dimeryrene's reviews
126 reviews

Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda

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dark sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Lydia is a vampire; her mom was one as well, but her dad wasn't. Her mom is alive, but losing herself a little bit and her dad died before she was born. We follow Lydia as she is on her own for the first time and her mom is in hospice care. There's a lot of mother-daughter relationship discussion in the book as well as figuring out who you are. The other big theme is predatory behavior. As a vampire, Lydia is a predator. But she hardly acts on her impulses only killing a duck who was already dying and surviving on dried pig's blood. She works at a gallery with a creepy owner, which is also full of collected work by people of other ethnicities than the collector's. This touches on ownership/predatory practices. 
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My Dark Vanessa shows us how easily it is for adults to manipulate children. Vanessa begins to sleep with one of her teachers when she is 15 and he is in his early 40s. They both justify the relationship in various ways and I truly think the way they justified things really made sense to them. This book handled the affair and all the grossness, gas lighting, and trickery involved with care. It was salacious, but not overtly so. The psychology involved with each character truly just made sense. I think a lot of people will have a hard time with the decisions made by everyone, but honestly, it all made sense to me. As an outsider, it was gross and uncomfortable, but the characters were so real. I understood why they were acting in the ways they were. 
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Not A Monolith: poems and musings of a black woman by Shantasha Laing

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inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.5

Enjoyed this collection of poetry! I found it on the TT shop, so thank goodness TT didn't go away. There were some really beautiful poems that hit hard despite myself not being the target audience. I will be reading it again slowly and picking out some of my favorites. This type of short-form poetry is really easy and accessible. 
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

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adventurous challenging dark emotional slow-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? No

4.0

This was nothing like I expected. The book follows Lauren in the future (from when it was written, but modern day for us) as she begins to form a new religion. The religion at this point isn't really the focus, survival is more the focus. LA is burning, food and water are scare, cities have walls around them to keep out scavengers and raiders. There's drugs which cause people to light fires constantly to watch the destruction. Lauren's family is large and most disagree on how to handle their lives. How much to fight, hide, save, run. Lauren ends up walking north with a band of friends/followers and we watch their journey into and through the wild. Full of thoughts on family, religion, trust, and survival, this is a book with big ideas told through a found family struggling to help each other. 
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Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Poor Deer follows a child as she grapples with her role in her best friend's death. The way she deals with this, with no help from adults, is sort of told like a fairytale. She's trying to come up with a happy ending to deal with her grief and her guilt. Her brain is a beautiful place, but is full of feelings that are too big that no one is helping her navigate. It's a sad story, but ultimately uplifting and gorgeous. I read it in one sitting. 
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Marigold Mind Laundry by 윤정은, Jungeun Yun

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

2.5

I liked the idea of this, but not the execution. I thought it was a little too positive and confusing. The characters had bad memories and the mind laundry was supposed to get rid of them, so the characters could enjoy life. But at the same time, there was this constant message of dealing with the past and just reframing it in a more positive light. It seemed like the message was to deal with bad memories and just be more positive about things, and yet characters were allowed to have memories erased. I also could not tell how much time was passing, so that was annoying. I'm not sure that was important to the story, but it did bother me. 
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

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

4.25

This is a companion to The Giver. We're to understand that it takes place at the same time, just in another village. This story is not kind to disabled characters, but that's a big plot point. Kira, our main character has a weak leg rendering her 'useless' to her community. When a fellow community member tries to have her killed, Kira is saved by the elders and used in other ways. She's quite skilled in sewing and is made to repair the community robe that is presented once a year at The Gathering. While Kira is fixing the robe, she begins to discover how nefarious the elders, and maybe the village as a whole really is. Lovable characters, especially Kira's friends Matt and Thomas. 
Rental House by Weike Wang

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

5.0

This book follows one couple Koru a daughter of Chinese immigrants and Nate from Appalachia as they vacation two separate times. Once in a beach house alternating weeks with each of their parents and once by themselves in an upscale bungalow where they meet an Eastern European family. The book is filled with family drama and opinions on race, jobs, money, children, and caring for parents/siblings. The drama was intense, but not flipping-tables and jail-time intense. These relationships really got to the heart of what it means to be human, confused, disenchanted, but still looking for love and connection. It's almost like it's just out of reach, but you sort of can understand why. Beautiful. 
Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw by Eddie Ndopu

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challenging hopeful informative slow-paced

3.5

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The Employees by Olga Ravn

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dark reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a really cool book in which an entity is interviewing employees on a spaceship, but human and humanoid. It was a little confusing, but I loved it nonetheless. The answers to interview questions are relayed in employee statements, but we don't know which ones are human or humanoid unless the employee mentions it. There are objects on this ship which make the employees feel happy/sad, but we don't necessarily know what they are. At some point, the productivity on the ship takes a hit and the powers that be have to decide if it's because of the humans or the humanoids. It's not really an us vs. them story, but something is definitely off.