grey_jayne's reviews
774 reviews

Nonmonogamy and Neurodiversity: A More Than Two Essentials Guide by Alyssa Gonzalez

hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

This is a great neurodivergent supplement in addition to reading Polysecure. You could probably find most of the information with a few Google searches, but having it all in one place is helpful. A bit more of an overview than I was hoping for but still worth the time. The audiobook is an hour long.

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare
Did not finish book. Stopped at 27%.

I'm 0 for 2 in trying out YA horror books. The standard time must be spent explaining the school experience and I really don't care. High school sucked. I just could not stay invested in this story.

Tombs: Junji Ito Story Collection by Junji Ito

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The Tombs story itself is excellent and the rest of the collected stories was varied and interesting. It's a bunch of horrifying tales and so many of them are so weird in the best ways.

After reading Tomie, I was burnt out from the same premise happening over and over again, as well as the misogyny. This collection truly shook me out of that and I'm excited to check out more Junji Ito again.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm: Beyond the Doors of Perception Into the Dreaming of Earth by Stephen Harrod Buhner
Did not finish book. Stopped at 32%.

I pick up this book and read some every once and a while. It's mind-blowing.

White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson
Did not finish book. Stopped at 18%.

DNF at 18% because I couldn't get into the pacing. The anxiety and cannabis representation is fantastic.

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

Lee Mandelo's Summer Sons is fabulous! If I hadn't taken a chance on this queer author, I would not have thought that I would absolutely adore a slow moving masc 4 masc Southern Gothic with supernatural elements and so much grad school research. My reading (and personal) preference is femme 4 femme. Thank you Lee for sharing a fully realized world of fast cars and positive masculine queer characters. And for the horniness, I love when a queer genre book gets a little dirty...or a lot.

I did need to clear the space for the reading, which isn't a bad thing, I just struggle with slow paced books because I have reading difficulties. The audiobook was excellent alongside the printed page. 

I also love how technology is effortlessly interwoven throughout the story, emails, texts, Snaps, sometimes showing the text bubbles and other times presenting the text in italics. It's honestly the best representation of owning a smartphone I've ever read. So visceral, intimate and mundane all at once, which is also a fitting description for the vibes of this novel. Oh, and a haunt embodying those qualities.

This book made me think of Clive Barker more than once. Fall into this story and it will take you on a journey. Just don't expect high octane like some of the blurbs suggest. It's a beautiful slow burn, done extremely well.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Suicide

Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman
Did not finish book. Stopped at 5%.

DNF at 5% because I didn't believe the main character's voice.

I Was Better Last Night: A Memoir by Harvey Fierstein

emotional funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I listened to this memoir read by the author and it is my favorite reading experience this year. I didn't want it to end.

Harvey Fierstein was gay representation during my childhood and a media presence whose existence dared alternative realities than what was being fed to the masses. LGBTQ+ representation in the early 90s was not at all like it is now, and we're still a ways away from normalization. This book shares difficult truths about our society and how to persevere regardless. It's beautiful and hearing Harvey read it is spectacular.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

We See Each Other: A Black, Trans Journey Through TV and Film by Tre'vell Anderson

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

This book is much needed discourse on Black & Trans media represention. Content is great, loved the Transcestors section and it is well researched and synthesized. Pose gets her own chapter, so does trans masc representation and nonbinary too. The TV show Sort Of gives me hope as well and was glad to see both it and Veneno got mentions. Many of the characters and people discussed were also part of my own many nonbinary trans awakenings so it was nostalgic and eye-opening to have things documented like this.

As someone with multiple reading disabilities, I found how receipts were interwoven into sentences was way overcomplicated. Often, I would need to reread the beginning of a sentence's structure without the infodump tangent to understand what was being said. Presenting the article or book info in footnotes would have made this a less challenging reading experience for me.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Transphobia

Borderline by Mishell Baker
Did not finish book. Stopped at 29%.

I appreciate the mental illness and disability representation. That's huge and I'm not knocking the series at all. 

I'm nearly 1/3 into this book and nothing has grabbed me. I switched to audiobook and came to the realization today that I wasn't going to read the rest of the series. Apart from the little dragon friend, I wasn't having fun. And that's when it's time to DNF. If I'm not going to continue the series, might as well stop.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Suicide attempt