bea__reads's reviews
403 reviews

The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian
Did not finish book. Stopped at 8%.

Tried twice, not into it 🤷🏻‍♀️

Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was so good. 

I have a lot of thoughts but mostly I'm just so glad this book exists. I needed it 10+ years ago, but it's healed a part of me all the same.

This is a hilarious & heartwarming story about the college experience. No lovers, just enemies and friends (at the same time).

This is also the story of two people experiencing aroace joy while navigating a world that doesn't always make sense to them.

We see through Jo and Sophie that platonic love is just as strong and just as important as romantic love. We see a vision of a future that makes room for a-spec people, one that I hope comes to be understood and accepted more broadly by society soon. 

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is ace, aro, aroace, anywhere on those spectrums, as well as literally everyone else who exists! 

🧡💛🤍🩵💙

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad

5.0

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis

4.0

Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Patty Krawec

5.0

 I highly recommend the audiobook - Krawec's narration was a vital part of the experience of reading this for me. I'm not sure how to explain, but I felt connected to her, through the language and stories she shares.

She begins by defining the Anishinaabe word Nii'kinaaganaa: "I am my relatives, all of them. I am related to everything. All my relations."

This, alongside the concept of creation stories, becomes a guidestone throughout the book as she navigates the forgotten history of Indigenous peoples and the enduring impact of settler colonialism.

"We need to unforget our histories and the relationships they contain. We need to become kin."

It's not an exaggeration to say that this book changed me as a person, just as Krawec highlights in the final chapter. I think this process began with Oct. 7 🇵🇸 when I first opened my eyes and continues today as I seek guidance and knowledge from those who have been doing the work for generations.

"Nii'kinaaganaa.

We are related."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Violence, Racism, and Genocide

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson

4.0

I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.

The Sunshine Court by Nora Sakavic

5.0

I stayed up the entire night to read this in one sitting. It was everything I could have imagined and then some. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Child death, Grief, Child abuse, Rape, and Suicide

Minor: Murder

The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz

4.0

A Fate Inked In Blood by Danielle L. Jensen

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

This book had a strong start but fizzled out after the axe-throwing scene. 
I disliked both main characters and the book overall was trying too hard to fit certain tropes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Death of parent, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and Misogyny

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Blood, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Medical trauma, Body horror, and Medical content

Moderate: Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, and Xenophobia

Minor: Dysphoria, Child death, and Torture