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divyareads's reviews
214 reviews
The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
5.0
The Orange and other poems by Wendy Cope
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
4.25
this was a beautiful collection!! if you want more poems that feel like “the orange”, though, you’ll find a few scattered but i find that the collection has a plethora of themes beyond the friendship in that piece. cope’s language is simplistic but stirring and my favorite piece is by far the one dedicated to ruth b.
Full of Myself: A Graphic Memoir about Body Image by Siobhán Gallagher
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.75
Netgalley review -
This book is the perfect example of why graphic novels can be utilized for adult literature! The illustrations added so much depth to the novel and I don’t think that this story can be experienced without them. Gallagher made me feel seen with her commentary on what it was like to be a girl in the 2000s/2010s because it really was hellish if you had any body that wasn’t a model’s. It makes me feel so much better to see someone else outside my circle of friends share that experience and her healing from that era. I will definitely be adding a physical copy to my collection and looking at Gallagher’s other releases!
This book is the perfect example of why graphic novels can be utilized for adult literature! The illustrations added so much depth to the novel and I don’t think that this story can be experienced without them. Gallagher made me feel seen with her commentary on what it was like to be a girl in the 2000s/2010s because it really was hellish if you had any body that wasn’t a model’s. It makes me feel so much better to see someone else outside my circle of friends share that experience and her healing from that era. I will definitely be adding a physical copy to my collection and looking at Gallagher’s other releases!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Mental illness, and Misogyny
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Ball at Versailles by Danielle Steel
Did not finish book. Stopped at 12%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 12%.
I stopped reading two chapters in because the book is steeped in old fashioned, sexist, fat shaming narratives. Felicity, perfect “translucent white skin” blue eyed Araminta’s younger sister, is a fat woman that gets bullied for her weight. The author dedicates just about three full pages to talking about how sad and fat she is and she never has boyfriends like her sister. Is that really necessary considering her arc is just losing the weight and being insecure? Furthermore, the descriptions of both Amelia and Araminta are extremely eurocentric and praise thin bodies which rubbed me the wrong way. I could see this book being published in the 50s or 60s or even in the peak of fat shaming - the early 2000s/2010s but you wouldn’t expect it from a book published in November 2023.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia and Sexism
Dark Disciple by Christie Golden
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-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
4.5
spoilers ahead: the ultimate star wars romance - vos and ventress’s love story deserves some real screen time that i hope the bad batch final season can provide. highly recommend to anyone who always kinda wished padme became a jedi 😭
more than that, this novel is a beautiful testament to ventress’s legacy and her devotion to the nightsisters. golden does an amazing job at humanizing the nightsisters in a way i have only seen done a few times in the clone wars. when vos puts her soul to rest, he is the first character i have seen to not see something sinister in the green mist but rather something magnificent. he admires her identity as a nightsister, giving ventress the true peace in death she deserves. ventress, herself, exhibits a tremendous amount of growth in this novel that i would have loved seeing in the animated clone wars series. regardless, i am grateful we have access to this arc and that her story was not put to rest the second she was taken off the screen. golden handles her character perfectly and allows fans to see her as more than an assassin. here, we see her fall in love and unravel her anxieties and deal with the complexities of her relationship to the jedi in depth. her story laid out like this made me cry! maybe one day we will get this arc in some clone wars special, but for now we have this gem of a book.
more than that, this novel is a beautiful testament to ventress’s legacy and her devotion to the nightsisters. golden does an amazing job at humanizing the nightsisters in a way i have only seen done a few times in the clone wars. when vos puts her soul to rest, he is the first character i have seen to not see something sinister in the green mist but rather something magnificent. he admires her identity as a nightsister, giving ventress the true peace in death she deserves. ventress, herself, exhibits a tremendous amount of growth in this novel that i would have loved seeing in the animated clone wars series. regardless, i am grateful we have access to this arc and that her story was not put to rest the second she was taken off the screen. golden handles her character perfectly and allows fans to see her as more than an assassin. here, we see her fall in love and unravel her anxieties and deal with the complexities of her relationship to the jedi in depth. her story laid out like this made me cry! maybe one day we will get this arc in some clone wars special, but for now we have this gem of a book.
His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
afi’s story made me cry by the end. the author manages the balance between evelyn’s wishes and afi’s perfectly. medi brings up an issue not talked about enough in western feminism - even if your husband can provide for you, it does not mean you have to tolerate his lack of love. a man can only give you everything when he meets more than your material needs. the scene in which afi brings up the double standards - that eli, her husband - can have multiple wives without it being called cheating but she cannot so much as flirt with another man really moved me. it is not often than in narratives such as this, the woman stands up for herself on this level and furthermore, the couple doesn’t get a happy ending. medi’s writing makes for swoon worthy moments between eli and afi that made me forget his wrongdoings even as a reader. but she still grounds us in the reality that being sweet only in crisis is empty love. i do not know if this author has other works available right now, but i would love to read more from her. i have not been so captivated by a book in a long time!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity and Sexism
Moderate: Sexual content
Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
4.0