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_fallinglight_'s reviews
474 reviews
The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I couldn't connect with the first story, "The Age of Discretion." It was the soporific ramblings of a boy mom, and the last novella was annoying. The standout for me was definitely "The Monologue." Pure, unadulterated female rage, and maybe it's concerning, but I found myself relating a lot to the MC, Murielle, at least with the misanthropic and nihilistic thoughts, her acidic homophobic and racist diatribes notwithstanding. The writing was chef's kiss, run-on sentences and all. The psychotic stream of consciousness was both chaotic and tragic to follow, but reading Murielle's delusions of grandeur and excessive narcissism wasn't as dreadful as when men do it. I think this manifesto against the world is the one I'll keep coming back to, and maybe I'll even make it a tradition to read it on every new year's day starting next year lol
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Grief
Moderate: Child death, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Gaslighting
Minor: Abortion and Pregnancy
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Murder
Moderate: Homophobia, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Miscarriage and Pregnancy
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, and War
Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent
The Bohemian Guide to Monogamy by Andrew Armacost
adventurous
dark
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Infidelity, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content and Vomit
Minor: Child abuse and Sexual assault
Credence by Penelope Douglas
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.5
My 69th read of 2023 and none of these hoes even bothered to do 69. Lame. Easily one the most deplorable books I've read, ever. Like this would've made an interesting book if this had been about Tiernan getting to know what it would be like to be a part of a family and everything was familial love and shit and not that Tiernan is gonna know the true meaning of family through fucking and Jake and co. weren't such weirdos. But at the same time, Tiernan's parents are so comically, exaggeratedly neglectful and emotionally abusive I can't take it seriously. Also this book has one of the worst things in fiction: the "money isn't everything" bullshit. That shit is more painful to read than an ovarian torsion pain. I think books where rich people are sad and pitiful are the worst. I like it when they're absolutely unhinged and messy lol.
Anyway, I hated that this book used an attempted sexual assault to titillate. I just don't find that hot, it was weird, and worse how Tiernan throughout this story wants to ease Kaleb's culpability and share half the blame to idk give her like control and give it nuance??? And even worse worse when it happens right after Tiernan was raped by Kaleb and then it horrifyingly segues into a sob story of Kaleb's childhood trauma and we have to like feel bad for this serial rapist and forget what he did to Tiernan??? Hello???
The writing in this is terrible; the way every complication was conveniently resolved by Jake or Noah knowing information that would absolve Kaleb of any would be wrongdoing, like if he's a baby daddy (HIPAA? we don't know her) or how also conveniently Kaleb turned out being a diarist and therefore all character development was lazily shown through that. The characterizations were even worse, just all-around levels of dross. (Jake disappears out of the story in a haphazardly done way though who cares bc he SUCKED. And Noah, who is the most normal one out of these clowns but the bar is in hell so, was just a doormat and spokesperson for the man-child nontalking troglodyte. He deserved better. Actually getting away from this horrendous family.)
I'm not too close minded and I don't moral outrage easily so the step-family incest angle of this did nothing to me and I could've overlooked it but the out of nowhere "romance", "love" with a sexual abuser and all the steps Penelope Douglas took to make it cute just enraged me. But then again, there are other awful sins this book makes like sexualizing pigtails (!!) and Penelope Douglas thinking having the attention of an ambiguous 40 year old when you're 17 is hot. Idk about anyone else but at 17 I DID NOT want some 40-something year olds sexual attention and now at 33 I don't want to feel 17 again thinking how nice it'd be to have some 40-something year olds advances. And there's sprinkled homophobic prison rape jokes, for good measure.
I enjoy smut but nothing written here was even good bc the characters were fecal matter awful and just everything that preceded it throughout the story was a nightmare. The ableism and sexism towards Tiernan, for example. This Jake dude wants her to "smile more" and be his little ray of sunshine and her maybe neurodivergence is weaponized against her but his animalistic son who doesn't WANT to communicate is ok? Yeah yeah. At some random point it's shown that Jake wanted to teach Kaleb ASL and whatnot but it was only to conveniently explain what a gesture Kaleb made before disappearing again meant. In conclusion, this is a mediocre and stupid and bad book. Save yourself and don't read it. Don't let curiosity kill the cat like I did.
Anyway, I hated that this book used an attempted sexual assault to titillate. I just don't find that hot, it was weird, and worse how Tiernan throughout this story wants to ease Kaleb's culpability and share half the blame to idk give her like control and give it nuance??? And even worse worse when it happens right after Tiernan was raped by Kaleb and then it horrifyingly segues into a sob story of Kaleb's childhood trauma and we have to like feel bad for this serial rapist and forget what he did to Tiernan??? Hello???
The writing in this is terrible; the way every complication was conveniently resolved by Jake or Noah knowing information that would absolve Kaleb of any would be wrongdoing, like if he's a baby daddy (HIPAA? we don't know her) or how also conveniently Kaleb turned out being a diarist and therefore all character development was lazily shown through that. The characterizations were even worse, just all-around levels of dross. (Jake disappears out of the story in a haphazardly done way though who cares bc he SUCKED. And Noah, who is the most normal one out of these clowns but the bar is in hell so, was just a doormat and spokesperson for the man-child nontalking troglodyte. He deserved better. Actually getting away from this horrendous family.)
I'm not too close minded and I don't moral outrage easily so the step-family incest angle of this did nothing to me and I could've overlooked it but the out of nowhere "romance", "love" with a sexual abuser and all the steps Penelope Douglas took to make it cute just enraged me. But then again, there are other awful sins this book makes like sexualizing pigtails (!!) and Penelope Douglas thinking having the attention of an ambiguous 40 year old when you're 17 is hot. Idk about anyone else but at 17 I DID NOT want some 40-something year olds sexual attention and now at 33 I don't want to feel 17 again thinking how nice it'd be to have some 40-something year olds advances. And there's sprinkled homophobic prison rape jokes, for good measure.
I enjoy smut but nothing written here was even good bc the characters were fecal matter awful and just everything that preceded it throughout the story was a nightmare. The ableism and sexism towards Tiernan, for example. This Jake dude wants her to "smile more" and be his little ray of sunshine and her maybe neurodivergence is weaponized against her but his animalistic son who doesn't WANT to communicate is ok? Yeah yeah. At some random point it's shown that Jake wanted to teach Kaleb ASL and whatnot but it was only to conveniently explain what a gesture Kaleb made before disappearing again meant. In conclusion, this is a mediocre and stupid and bad book. Save yourself and don't read it. Don't let curiosity kill the cat like I did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Incest, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
Moderate: Ableism, Rape, and Suicide
Minor: Homophobia and Abandonment
Beyond Midnight by D.J. MacHale
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I'm so happy I got my wish and finally read DJM writing for adults and it was as fun as I thought it would be. Having said that, most of the stories were just all right but not mindblowing except for the shining exception being "Time Trials, Unlimited". Holy fųcking shit, was that short story DJM excellence! Nearly perfect! Definitely my favorite from the collection. That's the book DJ should write next and not The Paper Trail, if you ask me, but I'll still be seated and waiting for that book and reading it whole. I have my hopes with Holly and her redhead ghost. Honorable mention: "Influence Island", that short story was crazy and though I saw Derrick's fate coming bc he was unhinged and kinda stupid and the writing didn't hint any redeemable ending for him, I was still like this 😲 with the twist lol My least favorite story is "The Scout". I read the original to see how the "redux" would go (I didn't like it, btw) and I was disappointed to see it was just a changing from third person to first person pov plus a coda that just irritated me (the last sentences kinda slayed tho) and made me dislike this story even more. The story is too dramatic and heavy-handed with some weird anti-immigrant and ecofascist vibes. A very unneeded story that probably took space for something better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug use, Suicide, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Sexism and Vomit
Real Life by Brandon Taylor
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Eating disorder, Homophobia, and Racial slurs
Minor: Infidelity
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
2.0
Too much ableism to take seriously and it got increasingly repetitive that I felt I was not retaining anything by the end bc I kept zoning out. It was revelatory though, that for all their faults, my parents were emotionally mature when it came to raising me and made me feel I mattered. Like my dad hits most of the emotionally immature, externalizer checklists (lol) but in general he was surprisingly attentive to me growing up and not in a manipulative way or anything like in some of the examples provided here. So I thought I was gonna end up trashing my parents but no, I'm actually surprised that they were PARENTS parents to me. Who knew? So my focus went on how this book is so ableist and dunks on neurodivergent people ridiculously a lot, why are people praising it so much? Also, when she starts describing externalizers vs. internalizers it felt like reading the horoscope and she kept referecing old, Cold War era studies. But after reading this part in the book, it's not surprising.
Human emotional immaturity has been studied for a long time. However, over the years it has lost ground to an increasing focus on symptoms and clinical diagnosis, using a medical disease model to quantify behaviors as illnesses suitable for insurance reimbursement.
That sounds red flaggy to me idk. And to reach her hard set conclusions this dr. has to be super simplistic and conveniently ignores a bunch of social, racial, economic and mental factors. Like I don't pretend to know more than her but the book feels incomplete to me bc of that, but maybe I'm just talking out of my ass.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship
Kalpa Imperial. Libro I: La casa del poder by Angélica Gorodischer
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0