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discarded_dust_jacket's reviews
266 reviews
How To Marry A Marble Marquis by C.M. Nascosta
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is one of those books that you open and think “I’ll just read a few chapters,” then the next thing you know, you’re 50% in, it’s 3 am, and you’re giggling and kicking your feet like a child.
It was uncomplicated and fast-paced, it was fun to read, it was charming, and quite spicy (though for monster romance, perhaps relatively tame in nature?). I enjoyed this a lot!
It was uncomplicated and fast-paced, it was fun to read, it was charming, and quite spicy (though for monster romance, perhaps relatively tame in nature?). I enjoyed this a lot!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Grief
You, Again by Kate Goldbeck
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This was such a frustrating reading experience, but in a way that was only possible because of how well it was written. You wouldn’t get so viscerally upset watching a best friend make poor life choices if you didn’t care so much about them. That’s how I felt about these characters.
I wasn’t quite expecting this to be as slow-paced as it was, and I’m not certain whether I believe the story’s resolution provides a catharsis proportional to the nearly 400 pages of agonizingly poor communication and bad timing.A fade-to-black reunion? Seriously??
However, the writing was stellar, the dialogue was laugh-out-loud funny, and the characters were super endearing. I empathized with them almost as much as I thought they were being completely unreasonable for 90% of the story.
But that’s people. These characters were realistically flawed and acted in irrational ways that I’m all too aware mirror some of my own.
So all in all, I was impressed with the writing, but wanted a bit more from the romance besides a torturously prolonged angst phase followed by a hastily tacked on HEA.
I wasn’t quite expecting this to be as slow-paced as it was, and I’m not certain whether I believe the story’s resolution provides a catharsis proportional to the nearly 400 pages of agonizingly poor communication and bad timing.
However, the writing was stellar, the dialogue was laugh-out-loud funny, and the characters were super endearing. I empathized with them almost as much as I thought they were being completely unreasonable for 90% of the story.
But that’s people. These characters were realistically flawed and acted in irrational ways that I’m all too aware mirror some of my own.
So all in all, I was impressed with the writing, but wanted a bit more from the romance besides a torturously prolonged angst phase followed by a hastily tacked on HEA.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Infidelity, and Abandonment
Moderate: Grief and Toxic relationship
Minor: Drug use and Panic attacks/disorders
Blood, Flesh, & Magic by Viano Oniomoh
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Oh my goddddd!
I thoroughly enjoyed this. Took me a minute to catch my stride, but once the story hooked me, I devoured it. The writing was effortlessly propulsive, and it didn’t lag, which surprised me given the book’s length.
The characters were compelling, the romance had me giggling and kicking my feet, and the story was refreshingly original.
The way Oniomoh uses this world to explore a system of justice that focuses on rehabilitation and reparations instead of incarceration, as well as the care and attention given to the unhoused in this story are also admirable. It imagined a society that treats both folks that have caused harm and the unhoused as human beings, and offers them the dignity and the care they deserve, instead of locking them away or casting them aside.
I had a blast with this. I highly recommend it!
I thoroughly enjoyed this. Took me a minute to catch my stride, but once the story hooked me, I devoured it. The writing was effortlessly propulsive, and it didn’t lag, which surprised me given the book’s length.
The characters were compelling, the romance had me giggling and kicking my feet, and the story was refreshingly original.
The way Oniomoh uses this world to explore a system of justice that focuses on rehabilitation and reparations instead of incarceration, as well as the care and attention given to the unhoused in this story are also admirable. It imagined a society that treats both folks that have caused harm and the unhoused as human beings, and offers them the dignity and the care they deserve, instead of locking them away or casting them aside.
I had a blast with this. I highly recommend it!
To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
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? No
4.75
If you want to read an incredibly well-written fantasy with vivid and expansive worldbuilding (which will, to the American reader, seem verrrry familiar) that involves dragons, some queer romance, and, most importantly, a clever young Indigenous woman handily beating the racist colonizers at their own game even with all the chips stacked against her, then this is an absolute MUST.
I read this in audiobook format on a couple long drives, and I thought the narrator, Charley Flyte, was really impressive. It was an engaging and thrilling listening experience.
This story will make you laugh, it’ll make you cheer, and it’ll most certainly make you viscerally angry. I highly HIGHLY recommend it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Ableism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Bullying, Misogyny, Death of parent, Classism, and Hate crime
Minor: Homophobia and Gun violence
They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl's Fight for Freedom by Dena Takruri, Ahed Tamimi
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
In this book, Ahed Tamimi tells her story: how she, a young Palestinian from the West Bank was, at 16, arrested, tried in military court, and imprisoned, for slapping an IDF soldier outside of her home.
The story covers Ahed’s life, her family, her small town and its legacy of resisting the occupation and the encroachment of illegal Israeli settlers.
It does a really good job of weaving Palestinian history through the description of events in a way that makes it easy to gain a broad understanding of the Israeli occupation that isn’t overwhelming to those intimidated by more dense types of non-fiction.
Given that Ahed was recently arrested yet again, this is an important and relevant read. It’s inspiring and challenging and I highly HIGHLY recommend it in audiobook format.
The story covers Ahed’s life, her family, her small town and its legacy of resisting the occupation and the encroachment of illegal Israeli settlers.
It does a really good job of weaving Palestinian history through the description of events in a way that makes it easy to gain a broad understanding of the Israeli occupation that isn’t overwhelming to those intimidated by more dense types of non-fiction.
Given that Ahed was recently arrested yet again, this is an important and relevant read. It’s inspiring and challenging and I highly HIGHLY recommend it in audiobook format.
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.25
This book follows three generations of Palestinian women now living in Brooklyn, and the interconnectedness of their shared struggles within a patriarchal society.
It’s a story about a teenager chasing after the hazy and confusing memories of her deceased parents, about her mother’s loneliness after following the stranger she married across the world, and about her grandmother’s role in perpetuating the abuse that was done to her.
It’s a tough read, and my heart went out to these characters. The book does a good job of highlighting the struggles of refugee families living in the US, and of the dynamics of immigrant communities struggling with wanting to both succeed in a new country, and not lose their cultural identities. It also paints a really vivid picture of generational trauma and its far-reaching impact.
I listened to this in audiobook format, and I have to say the narrators did a really good job. The character voices, the use of multiple narrators, it all worked really well to make the story come to life.
It’s a story about a teenager chasing after the hazy and confusing memories of her deceased parents, about her mother’s loneliness after following the stranger she married across the world, and about her grandmother’s role in perpetuating the abuse that was done to her.
It’s a tough read, and my heart went out to these characters. The book does a good job of highlighting the struggles of refugee families living in the US, and of the dynamics of immigrant communities struggling with wanting to both succeed in a new country, and not lose their cultural identities. It also paints a really vivid picture of generational trauma and its far-reaching impact.
I listened to this in audiobook format, and I have to say the narrators did a really good job. The character voices, the use of multiple narrators, it all worked really well to make the story come to life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Child abuse, Abortion, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Blood and Islamophobia
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
In the most basic terms, this is a story of an imprisoned Palestinian refugee reflecting on the events of her life from within solitary confinement.
But really it’s so much more than that. It paints such a harrowing picture of daily life for Palestinian people, both in Palestine and in diaspora. This is why it’s so important to read fiction alongside non-fiction when learning about something: because the power of a story can never be understated. Yes the characters aren’t real, but the horrors they experienced at the hands of Israeli government, soldiers, and settlers is very real and well-documented.
This book will fill you with the sort of rage only vicious injustice can inspire, but it will also gently remind you that the Palestinian people are not just revolutionary, not just strong and resilient, but joyful, deeply generous, full of life, of good humor, and love, in spite of it all.
I cannot recommend this book enough, especially if you want an understanding of the Palestinian fight for liberation, but maybe struggle with non-fiction. The writing is beautiful, the characters are deep and complex, the love story is so tender and sweet. Please read this book.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
5.0
“I knew that, despite everything, I was loved. I was loved hard. At once and forever against the loveless world.“
In the most basic terms, this is a story of an imprisoned Palestinian refugee reflecting on the events of her life from within solitary confinement.
But really it’s so much more than that. It paints such a harrowing picture of daily life for Palestinian people, both in Palestine and in diaspora. This is why it’s so important to read fiction alongside non-fiction when learning about something: because the power of a story can never be understated. Yes the characters aren’t real, but the horrors they experienced at the hands of Israeli government, soldiers, and settlers is very real and well-documented.
This book will fill you with the sort of rage only vicious injustice can inspire, but it will also gently remind you that the Palestinian people are not just revolutionary, not just strong and resilient, but joyful, deeply generous, full of life, of good humor, and love, in spite of it all.
“‘We show those monsters how we will continue to live and love on our land, no matter what they do to us.’”
I cannot recommend this book enough, especially if you want an understanding of the Palestinian fight for liberation, but maybe struggle with non-fiction. The writing is beautiful, the characters are deep and complex, the love story is so tender and sweet. Please read this book.
Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
First and foremost: this book is NOT for everyone (it’s probably not even for most, tbh).
It’s RIFE with graphic depictions of shockingly taboo sex (way worse than whatever you’re imagining right now). If that means I’ve already lost you? Totally understandable. Do not read this, lol.
BUT, I think pushing through the grossness of the book opens the door for some really important discussions about its themes. I mean, aside from being an extreme horror novel, it IS a timely political satire about transphobia in Britain.
The main motif that I noticed again and again was the idea of bodies as “hosts” for something. One character has an impregnation kink and obsesses over the idea of hosting a fetus, another character is aroused by the idea of hosting a parasitic organism, and the villains of the story are people infected with extraterrestrial brain worms that are meant to symbolize (and also manifest in the story as) transphobia.
The concepts of womanhood, motherhood and internet culture are also explored; and, to my great amusement, one of the villainous (and worm-riddled) characters is a not-so-subtle allusion to JK Rowling.
My only complaints are that a few chapters went a bit off the rails and became too abstract for my taste—some are written as this second person POV stream-of-consciousness that lacks about 70% of the necessary punctuation—and the r slur gets used in a way that I found gratuitous.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Self harm, Drug abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Excrement, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Sexual content, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Incest
Minor: Death of parent, Suicide, Ableism, and Deadnaming
Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
I learned something about myself while reading this, and it’s that short story collections are not my favorite, lol, but that’s not a reflection of the quality of writing in ANY way!!
I found the overwhelming majority of these stories to be really gripping, I just had to adjust how I read this book to accommodate for my difficulty maintaining interest. What that meant was limiting myself to one or two stories per day, instead of trying to sit and push through large chunks of the book at a time.
Some of the stories I liked so much I looked up other works by the same author, and ALL of the stories felt important in their own ways, aside from their ability to give you chills. They left me thinking about them for days after.
I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates horror or Indigenous stories.
I found the overwhelming majority of these stories to be really gripping, I just had to adjust how I read this book to accommodate for my difficulty maintaining interest. What that meant was limiting myself to one or two stories per day, instead of trying to sit and push through large chunks of the book at a time.
Some of the stories I liked so much I looked up other works by the same author, and ALL of the stories felt important in their own ways, aside from their ability to give you chills. They left me thinking about them for days after.
I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates horror or Indigenous stories.
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
(On the topic of descriptions, I will say I got a bit annoyed at the sheer number of times we had to be reminded that the protagonists are like REALLY ugly, but, that’s not a super big deal I guess.)
Secondly, I just thought the premise was really interesting. I love stories that center around houses, and a creepy, almost-sentient, potentially cursed house? I’m all in.
What didn’t necessarily work for me: often I find that when I’m reading fantasy/fantasy-adjacent YA stories, I have to remind myself over and over “these are children,” because they’ll be like, crime bosses and speak like adults (*cough* six of crows *cough*), but this story I had the opposite experience: for some reason, I kept having to remind myself “this isn’t YA; these are adults” again and again.
I think it was the plot elements. An impoverished, smart-mouthed, scrappy young criminal that has to do what it takes to raise their sibling on account of dead/absent parents reads very YA to me. (And I feel like Opal speaks a lot like a teenager too.) It was just something that took me out of the story every time I was reminded “oh that’s right, they’re meant to be in their mid-late 20s!”
Overall, if I was rating the like, first 60-70% of the book, I’d give it a solid 4.25/4.5 stars. The pacing was admittedly really slow, but idk, I liked it (especially the slow-burn romance with the broody man alone in his old house; that’s my kryptonite).
But the last quarter of the book I’d probably only rate like a 2.75/3. The part that was meant to be the most thrilling/climactic moment seemed to stretch on for way longer than it needed to and I just kept thinking “is it really not over YET?” which was disappointing.
The big reveal is sort of just one long info-dump, but at the same time I also see WHY it was done that way given how everyone’s different partly-correct versions of the truth get peppered throughout the story. It was like at the end the actual truth had to be laid out in a similar manner. But it still felt a bit… idk, lazily tacked on?
So… mixed feelings! Lol.
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
First off, one thing that really worked for me about this book was the writing style. The author has this way of describing things that is both succinct but also really evocative.
(On the topic of descriptions, I will say I got a bit annoyed at the sheer number of times we had to be reminded that the protagonists are like REALLY ugly, but, that’s not a super big deal I guess.)
Secondly, I just thought the premise was really interesting. I love stories that center around houses, and a creepy, almost-sentient, potentially cursed house? I’m all in.
What didn’t necessarily work for me: often I find that when I’m reading fantasy/fantasy-adjacent YA stories, I have to remind myself over and over “these are children,” because they’ll be like, crime bosses and speak like adults (*cough* six of crows *cough*), but this story I had the opposite experience: for some reason, I kept having to remind myself “this isn’t YA; these are adults” again and again.
I think it was the plot elements. An impoverished, smart-mouthed, scrappy young criminal that has to do what it takes to raise their sibling on account of dead/absent parents reads very YA to me. (And I feel like Opal speaks a lot like a teenager too.) It was just something that took me out of the story every time I was reminded “oh that’s right, they’re meant to be in their mid-late 20s!”
Overall, if I was rating the like, first 60-70% of the book, I’d give it a solid 4.25/4.5 stars. The pacing was admittedly really slow, but idk, I liked it (especially the slow-burn romance with the broody man alone in his old house; that’s my kryptonite).
But the last quarter of the book I’d probably only rate like a 2.75/3. The part that was meant to be the most thrilling/climactic moment seemed to stretch on for way longer than it needed to and I just kept thinking “is it really not over YET?” which was disappointing.
The big reveal is sort of just one long info-dump, but at the same time I also see WHY it was done that way given how everyone’s different partly-correct versions of the truth get peppered throughout the story. It was like at the end the actual truth had to be laid out in a similar manner. But it still felt a bit… idk, lazily tacked on?
So… mixed feelings! Lol.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness
Moderate: Chronic illness, Stalking, and Vomit
Minor: Incest, Self harm, and Slavery