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gossamer_lens's reviews
1250 reviews
Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between) by Lauren Graham
Did not finish book. Stopped at 19%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 19%.
While I think this book could be fun and entertaining if it was a physical book... I cannot listen to one more narration by the author of her side notes, inserted "hahaha" or singing. Could be funny in a scrapbookish type formate. But knowing she sat in a insulated studio and recorded herself reading all this... It's too cringe for me. Would give it a solid 3 if I could. But there is too much else to read to keep on. 🫡
Content Warnings
Minor: Fatphobia
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Literally just amazing. Informative, emotional, profound and beautifully written. The book should speak for itself. The audiobook was 3 1/2 hours. At that length and with it's message everyone should read it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Racial slurs, Slavery, Violence, and Racism
Minor: Rape
Infinite Shimmer by Time Princess
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
What a solidly fun story! It kept me intrigued and entertained the whole way through. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and that I was able to choose (in this choose your own adventure story) to have a rewarding read with almost no romance. I was also surprised by how deftly the story handled using the idea that a Utopia is seldom for everyone. Lots of books try to highlight that Utopia and Dystopia go hand in hand... and this handled it surprisingly well. Excited to go back through and read the alternative paths and endings.
Content Warnings
Minor: Abandonment
The Name-Bearer by Natalia Hernandez
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
This book has an odd writing style. It is written like a prologue. With the amount of summary and covering a span of 10 years, it feels like a reader should have both gotten more detail and less detail in the reading process. I feel like I should know the characters infinitely better but also I feel like I have a quite solid understanding of our main character. A very odd thing to feel. But with that said, it isn't a bad feeling.
Throughout the book, I was very easily pulled along to see what was going to happen next. I enjoyed the world-building and clear inclusion of Latin-American culture and the seamless inclusion of LGBTQ+ people into the world. I am excited to see where things go in the sequel and I already placed the book on hold at my library. I hit about halfway through this book and knew I just needed to keep going with these characters. Hernandez did a very solid job of keeping me invested and waiting to see where we would go. Very fun!
Throughout the book, I was very easily pulled along to see what was going to happen next. I enjoyed the world-building and clear inclusion of Latin-American culture and the seamless inclusion of LGBTQ+ people into the world. I am excited to see where things go in the sequel and I already placed the book on hold at my library. I hit about halfway through this book and knew I just needed to keep going with these characters. Hernandez did a very solid job of keeping me invested and waiting to see where we would go. Very fun!
Content Warnings
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Child abuse, War, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Slavery, and Vomit
Dune by Frank Herbert
adventurous
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
5.0
When I like a book it is hard to say why. I thought I'd rate it a 4.5 when I first finished it because I think I just didn't like how the ending felt like I needed to read the next book. But giving it some time and reflection... I think I just liked it so much that I wanted to immediately have more book. So, I'm letting this be a full 5-star.
Finna by Nino Cipri
adventurous
lighthearted
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
3.75
I enjoyed this as it was a fun and quick read. Very pleasant and fun!
I think that overall I just wanted more out of it. It did something, but I think that the themes and conclusion were very loose and without a strong purpose. Which, not every book needs a strong purpose, but I find having one for a novella is very helpful in making them feel strong, interesting, and impactful. This book was fun but I'm sure I will forget I read it in the months to come. But yeah, a solid fun read and could have easily been in the 4-star category if it had done a little more with the cool world and characters that existed in it.
I think that overall I just wanted more out of it. It did something, but I think that the themes and conclusion were very loose and without a strong purpose. Which, not every book needs a strong purpose, but I find having one for a novella is very helpful in making them feel strong, interesting, and impactful. This book was fun but I'm sure I will forget I read it in the months to come. But yeah, a solid fun read and could have easily been in the 4-star category if it had done a little more with the cool world and characters that existed in it.
Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones
emotional
sad
medium-paced
3.75
I really really liked the first half of this poetry collection and then somewhere in the middle, it lost its momentum. I still enjoyed the read and would be interested in what future work Saeed Jones has to present to the world. I would want it to try and not to touch on the experience of women as those poems felt the weakest and least grounded to me.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
emotional
reflective
sad
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
3.25
I have very mixed feelings about this book. As far as the writing style goes it is a 10/10 for me. I loved how the text bounced from past to present and from various points of view and perspectives. It was a book that kept me hooked on finishing it despite how much I disliked certain aspects of it. The writing style saved this book from being a 1.5 star.
So to talk about what I didn't like.
Characters - I basically didn't like any character in the book except for one. I didn't hate them, but I found two of the central characters to be very dry and boring. They felt like a lot was going on, but they were written to be so "real life messy" that they felt like flat characters of the phrase "people are complicated." This is fine I guess, but in real life, I hope to never be closely tied to people who are so "complicated" that they cannot think to apologize, reach out, or otherwise acknowledge their flaws. I love my friends and family and I expect some basic courtesy in return at the very least. So it was hard when literally none of the characters in the book demonstrated any knowledge of the concepts of forgiveness, therapy, communication, or establishing boundaries.
Plot - Overall this book didn't have a lot happen plot-wise. Some people do well in their careers and they all still have issues before, during, and after their successes. Not a problem... but when the book is so character based and I didn't love the characters... it made the writing style do a ton of the heavy lifting and left me hoping for more the whole way... only for it to end. Reflecting makes me realize it never gave me... "more".
Video games - I was super excited to read a book that centered video games. Over the last few years I have slowly become more and more aware of games. I was generally aware of them growing up but stuck to books. Then 2020 hit and my gamer husband (fiance at the time) got me invested in games by gifting me Animal Crossing. Since then I've played a bunch of cozy games, alongside a good smattering of fighters, platformers, Assasian's Creed, Indie games, etc. But besides that I've now watched hours upon hours of video game history video essays by developers, artists, and players. All this knowledge I thought would be helfpul and fun.
Instead, it made me vastly annoyed as I found the author gave credit to the most basic and well-known games while making up a lot of games OR taking actual games and giving them new names as if the author herself invented them. This wouldn't have bugged me so much had the writing not come across as "super gamer is making up cool ideas". At the back of the book the author makes acknowledgment to several games and to me it read as "this is what I referenced" and implied that the unmentioned things were her own invention. Looking across discussion forms and listening to my fellow book clubers talk about this book, this seems like how a lot of people read the book and her acknowledgment. I guess I don't expect a fiction book to have an annotated bibliography... but I expect more of an author than taking people's real-life work and not acknowledging them at all AND changing the names of games to try and hide that she is essentially taking others work and writing those concepts into her work.
I could write a dissertation on what all this author drew from real-life artists' work without acknowledging it. But the most egregious example is probably that of her not giving credit to a Jewish woman whom she not just took the game from but also some of the surrounding circumstances. Just very odd and the Washington Post goes into it in more detail here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/03/24/train-board-game-brenda-romero-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow/
So to talk about what I didn't like.
Characters - I basically didn't like any character in the book except for one. I didn't hate them, but I found two of the central characters to be very dry and boring. They felt like a lot was going on, but they were written to be so "real life messy" that they felt like flat characters of the phrase "people are complicated." This is fine I guess, but in real life, I hope to never be closely tied to people who are so "complicated" that they cannot think to apologize, reach out, or otherwise acknowledge their flaws. I love my friends and family and I expect some basic courtesy in return at the very least. So it was hard when literally none of the characters in the book demonstrated any knowledge of the concepts of forgiveness, therapy, communication, or establishing boundaries.
Plot - Overall this book didn't have a lot happen plot-wise. Some people do well in their careers and they all still have issues before, during, and after their successes. Not a problem... but when the book is so character based and I didn't love the characters... it made the writing style do a ton of the heavy lifting and left me hoping for more the whole way... only for it to end. Reflecting makes me realize it never gave me... "more".
Video games - I was super excited to read a book that centered video games. Over the last few years I have slowly become more and more aware of games. I was generally aware of them growing up but stuck to books. Then 2020 hit and my gamer husband (fiance at the time) got me invested in games by gifting me Animal Crossing. Since then I've played a bunch of cozy games, alongside a good smattering of fighters, platformers, Assasian's Creed, Indie games, etc. But besides that I've now watched hours upon hours of video game history video essays by developers, artists, and players. All this knowledge I thought would be helfpul and fun.
Instead, it made me vastly annoyed as I found the author gave credit to the most basic and well-known games while making up a lot of games OR taking actual games and giving them new names as if the author herself invented them. This wouldn't have bugged me so much had the writing not come across as "super gamer is making up cool ideas". At the back of the book the author makes acknowledgment to several games and to me it read as "this is what I referenced" and implied that the unmentioned things were her own invention. Looking across discussion forms and listening to my fellow book clubers talk about this book, this seems like how a lot of people read the book and her acknowledgment. I guess I don't expect a fiction book to have an annotated bibliography... but I expect more of an author than taking people's real-life work and not acknowledging them at all AND changing the names of games to try and hide that she is essentially taking others work and writing those concepts into her work.
I could write a dissertation on what all this author drew from real-life artists' work without acknowledging it. But the most egregious example is probably that of her not giving credit to a Jewish woman whom she not just took the game from but also some of the surrounding circumstances. Just very odd and the Washington Post goes into it in more detail here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/03/24/train-board-game-brenda-romero-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow/
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship
Moderate: Rape, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia
Minor: Xenophobia
Dracula by Bram Stoker
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Just absolutely loved this book. I have tried picking it up several times and gotten stuck on the first 10 pages where we get this letter written by a main character that starts with essentially, "everything will be detailed and thoroughly mundane but here we are". Of course, give it a minute and this turns into "oh shit, oh oh shit... what am I to do!"
There are several POVs that are delightfully conveyed via missives and have various "newspaper clippings" and other information interspersed. It is a fun story with some delightful characters. I became thoroughly invested once I made it about 10% of the way into the book and I only put the book down when I had to read other things for book club and the like.
I 100% enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone!
There are several POVs that are delightfully conveyed via missives and have various "newspaper clippings" and other information interspersed. It is a fun story with some delightful characters. I became thoroughly invested once I made it about 10% of the way into the book and I only put the book down when I had to read other things for book club and the like.
I 100% enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Violence, and Mental illness