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indigoriverboat's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Deadnaming, Transphobia, and Dysphoria
aiyam's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Deadnaming, Homophobia, Transphobia, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Outing, and Dysphoria
dananana's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content, Transphobia, Blood, Grief, Outing, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Car accident
Minor: Deadnaming
solspringsreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Even so, the actual plot of this book is pretty interesting. It somehow manages to be exactly as advertised (vampire archivist!) and not at all what is advertised and then also more than what is advertised. The relationship between the main characters burns incredibly fast and is very intense, and like many other readers, I’m not sure I really… liked the main relationship. Not that I’m even sure that I’m supposed to? It’s complicated.
This is a book about very messy, flawed people trying to work through their chaos together. It’s not trying to be healthy or idealized, and that’s pretty great! We deserve to have messy queer characters figuring out who they are. I really appreciated what this book was doing thematically, even if the execution wasn’t my favorite. This book can also be very emotionally taxing if you, too, are a messy, flawed person trying to work through your chaos. Please check the trigger warnings before picking this one up.
Graphic: Biphobia, Deadnaming, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Dysphoria
bookishvicky's review
- 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
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, Transphobia, Blood, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Deadnaming and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Death, Car accident, and Outing
indeed_distract's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Transphobia, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Deadnaming, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Outing
woweewhoa's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Deadnaming, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Medical content, Grief, Outing, and Dysphoria
Minor: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
coyodie's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Transphobia, Medical content, Grief, Outing, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical trauma, and Car accident
Minor: Addiction, Deadnaming, Infertility, Misogyny, and Violence
anxiousnachos's review
3.0
I thought it raised some very interesting ideas around vampirism, death and archiving. But this is unfortunately where it began to let me down because it was all just rather…shall we say it, boring? Trying to be philosophical but just losing the engagement along the way?
So I have mixed thoughts and ultimately I am settling somewhere on a mixed rating. Because whilst there are some moments of real, deep familiarity and connection, there is also a lot to swim through to reach those moments.
Content warnings: transphobia, blood, needles and other medical content, dysphoria, disability discrimination in the workplace, graphic sex, deadnaming, outing (in the workplace), vampirism as chronic illness, car accident, suicidal ideation
Graphic: Transphobia, Blood, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Car accident, and Outing
kell_xavi's review
3.0
I enjoyed, was excited about, the use of a science fiction TV show and fandom as jumping off points for the novel. I was curious about internal references and Sol’s attachment to this fictional universe; finding self in it, or looking back and seeing self not yet found, in the interaction with it. I wanted more of archival work, beyond a single personal collection of someone who so evades knowing, and is never quite a useful character or metaphor.
The novel is so often steeped in Sol’s perspective, and while we can’t name everything neurodivergence, there is a sort of autistic quality to his continued unhappiness, dissociation, distance, single-minded deep interests, loneliness, and difficulty anticipating social situation… he has a particular kind of oddness, and Fellman has a particular way of describing both his thoughts and his vampire body, that reads as autistic (but unaware of it) to someone who has ASD. The things I liked and the things that didn’t work may both be rooted in this factor (the perspective, the masking/ignorance).
I think this book will stay memorable, but right now it’s still caught, half-processed, in my mind.
Moderate: Blood, Medical content, Car accident, and Dysphoria
Minor: Transphobia