As soon as I saw this tag on Zezee With Books, I knew that I had to do it. Even before I got into the questions, this is the perfect tag for me. I am grossly in love with my cats, and they’re hellishly codependent with me, and it’s just all around a really good combo! This tag was created by Peat @ Peat Long’s Blog, and to kick things off, here are my two monsters:

knocking shit off of high places:
a book with a cliffhanger

Can I say my books? I will always have a cliffhanger in the middle of a series because that shit is good. I wrote a post about why I love cliffhangers a while back, and that opinion has been a lifelong one, so I’m sure it’ll continue to carry on throughout my writing career.

One of my favorite cliffhangers outside of my own books is As the Shadow Rises by Katy Rose Pool, though. I mean, well and truly, that series is above and beyond one of my all time favorites, so it should be no surprise that it’s coming in first on this tag, but damn, that cliffhanger. I wrote a review last year about each of the books in this series, and I was about to say that I don’t think I talk at length about the cliffhanger in the post, but I searched the word, and it came up nine times, so clearly I was hyped on the second read, so if you really want to know what it is, I’m pretty sure I spoil it in the post.

howling at 3am:
a book you didn’t sleep to finish

There are definitely a lot. When I’m 50-100 pages from the end of a book, I will generally just keep reading regardless of the time. Unless, of course, it’s midnight at the 100 page mark, and them I’m probably going to bed, but there are plenty that I’ve disregarded that for. The most recent one that comes to mind is The Binding by Bridget Collins because those last 100 pages are a journey. There is so damn much that happens, and you’re holding on for your dear life as you crash headlong toward one of the most satisfying endings ever, and I’m pretty sure it was closing in on 1AM when I finished, and I had to work the next day.

hiding before a vet visit:
a book with a self-destructive character

All of them? I gravitate toward the same kind of books over and over because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and I love a self-destructive character. There’s so much potential for angst, and the emotional toll that you go through as a reader with a self-destructive character is just fantastic! Vanya in Little Thieves by Margaret Owen was probably one of the more self-destructive characters that I’ve read in a while because she well and truly had no regard for her well-being and was ready to throw caution to the wind at all times.

the turd dangling from their behind:
a sequel that was a bit, er, turd

Good grief, what an image, especially because both of my cats go absolutely hurtling out of the litter box when this happens to them and boot scoot like their lives depend on it like they’re in the freaking Indy 500. There are also, sadly, a lot of books that I can pick out for this given how rarely a middle book is satisfying, but there are, thankfully, not as many that I DNF’d as happily as I did PS I Still Love You by Jenny Han. Not only did I DNF it, I unhauled the rest of the series, and I won’t be watching the adaptations past the first one. It was truly a terribly written book.

puking on the carpet:
a book with a betrayal

Well, I’ve got to pick A Phở Love Story by Loan Le, duh. It’s a Romeo & Juliet retelling, so there’s a whole slew of betrayal throughout it, whether it’s the MCs “betraying” their families by interacting with each other or the MCs betraying each other in whatever little ways they can. Thankfully, there’s a lot of communication in this retelling, so there weren’t any moments of frustration because the MCs wouldn’t talk to each other, just frustration because their parents were keeping them apart for literally no reason!

dragging in live animals:
a book with shocking violence

This is not a good thing, but–damn it, I can’t remember what it’s called. I’m going to find it, but there’s a book that I distinctly remember for its level of violence. I’m talking violence toward women, toward children, and toward animals. A bunch of reviewers that I enjoy and trust rec’d this book, and it sounded really amazing, but I was so off put by the level of violence in this that I ended up rating it two stars, and I’m still upset that I read it, and ah! That’s how to do it, search my two stars, there’s so few of them that I was able to find The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky.

looking you in the eye before misbehaving:
a book with a character desperate for attention

I wasn’t trying to just pick books that I don’t like for several in a row, but here we are talking about Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater. There was a lot that I didn’t like about this book–honestly, a truly astonishing amount–but one of the biggest things was Bryde. His character is so damn flat, and there’s just nothing interesting about him, and he’s got such an enormous ego about him that’s just exhausting. You could put twelve hundred spotlights on this guy in front of a worldwide interview, and he probably still wouldn’t feel like it was enough. I just can’t stand him.

shredding things:
a book with a destructive character

Look, Dani doesn’t mean to destroy everything in Fire with Fire by Destiny Soria, but she kinda sorta does anyway. I’m glad we’re swinging back around with a book that I wholeheartedly loved, too, and am still a little mad at myself for waiting so long to read, but yeah, Dani definitely does destroy a whole heck ton of things throughout the book. Whether it’s an honest to Satan castle or the emotional manipulation of sorcerers or the centuries old war between humans & dragons, Dani is about as destructive as it gets.

has never been fed, never:
a series you can’t get enough of

BACK ON MY SHADOWHUNTERS SHIT! Y’all, I want to rewatch the TV show so bad. I don’t care what any of you say, it was amazing, and it was mostly faithful to the books, and I loved it so damn much. Every single second of it is gold, and I miss it. I feel the same way about the books, too. I’ve rated every single Shadowhunters four stars or higher (I think I’m lying a little), and it’s got a very Jurassic Park vibe for me. I don’t care what the plot is, I don’t care what reasoning we’re using to tell the same story over again, I don’t care about any of it but the fact that there are dinosaurs/demons being hunted. I’m here for it, and we’re already twenty books deep, so I’m definitely in it for the long haul.

be so cute you forgive them anyway:
a book with a wicked MC you like

I mean, it’s gotta be both Emilia & Wrath in Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalco, right? They’re both toxic as hell, and they have a lot of issues to work on separately and together, but am I 100% going to read the finale as soon as it comes out? You betcha! There is so much wrong with those two, and I am fully ready to embrace their flaws and watch them figure their shit out to be the most badass king & queen the underworld has ever seen.