artemistics's reviews
231 reviews

¡Buenos días, princesa! by Blue Jeans

1.0

Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami

hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

murakami is somebody i have tried twice before: i loathed norwegian wood after it completely went off the rails from its interesting premise, and felt partial to after dark, a definitely more moody and aimless (complimentary) read. both did give me the ick, though, especially whatever the fuck happens in norwegian wood. when i opened sputnik sweetheart and was quickly informed about the fact that the main character, sumire—also known as the woman our narrator, k, is in love with, as he also quickly informs us—is a lesbian, i was immediately terrified of what was to come, since i became conscious of the fact that the ick was pretty much imminent. it was a delightful surprise to find that the ick never came, and i can finally say, yes, i liked a murakami novel. i dare even say i kind of loved this one? with a very simple premise, murakami manages to talk about love, unrequited love, queer themes, friendship, doppelgängers, trauma, creativity, deep loneliness, having to conform to fit into society and parallel ghost worlds. sumire is probably manic pixie dream girl adjacent, but her pain (and the pain of sumire's own manic pixie dream girl, miu), her uncertainties and her frustrations feel real and true. i loved the ambiguity of the story, the small mysteries of this world, the fantastical elements introduced that we don't question, because they can't be really explained, so we embrace uncertainty. the conversations on writing were very interesting, as was the way the relationship between trauma and a metaphysical splitting of the self was treated. beautiful and magical and sad and eerie in all the perfect ways.

i felt it very easy to submerge myself into the story and i really enjoyed the prose a lot more than in the other two murakami books i've read (both translated by jay rubin), so i also find it imperative to compliment the lovely work of philip gabriel here as translator. i certainly don't speak japanese fluently enough to even be able to dip my toes into the differences and accuracies of rubin's and gabriel's work as translators to english, but, in my experience, sputnik sweetheart does flow much more easily and casually in english than the other two books, while mainting the murakami-isms i've picked up in prior readings. so happy to have given this a try.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

dark tense medium-paced

2.75

mexican gothic is a historical gothic horror set in a rotting house ran by an english family in mid-20th century mexico. our protagonist noemí is part of a post-revolución, new bourgeoisie family (i had in mind the characters and house from buñuel's el ángel exterminador for that banging opening chapter) who lives in ciudad de méxico in the 1950s, and the doyles are an old money english family who used to run a silver mine in hidalgo before tragedy and sickness made their business fall from grace, and these two universes come together when noemí's father sends her to check up on her cousin catalina, newly married into the doyle family and exhibitng erratic behavior in letters. given the promise inherent in the title, i was surprised about the fact that this story, by easily switching names and minor background details, could have taken place anyplace, and even anytime. history knows english people can be racist anywhere they set foot on.

i was very, very hype about this book for a good couple of years, i've basically had it in my orbit since it came out, because i love a good gothic tale and i love latin america (greetings from latin america). a postcolonial mexican horror tale about exploitation by europeans featuring an ugly ass house sounded very excellent to me. with a strong start, i was pretty ready to submerge myself into the doyle's mysteries with noemí, but, sadly, the action becomes stagnant pretty quick. there was the foundation for a strong, eerie atmosphere in the doyle's isolated, moldy (very moldy) family house, along with the creepy patriarch, leering cousin-in-law and dismissive lady of the house, but noemí's detective adventures investigating what is happening to catalina (aided by pretty heavy-handed info dumps from a local) are slow, and while her dreams and sleepwalking are creepy, the revelations we unveil with her don't build momentum upon themselves the longer noemí is exposed to the house. and even though the big reveal and explanation for the family's doings is very grand and definitely horrific and gross, it unfortunately fell flat for me after my investment in the book diminished between the 20 and 70% marks. it was disappointing how the mexican lore, to put it some way, i expected to be interwoven into the plot was practically nonexistent, and again the setting informs the current context of the story, but does not feel inextricable from it; it even could have easily been lightly edited to take place in a different continent, and, i feel, the story's bare bones wouldn't change.

all in all, very middle of the road for me. a case of too high expectations, i suppose. still interested in the rest of moreno-garcía's work, but very sad to report that mexican gothic was a let down.

Collide by Bal Khabra

1.75

nerd/jock is an obvious cliché, but i think every cliché can be made fun with good execution, so i was into the premise of this and fully willing to have a good time. unfortunately, it all felt so flat to me, i could barely feel anything other than "hm" every once in a while. last 30% is a total slog of introducing stupid minor conflict only to resolve it the very next chapter, and having to transit a rollercoaster of unimportant bullshit. also, every typo i stumbled across made me cringe, and with some other details that tended to confuse me, it made the entire thing feel pretty sloppy. rounding up something closer to a 1.5 up to 2 because at least it helped me pass the time, i guess.

The Gospel According to Eve: A History of Women's Interpretation by Amanda W. Benckhuysen

3.0

interesting read for an ex-catholic. in recent years i have started opening myself up again to the idea of, not organized religion per se, but of an amorophous something to believe in, and to not underestimate the impact that the church as an institution has not only on the people around me (which is kind of everyone; my family is fully catholic, me being the only proclaimed atheist-actually-maybe-a-bit-agnostic and i went to catholic school for 12 years) but also on the people of my country and latin america as a whole. even though i, personally, do mostly separate the teachings and actions of jesus from the many christian institutions, it's helpful to me to go back and read criticism of the way issues of systemic discrimination have infiltrated and poisoned the main christian ideals, written by people that actually believe and engage in the faith instead of only looking from the outside like myself. it's certainly given me things to reconsider about the material i learned in catechism classes ages ago. the writing itself felt a little repetitive at times, which dulled the reading experience a bit, but other than that, plenty accessible and a fine introduction to the subject.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

i was not familiarized with this story because, strangely enough, i've never seen the movie. just one of those things. all i really knew about it was that mandy patinkin <3 played a spaniard, which i gathered because of the million references to "my name is inigo montoya. you killed my father. prepare to die" i have sat through in other media. so it completely caught me off guard how damn funny this is? a book has no business making me huff in amusement and also swoon at the love story in the same page. i absolutely loved the absurd yet sincere tone and the metafiction about the book itself and s. morgenstern and florin was incredibly up my alley. my reading experience was very uplifted by the fact that i lowkey pictured fictional william goldman saying everything with larry david's voice, just because he was a bit of a funny asshole in the prologue and it stuck. my biggest letdown in my enjoyment was that i felt the book itself was kinda mean to buttercup for no reason?! please leave the girl alone! anyhow. what else to say that hasn't been said, really? incredibly addicting, and i kind of never wanted it to end, so i was glad i picked up the 25 year anniversary edition with the buttercup's baby extra, to heal me a little after reaching the final chapter. i definitely get why inigo montoya is the coolest motherfucker of all time now.

 

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

3.5

throughout this book i was reminded of something i once heard in a youtube video essay: teen stories tend to deal with the realization of the interiority of the people around you. i thought about it a lot while reading about poor, naive catherine, who goes through such embarrassments due to letting her imagination get the best of her, awfully mischaracterizing the father of her new friend and her romantic prospect, that it seemed like austen kind of reveled in torturing her. even then, she's a lovable heroine, good, with strong convictions, and trying to find her place in the world (even if she has to go through fake friends, annoying guys hitting on her, patronizing crushes and rude old men in her pursuit). she loves gothic novels that are all story, no thoughts, and hates reading historical fiction because "there's no women characters in them". all in all, a diva.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

lighthearted medium-paced

3.0

i picked this up because i thought the romance would be between a scholar and the freak faerie she found in the forest; i was only halfway right, so i had to shoulder a bit of disappointment for the first half of the book. it was fine, though. i think this book presented a lot of elements that could have really hit for me and made this amazing: i loved the victorian setting and the academic backdrop, the framing device of the journal with the academic tone was entertaining, i adore faeries that are pretty weird and fucked up and distinctly not human, and the bickering between the two main characters was, admittedly, kinda cute. very (book) sophie and howl adjacent, except that not quite at the same stature, so i would find myself thinking about howl's moving castle in the middle of this book that was decidedly not howl's moving castle.

for some reason, though... i don't really know. this was fine? just fine. the academic tone of the framing device, as much as i liked it in the beginning, didn't allow for a lot of interiority that i think would have made it easier to connect with emily in particular, and while i like that the story was pretty focused on plot and didn't set it aside for the romance, the plot itself wasn't the most thrilling thing to read. overall, it was cozy and at times amusing, and i think the world built in here is promising enought to see what's up with the next installment, but i'm very "yeah, whatever, might as well" about it, to be honest. it's like (book) sophie and howl if they were written in such a way that i was a little charmed, maybe, but also not even half as insane about them as i happen to be about actual sophie and howl. have i mentioned that it's crazy how the relationship beats here are almost exactly like in the howl's moving castle book?

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

4.25

i was craving a good, interesting book in a pirate setting, so i picked this book out based on vibes and that gorgeous and very promising cover (all pirate shit should have a gigantic sea monster with tentacles as a feature) alone. and i'm so glad i did! amina, as a retired, over 40-year-old female captain that needs to get the gang back together, was a refreshing choice for a main character, the writing style was easy to read, and both the side characters and the very diverse setting of the various ports of the indian ocean were incredibly interesting and engaging, hightling a lot of the fun of historical fiction, keeping it all very clear and easy to picture in your head without being drowned by over-explanations of every single small concept. my biggest issue had to do with something about the pacing feeling a little off, not flowing as well in certain parts, and the way a few elements were introduced very suddenly in the last quarter of the book. but, all in all, super memorable and a deliciously fun reading experience. can't wait for more amina adventures. 

The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

so wholly miserable to read about these two girls, these two women, who can never truly set aside conflict and hurt each other because of the cycles and confinements they're stuck inside, both due to gender and class. always turning to compete with the other, always eager to best the other in any way they can, because there can't be enough for the two of them. always trying to be the best, because if they can't be the best with what little their lives offer them, that means they must be like everyone else in their neighborhood, like their mothers and grandmothers before them, and that is unbearable. after the bittersweet years of their childhood and early adolescence in my brilliant friend, elena ferrante just about ripped out my heart with this one, exposing the deepest ugly of both elena and lina and how they can harm one another. the ischia section i devoured manically, at first glad for this little bubble of happiness that reminded me of the summer elena and antonio had spent together in the last book, then remaining glued to the pages gradually watching things spiral downwards to the undoable, perhaps even unsalvagable, with the sick and yet familiar feeling attached to the realization that elena and lina are each other's truest friend, and yet have grown to be able to most acutely hurt the other because of the society they live in, in times where they don't understand the options they may have; it reminded me a lot of my grandma's tales of growing up around the same years elena and lina did, the way she accepted things at a young age that she still believes and repeats uncritically today to me in 2025. elena's emotional journey, sinking into jealousy, pettiness and misery at the state of her life and personhood, and lina's obvious pain, detachment and need to hurt others around her were both so relatable to read that i had to put down the book for almost a week until the million feelings it brought out inside me could simmer down.

even in the chaos of elena and lina's relationship, it hurts to see both of them, with their strengths and flaws, understanding their reasons and mistakes, and wanting to root for them to figure themselves out, even if you know they will not. can't wait to see if they can make things worse in the next one.