Scan barcode
everie's reviews
38 reviews
Please Report Your Bug Here by Josh Riedel
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Kind of boring. The MC doesn't feel like much of a character. If he had a name, I've forgotten it. He's at his best when he's remarking on Silicon Valley and corporate weirdness or worrying about his usefulness/job prospects. At his worst doing anything else. The weird thing going on with the Founder and him was more interesting than the mystery, which was about a MacGuffin kid stuck in an interdimensional space mystery that's been done better in other stories
Actually I don't remember anyone except the Founder and the Engineer. Hm.
Actually I don't remember anyone except the Founder and the Engineer. Hm.
Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It's violent, it's horny, I thought those were plums on the cover until the literal moment they became relevant in story.
Fran and Beth are trans girls in a post-apocalyptic Maryland where people with high enough levels of testosterone (many) transformed into violent monsters who assault and then literally tear apart anyone left. Also TERFs are more organized and militarized than ever, fuckin goddamn. Shit sucks.
For a book with so many really, really, reeeeallly disgusting moments though, I'm surprised at how...forgettable it was. This is a story we need, but the writing style doesn't really hold up enough to tell it. It also seems to balloon in scope, from two girls and later a trans guy and a doctor traveling together to a bunker, then a guerilla movement fighting back against the TERFs to a full-ass LoTR style battle to the death with two opposing armies and a lot of monster men for some reason like WHAT?? Did we need all this? I don't really care if the head TERF dies on a big ship or in a personal assassination. I don't need a huge battle! I don't really get why it's happening. By the time the beautiful problematique Fran was dying (beautifully), I didn't have much attention span left to care about her.
Also, while I'm here, kinda weird that the only non-binary character is described as always being vacant and like a baby and is always always shown in a bed aside from one moment and sexualized to hell and back AND just a really simple character overall. Like what. What are their desires when they're not interacting with whatsherface, huh. What do they want. ANYway
I think it was at its best when it was telling us about horrible emergency tooth surgery in the woods and horrible friends being horrible, and the every-second threats to a trans girl's life even if she's just trying to live and survive and try to make something beautiful for herself, if that makes sense. I was still with it for the bunker, but the last third......hmmmmmmm.............................
Also sometimes (often) the text was going so full-on internet aren't-I-funny mode that I had to wonder what was going on. It spent a lot of time making up very specific ways to describe people, so much that I often started to skip paragraphs (bc they really were long) to get back to the story. Beware, lest ye become the bowtie-class-warfare (???) debaters that ye mock or whatever
Last thing the horniness really is off the charts. That's a value-neutral statement. Just like breaking the scale. Fluids everywhere.
Fran and Beth are trans girls in a post-apocalyptic Maryland where people with high enough levels of testosterone (many) transformed into violent monsters who assault and then literally tear apart anyone left. Also TERFs are more organized and militarized than ever, fuckin goddamn. Shit sucks.
For a book with so many really, really, reeeeallly disgusting moments though, I'm surprised at how...forgettable it was. This is a story we need, but the writing style doesn't really hold up enough to tell it. It also seems to balloon in scope, from two girls and later a trans guy and a doctor traveling together to a bunker, then a
Also, while I'm here, kinda weird that the only non-binary character is described as always being vacant and like a baby and is always always shown in a bed aside from one moment and sexualized to hell and back AND just a really simple character overall. Like what. What are their desires when they're not interacting with whatsherface, huh. What do they want. ANYway
I think it was at its best when it was telling us about horrible emergency tooth surgery in the woods and horrible friends being horrible, and the every-second threats to a trans girl's life even if she's just trying to live and survive and try to make something beautiful for herself, if that makes sense. I was still with it for the bunker, but the last third......hmmmmmmm.............................
Also sometimes (often) the text was going so full-on internet aren't-I-funny mode that I had to wonder what was going on. It spent a lot of time making up very specific ways to describe people, so much that I often started to skip paragraphs (bc they really were long) to get back to the story. Beware, lest ye become the bowtie-class-warfare (???) debaters that ye mock or whatever
Last thing the horniness really is off the charts. That's a value-neutral statement. Just like breaking the scale. Fluids everywhere.
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
Really interesting! Russell's writing brings it to life with an incredible amount of detail. I love Ava's stubborness, and Ossie's excitement about FINALLY being the expert on something for once (a moldy spellbook and her ghost boyfriends), and Kiwi's SAT words (mispronounced and used so much people look at you funny, very relatable).
That said, it would have been great if it was a little better paced. The journey through the swamps are a slog because as soon as they start, you know what's going to happen, because what always happens in stories with a vulnerable girl and a strange man? So you're just waiting for the other shoe to drop. It really takes away from the beauty of the swamp, or the stories about the messed up things we've done to Florida people and nature. And then it happens. Sigh. Every time. Also, for being such a big focus of the story, Ossie was a real Princess Peach. She's barely in it, and in the end it's not Ava who saves her or some random chain of events or strangers, which would have been more realistic, but Kiwi who swoops in on a literal plane? I was glad she wasn't dead, but what arc does Ossie have? And then the book ends.
So yes, strong start, good middle, starts to wander (but maybe my dread and exhaustion re: a certain plot point was coloring it), and then it ends. Interesting!
That said, it would have been great if it was a little better paced. The journey through the swamps are a slog
So yes, strong start, good middle, starts to wander (but maybe my dread and exhaustion re: a certain plot point was coloring it), and then it ends. Interesting!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 3 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I avoided reading this one for a while, since I heard this was where it started getting dark and hohohohohoho it sure as hell was BUT it does a great job feeding you little bits of comedy and cute moments and it's going to get way way waaaaayyyyyyy worse
I love the depiction of a man trying to hold on as everything falls apart around him. A situation that may not be winnable, a kingdom destined (??) for doom, just an all-around terrible time for everyone involved. Sympathy for everyone, destruction for all. It's honestly much more nuanced than I expected. So interesting!
I love the depiction of a man trying to hold on as everything falls apart around him. A situation that may not be winnable, a kingdom
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
Almost hypnotic in its structure--the narrator drifts from location to location and conversation to conversation, always circling back to the same topics in her quest to sleep, forget, and become someone other than she is
It's definitely never boring, though! There's a sense of dread and nihilism hanging over the whole piece (of course), but it's also incredibly funny, and worth a wince just about whenever the narrator makes a judgment about just about anything. I can't imagine a city like the pre-9/11 NYC in this story, but the narration brings it to life, just like the self-obsessed narrator.
That said, there's plenty to read into the narrator, but other characters exist as (sometimes very funny) caricatures, like her ask-no-questions-remember-no-patients psychiatrist. Reva is definitely the most sympathetic character in the cast (not saying much, I'll admit it), though the choice to have the audiobook reader use a typical Bronx drawl for the Jewish best friend character who's always worried about her weight is so funny. Hello Rhoda Morgenstern! If I hadn't been thinking about you before, I sure am now!
Anyway, very interesting. I wonder if the narrator worked at a Guggenheim parody (as someone who loves the Guggenheim)
It's definitely never boring, though! There's a sense of dread and nihilism hanging over the whole piece (of course), but it's also incredibly funny, and worth a wince just about whenever the narrator makes a judgment about just about anything. I can't imagine a city like the pre-9/11 NYC in this story, but the narration brings it to life, just like the self-obsessed narrator.
That said, there's plenty to read into the narrator, but other characters exist as (sometimes very funny) caricatures, like her ask-no-questions-remember-no-patients psychiatrist. Reva is definitely the most sympathetic character in the cast (not saying much, I'll admit it), though the choice to have the audiobook reader use a typical Bronx drawl for the Jewish best friend character who's always worried about her weight is so funny. Hello Rhoda Morgenstern! If I hadn't been thinking about you before, I sure am now!
Anyway, very interesting. I wonder if the narrator worked at a Guggenheim parody (as someone who loves the Guggenheim)
Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-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? It's complicated
4.25
Network Effect by Martha Wells
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I didn't know what to expect going in, but I had such a blast! Never have I so enjoyed a bunch of people being absolute nightmares to themselves and others before!
That said, the last quarter went off the rails super hard. I'm not one to say "don't take it in a fantastical direction" but the set-up was so perfect for a monster that comes from within, instead of something that twists people into...something? Or kills them?? The explanation of the monster, despite stopping the story dead in its path to have a new-ish character lecture at the reader, was really confusing.
I don't know, what if Alicia transformed, or Remy became one over the course of the story instead of abruptly becoming (metaphorically a monster) at the end? Those aren't the only paths obviously but the one we got was kind of...boring? Still, a roller coaster! Fun time!
That said, the last quarter
I don't know, what if Alicia transformed, or Remy became one over the course of the story instead of abruptly becoming (metaphorically a monster) at the end? Those aren't the only paths obviously but the one we got was kind of...boring?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Stalking
Minor: Eating disorder
Communion by Whitley Strieber
sad
slow-paced
1.0
A lot of regret in this book club tonight.
"a true story" (big quotes) must have been HUGE sales-getters in the 80s because this twice-published-at-this-point author is NOT showing off his writing skills. Organize your narrative, bro!
"a true story" (big quotes) must have been HUGE sales-getters in the 80s because this twice-published-at-this-point author is NOT showing off his writing skills. Organize your narrative, bro!
Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25