Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Sirens & Muses by Antonia Angress

5 reviews

fionamclary's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Well, I'm sad to say that the quest for a truly excellent sapphic academia continues. Although I liked this a good deal better than the last sapphic dark academia I read, I still found some things lacking.

Like many readers, I had a hard time seeing how all four perspectives fit together. Often it felt like I was reading two to three different books. I think if all four characters had personal connections to each other, it would have worked much better. As it was, basically the only character that Louisa had any relation to was Karina. This made the different perspectives feel additionally disjointed. However, all characters went through satisfying development, whether for better or for worse. Preston, falling into the latter category, ended up being an interesting vehicle for exploring the intersection of art, capitalism, and the 2010s internet through a lens that captured both the 2011-2012 setting of the book and the hindsight that the author has 10 years later.

Speaking of the early 2010s...a small thing that bothered the heck out of me was the timeline of Preston's Tumblr. The book says that he started it shortly after his mother's death, which happened when he was 14. This would have been 7-8 years before the events of the book. Tumblr was launched in 2007, 4-5 years before the events of the book. I was surprised that a Millennial author would get this detail wrong—and she could have resolved it by saying that he started on another platform and then migrated to Tumblr, but no, it explicitly says that he started his Tumblr soon after his mom died. This bugged me way too much but I don't think it's an unreasonable thing to get right. Am I crazy??

I read this book in April 2024, as I'm watching encampments protesting the genocide in Gaza go up on university campuses across the country, so the Occupy setting of this book felt especially timely. I might recommend this book to anyone looking for parallels in their reading life to current events.

Anyway, I think this would be a solid read for the art girlies looking for something meditative and gay. Just don't expect it to be The queer academia of all time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Drug use, Classism, Alcohol, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Cursing, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Suicide, Death, Dementia, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Lesbophobia, Bullying, Police brutality, Grief, and Homophobia

bootsmom3's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Alcohol, and Infidelity

Moderate: Grief, Dementia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Rape

Minor: Biphobia, Drug use, Animal death, Cursing, and Death

shector1's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective relaxing tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity and Drug use

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, and Cursing

Minor: Suicide, Misogyny, and Vomit

sjanke2's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

 RIYL: campus novels, the art world, the haves and have nots, bisexual love triangles, Occupy Wall Street, adjectives

Casting: ironically, Phoebe Bridgers as Karina and Daisy Edgar Jones as Louisa 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Dementia, Toxic relationship, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Cursing, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Drug use, Grief, Sexual assault, Infidelity, and Mental illness

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thanks to Random House for the free advance copy of this book.

 - SIRENS AND MUSES is atmospheric, enveloping the reader in the characters' art world bubble.
- It's got a touch of Donna Tartt to it, with the wealthy college students getting wrapped up in each other and their studies, and I think anyone who has ever been in an art program (hi, me) will find some aspects of the story highly, maybe uncomfortably, relatable.
- This book gets really deep into questions about what and who is art for, and while the fine art vs the internet throughline could have been trite, I think it was pretty well done. Additionally, the bits about how so much art has simply become items for wealthy billionaires to trade around...whew. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Child abuse, Cursing, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Vomit