annoyedhumanoid's reviews
166 reviews

Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono

adventurous hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.5

not bad by any means, but just a bit underwhelming, like there could have been more of a crescendo to the story. audiobook narrator was wonderful though!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Xenophobia, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou

reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

(adjusted from 3.0 to 3.5; i’ve since searched for similar books but come up short, so i have to recognize it for creating that itch and being original)
the courtroom tableau was brilliantly executed, definitely my favorite part
the plot summary was so fucking promising, but i found the writing to be lacking. i feel like it addressed its heavy topics through regurgitations of already finished conversations, rather than playing out those conversations in real time, if that makes sense. i know it's supposed to be absurdist, but the plot was just off the rails at times. Vivian's character development was very good though, shout out to that. also, the audiobook narration was very bland
cover review: ★★★★½. the illustration is gorgeous, just not a fan of either the typeface or the color of the title and author's name

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Cultural appropriation, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Trafficking, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, and Outing

Home Body by Rupi Kaur

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad

4.0

i went through a lot of sticky notes with this (in fact, i decided it was worth sacrificing another book [to a library] as i got my copy from an exchange library and wanted to mark it up). the first section—mind—hit especially hard. some things i needed to hear. not all of them were hits, of course, but i'd say more often than not they were.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, and Abandonment

Minor: Body shaming, Genocide, Self harm, Blood, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Hell Phone by Benji Nate

dark funny fast-paced

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

4.25

loved the art style, the characters, the story got really interesting by the end and even a little frightening. it felt like a single episode and very bingeable,, the only problem is that this is the only one out right now… (except there is one more chunk on the webcomic that's not published in the book: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/hell-phone/dear-diary/viewer?title_no=281570&episode_no=20).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Cursing, Drug use, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley

adventurous emotional funny 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

it's funny, i love the back-and-forth between Katie and the narrator, but at times i felt that this narrator was overused, like sometimes it would have been better to let readers figure it out rather than immediately spell it out for them. a good example is when Katie forgot a single mushroom in the backseat of her car. that would have a good place to make use of its graphic novel format, maybe a dramatic zoom in (which Seconds does have!) on the single castaway mushroom, rather than explain the situation with text. that brings me to one of this graphic novel's strengths: its art. it's so good—the architecture is very pretty, the colors,…

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Chef's Kiss by Jarrett Melendez

lighthearted medium-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

4.25

the pig timer in the bonus materials. no joke that bumped up my review a whole quarter star.
but overall it was fine, a short fluffy read, nothing really groundbreaking. a lot of the story felt like an RPG, like maybe a city-set Stardew Valley, which i enjoyed. the inclusion of a Shaggy-like stoner-with-the-munchies roommate was interesting (that's all i have to say about him). i think that after reading One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston, my standards for city-living romances with roommate side characters have gone way up, and i know not every story that falls into this category will make as much use of its roommate characters, but i still know what's out there. the romance aspect didn't have very much payoff but i didn't really mind. also, can i just say, i am tired of reading queer romances about skinny/ripped white men.
cover review: ★★★★½. it's cute, especially the bag of vegetables. i get that the books in one hand and ingredients in the other represent his internal conflict, but like, eh. Watson (the pig) is adorable, i love the arrow, which is glossy on the physical edition 👌. the font for the title is not my favorite, like the grainy texture, the color, the unusual "K"; and i'm not sure about the choice of background color.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Drug use, and Homophobia

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

i am so sorry

Defekt by Nino Cipri

adventurous emotional hopeful tense 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

took me a minute to get into it, but once i did i really enjoyed it :). loved the Night at the Museum vibes and the ending was sweet. a definite improvement on Finna.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Classism

The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri

reflective fast-paced

3.0

I’m a book cover snob, frequently giving star ratings to covers in addition to the texts themselves, plus i've also read Lahiri’s The Namesake, so this piqued my interest. it had some interesting reflections on the relationship between authors and their book covers that i’ve never considered before, but wasn’t all that memorable. for further reading, i highly recommend John Green’s video about the US cover for his book The Anthropocene Reviewed.
just for fun, here are some of my favorite book covers (links to the specific editions): Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, and No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism and Cultural appropriation

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee

challenging dark funny

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25