dr_dr_olshakes's reviews
110 reviews

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

I've admittedly grown a little jaded about the almost presumptuous "queer/poc people identify with the monsters" but every once in a while a story will really, truly, capture the poignancy and truth of that parallel. Siren Queen is one of those stories. The magical realism truly lends itself to explorations of monstrosities, secrecy, and a beautiful eroticism. 

Siren Queen balances luxuriating in its world and characters, while also weaving a tight story that satisfies each narrative beat. Characters come back, old tensions resolved without being heavy handed, and the ending is more than well earned. 

I also want to state that as someone who LOVES the old movie monsters (and yes, I love them because I am them etc etc) it was so fun to read a book that also clearly loved them. Emmeline's white costume in the last Siren Queen movie is so reminiscent to the white bathing suit that Kay wears in The Creature From the Black Lagoon, and Luli is so obviously, and delightfully, the Creature. I loved the whole book, cover to cover.

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

adventurous dark sad medium-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

3.5

I was prepared to rank this book higher, but I really was not sold on the ending. It seemed like the characters all of a sudden cared about each other much more than seemed warranted. Additionally, Adelaide's apology and confrontation with

her sister, Elizabeth

was so...simple, and so short. Forgiveness came so quickly and it did not feel sufficient for the harm that had been done. I loved that the secret of the trunk was actually a monster, but for a book about monstrosity and the cruelty of isolation, the forgiveness came too easy. 

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book wasn't what I wanted it to be, but I can't really blame the book, because I assumed from the title that it was going to be about sundown towns- places (typically) in the US south that were/are unsafe for black people. The book isn't about that, but that's on me. What the book is about is interesting enough. I liked the connected narrations, though by the end I really only felt compelled by Viv's story. 

The book is dedicated to murderinos, and it makes good on that promise. I've dabbled in the true crime world, but it's never really gripped me. The Sun Down Motel is both a love letter to true crime enthusiasts- they get to solve murders, feel a sense of vindication for being continually overlooked, etc. I'm glad there was a supernatural element to keep myself going.

I did not like the shoe-horned romance of the oh so hot and caring Nick, and I very much thought that the climax of Carly's storyline was way too over dramatic.

Collum just gives her a big push and runs away?? What was even the point of the twist and the attack, especially in light of the themes of the book and established level of violence? And don't think I didn't catch the unfortunate hand wave to BPD. He was just a rich hot guy in the library, and now he's a manic grandson of a serial killer trying to get revenge by pushing a girl into an empty pool?? So stupid.

Overall, compelling enough to get through, but I doubt I'll remember it for long.

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

adventurous dark reflective fast-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

5.0

Lush, verdant, earnest, fantastical, yet amazingly grounded in the realities of violence, poverty, and the cruelty of power. Power and love, and the love of power and the power of love, are the core of this novel. It's such an incredible journey and has an ending that is both somber and revelatory.

I'm not a fantasy reader but by God this is how you do fantasy. 

I keep thinking about the cruelty of the moon empress and how by all rights, she should have been the foil to the emperor's terrorizing. But she's not, she's the parallel. Her cruelty and callousness, and the death she brought, are a demonstration of the wide reach of tyranny- she's not the savior, she's not even the alternative. She's part of the cause. 

Also of note, is the tenderness of the love story. 

Also also of note, is the way that the tortoises each sought the river in pursuit of that one perfect memory. 

Just...what a joy to read.

OH!! And a special shout out to the narrator who fucking KILLED this performance holy shit

AND!!!! We have some SPECTACULAR cannibalism. 
 

Bunny by Mona Awad

dark funny tense fast-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

Such an aggressive "not like the other girls" protagonist. There's a whole group of other MFA women writers who

spend their evenings exploding bunnies to create boys/men/hybrids together

and yet neither the mc nor the author seem to recognize that that makes them incredibly interesting?? They

become a whole hive mind and a meld of personalities

and I want to know so much more about who they are outside of that. And when we finally glimpse who these women maybe are...it's that they want to be fucked by a unique bad boy that

Samantha, our most lonely special girl, created unknowingly with her mind.

Don't even get me started on the

schizophrenia twist

, which is maybe the absolute least interesting direction to take your character. And if all of it was a result of that? Yeesh. That's also the least interesting way to take this book.

I am a profound lover of the weird, the bizarre, the macabre, and so what the Bunnies are/do is far and away the best part of the book. The worst part of the book is the author trying to convince me that these women are vapid bimbos.

Excellent writing though! 

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

A pretty fucking tragic "good for her." Yeong-hye desperately wants to, and fully succeeds, at separating herself from the cruelty of consumption, violence, and even desire. It's a hard read because there's this sort of middle point, where it seems like she's gotten what she wants: a small life wherein she eats when and what she wants, and can exist as just an animal with a body, but the possessive actions of her brother-in-law, and his inability to understand her, rob her of that. Yeong-hye's final resort is to stop consuming all together which is both heartbreaking, but also...I ended up rooting for her to live as she wants, which to her, is to become a thing completely separate from the human experience of violence...and that means she has to die.

The choice of narrators is fascinating. We start with her husband, who cannot understand her and won't. And then her BiL, who projects onto her his own desires and understanding, and finally In-hye, her sister, who almost almost almost understands and on the brink of that understanding, chooses to look away. 

It's a complicated ending, because you don't want this woman to die, but also, she wants it so badly...that you do. 

The Need by Helen Phillips

sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

It's so rare to read a book that truly is just fine.

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.75

Second T Kingfisher. Much like in House with Good Bones, there was a That Scene that really shows the author's ability to write horror with some strong staying power. The characters were fun if not necessarily compelling. And, of course, one must always respect the mushroom aesthetic. 

Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt

challenging dark sad fast-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? Yes

3.75

New French Extremity in book form, made British and immersed in contemporary hatred.

This book reminded me of Hurricane Season, which was the last book I read that truly embraced being vile, and disgusting, and harmful, and unrelenting. There are passages of this book that felt truly awful to listen to (the internet rant featuring latex maids stands out), and I admire the dedication to representing how fucking evil fascism and hatred can make people. The body horror swastika scene...maybe it was a little on the nose, but holy shit will that be staying with me.

However, for me then, that made the ending of this book feel like a cop out. In fact, the cop out started the moment Ila just...gives up her plan in the house and reconciliation starts. And the epilogue, despite having an act of domestic terrorism, was saccharine. I didn't need everyone to be dead and miserable at the end, but the ending just felt like it was for another book, not one with one of the most uncomfortable consensual sex scenes I've ever read. 

Overall, it was great to discover a book that knows the power of vile, and it's hard to be truly mad at these characters having some sort of happy ending (as happy as a fascist world can allow).

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

challenging dark funny reflective 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

5.0

GOOD FOR HER GOOD FOR HER GOOD FOR HER GOOD FOR HER 

Look, whiteness and white feminism and hetcomp etc etc etc, but if this book doesn't make you think about your own mother's rage and wonder if she is or ever was Nightbitch, then you're not even worth my time. Fuck, I love a weirdo book, and this book is so fucking gender, and also captures all of my own fears about motherhood while opening me up to its divine potential. Fuck.

Good for fucking her.