures - Uketsu

It's a mystery thriller book that contains great twists and different stories that are cleverly connected with each other. Although, sometimes it feels like the author is too occupied in showcasing the clever mysteries and puzzles that they came up with rather than actually telling a story. The story had the potential to be really good but I didn't enjoy at all how the characters were written. It doesn't feel like you're reading the thought process of a person trying to solve something, it mostly feels like you're reading an instruction manual on how to solve a puzzle.
Also, it's probably due to the translation but the writing felt way to simplistic and approximate. I have to say that It held my interest all the way through and I binge-read it in an afternoon; the story is interesting enough and I would recommend it to people that want a quick and kinda creepy read.
I honestly don't get how it became so popular but it may be because it wasn't just the book for me. Nonetheless, it's probably best that I avoid recommendations that I find on TikTok for now on.

★★⯪☆☆

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun vol.8 - Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou

Like I anticipated this book was painful, it was both and amazing and not fun to read at all.
I actively have tears streaming down my eyes as I'm writing this so I can't really make sense of things but I'll try.
I love how everything is slowly coming to make sense and how the different plot points are intersecating, I now get why everybody hates a particular character. What I don't love is how the publishing house is making the volumes smaller and smaller as we go on but still keeping the prices the same, but that's what you get when you monopolize a part of the market.
I already have volume 9 but I first need a break otherwise I'll be the one to break.

★★★⯪☆

The Balland of Songbirds and Snakes

I've always been a fan of the hunger games novels but I was a bit skeptical getting into this prequel because I like the way that the original trilogy ended and I didn't want to see it ruined, but I was pleasantly surprised. The story follows a young Coriolanus Snow, the future president of Panem, a character that can't be redeemed but with this book can be understood. Although it feels weird to empathize with him you find yourself rooting for him while reading.
It's a story about the formation of the tyrant that he will become through complicity with the already existing system of oppression, so by the end of the book you're left hating him more that you did in the orginal trilogy.
The movie doesn't do it justice it's too fast-paced and it doesn't explore Coriolanus relathionship with Lucy Gray enough in my opinion. Overall, I enjoyed the book very much even though something the need to end every chapter with a cliffhanger felt a bit forced.

★★★⯪☆

My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante

This is the review for the entire series, it was an unique experience so it only feels right to talk about it all in one.
It also somehow doesn't feel right to talk about it as if it's just a normal book because it doesn't feel like you're reading a book, but it's as if you're experiencing and thinking the same things the protagonist. Already from the first pages I knew it was going to be one of the greatest things that I've ever read, and I was right: I would now say that it's my favourite and if there's somebody reading this please do yourself the favour to pick it up.
The story talks about the friendship that expands over the entire life of the protagonist Lenù with Lila, two girls struggling through life in a post-war Naples. A complicated, deep and sometimes toxic frienship as sometimes long friendships can be. I would say that it's mostly a story about violence and how it shapes every aspect of their lives and of the people around them. I also never experienced before a book that knows and talks about the female mind with this much intimacy.
I read it in Italian and I really hope that translations do it justice because the way the writing can so beautifully render the thoughts of the protagonist is something you so rarely see.
It feels like I've known these characters my entire life, and I won't be able to forget them anytime soon. This serie and the void, that it left now that I'm done reading it, broke me. I'm not the best with words and I could never do it justice, but I have an immense love for this book and I will cherish it forever.

“Avevano sempre saputo a istinto che le membra di un uomo non si nutrono quando si riempie la pancia di un altro e che chi te lo vuole far credere deve avere presto o tardi ciò che si merita ”
(“They had always instinctively known that a man's limbs are not nourished by filling another's belly and that whoever wants to make you believe this must sooner or later get what he deserves.”)

★★★★★

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish vol.3 - Xue Shan Fei Hu

Still a very cute story, now with a very interesting political twist. The character development seems to have hit a wall though, they do seem to be a bit flat.
Also:

★★★☆☆

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun vol.7 - Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou

Everytime that I pick up a new volume of this series I have to ask myself if I'm truly ready for the emotionel distress that it's going to cause me, getting stabbed would hurt less. This time was no different.
Not many books had me in tears but without fail this author manages to do so every time.
I will need to revisit the previous books because, as with every long series especially with ones with storylines as complicated as this one, some plot points and characters are starting to blur toghether. The fact that the translations are getting published so far apart is not helping either with my memory but it's also nice to have a break to emotinally recover.
Since my favorite character is Chu Wanning I know the next volume is going to be devastating because their getting into his backstory. The question is once again "Will I finish this serie or will it finish me?"

★★★★☆

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish vol.2 - Xue Shan Fei Hu

The novel continues in the same light-hearted manner as the first book but we finally see some themes that are explored with more depth. I especially like how the author explores the theme of disablity; the prince is mute and that isolates him from his family and the rest of the world, but the main character finds ways to comunicate with him and helps the others see him as the capable person he is, given with some confusion and misunderstandings along the way.
The pacing feels a bit slow at times, but overall the story continues to be very funny and engaging.

★★★☆☆

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish vol.1 - Xue Shan Fei Hu

Woah what a title!
That's what I thought when I first saw this book and curiosity was what ultimatly pushed me to read it, and I'd also just finished "Thousand Autmuns" so I was in dire need of something less heavy."
It's a transmigration story where the main character gets reincarnated into a fish and tries to survive in this new world, while also trying to help his owner, the mute and loner prince.
So yeah, a love story where one of them is a fish for most of the time, when I read the premise I was very skeptical but What I found was a lighthearted, cute and funny love story.
I will continue it and I reseve the final judgement when I'm done with all of the volumes, but for now I enjoyed it.

★★★☆☆