estellegodard's reviews
253 reviews

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

dark fast-paced

5.0

what a ride! this was an exquisitely written book & such a thrilling story. I have not a complaint about it and had a great time reading it. it didn’t shy away from the gory and explicit subjects and the prose made it that much more captivating. dorothy’s decent into madness was a treat to read and crippling to have to sit back and watch it happen to her 

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire

3.0

there were some really beautiful poems in this collection (the last one really struck me!) & the author has a gift for titles. however majority of the poems didn’t work for me, perhaps this is due to the cultural disconnect. 

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

slow-paced

3.0

I read Never Let Me Go many years ago and this was absolutely in the same style, which leads me to believe that I simply am not a huge Ishiguro fan. I appreciated that nothing is spoon fed to us and we learn about the universe through bits and pieces. I think it was difficult for me to appreciate the slowness of this book however and by the end I was ready for it to be over. 

The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang

informative sad medium-paced

3.0

while this was a very interesting book, I did not find it to be engaging in the way that other non fiction books have been for me. it was a bit repetitive and while it said that it aimed to explore the japanese soldiers’ state of mind during the war crimes, I felt that there wasn’t much content about that. I thought the epilogue made some great points and brought a lot of the themes and parts together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Torture

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.75

what a beautiful little book. this read more like poetry than a novel yet the story was woven so beautifully and authentically that the prose just supported it. I have never related to a love story more and I loved how modern it felt. I think the conversations surrounding trauma and race were a little poorly incorporated into the love story which is why I can’t give this a perfect 5/5 , but I think there is a lot to be said about these topics and the author did an excellent job describing these emotions anyway. 

Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi

fast-paced

5.0

I flew through this !! the audio narration was such a treat. hearing the stories about a young chef making his way through the New York restaurant scene was incredible. there were parts that were a bit cheesy but it’s a “rags to riches” story after all. the pleasure I took consuming this surpasses any little issues I had with it because it was thoroughly enjoyable and I loved listening to the different culinary influences & dish descriptions.  I also loved the inclusion of recipes after each chapter, I thought that was really clever. 

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

4.5

I flew through this audio book. it was a really accessible non fiction book and it opened my eyes to a lot of things I hadn’t thought about before, like how persuasive language can be weapon used even when it doesn’t seem like that’s what’s happening. 

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley

dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.25

this is a beautiful debut, no doubt about it. the writing style is truly the highlight. the story becomes slightly predictable at times but it’s overall very well executed and the authors note at the end adds a gravity and perspective to the story that is very poignant and necessary. 

Serious Concerns by Wendy Cope

emotional funny fast-paced

3.75

it’s super hard to rate a poetry collection. I think I liked some poems so much that it balanced the others that I didn’t like so much (which come to think of it, was probably the majority). Wendy Cope is so good at making quick and witty poems which made this collection very accessible. 

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

there is absolutely nothing brief about this book. it is unnecessarily long and slow with far too many characters. by the time I was 200 pages in I was seriously contemplating dnf’ing it, but given it won the man booker prize I was determined to see what the fuss was about. I will not lie, by page 500 the book did pick up and it became interesting. however, why on earth did it take that long for a book to get me invested in its characters? why did it take so long for it to make sense ? all these different storylines overlap loosely and I wish there was a greater reveal and a great connection to make all this worthwhile. unfortunately this was not the case and as excited as I was to read this, it was a slog.