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halfcactus's reviews
67 reviews
My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Nagata Kabi
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
5.0
*still processing how I feel about this*
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder
Moderate: Self harm
Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney
adventurous
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
A retelling of events leading up to the Trojan War. It's largely driven by fate. I didn't find the main character (Anaxandra) particularly compelling, but I thought she was an effective POV character. The world felt tangible in her eyes, and it made sense to me how, throughout the series of childhood separations, she always tried to grasp and hold on to love.
Liked the Medusa bits + theCassandra twist towards the end
Liked the Medusa bits + the
嘉鱼往事 by 西子绪
2.5
Humble government worker Zhou Jiayu dies in a car crash and finds himself thrust into the world of fengshui when he transmigrates into the body of someone with his exact same name—the fraudulent fengshui master Zhou Jiayu whose crimes have cost lives. He is captured by Lin Zhushui, a blind fengshui master that he has been brought back to save from certain death.
I think I would recommend reading this til the end of the tournament arc (before it gets to the “main plot”) and skipping to the dog case (a traumatic but excellent standalone horror episode) and the last few chapters as well as Lin Jue's parts. She turned out to be the most well-written character in the entire novel even though she's kind of the token jiejie side character while everyone else is just sort of... plays their part..
The author is very good at one-off horror mysteries with cute critters and comedy, but very bad at writing bigger arcs. If this had just continued being a series of horror episodes and interconnected short stories, or if it had been like 40 chapters shorter, I would have loved it! Unfortunately, there had to be a plot, which simply just was not plotting...
I think I would recommend reading this til the end of the tournament arc (before it gets to the “main plot”) and skipping to the dog case (a traumatic but excellent standalone horror episode) and the last few chapters as well as Lin Jue's parts. She turned out to be the most well-written character in the entire novel even though she's kind of the token jiejie side character while everyone else is just sort of... plays their part..
The author is very good at one-off horror mysteries with cute critters and comedy, but very bad at writing bigger arcs. If this had just continued being a series of horror episodes and interconnected short stories, or if it had been like 40 chapters shorter, I would have loved it! Unfortunately, there had to be a plot, which simply just was not plotting...
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Gore
perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood by June Dao
3.5
A conversation about asexuality,and feeling content and fulfilled with one's relationships as they are.
A Walk in the Park by Winnie Chua
emotional
hopeful
reflective
5.0
A gorgeous and moving meditation about not knowing how to live your life that landed on all the right spots for me since I too have been Going Through It this year and also trying to do things to get out of my head—trying to find myself in the world around me.
Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha
dark
reflective
sad
They didn't find a place to bury you.
They carried you on their shoulders,
wandered through the neighborhood,
stopped at your childhood school
and the old park.
The houses never saw you.
They've already packed their bags.
Dust has erected a tent in the corners.
Rust has landed with its worn-out clothes
on the tap
and on the spoon.
It seals from the water its soft slide,
while you,
you sleep on moving sand.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar
3.5
Enemies-to-lovers story in epistolary format as they leave each other letters in the time war. I found the writing flowery and distracting at first, but it grew one me as we spent more time with the characters. Plot was self-contained but a bit too lean for me—I could have done with more meat and tendon.
In the Jaws of St. Camillus by Stevie Barot
4.0
A twisty story about a mortician and a priest in a remote Filipino town. Dark and warm and beautifully tense, with a strong sense of place and very interesting character dynamics. The ending feels like a prelude to a bigger story.