hedsek's reviews
117 reviews

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-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? No

3.75

Really really enjoyed this! Again, the form and content match each other very well which made this book a lot more readable than Harrow. I loved getting Nona's perspective and the way her cheerful outlook kind of tricked you into thinking things were fine every once in a while, until you read between the lines and you realise that of course it's not. The stakes did seem a lot lower than the other books up until the very end, and I'm really excited for Alecto. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Genocide, Gun violence, Eating disorder, and Violence

Minor: Murder, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Drug use

Reisverslag van een kat by Hiro Arikawa, Sander Schoen
Did not finish book. Stopped at 12%.

Already too depressing, feels a bit cheaply sentimental tbh

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Conceptually I really like this, but the writing style did not work well for me. I only really felt invested during the last quarter of the book, the rest of the time I sort of didn't care. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Death, Genocide, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Murder, Police brutality, and War

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Blood, and Car accident

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Alcohol, Colonisation, Drug use, Mass/school shootings, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual content

Spijkerschrift by Kader Abdolah

adventurous reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

Voor mij is dit het net niet, het heeft op zich interessante elementen zoals over de geschiedenis van Iran maar het verhaal zelf kon me niet heel erg boeien. Het leest wel lekker weg maar is qua stijl ook niet echt mijn ding, en het voelt een beetje all over the place met de raamvertelling, het verhaal van Aga Akbar en het commentaar aan het begin van de hoofdstukken door elkaar. Dus in totaal een vrij medium ervaring voor mij. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Drug use

Minor: Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, and Miscarriage

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Really struggled through the first half, but the book does redeem itself. I enjoyed it a bit less than Gideon (probably because seeing the world through Harrow's eyes is a lot less fun), but I'm curious to see what the rest of the series brings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Toxic friendship, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide, Grief, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Murder, Violence, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Colonisation, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Cursing

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.25

Really great read, I loved it! It kind of skipped around quite a lot in terms of subject and chronology but it really fit the memoir style super well. Loved the colour work as well! 

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-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

3.75

Took a while to get used to the writing style and the amount of characters that is introduced in one go, but as soon as shit really started to go down I couldn't stop reading anymore. The magic system is so intriguing as well, I can't wait to learn more about the way the universe works in Harrow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Cancer

Babel by R.F. Kuang

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

I found this book really gripping, amazingly well written and super insightful. The whole idea of the silver working and the role language plays in it is really interesting and also appeals to me personally as a linguist, and it was clearly very well researched. The overall treatment of how people respond to oppression was also well thought out and I thought it was gripping to read about the different ways in which the main characters dealt with it. However, one thing I really disliked about this book were the footnotes. They served many different goals and it was very unclear from what perspective they were meant. I feel like they also implied that the author didn't really trust readers to understand the difference between fiction and reality and sometimes even that certain racist views expressed by characters are indeed racist and not factually true. This was mostly in the beginning of the book, though, and it did not take away from my enjoyment of the rest of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Suicide, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Torture, Violence, Grief, Racism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Classism, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Blood, Slavery, and War

Minor: Bullying, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Deportation, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, and Islamophobia

Tussen moan en mörn by Kunny Luchtenberg

lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

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

3.5

Dit is gewoon best wel een schattig en persoonlijk kijkje in het dagelijks leven van een oudere vrouw. Vooral de verhalen waarin ze wat meer spiritualiteit ontdekt zijn leuk en ontroerend om te lezen. De schrijfstijl is vlot maar er zitten ook echt mooie zinnen bij.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Fatphobia and Death

The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I found the book really hard to follow, maybe even more so than the first part. Baru seems like a completely different person, which makes sense given the things she's done, but in a very weird teenagery way for some reason. I am super confused  by her relation with almost everyone, but maybe it's supposed to be that way? There was some beautiful prose though, and as with the previous book the ending was very climactic and makes me want to read the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Addiction, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Lesbophobia, and Death

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Torture, Homophobia, Blood, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Biphobia, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, War, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Drug use, Cursing, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy