aviously6's reviews
58 reviews

Who's Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.75

This is a very good book to start getting into gender theory, with a good few words still needing to be googled. A lot of Butler's past work is a bit unreadable to the average reader, so this was a nice change, and honestly an important one in this time we're in. Having an entire section dedicated to Trump was a very good move, even though they wrote this before he was elected. I think this ends with an important message, but I will say despite everything this book was incredibly hard to get through, and I wish I'd been able to pull more arguments from it that I can use (not saying I can't pull any, just I wish there were more that were more explicit). I would recommend this to anybody, honestly, because we need more people in the fight and Butler pushes a good message about it.

Firefight by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

I LOVE Sanderson's world building! Half the reason I keep reading this series is just to learn more about how the world functions.

Learning that Calamity is an epic itself especially makes me excited for the next book, knowing it's named after them.

This book does involve some of Sanderson showing his hand as a white writer, but I am still glad he makes sure to explicitly state the ethnicities of some of the characters.

I'm really excited to see more about Prof, because I think he's my favorite and I'm worried about him 😭
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Also very intrigued in a lot of the character stories. Overall a great setup for a third book, excited to see where The Reckoners end up next, though I hope the series ends satisfyingly.

Live, Laugh, Lesbian: Navigating Life as a Lesbian in the 21st Century by Helen Scott

funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

2.5

I was really excited for this book, seeing the word lesbian in the title. I read a lot of books like these when I was a baby gay, and they'd helped me a lot. I don't think I'd recommend this one to a baby gay though - a lot of the content was good, but there was also several mixed messages, a few of which read pretty negatively towards lesbians, or just honestly rubbed me the wrong way. I did appreciate the inclusion of other experiences, but I'm not sure this accomplishes what Scott wanted. The audience felt all over the place - I couldn't tell if this was for teens, or adults, or what, though I think maybe it was supposed to just be for anyone new to being queer. I don't know, I think I just wanted other things out of this book based on what it seemed like it was about. I did enjoy the amount of stories Scott injected, and I liked reading about the queer life they had before the Internet became huge.

Son by Lois Lowry

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

3.0

I almost really liked this book. I liked the connections created between all the past characters, and I'd really been waiting for a book about Gabe (though I did enjoy this also mainly being a book about Claire; I liked jumping back to the original community Giver is set in). Still, the ending felt rushed for such a huge buildup, and I think the Giver/Gathering Blue had better concepts because they didn't rely on a specific created Evil Enemy (though the Trade master was interesting, it's just not what I've come to understand from this series). I have really mixed feelings, but I still enjoyed reading it until the incredibly rushed last few pages.

Messenger, Volume 3 by Lois Lowry

adventurous emotional sad fast-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? No

3.25

This book was good, but not quite as good as the others. I enjoyed getting to see more of Matty's story. Like many others, I also really wish Lowry had explained the trade mart more, just because there doesn't even feel like there's enough clues to figure anything out like many of the other unexplained things in her books.

Tampa by Alissa Nutting

dark informative sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

This was crazy to read. Like others, I wish it's been less graphic, but I still thought it also seemed appropriate for the mind of the character we were in. It's a real testament to Nutting's writing that she was able to write something like this, and it made me think a lot of a neighbor of mine who was arrested for CP when I was 12. I think this book would be helpful for a lot of people who don't think that women pedophiles are as bad as men pedophiles, because reading through the main characters thoughts during this was incredibly revolting. A hard book to stomach, and definitely very adult. Do not read this without warnings first.

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

adventurous 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

4.0

This was a really good continuation of the Earthsea series; I loved getting a change in perspective and then having Ged reappear later in the new main character's story. I also love Le Guin's approach to her world building and story, and I loved the afterword she included about her process, as well as how she expanded on things she hadn't expected to be writing before.

The Giver by Lois Lowry
Did not finish book. Stopped at 5%.

I might come back to this, but I basically just read The Giver, and this includes almost all of the text from it, just with added pictures. This is probably a more interesting read once I've gotten farther from having just read the book.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

adventurous emotional tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

The beginning of this book was slow, and hard to get through, honestly. I took a few breaks from reading it because of that, and even now that I'm done I honestly couldn't be sure I've gotten a complete hold on who was paired with who, and all of the terminology Deonn introduced (Vassal, Scion, Squire, Liege, etc etc). Still, I enjoyed the middle and end of this book, and really appreciated the pickup in pace as I got closer to the end. The characters are very endearing, though I hope it doesn't lean too heavily on a love triangle between Nick, Bree, and Sel. The plot twists were good and added up, and I was worried about how Deonn would combine two different lores, but they definitely connected up and felt like the same concept from different viewpoints. Still, I enjoyed it enough to pick up the second one and be excited for the rest of the series.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Did not finish book. Stopped at 19%.

I'm already very particular about reading sexual assault and rape, and I was already struggling to understand the book, so getting past the first rape scene I decided I didn't need to finish this book. Its not for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape