cghegan's reviews
449 reviews

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-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? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Physical abuse, Confinement, Child abuse, and Death

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw by Eddie Ndopu

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Excrement

Pageboy by Elliot Page

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.25

In this incredibly thoughtful and well-written memoir, Elliot Page deliberately meditates and threads together a narrative of pain and the most intense self-discovery. It was a good memoir, a beautifully crafted book, but extremely difficult to read. Page has rendered his agony and self-loathing so well that it’s difficult to sit with and parse with him as he cycles through nonchronological threads, looping over and over through small moments in time to piece together meaning. It is well crafted, a quilt in twenty nine shades of blues, but it is wave after wave of agony and sadness, and moments that linger on joy or relief or self discovery have less focus and the same breath of life that Page can write into his moments of darkness and loss. All this to say: I’m beyond grateful this narrative exists. It is going to save someone’s life. But I advise exercising care when reading.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual assault, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Outing, Stalking, Blood, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, and Transphobia

Minor: Bullying

Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet's Memoir of China's Genocide by Tahir Hamut Izgil

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Deportation, Genocide, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Torture

Chef's Choice by TJ Alexander
Did not finish book. Stopped at 18%.

I love a good fluffy queer romcom, but the writing is bad—really sharp transitions, awkward dialogue, and swaths of prose focused on unnecessary and frankly boring details? It was really clunky prose atop an unbelievable conceipt.

The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America by Monica Potts

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Addiction, Death, Car accident, and Alcohol

Minor: Abandonment, Grief, Suicide attempt, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Physical abuse

After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made by Ben Rhodes
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.

The narrative seemed especially self-serving, which could have grounded the narrative in a more human, individualized context, but it was a pretty big turnoff. 

“You Just Need to Lose Weight”: And 19 Other Myths About Fat People by Aubrey Gordon

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia and Eating disorder