Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman

35 reviews

bacteriosage's review

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0.5

not sure if i want to put the energy into writing an actual review of this book because i already put enough energy into finishing it, but i truly think that was the worst book i’ve read to date. it felt deeply lesbophobic, and incredibly reductive in its portrayal of transness. about a quarter into the book i just gave the author the benefit of the doubt and read as though all the problematic stuff was solely a result of the characters being frankly awful people, but there are too many stereotypes and clear biases of the author within the metanarrative for that to make sense. and at one point the main character Sol does address how his love interest is toxic in a lot of ways and fetishizes him, but the literal one paragraph that discusses that seems to just conclude “well i’m codependent and in love with them so it’s okay.” the relationship itself also felt very insta-lovey and comprised of primarily trauma-bonding, and the sex scenes were incredibly uncomfortable to read imo (also lots of scenes and phrases that just. don’t leave room for aro/ace people to exist in this fictional world much, if at all). again, if there were some explanation for this in the broader context of the work i would love to hear it, i’m not expecting the book to tell me that “problematic characters are problematic” or hold my hand through figuring out what’s homophobic/transphobic or not, but as far as i can figure there was no larger message or meaning that gave me any explanation for that. 

the last thing i’ll say is HOWWW are these characters in their FORTIES???? they read like teenagers steeped in the deepest trenches of tumblr discourse. almost DNF’d at finding out the love interest works for AO3, then again with supernatural fanfic jokes, then again with an “assigned cop at birth” joke. admittedly i don’t tend to enjoy when books date themselves, just a personal preference, but i absolutely loved tamsyn muir’s pop culture references in tlt — this felt like a horribly ham-fisted version of that.

maybe i will try to put together a more coherent review later because i think what sucks (pun intended) the most is that the concept of a transmasc, vampire archivist is SO COOL and there were even a few pages that connnected those themes in really interesting ways, but the overall thread of them was totally lost in the story as a whole for me and i just felt like i was stuck listening to the two most obnoxious characters on earth talk ad nauseum and still say absolutely nothing. i couldn’t even tell the difference in character voices honestly, they all just felt like different vessels for the author because they all speak the same. i don’t think i’ve ever finished a book so quickly just because i needed it to be over.

okay TRULY the last thing i’ll say but there was absolutely no trans joy in this book that was not in some way connected to dysphoria, and i think we deserve better than that, especially when the book is written by a trans author. 

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buttermellow's review

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reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0


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catch__up's review

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hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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thecolouryes's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was a fantastic book. It took me much longer to read than I expected; not because the plot is slow, exactly, things happen at a decent pace, but because there was a lot of content to chew on. It's ultimately a book about identity and choosing to live as opposed to just not being dead. The vampirism is a metaphor, but not in the way you think. (It's a metaphor. It's always a metaphor, even if the creator didn't intend it as a metaphor.) 



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awildeasriel's review

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dark funny hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5


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amy_reading_23's review

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

This book is an interesting one, and it definitley got me thinking. It doesn't have much of a plot but is more like a slice of life. Its about a trans vampire archivist falling in love with another queer person whilst also working through depression and questioning the liminality between life and death.

It reads more like experimental literary fiction than fantasy - the vampirism is used as a metaphor for chronic illness, living in a trans body, and being othered. If you are questioning your gender or identity then there are definitley bits of this books that can feel quite affirming. Overall it is quite a challenging book though, I wouldn't read it just for fun, but there were elements I liked. 

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vulgarboy's review

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emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Loss of points for deadname existing for the sake of existing, but maybe that's my own personal bias. Anyway, this was interesting. Sol was compelling and complicated, and it was refreshing to read about characters above the age of 35 still actively struggling with things like gender identity and sexuality. It proves that those are fluid, and it is never too late to change. I feel like the book was more character focused than plot focused, which isn't a bad thing! I just wish it had a little more about how certain things worked. I liked the normalization of vampirism, the cast of very dynamic and complicated characters. Yet, when I finished, I found myself not aching for any of them or wishing for more. It was a simple wrap up, a concise ending. 

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pobi's review

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dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

A very good book, but a bit too sad and existential (and romancey) for my taste tbh. I liked the way it played with form, and it's nice to read a book about trans masc people!

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dustghosts's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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necroplasm's review

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dark funny reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

another unfortunate victim of the "book recommended to me by a tiktok that pitched it as something completely different from what it actually is which causes me to not like it as much because it's just so not what i was expecting" curse, though thankfully not the most egregious example bc i did still enjoy the book! dark academia it was not, but it did have some interesting musings on gender and a neat take on vampires that i haven't really seen anything similar to before, also probably serving as a metaphor for several things, most of which probably went over my head. also the first book i've ever read that revolves around fanfic/fandom in such a prominent and  genuinely sincere way, which was also quite neat to me! hearing ao3 get mentioned in a real published work nearly made me do a spit take but i still had fun :]

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