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bratatouille's reviews
167 reviews
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
2.0
I do not enjoy pandemic books and wasn’t aware this was one when I began. I creator whose opinions I care about recommended this book and I may need to reassess her choices. The female lead goes on a plethora of personal tangents unrelated to anything critical. The love interests admit their love within two weeks at the big age of 38 years old. They also decide to live together in that time. Groundwork is laid for possible character growth but you never actually watch any significant developments happen. I’ll admit it’s a fun sought-after trope to have the celebrity you ogled after for a short time span email you years later during a particularly low point in their life! However, that should remain fan fiction trope! I was in no way convinced of the chemistry or compatibility of these two characters. At most, one of them has been to a lot of therapy and learned to communicate and the other is funny.
PET by Akwaeke Emezi
2.25
This accomplishes what it sets out to do. I’d even argue that it does it well. This book is essentially the “society if leftists took over” that right wing people are so afraid of. It discusses the demons that live within people who know and love and how impossible it can be to identify them. It normalizes gender queerness, non cis-het relationships, accessibility, and has a fuckin cool/scary angel creature. The reason the rating is so low is because it has the Barbie Movie problem. Everything is perfectly spelled out for the reader because it’s meant to introduce them to broad strokes of clear concepts. As someone who is not new to any of these topics, I found it to be like reading a middle grade woke book. Which is good for new audiences but I am not that; so it impacts my experience. All of the conflict was predictable, even down to the character responses to it. Similarly, the resolutions were underwhelming. I like some of Emezi’s writing and do believe this story holds a lot of merit. It just wasn’t intended for me.
Why Are People Into That?: A Cultural Investigation of Kink by Tina Horn
Did not finish book. Stopped at 26%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 26%.
This is told largely through personal experience and holds very little actual data or fact. There’s a whole section where the author explains a concept using an odd reader x author imagine instead of third party imaginary characters.
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I read a lot of weird books but this is probably the most peculiar one I’ve read in a while. A young mother turns into a dog but only kind of and also not at all in a werewolf way. It was a crazy dive into the feral and beastly woman. There’s violence and some unsettling behaviors, but nothing that would be odd for a common stray dog. I’m struggling to articulate the experience of this book. It’s hard to determine what’s real and what’s in her head. Despite this, you can’t deny with the results she gets. Her relationship with other characters is interesting because of how unreliable our narrator is. Her experiences with her son, her husband, and other mothers and dogs feels questionable. If you liked Bunny, this is an equally bizarre and brutal dive into female culture. I highly recommend it. I guess they’re making a movie?
A Long Time Dead by Samara Breger
3.0
I did enjoy this! Or at least, I enjoyed more parts than I didn’t. At a certain point, I felt that it was much longer than it needed to be. The pacing is incredibly slow and the timing in this book is sort of touch-and-go. I understand that they’re vampires and timing means nothing to them. I get that. However, the first third or so of the book takes place within a year and then there are time skips over several months, fifteen years, and five years. It’s difficult to determine how long an event spans. The prose in this was half flooring and half things like, “her whole body felt like a breast” or unnecessarily using words like ‘behoove’. The characters are diverse, queer, and lovable. Frankly, this book is all vibes. The plot is not incredibly grabbing, due to the pacing, and the ending was not as pleasing as the journey we took to get there. Sometimes I thought the protagonist could just shut up and everyone loved her a little too much. But I am going to buy this and pretend like I’m gonna read it again, one day.
In the Roses of Pieria by Anna Burke
4.0
This was really cool fake history shit. A scholar gets the opportunity of a lifetime. She starts translating letters between the subject of all her historical research and an unknown person for a private collector. It’s gay! And seems to transcend impossible time periods! Also she falls into a relationship herself! Of course, all hell breaks loose. This is part of a series, but the ending of this book doesn’t leave me wanting to read the others. The storyline that I cared about is relatively tied up. It was incredibly fun to read and was everything I wanted This Is How You Lose The Time War to be (note: historical instead of sci-fi, vampires). The main girl’s frustration and excitement at all of these impossible times is catching.