grayola's reviews
71 reviews

Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger

3.0

Oof, the nauseating chosen-one storytelling, blatant Potter parallels, elf elitism, and questionable treatment of gnomes and humans by the elves made this a hard sell for the greater chunk of this book. I’ll admit, once Sophie’s role in elvin bureaucracy was becoming clearer and clearer, it was an exciting little adventure story. Here’s hoping the next installments stray away from those choices. More pterodactyl-rides into flamed hellscapes, please!

The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson

2.0

The final, emotionally-charged stretch of this quest is told with a completely different attitude towards its characters and environment. If Johnson had gone with that to begin with, I would’ve taken to this much more, I imagine.

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli

2.0

I can feel the passion for his work bleeding through these pages, but it only really amounts to an insight on Rovelli’s defense of physics’ wonder and magic. I didn’t feel that on my end, unfortunately.

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki

4.0

This story reads like a beach trip feels. Relaxed, while at the same time not without petty and not so petty drama interwoven between endless days. The summer in question could really be any summer that Rose and her family spend at Awago Beach. If you visit any place annually or otherwise frequently, you know the checkpoint that each visit serves as over the course of your life or childhood. But even when the story is concerned with how places define and shape us, it acknowledges the new stories that unfold as we consider how these places and memories mold our constantly changing associations with space.

The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve by Stephen Greenblatt

3.0

A far longer slog than I anticipated, I teetered between divine revelation and bored frustration at Greenblatt’s dense theology—which I acknowledge is something I could have been better versed in going into this. Still, there are so many fascinating insights made on the back half of the book: the literary symmetry of the creation and redemption stories, the allegorical theories of creation, the literal interpretations of holes in the creation story’s logic, and so on. The most striking to me was the first; that to “correct” the original sin of woman from man’s womb, a woman instead bore man to redeem humanity after years of conflict between lord and people.

Lost Connections: Why You're Depressed and How to Find Hope by Johann Hari

3.0

The point is driven home with accessible length and I found myself slightly frustrated that the book needed to be this long when it could have been a long-form article in The New Yorker or The Atlantic. Nonetheless, it’s important and I ironically started reading this the week I started medication for anxiety myself, so read this and engage with your community, people. You’ll literally be happier for it.

Black Looks: Race and Representation by bell hooks

4.0

The essays about black subjectivity in 90s culture need an update. Otherwise, hooks’ unapologetic style and confidence season these essays with urgency and wit. The Oppositional Gaze is an all-time great piece of cultural criticism.

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

4.0

My favorite short stories are moments, situations, and choices. Binti uses the novella format to its advantage and richly evokes dread, compromise, and struggle all in 90 pages of fantastic story-telling and pace.

Things That Helped: On Postpartum Depression by Jessica Friedmann

3.0

Exceptionally expressed with raw intensity and believe it or not—occasional humor. It’s intensity is partially responsible for why it took me so long to get through. Nonetheless, Jessica Friedman deserves more opportunities to tell stories either related to her life or otherwise.

They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib

5.0

One of those perfect collections of essays that rivet you with every sentence. I think Hanif deeply understands how critical and cultural commentary thrives alongside autobiography. We read someone’s perspective for its subjectivity, not its objective truth. There is no aggregated approval or disapproval of a film, piece of music, or item of cultural discourse: just feeling and the expression in relation to it.