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halfcactus's reviews
73 reviews
With This Ring by Carla Kelly
3.0
Marriage of convenience + hurt/comfort romance novel: She is the unloved eldest daughter with severe self-esteem issues and a desire to do meaningful work, while he is a wounded soldier with war trauma and men he wants to take care of.
Nothing about the novel feels remotely plausible, but it's fine, other than the completely unnecessary child acquisition storyline—it just feels too heteronormative, especially since the characters' chemistry feels more platonic than romantic to me.
Nothing about the novel feels remotely plausible, but it's fine, other than the completely unnecessary child acquisition storyline—it just feels too heteronormative, especially since the characters' chemistry feels more platonic than romantic to me.
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
3.5
I liked the first half better than the second half where the plot escalates but everything still feels kinda simplistic and the baking becomes less defensive. :P But it's still a fun, charming book, one I would recommend IRL. I was invested in the characters and their familiars.
Little Mushroom: Judgment Day by Shisi
dark
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.5
Post-apocalyptic novel where gene contamination has caused inter-species mutation all over the world. And the more that humans try to keep their biological humanity intact and survive as a species, the less human they become.
I didn't expect this book to be as bleak as it was but in retrospect it's pretty thematic. It pursues the question of "how far are humans willing to go?" wholly and unflinchingly, and it allows you to inhabit an interesting emotional space as the events unfold before the eyes of a mushroom who has absorbed human genes but doesn't experience emotions or attachment the way that humans (and by extension, the novel readers) do. There is some comedy and humor in between all the horror, so it's not horrifying the whole way but it was still terrible, lol.
I really loved the first chapter: it draws you in atmospherically and emotionally, with the right amount of mystery to make you keep reading, as the information that's filtered through An Zhe's PoV comes to you piece by piece. The visual aspects of the story are beautifully, vividly rendered, but the worldbuilding is pretty shaky so it was hard for me to predict which details would be plot-relevant or not because there were some aspects that seemed like they could be a cause for concern.
I did get a better handle on the storytelling style and its themes in the second half (Roses), which had a longer series of intertwined mysteries and plot points.
I really enjoyed the writing when An Zhe was simply being a mushroom thinking mushroomy thoughts that had nothing at all to do with humans. The action-horror chapters are very well done too (those were the ones I couldn't stop reading).
Vol2 ends at a really good place where it's not a sudden cliffhanger but still leaves you with all the unanswered questions that An Zhe wasn't invested in finding out.
English translation had good parts, and is generally readable, but felt pretty rough and severely underedited, especially towards the end (or maybe I just got tired idk).
CONTENT WARNINGS: body horror, gore, giant bugs and worms (horrifying), attempted rape, racism/weird depiction of racism at the beginning (not in the English translation)
I didn't expect this book to be as bleak as it was but in retrospect it's pretty thematic. It pursues the question of "how far are humans willing to go?" wholly and unflinchingly, and it allows you to inhabit an interesting emotional space as the events unfold before the eyes of a mushroom who has absorbed human genes but doesn't experience emotions or attachment the way that humans (and by extension, the novel readers) do. There is some comedy and humor in between all the horror, so it's not horrifying the whole way but it was still terrible, lol.
I really loved the first chapter: it draws you in atmospherically and emotionally, with the right amount of mystery to make you keep reading, as the information that's filtered through An Zhe's PoV comes to you piece by piece. The visual aspects of the story are beautifully, vividly rendered, but the worldbuilding is pretty shaky so it was hard for me to predict which details would be plot-relevant or not because there were some aspects that seemed like they could be a cause for concern.
I did get a better handle on the storytelling style and its themes in the second half (Roses), which had a longer series of intertwined mysteries and plot points.
I really enjoyed the writing when An Zhe was simply being a mushroom thinking mushroomy thoughts that had nothing at all to do with humans. The action-horror chapters are very well done too (those were the ones I couldn't stop reading).
Vol2 ends at a really good place where it's not a sudden cliffhanger but still leaves you with all the unanswered questions that An Zhe wasn't invested in finding out.
English translation had good parts, and is generally readable, but felt pretty rough and severely underedited, especially towards the end (or maybe I just got tired idk).
CONTENT WARNINGS: body horror, gore, giant bugs and worms (horrifying), attempted rape, racism/weird depiction of racism at the beginning (not in the English translation)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Body horror
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Racism and Racial slurs
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