abyissmal's reviews
130 reviews

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 1 by Ryoko Kui

adventurous funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

Until I Love Myself, Vol. 2: The Journey of a Nonbinary Manga Artist by Poppy Pesuyama

emotional reflective fast-paced

4.25

AAAAA I LOVE THIS SECOND VOLUME JUST AS MUCH AS THE FIRST ONE!!!!!!!

Until I Love Myself, Vol. 1: The Journey of a Nonbinary Manga Artist by Poppy Pesuyama

emotional reflective tense fast-paced

4.0

trying to mend the relationship with yourself, your body, and your gender can be a ruthless journey. pesuyama reflects on how fraught that journey of gender exploration can be, existing in a body that's been assigned by society to be a certain way. "you're a girl because [...]" "you shouldn't do this because you're a girl!" and those kind of things continued to weigh on pesuyama's mind, especially so during the years they faced sexual harassment. the constant dilemma, the dysphoria, and the constant fear of being misunderstood. pesuyama's experience echoes the same internal dilemmas i also have as a nonbinary person. i felt so very touched in the end of one of the chapters where pesuyama claims that they want to be rescued, they want this story to be heard to those who've also experienced the same thing, and they want to heal their fractured relationship with themselves. for that, i want to thank them!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Dysphoria, Sexism, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Body shaming, and Sexual harassment

How Games Move Us: Emotion by Design by Katherine Isbister

informative medium-paced

違国日記 7 by ヤマシタトモコ, Tomoko Yamashita

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.25

違国日記 6 by ヤマシタトモコ, Tomoko Yamashita

emotional lighthearted reflective fast-paced

4.25

shaping up to be one of my favorite manga series so far!

Disco Elysium Art Book by ZA/UM

fast-paced

5.0

How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing by KC Davis

emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.75

BRILLIANT book! it reframed a lot of my personal internalized understanding of cleanliness and organization and how much i've attached it to how good i am as a person. it doesn't have to be that way. in fact, it shouldn't. having a messy room doesn't make you any less valuable. struggling to maintain a consistent routine or task doesn't mean you're a failure. you find the things that work for you. you leave the things that doesn't. be kind to yourself, always!

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

i really enjoyed the different metaphors used in this book. there are some writing advices that i really enjoyed and most definitely will apply into my own writing practices. however, as goes with any non-fiction books like this, take everything with a grain of salt. what works for them might not work for you. writing is a never ending process of working on your craft.

also there were moments that completely throw me off and just made me errr... yeah this was definitely published in the 90s.

(like... what even is a "geishalike" smile?)

Ikoku Nikki #4 (Diary of a Strange Land) by Tomoko Yamashita

5.0

DELAYED THOUGHTS. WILL WRITE REVIEW. I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY!!!