Onedismay

Blood Over Bright Haven

by M. L. Wang Aaaaa!!! aaa... ;_; What a book. Brutal thing. It's difficult to talk about it without spoiling everything, but I'll try. I wanted to try some dark academia since I'd never read any, and I'm glad I picked this one. Super heavy book. Finds new ways to break your heart even after it was already broken. I liked everyone in the main cast but I think Bringham ended up being my favorite. Not necessarily because I liked him but because I found his brand of dysfunction really interesting, and it was sufficiently explored for once. A lot of stories don't bother. The direction his character went wasn't a surprise to me, but the way it happened was so so painful and realistic. This author knows how to do deep characters. Even background characters had so much personality to them. Extremely good writing holy SHIT. (update several months later: I still think about this fucking book)

Absent in the Spring

by Agatha Christie I went on one of those random book recommendation sites and it gave me this and I was like sure, I've been meaning to give Agatha Christie a try anyway, let's do this. I have no clue if this one is a typical Christie book or something unusual for her, but I can say the first impression I got is really good! The book started out a little boring to me but the side characters kept me reading even though surely they weren't relevant, haha... But oh wait, then it turned out there was actually a very good reason my favorite side character kept turning up in the protagonist's thoughts and aaaauuuugh... The book got me invested in that character in such a subtle way I really didn't see the plot twists coming. Such a delightfully frustrating book. I hated it and I loved it. Drew a flower btw. If you know you know.

The Phantom of the Opera

by Gaston Leroux It was about time I experienced this story in some form, and I only did it for an anime girl, but let's not talk about that. So the book was like... 50% intriguing mystery and emotionally engaging moments between the main characters, and 50% just me going "dude, who gives a shit." Why do I need to know these side characters' entire family trees. Why do I need to know, in detail, how this door works? Why do these two characters need to be two characters and not just one (neither of them is doing anything useful so it may as well have been zero tbh) (I don't remember either's name btw) (the two owner guys). Insufferable narrator, too; I really think the story would have been better without a narrator character at all. And SO many pages spent on red herrings that were obvious red herrings from the second they were introduced. brooo. I'm sure there are ways to enjoy all this but I didn't discover it. Anyway, the core idea is definitely cool, as is the titular character as a concept. I found myself wanting to like him but the book didn't give me much to like even though I'm quite drawn to villainous characters, normally. Still, I can see the appeal of the core story and I can see why it has been adapted so many times. Maybe I would like one of those adaptations better? And I did enjoy some individual scenes a lot, namely the ones focused on Christine's conflicted feelings. Christine my messy beloved. (she's written so much better in Housamo than she is in her source material) (I'm just SAYING)

The Employees

by Olga Ravn Aaaa. ._. I just finished this book minutes before jumping in here but I'm realizing it's hard to say much without spoilers. It's a short book. It's about a space ship and its crew and these mysterious objects that they're studying. The plot wasn't what I was expecting, but I can't say I was disappointed. Each chapter is a short interview with the various unnamed crew members (employees). I loved that format, although it made it difficult to get attached to any specific characters. I found myself just as attached to the objects that were being studied tbh, they were often described with such loving detail. Ugghhh I wanna know if my theory about them is correct........ Anyway. I loved this book. Fascinating.

Lost Ark Dreaming

by Suyi Davies Okungbowa This was such an experience... The story takes place on Earth, not too far into the future, but major flooding has happened and coastlines have disappeared into the ocean. The main characters live in this big fancy tower that was built for people escaping the flood, and uhh, there's really nowhere else to go now - that tower is their only home. I just love these kinds of closed settings. Claustrophobic for me, but normal for the characters. I LOVED the structure and pacing of this book. The short chapters from different POVs, and also the gradual introducing of the main cast. The pacing was perfect; things kept moving fast so I was never bored, but I also never felt like hey, we should have lingered on this topic a bit longer. Every scene is intentional and there for a reason. It's a short book but I still had time to get attached to each member of the cast. Cried once or twice.

Wuthering Heights

by Emily Brontë I read this book alongside a friend (hi @coda-blue I am tagging you like you asked) and I'm so glad she'd read it before and was able to keep track of character names and family trees like a pro. 😭 I was struggling, especially early on. The language was pretty challenging for my ESL ass, too, but that's not the book's fault, and it was a worthwhile learning experience. With my few gripes out of the way, I did really enjoy the story itself!! It was awful and unrelenting and every single character is gravely flawed, and terrible things kept happening and it felt like watching a train wreck in slow motion. ougghhh. I did find Heathcliff's character fascinating, I get why he's so popular (I think? I assume. I haven't looked at the fandom at all). Awful terrible man but just pathetic enough to give you that glimmer of hope/regret, like, damn, he could have been a decent person. But he isn't. My other favorite thing in the book was all the talk of ghosts, of loved ones remaining on Earth in some form even after death, and yet nothing explicitly supernatural ever actually happens. My interpretation is that the characters are just living in bad times and are trying to cope, trying to make sense of their suffering. 💀 It was sad to watch them go through that and be haunted like that. Oh and the main romance was wonderful, which I don't say lightly. I usually don't get what characters see in each other in romance stories, but with Heathcliff and Catherine I was just like yep, they're insane about each other, I see that and it makes sense. I liked the contrast in their love, how hushed and stifled it was, yet it was also wild and unhinged and so powerful it was basically a force of nature. ...And it's ultimately doomed. Yay, love that ✨

BONUS MOVIE REVIEW: Wuthering Heights (2026)