Reviews tagging 'Dementia'

Sirens & Muses by Antonia Angress

11 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

hannahleewhite's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Sexual assault

Minor: Dementia, Mental illness, Drug use, and Suicide

tirrato's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective fast-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Drug use, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, and Suicidal thoughts

mikarala's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• 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

4.5

For a novel that so often seemed incredibly cynical to me, circling around the ideas of how inauthenticity, hypocrisy, and inequality are intrinsically tied to the art-industrial complex, the endings for all the characters were surprisingly hopeful. Although there were moments during the novel where I honestly got the impression that the author was a jaded artist herself, the end of the story leaves all of the characters with some optimism for their futures as artists. I was not expecting all of the endings to be relatively positive, but I think it worked because it was all fairly open-ended.

Anyways, the strengths of this novel: I would say the writing style is not only really lovely and lyrical, but also extremely readable and accessible. Angress has a talent for conveying complex emotions and in a way that it both straightforward and poetic. I think this aided what was probably my actual favourite part of this novel, namely: the characterization. I feel as though I loved and hated all the main characters, was somehow rooting for them yet incredibly tired of all their bullshit human failures and constant excuses. I thought the characters all felt extremely realistic, with the four MCs all embodying different positions within the hierarchy of the art world that made for a fascinating contrast within the story.

I would admit that I don't think the plot of this novel was very compelling (if it even existed). I think this book is more of a "year in the life" type of story, following our 4 MCs through several ups and downs. That's really the main thing holding me back from a 5 star rating. Very enjoyable read that I would recommend, but maybe a bit all over the place in terms of story arc.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Violence

Minor: Dementia

dixiecarroll's review against another edition

emotional informative lighthearted slow-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? It's complicated

4.5

This was beautifully done. It was extremely dense and took me a while to get through, so beware if that is something you don’t like. I felt like I learned something new as I am unfamiliar with the art world or art in general and I loved how each character navigated the world. The prose was poetic and lovely, though I think it was a little overdone at times - it felt a little pretentious to use vocabulary that caused me to use a dictionary 3 times on one page. BUT I loved it because I think that’s the point! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Rape, Abandonment, Death of parent, Dementia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, and Vomit

frannyrdclark's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness

Moderate: Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual assault

Minor: Death, Dementia, Death of parent, Vomit, Grief, and Physical abuse

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

erickaonpaper's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

slow and contemplative, sirens & muses covers a year in the intersecting lives of four artists. each character's chapter provides just enough for the reader to remain interested in their lives, even outside of each other. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Dementia and Panic attacks/disorders

raemow's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Grief, Death, Alcohol, Drug use, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Classism, Blood, and Dementia

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