fluoresensitive's reviews
476 reviews

Brutes by Dizz Tate

dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

I think this is the perfect sort of book for people who listen to Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridges, like Ethel Cain is a little too intense for this reader, and they'd flinch from a tougher book but it does what it needs to do. It has a sort of "girls are pink and sharp" sort of energy that I find very boring. Great for a very specific sort of 24-28 yr old who's still horny for Kristen Stewart and can't quite handle a book that digs deeper. Idk! Maybe Tate's next book won't be so ... (Gestures vaguely)

Such Color: New and Selected Poems by Tracy K. Smith

slow-paced

4.75

Guys. debbie ryan meme I think I may actually really love poetry, like I thought I didn't get it but I just needed to read the poems of Black people, and even the poems I wasn't super crazy about, the notes and context at the end of the book enlightened me and lightened me, and now I'm like, really into poems. POEMS!

God Themselves by Jae Nichelle

4.0

Stunning! The psalms one was especially good!

Margery Kempe by Robert Gluck
Did not finish book. Stopped at 50%.

vaguely autobiographical and deeply self-indulgent, almost in an unpleasant way. just wasn't interested.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective tense slow-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

5.0

Yeah, this ate. Beautiful prose, beautiful story, absolutely gripping. I love a high fantasy moment and this gave me EVERYTHING! Like, whoa...yeah, I loved this.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

reflective 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? It's complicated

3.75

It's so disheartening when a book is just meh, especially after I've just had my head blown away by a really good book. Like oh. A disappointing churn-out from the Iowa writers workshop. Thanks.

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-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

5.0

Stunning, arresting, breathless, a chainsaw and a machine gun, and one minute your face is screwed up in horror and the next you're laughing and then you're crying. My God. Easily one of the best horrors I've ever read ever.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.

Her collection of essays ranges between nothing and mildly fascinating. I think she writes for slightly embarrassed white liberals who grew up in upper middle class homes and are a little ashamed of that but NOT ashamed enough to not bring up their summer homes + write eye-roll inducing articles about equally eye-roll inducing rich people.

I don't care.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

medium-paced

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

3.0

This book is very...well it's not nothing, it's like eating something vaguely nutritious but it's drenched in a little too much oil so you feel it coming out your pores. I understand why it got it's cutesy cover. I think it could've gone ten times harder and been ten times more poignant, but as it stands, it's nice but a little empty. 

And the end was rushed! God, I can't stand a rushed end, like please take your time and say something rather than writing something flimsy and nothing for the sake of it. AUGH!

The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek

challenging dark reflective tense 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

4.25

I have many thoughts! This is almost the same as the review I had for the film, but like... follow me.

1. The film had a sexuality to it that I said bordered on the homoerotic, but the book is decidedly very slick and slimy, not in an exciting way but in a "oh my god this rollercoaster is about to go off the tracks" sort of way
2. Repression is so crazy, and Erika never stood the slightest chance, like her mother put her into this very specific mold and she could never leave it. She saw sex and relationships only at a distance, through peepshows and voyeurism and violence and thought it was the only way to be, and the first time she tries to express some of that desire, it gets turned against her; the knife she wielded swapped hands, given to her attacker. Oh I'm gonna vomit.
3. ALSO. The way Erika couldn't have what she wanted on her terms, like everyone takes from her, and ignores what she's willing to give, like she showed him what she wanted, she showed him the ropes and the gag and what she desired, and he was disgusted until he could steal it/take it through force. UGH! THE LAYERS!
   
   (Also something something about gender and abuse dynamics and a woman author's intention versus a man director's Whatever)
   
   Also I'm obsessed with this movie, it means everything to me, it makes me feel so many thoughts, and I'm not just saying that because I see glimmers of myself in our dear twisted Erika Kohut, who just needs a vibrator.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape