frankiecastanea's reviews
41 reviews

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

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emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

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challenging dark emotional sad 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

Made me think, made me cry, made me cringe and feel. It’ll be a book that sticks with me and haunts me for quite a while.

Best for: Lovers of apocalyptic plague books, lovers of gore & horror, readers itching for well written queer characters that you both love and hate, queer sex (graphic), and those who just want a book about TERFS being murdered.

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke And Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca

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Content Warnings

Saturnalia by Stephanie Feldman

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

“Saturnalia” is a weird, eerie little novel that has all the strongest foundational bones to be a great book. Personally, I felt like it was an inch away from being a hard hitting commentary on existentialism and our declining world, but not quite.

I picked up Feldman’s book because it takes place in Philadelphia (my home city) and I wasn’t disappointed by it as the backdrop including lovely little references that only a Philly person would get - Laurel Hill, City Hall, the Main Line, and this quote, specifically -

“Philadelphia is a big city to visitors and a small town to natives; we rarely leave, and when we do, we usually come back again, find homes near our parents, send our kids to the same schools we graduated from. It’s a fishbowl, a jar….” (107).

Within all the flowery language, the plot lingers, like the homunculus, right under the cloudy surface of a magical, alchemical liquid, stuttered between flashbacks and set up through five parts fashioned after the five fortune cards our main character pulls at the beginning of the story. I only wish that it had broken the surface and told me a bit more.

I linger between a 3.75 and a 4 star rating for this book - it didn’t blow me away. At the best of times, the plot was mysterious and entrenched between the lines of the Longest Night. At the worst of times, I felt like I, too, was lost in Saturnalia’s world of existentialism and alchemy, grasping for engagement and more, more, more. I love it for the feeling that this book encapsulates - that of sleepless nights, the past destroyed, the metaphors and movement through one very long Saturnalia. I dislike it for that very same feeling. It wasn’t what I expected - but aren’t the best books that way?

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

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adventurous emotional inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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? N/A

5.0

This book made me laugh, cry, then laugh and cry at the same time. Little Badger packages Elatsoe to be an engaging story with lovable, three dimensional characters whose pain, fears, and hopes you feel as strongly as you would have being in the story. This speculative fiction is truly a masterpiece - packed full of legends of Six-Great with real world lessons, commentary on colonization and more, Little Badger packs Elatsoe to the brim with everything a great book needs.

Angels Before Man by rafael nicolás

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced