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The One by John Marrs
BATB score: 9/10 ❤️ page-turner, unable to put down, impossible to predict what’s next, full of surprises and suspense, a plot twist with every chapter, bravo read Best to: ahh, so this kind of book gets selected by Netflix; a novel written by John Marrs, adapted into a Netflix Series in 2021; IMDb 6.6/10 British science fiction television series Best as: how far does one go to find the one? and when you are told he/she is the one for you (scientifically proven) would we forc


The Crash by Freida McFadden 2025
BATB score: 4/10 🥶 Best as: meh. this book was below average for Freida McFadden Best to: read something else, don't worry I forgive you Best for: McFans; to support and read everything Freida McFadden the moment it is release ie. January 2025!


One By One by Freida McFadden
BATB score: 5/10 🤷♀️ Best to: meh Best as: meh Best for: meh BATB lingering thought: meh, I guess we should pause reading Frieda McFadden’s books for a while


The Maid's Diary by Loreth Anne White
BATB score: 6/10 🫠 Best as: a very long suspense, thriller, murder, crime scene investigation novel; with all those pages and words yet character love wasn’t established #bummer Best to: great interesting and rewarding ending just took a long time to get there; like how there’s a direct route but you took the scenic route which wasn’t that scenic anyways Best for: retired avid readers with a lot of time on your hands and enjoys the reading journey not necessarily the end; ho


Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
BATB score: 7/10 🔥📚👨🚒 true classic piece of art, an oldie from 1953 Best to: dystopia novel - if books are illegal and if conformity without question is the norm; where firemen burn books and everyone has ADHD and is dumb Best as: a political book - censorship, no freedom for imagination, government brutal crackdowns, witch-hunt of intellectual outliers, mass tabloid groupthink Best for: 72 years later, BATB 2025 has just came across this book?! BATB lingering thought: h


The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint- Exupéry
BATB score: 4/10 ☄️ point of clarification: I’ve never read The Little Prince and I would like to understand why there’s a The Little Prince exhibition in 2025; meh, I didn’t like it one bit 🙄 Best as: a simple, short, but yet very confusing story with numerous characters; the essence of the book requires a lot of deciphering BATB lingering thought: people sharing their lessons learnt from The Little Prince, loneliness, love, friendship, and the loss of innocence, did you ju


Poor Things by Alasdair
BATB score: 6/10 🥴 *reader discretion advised* side back story, after watching “Poor Things” the movie featuring Emma Stone IMDb 8.3, BATB wants to understand what kind of novel [1992] gets selected for film-adaption [2023] Best as: oh shit, the original novel by Alasdair Gray vs the academy award film by Yorgos Lanthimos is two different individually unique masterpiece 👀 Best to: the novel structure is split based on the characters point of view, written in a memoir first-


The Gentleman from Peru by André Aciman
BATB score: 8/10 😎 *feel good vibes* Best as: a novella about soulmates finding each other after generations of rebirths Best to: a casual read, best read under the palm trees 🌴 on a beach 🏖️ with an aperol spritz 🍹 Best for: anyone on holiday on italian amalfi beaches Best quote: “It’s life that is impermanent, not love.”


The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei
BATB score: 6/10 🙃 Best to: a pastime read to accompany your slow life upon retirement BATB lingering thought: maybe we leave the long novels for later Best as: oldest / original daughter dilemma, mother’s disappointment in daughter, sisters passive aggressive rivalry, so who takes care of mother when she’s on her deathbed? Best for: only if you are an oldest daughter in an asian family Best quotes: “There was considerable freedom to be had in knowing and accepting that I wa


Death Row by Freida McFadden
BATB score: 8/10 Best as: a short bedtime story but thriller Freida McFadden signature epilogue twist Best to: 60-minutes quick casual fun read to give you a small sense of accomplishment - yay, I finished a book today Best for: Frieda McFadden’s loyal fanclub Best quotes: “And I feel lighter - happier - all of a sudden.” “Sometimes it’s better to let go than to drag it out.”


Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory: Stories by Raphael Bob-Waksberg
BATB score: 7/10 🐴 Best as: a series of random short stories about everything and anything Best for: written with the same satire as BoJack Horseman blunt witty humor Best to: a good story / bad story roulette; hit-or-miss rate 7:3 Best quotes: “There are two kinds of people, he thought: the people you don’t want to touch because you’re afraid you’re going to break them and the people you don’t want to touch because you’re afraid they’ll break you.” “What happened to our soc


Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
BATB score: 7/10 🧐 Best as: 100 most influential novel by BBC News 2019 - might as well ✅ Best to: a novel about bisexuality and internalized homophobia, sensitive masculinity and social alienation back in 1956 where everything is controversial 🧐 wowza Best for: literature as an art form ; art appreciation Best quotes: “People can't, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents. Life gives these and also t


The Tenant by Freida McFadden
BATB score: 6/10 🔪 🩸 Best for: McFans - Freida McFadden loyal fans Best to: a classic Freida McFadden twist and turn suspenseful fiction Best as: reading for fun Best quote: “Is it such an awful thing to want retribution against people who have wronged you?”


Lights Out by Navessa Allen
BATB score: 3/10 ☠️ reader discretion advised sexually explicit content; every detail, kinks, and all 🫠 Best as: Kindle #1 best seller and #1 most read under Erotica category - got me curious, never read never know Best to: holy moly 💀 erotica indeed, porno in book form; interesting, are all our erotica fantasy similar and so predictable? BATB confession: couldn’t finish the book, didn’t feel invested in the characters nor the storyline; too girly berry, chick-flick but


Hunger by Choi Jin-Young
BATB score: 3/10 🤷♀️ Best to: either you love it or you hate it; wasn’t able to feel the characters and thus wasn’t able to be invested nor admire the story Best as: longing of two souls to the point of cannabalism Best for: maybe this book is better in original Korean language? Best quotes: “Faith is the key to grasping absurdity.” “Are those who fire the guns and take the bullets ever those who start the war?” “To be freed from this suffering - and if that’s not doable, t
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