damalireads's reviews
223 reviews

Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

4.5

Probably the toughest book I've read (content wise) in awhile. Bates is very meticulous in how she walks readers through the world of incels/the manosphere and introduced me to language and ideologies I truly still can't believe are real. But they most definitely are! The depths of violence, fear, anger, and hate within extreme misogyny was so foreign to me so reading this was a huge revelation. The links between extreme misogyny and domestic terrorism were especially enlightening to me. 

4.5 stars truly bc i felt like things did get repetitive within chapters, but it's really negligible. The final chapter on potential ways to try and curtail how much access these communities have to young men was good, but I do wish there were more innovative ideas introduced.

Overall, it's a masterfully crafted book that I'd recommend to everyone. Just definitely take your time, there's a lot to take in.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Recitatif by Toni Morrison

mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love by Huma Qureshi

emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks

challenging emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

4.5

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Yellowface by RF Kuang | 3.5 stars

I told myself I wasn’t going to read this book. I didn’t really have any interest and I just had a feeling it was a tad overhyped. But I put a hold on Libby for it and got it surprisingly fast so I gave it go (the FOMO kicked in). Although it wasn’t a bad book, and I read it pretty quickly, I truly don’t think I gained anything by reading it.

June Hayward loves writing, but hasn’t had much success as a published author. She finally gets her chance in the spotlight when her friend, wildly successful author Athena Liu, dies suddenly with her latest manuscript on Chinese laborers ripe for the taking. After publishing Athena’s book under her name, June soaks up all of the glory and praise, and tries her best to drown out the voices accusing her of cultural appropriation & whitewashing of Asian history. Through many tense moments and close calls, it becomes clear that June will go to any length to hold on to her time in the spotlight – no matter the cost.

I love an unreliable and unlikeable narrator, but I got tired of June very quickly because there was no subtlety in her character at all. She is cartoonishly characterized as a Liberal White Woman Who Thinks She Deserves What Someone Else Has, and the lack of nuance meant that there was very little to decipher about her intentions or motivations. Her casual racism that she doesn’t have the self-awareness to recognize is a bit ridiculous (& unfortunately made me bark out laughter) but believable. The one-note characterization is somewhat offset by the propulsive nature of the book as you wondered if she was going to get caught, what was she going to do next, and the ghost of Athena that seemed to torture her guilty conscience. While that was done very well, I often found myself a little bored each time June found a new and awful way to assert that she Did Nothing Wrong as she continues to exhibit blatant disregard for anyone other than herself.

The commentary on the publishing industry felt very basic to me? I have definitely been overexposed to the hot topics of the industry that this book covers – cultural appropriation, lack of diversity, who gets to tell what stories?, etc. – so that may be why I feel like I’m not walking away with anything particularly new or interesting. . I think for the average reader who is not terminally online & surrounded by hot takes on publishing, this would probably hit more. The discussions this book would spark are more valuable to me than the book itself. To me, a book like If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English finds a more creative and compelling way to answer that last question. Yellowface felt very blunt and straightforward about the entire ordeal. RFK does well to add more color to Athena’s character by casting some shadow across the bright light of her talent, and I wish there was more exploration of the gray areas in publishing to give readers a bit more to chew on.

I think this book was just OK! I’m not really sure why people were losing their minds over this book as if it was life changing, but that’s what I get for jumping on the hype train. I am forever a RFK fan because of Babel though, so I look forward to reading her next foray into dark academia or fantasy – and away from satire.

The Whispers by Ashley Audrain

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This ended so cruelly like 😭 I wanted to see most people in this book SUFFER, but I'll just imagine that they did 🥰

3.5 stars. This was more psychological drama than thriller, and unfortunately I did not vibe with that as much. The culture of this intense (white) motherhood cult was soooooo horrific that I truly hope people are not living like this. Very intense awful lives these women live. I thought Rebecca was interesting and her experience with wanting a child and the many miscarriages she had. Blair annoyed me A LOT but her voice was a good contrast to Whitney. Miss Whitney is basically what happens when you listen to the voice inside your head telling you to do the wrong thing mixed with short patience and no self control. I know there's meant to be some empathy towards her, like yes motherhood can be hell on earth and the assumed sacrifice that's required is suffocating to adhere to and intoxicating to ignore wow, but I was praying for her downfall the whole time ❤️

Between this and the laughter, I will be taking a nice break from psych dramas/thrillers

The Laughter by Sonora Jha

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is one of those books that I think is really smart, darkly funny, & thought-provoking – and yet I’d definitely hesitate to blindly recommend it to everyone.

Dr. Oliver Harding is an aging white professor at a university in Seattle who sees himself as an open, but “reasonable”, liberal. Deeply entrenched in the old-school academic culture, he develops a fascination and obsession with Ruhaba Khan – a Pakistani Muslim law professor who rejects this status quo. As he becomes a mentor to her nephew Adil, visiting from France, we get unfiltered access into the mind of a man attempting to be in tune with the times but is instead a man with a complete lack of self-awareness. Campus protests, controversial costumes, and disturbing truths about Oliver’s past and Ruhaba’s present build up to a shocking ending that actually made my jaw drop.

The most surprising aspect of this book is that it’s told solely from the POV of Oliver, and his POV can be borderline unbearable. He is a clever man who knows what to say to appear like a safe ally (& he is in comparison to others in the book), but his thoughts reveal him to harbor every –ism and –phobia under the sun. His obsession with Ruhaba is immediately sexual & misogynistic, with a sprinkling of exoticism on top. The dissonance between his actions, especially with his mentorship with Adil, and his dangerous thoughts is what kept me engaged in the book enough to withstand his uncomfortable stream of consciousness. He was also, unfortunately, occasionally funny when talking about the life of an academic, aging, and realizing that he is becoming less and less relevant in his personal and professional life. His narcissistic delusion was funny to watch in real time, but it’s darker impacts became more and more clear as the story progressed. He wasn’t a cartoonish character, but felt like a very real and multi-faceted person that I had to take the time to understand.

Jha also does an impressive job of still making Ruhaba & Adil (a little less so) 3-dimensional characters outside of the judgements Oliver passes on them. Through dialogue, letters, and emails, Jha humanizes them both and made me reflect on how misleading Oliver’s (& maybe even my own) assumptions about them are. Also, the reveals about Ruhaba in particular were so well done to me - seeing the gray in her character was another testament to the complexity of the story.

Writing/pacing wise, this book was damn near perfect. I read half of the book in one sitting because it was that suspenseful and compelling. There were some scenes that dragged on, some plot points that were circled around but not fully addressed, but it wasn’t detrimental. The ending slapped me in the face but I go back and forth on whether some aspects were believable.

The ONLY reason I wouldn’t recommend this freely is that Oliver’s voice in the novel is not for the faint of heart, especially as an audiobook (something I regret lol). There is a point to all of Oliver’s griminess, but some people wouldn’t stick around long enough to find out.

But if you’re curious, & you like like campus novels & unlikeable/unreliable narrators – this book is a carefully crafted work of art.

4.5 stars

The Idiot by Elif Batuman
Did not finish book. Stopped at 12%.

Boring as hell