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brennanaphone's reviews
651 reviews
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
4.0
I sometimes struggle with memoir, the way that representing the self is so difficult when the word "I" is both deeply personal and entirely vague and untethered in its ubiquity.
Machado got around this by using the second person. Kudos.
I loved the structure of this, the deadened and weary voice that keeps going in and out of rooms while nothing ever changes or gets better. It's an authentic and harrowing portrayal of abuse. The way that she carefully examines every interaction, searching for whom to blame and how much, is as frustrating for the author as it is for the reader, and it puts you exactly into the mentality of abuse victims (and often their friends and family) the world over.
Machado got around this by using the second person. Kudos.
I loved the structure of this, the deadened and weary voice that keeps going in and out of rooms while nothing ever changes or gets better. It's an authentic and harrowing portrayal of abuse. The way that she carefully examines every interaction, searching for whom to blame and how much, is as frustrating for the author as it is for the reader, and it puts you exactly into the mentality of abuse victims (and often their friends and family) the world over.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
4.0
Lovely to read a memoir that takes place in my back yard, and Eugene was a good backdrop for this often intimate and often expansive book. Honest and raw in its portrayal of difficult family dynamics and the loss of a parent when you're a young adult. In some ways it doesn't always feel sure about what it's about: family, community, career, but that also feels honest to what it's like to be an adult.
The End We Start From by Megan Hunter
4.0
A slim book but a lovely one. Covers one year of life postpartum that also, almost incidentally, involves a climate disaster that displaces the narrator from her home. What I loved about this book was the way in the midst of what increasingly feels like an apocalypse, the narrator is still having this nesting, intimate love story with her newborn son.
Some of the language is great, like her "pulpy undercarriage" when she gets home from the hospital. The diary format combined with the focus on the child means that other characters don't really get a lot of exploration (and her husband gets a lot of side eye from me without it), but overall it is achieving something very specific that is going to be super relatable for a lot of people depressingly soon.
Some of the language is great, like her "pulpy undercarriage" when she gets home from the hospital. The diary format combined with the focus on the child means that other characters don't really get a lot of exploration (and her husband gets a lot of side eye from me without it), but overall it is achieving something very specific that is going to be super relatable for a lot of people depressingly soon.
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo
3.0
I mean, she's not wrong.
Clear, readable, straightforward. If you've read any other literature on the subject, it's not saying anything new, but it's a really good and important introduction to the issues.
Clear, readable, straightforward. If you've read any other literature on the subject, it's not saying anything new, but it's a really good and important introduction to the issues.
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
5.0
I've never read a book quite like this, where it circles the titular character, examining them from all sides but without ever truly diving into their psyche. It's a little puzzle box of a book, teasing out a character while piecing together the circumstances of their death.
That said, I died a little thinking about how the 1990s is now the set of a "period piece" book, Lord help me.
That said, I died a little thinking about how the 1990s is now the set of a "period piece" book, Lord help me.
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
4.0
A natural successor to The Handmaid's Tale, and although it lacks some of the furious and urgent voice of the former, it addresses a lot of important nuances that Atwood didn't touch, namely issues of race and how the hierarchy of race and gender work when Big Brother meets social work. I was captured by the insidious nature of government overreach--how necessary is it to separate a parent from their child? Do we have expectations and standards for mothers that we don't for fathers? How does race interact with a social worker's opinion?
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
3.0
What a cool concept to have a split narrative from a plant: one from its sense of self as an old tree in Cyprus, and one from a cutting that has been transplanted in England. Reminds me a bit of "Jade Cutting" by Laren McLung: "Reborn from a cutting left long to root / in a glass morning sun visits daily, / has it been so long since I carried you— / pruned from yourself, your own mother?"
Anyway, in a story about a family torn apart in so many way--forbidden love as teenagers, caught up in a terrible war, victims of violence, immigrants to an inhospitable country--the narrative structure really works. You just can't... think about it too hard. It's one of those magical books where if you try to suss out how a tree thinks and understands vocabulary and what kind of language it would use, it falls apart a little (the very odd twist at the end notwithstanding). Overall an interesting and somewhat daring book.
Anyway, in a story about a family torn apart in so many way--forbidden love as teenagers, caught up in a terrible war, victims of violence, immigrants to an inhospitable country--the narrative structure really works. You just can't... think about it too hard. It's one of those magical books where if you try to suss out how a tree thinks and understands vocabulary and what kind of language it would use, it falls apart a little (the very odd twist at the end notwithstanding). Overall an interesting and somewhat daring book.
A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark
3.0
Kind of a fun steampunk fantasy world, fast-paced and with the requisite hardboiled detective. The characters didn't go that deep, but I didn't need 'em to. Fun and quick and enjoyable.
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
4.0
Honestly the most fun I've had reading a book in a while. Light, frothy, and a lot of the characters have a same-y way of talking, which is all clever banter and witty teasing. That said, the romance is spicy as hell, and it follows a somewhat unusual track for a romance, allowing the characters to get together early and then face a lot of external obstacles instead of pointless internal ones. It's also legitimately funny.
Best lines: "I'm going to do very bad things to you" and "What did you do, you horny little cretin?" (These lines are many chapters apart but not unrelated, so.)
Best lines: "I'm going to do very bad things to you" and "What did you do, you horny little cretin?" (These lines are many chapters apart but not unrelated, so.)
You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism by Amber Ruffin, Lacey Lamar
3.0
I didn't realize how much of a dearth there was in funny books about racism, but this one really got the ball rolling.
I think the way that the U.S. talks about race sometimes makes a lot of white folks think that as long as they don't use a slur or condone slavery, they're not racist. This book is a resounding refutation of that idea. It is literally just a retelling of all the microaggressions that have happened to Ruffin's sister, interspersed carefully with some truly scary situations, and the way that even the funny ones stack makes you exhausted by all of it, even while you laugh.
It is a reminder of how many small racist actions BIPOC folks have to put up with day in and day out, and Ruffin does a lot of dancing back and forth with her reader, sometimes seeming to be like, "Isn't this the worst?" for the people who've experienced it and sometimes being like, "Hey, is this you sometimes and maybe you should think before you do that?" for the people who have perpetuated this shit. So this book is for everyone!
I think the way that the U.S. talks about race sometimes makes a lot of white folks think that as long as they don't use a slur or condone slavery, they're not racist. This book is a resounding refutation of that idea. It is literally just a retelling of all the microaggressions that have happened to Ruffin's sister, interspersed carefully with some truly scary situations, and the way that even the funny ones stack makes you exhausted by all of it, even while you laugh.
It is a reminder of how many small racist actions BIPOC folks have to put up with day in and day out, and Ruffin does a lot of dancing back and forth with her reader, sometimes seeming to be like, "Isn't this the worst?" for the people who've experienced it and sometimes being like, "Hey, is this you sometimes and maybe you should think before you do that?" for the people who have perpetuated this shit. So this book is for everyone!