ethicalcannibalism's reviews
231 reviews

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Dune by Frank Herbert

adventurous challenging reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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

5.0

Victor binge eating because he was riddled with anxiety was so real of him 

In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing by Elena Ferrante

emotional informative inspiring reflective relaxing fast-paced

5.0

The Commedia, in this way, seemed to me an extraordinary trap, prepared at great length and in detail. I still think that no writer in the seven hundred years since Dante has succeeded in transforming the living, scholarly analysis of his own time, and the even more scholarly memory of the writings of the past, into a cage so crowded with the life of all humanity and, at the same time, so individually considered, so passionately personal, so specifically local-universal.

ferrante snapped her fingers and said let it be life inside my brain. god. this was supposed to be a lecture. the effect that this text has in me is unspeakable in its truth. ferrante’s thoughts about ‘writing as a man’ as the golden ratio for excellent writing, her explaining how she come up with my brilliant friend made me tear up, my chest became tight with emotion. of course, i had always been aware of the queer subtext in the neapolitan novels, yet there is the sublime feeling fostered inside me by reading ferrante speaking of lila and lenù. my favorite chapter is the last one, about dante. it ties perfectly with the first chapter on ‘one must write like a man’ to be a true writer, finishing off by comparing how dante writes women in his early work, vita nuova, and then in the commedia in beatrice’s elevation. god. 

Y/N by Esther Yi

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective relaxing 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

5.0

y/n by esther yi is a fever dream narrated by an unamed korean american woman who becomes increasingly more obsessed with a kpop idol called moon. the book is satirical, hilarious really. the descriptions of limbs and skin and hair are deeply uncomfortable, employing this extreme anatomical specificity that surgically removes the membrane of passion of desire, harvesting the beauty of the object of admiration. it’s a sterile yearning.  the characters’ name have a dickensian flare. 

the book circumvents identity and expresses the character’s desire for the lack of thereof, and then we have art commodification, what’s ‘really real’ in the vaults of our minds, what is a legitimate form of love, how our erotic obsessions are a mirror to ourselves as much as it is to our beloved, and kafkaesque fashion. upon reading eros the bittersweet by anne carson, a lot of the essays seeped through my mind during this pleasant reading. what does the lover wants from the beloved? what does the lover wants from love? what is a city without desire? 

Eros the Bittersweet by Anne Carson

informative inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

5.0

Something paradoxical arrests the lover. Arrest occurs at a point of inconcinnity between the actual and the possible, a blind point where the reality of what we are disappears into the possibility of what we could be if we were other than we are.

eros the bittersweet by anne carson is an odyssey throughout the vast sea of desire in the greek tradition. etymology, philosophy, literary criticism, history and orthography are weaved by the author as to make the meaning of eros whole this is the best thing i have ever read i felt torn apart and then remade again and i have no idea who and what i am right now anne carson hit me up

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

3.0

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

4.0

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

3.0

I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

3.0