coronata's reviews
259 reviews

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King

5.0

Strange Vol. 2: the Doctor Strange of Death by Jed MacKay

3.0

Strange Vol. 1: I Belong to Death by Jed Mackay

3.0

Death of Doctor Strange by Jed Mackay, Lee Garbett

3.75

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Did not finish book. Stopped at 27%.

DNF at 27%
Was trying to read this for a book club, couldn't get through it. I'll try again closer to the day of the actual book club meeting, but it's just way too boring, predictable, and cheesy for me 😮‍💨

Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

4.0

The first half of this book is absolutely phenomenal. It cuts to the heart of the post-9/11 American psyche, but what I find so extraordinary about it is that, while it is very clearly dated, it is still emotionally resonant with the current moment as well. This is especially true of its discussions of death and loneliness. (The first half convinced me to take a social media break for at least a month, without mentioning social media!)
Once the book begins to explicitly discuss 9/11, it weakens because it reads as very dated. After all, it's been more than 20 years since 9/11. It feels very similar to how, for example, the movie The Bubble (2022) feels very weird to watch now that the COVID-19 pandemic is "over."

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

2.5

After thinking about this book more I've decided to knock a star off my rating, because I really don't think it accomplishes what it sets out to in a meaningful way. I'm not opposed to an author using a personal narrative to frame a nonfiction book, but because this book seems to focus only on things Montell has personal interest in, there are some pretty gaping holes in it, especially in the sections about the internet. The most obvious, to me, was that she seems to not have stepped outside her internet bubble (or any of her bubbles, really) for this book. Any discussion of cult-like groups on the internet is incomplete without any discussion of incels, especially blackpill incels. (Yes, it's niche, but it's a frighteningly cult-like and dangerous community — and if, like Montell, we are measuring a "cult" based on whether they have committed crimes... need I say more?) Her discussion of Qanon, also, lacks any mention of the roots of the conspiracies they believe; how someone could write a book where they talk about a group's conspiracies about "global elites" sacrificing children and fail to mention that those are centuries-old antisemitic canards is beyond me. Especially because the antisemitism is in many cases the point — Qanon's overlap with far-right white supremacists is not a coincidence! Those are dogwhistles and antisemitism is a huge part of their in-group language! Those are the two examples that stuck out most to me. I'm sure anyone who knows more than I do about some of the other focus areas of the book could find other holes it its analysis. Overall, her analysis of "the language of fanaticism" is very surface-level and relies too much on her own experience to be of much use to me as a reader. 

Doctor Strange, Vol. 1: The Way of the Weird by Jason Aaron

3.75

Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Lies by Greg Rucka

2.75

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

2.5

Firstly, I know I'm not the target audience for this series. Secondly, from a technical standpoint it's pretty well-written and compelling. It's fun enough, and its plot is much better constructed than the previous book (though it drags a bit in the middle). That said, while I don't think that the infamous "Mary Sue" tends to be very useful for criticism, I haven't read a book that reads more like Mary Sue self-insert fanfiction of itself than this one (with a sprinkling of the omegaverse as an unfortunate bonus). The worldbuilding is weak and confusing. The main cast is mostly uninteresting and Feyre is a nothing-protagonist. I'm still going to read the next book though lol