carleesi's reviews
749 reviews

Love, Unleashed by Melanie Saward

5.0

What a delightful book! Pure joy oozes from this story, with flecks of nostalgia and healing.

I looooved seeing Aboriginal English in a novel and loved the way Saward discussed Aboriginality in and out of so called Australia.

I wish we’d seen Brynn learn how to express herself instead of just disappearing when things get hard (not the abusive ex - fuck that guy) but she does it through the whole book and never properly learns to stand up for herself. 

Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

2.25

Not really my kind of story. I was interested enough to keep reading. I would always lose the main character, she was such an empty vessel, which was maybe intentional but for me made it hard to get into the book. I also don’t enjoy unlikeable protagonists generally.

I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon

3.0

I’m torn on this one. I was hooked into the story and really wanted to keep reading, but there were some parts of the book I didn’t enjoy. 

This was my first foray into the history of the Romanovs (albeit fictional) but it’s inspired me to learn more about that period of Russian history. I really enjoyed the way the author wrote about Russian landscapes, it didn’t happen a lot but I felt I could see it for myself.

The timeline jumps were hard to keep up with. It was just a bit too frequent to have a clear narrative thread. It also relied very heavily on trauma porn. The ending was so unnecessarily brutal and graphic (HUGE trigger warnings for this book).

I also didn’t enjoy Anna’s chapters except for seeing the characters from Anastacia’s chapters reappear. I think this was maybe because the ending felt clear from early on so Anna felt very unlikeable. It was never explained why she couldn’t say her name and go back to her family. So while the choice to go along with the lie could make sense from a trauma perspective, it just didn’t.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

Babel by R.F. Kuang

4.0

I’ve been told to read this book so many times since it came out and I just assumed it was because I have 2 linguistics degrees but lo and behold it’s also anti-racist and decolonial speculative fiction! Ticking every box!

I found it a bit slow at times and I struggled with the long poetic writing style, but the plot, the story and the magical twist on colonial history were so beautifully done. The moral dilemmas and the depth we had in each character choice made me squirm at times, I didn’t want to relate or understand or forgive! But that’s the magic of writing like this - making us feel and helping us understand the depth of what it means to be human.

Fat Talk: Coming of Age in Diet Culture by Virginia Sole-Smith

5.0

An incredibly important book for anyone with kids in their life! Beautiful reality based advice and examples that are grounded in theory. 

The Teacher's Pet by Hedley Thomas

5.0

I listened to the podcast as it was released and this book was a very well written encapsulation of the feeling of being part of that story.

I am so glad we’ve seen some kind of justice for Lynn and so disgusted at all of the corruption that led to her murder being ignored for so many years. 

Love and power to Lynn’s family, friends and Hedley for working so tirelessly to make sure she was never forgotten.

My only qualm is how strange it was that hedley talked about how much he loved the name of the podcast and book. With all the discussion of protecting and respecting “Jenny” it’s odd to pick a title that makes her the subject. She was the teachers pet, but this is a story about a murdered mother, daughter, friend and wife, as well as a narcissistic pedophilic man and his evil deeds. The title suggests a lot more culpability for Jenny, and that’s never what Hedley was aiming for.

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

3.0

What a weird book. I am not a fan of unlikeable protagonists so I was doomed to have issues with this story. I don’t really know how I feel about it. It started as an interesting read but it was just so off the rails. That being said, I couldn’t put it down and I often thought about the characters when I wasn’t reading it.

Blood to Poison by Mary Watson

3.75

Loves: 
- I loooved the magic system in this book
- the code-switching with a glossary in the back
- the main character 
- the way anger was a power and a curse and the lessons around wielding anger
- the full circle cat calling moments

Not so love:
- the pacing was off, I had trouble staying in this world and I think it just wasn’t paced right for me
- the romance just didn’t do it for me. I think it could have been more powerful as a friendship
- too many characters that weren’t fully fleshed out, needed more information about Quinton early on as I just didn’t understand the what’s and how’s behind his relationship with the MC (don’t get me wrong he’s clearly a dick from the get go, but I felt like I was missing something

that didn’t feel resolved by the reveal towards the end

)

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill

4.5

Harrowing and heart breaking account of life inside the heights of Scientology. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight: Omnibus, Volume 1 by Joss Whedon, Drew Goddard, Brian K. Vaughan, Jeph Loeb
Did not finish book. Stopped at 57%.

I love Buffy too much to keep reading this sexist, racist, ableist, bi-erasing, Xander loving nonsense.