helenecats's reviews
218 reviews

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

adventurous funny informative mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

My own, very subjective opinion is 3.5 stars. I finally picked up Project Hail Mary in December, after intense badgering from my brother. And seeing all the rave reviews on Bookstagram. 

I am conflicted here, because it was an entertaining read indeed, and I am glad I read it. Some passages were really funny, other moving. Many were educational. I loved that teaching was portrayed in a positive way. Also fun to see Lyon (my hometown) briefly mentioned as well. 

However, more than halfway through the book, I realised that all the info dump was not going to stop, and that the science and maths were getting more and more complicated. I now realise that I much prefer dystopia to "pure" sci-fi. (I do love sci-fi movies and series though) 

In Project Hail Mary, flashbacks to Earth are composed of caricatural side characters. I would have liked to get their side of the story more. 

In short - if you are a science/Maths/sci-fi buff, then this will most likely be a top read for you. Make sure you go in blind.

Really keen to discuss further in the comments if you fancy it 😀 

The cat who saved books by Sōsuke Natsukawa

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective 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? Yes

3.25

I really enjoyed reading The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa alongside 2 other people. What I liked:

 The fact that most of the book is about books, and a second-hand bookshop.
 The sassy cat 🐈 (Even though to see more of him)
 The length - it's a nice, short tale, which you could read in one or two sittings, really.
 Quite a few lines made me chuckle
 There were some really nice reflections about books, grief, loneliness… I've highlighted several passages.

What I was a bit disappointed by:

 The dialogues. Not sure if it was the translation from Japanese, or this specific author's writing style, but it all seemed a bit off. Phony. It's hard to describe if you haven't read the book though.
 The plot was simplistic and I felt like I was reading a kids' book. Most of the characters were not fully fleshed out, and I wasn't sure why they were included.
 To be honest, I felt like it was a bit derivative of Le Petit Prince - even though the setting was completely different. 

Overall, I'm glad I read it, and if you are looking for a quick read with some cute moments and don't mind what I mentioned above, I'd say, pick it up!

Saha by Cho Nam-joo

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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 very gratefully received a copy of Saha from @netgalley in exchange for an honest review. On paper, Saha was exactly the type of book I love. A dystopian society, multiple POVs, a dash of mystery, crime, science-fiction, class and politics…. Yes!

I was engaged from the get go. Then it fizzled out. Too many characters, plots, twists which don't really lead anywhere…
The ending was also frustrating.

Perhaps it was my high expectations. Perhaps I was influenced by the "low" Goodreads ratings. Or perhaps it just was not a masterpiece...

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I finally picked up The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in November 2022, as a buddy read. I won't summarise the plot again, I think everyone has read at least twenty reviews of this Bookstagram favourite. I had seen so many 5-star reviews, so I was pretty excited. Well. Some aspects I really liked… others not so much. It is pretty hard to explain without going into major spoilers. 

I was pleased to see bisexual representation. I am not too sure about some of the characters though, who were pretty one-dimensional (some of the husbands for instance) One or two things really annoyed me, so if you have read it and want to discuss, do leave a comment!

I would also like to say that I always get less enjoyment reading about queer characters and ethnic minorities when I know they have been written by someone who doesn't belong to either category. I prefer own voices stories 🤷🏽‍♀️

Overall I feel like this would have worked much better as a TV series or a movie, so I will definitely look out for any adaptations.

If you are looking for a page-turner about Hollywood, then go for it. If you're looking for a literary masterpiece which covers serious themes in depth… there is better out there!

The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Finch

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Do you read YA? I must admit that it is a genre I usually avoid. Bar the odd one (Twylight, The Grace Year) I usually prefer literary fiction. But. After I reviewed Everyone's Invited, Louise Finch offered to send me her book, The Eternal Return Of Clara Hart. I am very grateful for the copy!

I read it in a few days whilst I was on holiday in Paris. This addictive novel is effectively a teenage Groundhog Day. We follow Spence, who is still grieving after his mum's death, as he goes through a day at school with his mates, followed by a party. A girl (Clara Hart) dies there. NB: this is not a spoiler! You find that out on the first page.

Spence wakes up the next day, except it is the same day again. And again. And again. What will he have to do to break the time loop?

What I liked:
- The premise. I just love this kind of concept. Back to the Future, Russian Doll, 11/22/63, Interstellar… you name it, I have probably watched/read anything that has to do with time travel and paradoxes. 
- The way it was written made it vivid and not repetitive, as of course, something different happens every time.
- Despite the target audience, the themes tackled are relevant and nothing is sugar coated: grief, assault, r*pe culture, bullying, alcoholism, drugs… as well as friendship, family, art.
- I would love to see this turned into a series or movie, so that it reaches more l people, especially boys and young men.

Small "issues" which made me knock off half a star:
- Some of the dialogues seemed a bit too romanticised or "toned down" - the actual language used by teenagers can be a lot more crude/violent/dismissive, I think. But to be fair, in the later part of the book, we get more of an insight of how boys talk to each other about girls (especially online)
- The plot was rather predictable, but probably because I am an adult who has read a lot about these topics. It would probably be right for teenagers.
- I do tend to prefer multiple POV rather than a single narrator. It was interesting that we never get to read the girls' thoughts - all of it comes from our young male narrator.

All in all I would really recommend! 

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Genuinely one of the most thorough, fascinating, honest book I have ever read, about race relations, backed up by research and references to many historical figures and movements. It is not solely centred on American history either. Incredibly powerful.

These quotes speak for themselves:

"One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist, or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an anti-racist."

"We all have the power to discriminate. Only an exclusive few have the power to make policy. Focusing on “racial discrimination” takes our eyes off the central agents of racism: racist policy and racist policymakers, or what I call racist power."

"Do-nothing climate policy is racist policy, since the predominantly non-White global south is being victimized by climate change more than the Whiter global north, even as the Whiter global north is contributing more to its acceleration."

"Nonviolent Black drug offenders remain in prisons for about the same length of time (58.7 months) as violent White criminals (61.7 months)."

"I had been taught that racist ideas cause racist policies. That ignorance and hate cause racist ideas. That the root problem of racism is ignorance and hate. But that gets the chain of events exactly wrong. The root problem— from Prince Henry to President Trump— has always been the self-interest of racist power. Powerful economic, political, and cultural self- interest— the primitive accumulation of capital in the case of royal Portugal and subsequent slave traders— has been behind racist policies."

"When scientists finished drawing the map of “our miraculous genetic code,” when they stepped back and looked at the map, one of the “great truths” they saw was “that in genetic terms, all human beings, regardless of race, are more than 99.9 percent the same”"

"Ethnic groups in Western Africa are more genetically similar to ethnic groups in Western Europe than to ethnic groups in Eastern Africa. Race is a genetic mirage."

"Singular-race makers push for the end of categorizing and identifying by race. They wag their fingers at people like me identifying as Black— but the unfortunate truth is that their well- meaning post- racial strategy makes no sense in our racist world. Race is a mirage but one that humanity has organized itself around in very real ways. Imagining away the existence of races in a racist world is as conserving and harmful as imagining away classes in a capitalistic world— it allows the ruling races and classes to keep on ruling."

"Black people are apparently responsible for calming the fears of violent cops in the way women are supposedly responsible for calming the sexual desires of male rapists. If we don’t, then we are blamed for our own assaults, our own deaths."

"researchers have found a much stronger and clearer correlation between violent- crime levels and unemployment levels than between violent crime and race. Black neighborhoods do not all have similar levels of violent crime."

"Ebonics had grown from the roots of African languages and modern English just as modern English had grown from Latin, Greek, and Germanic roots. Why is Ebonics broken English but English is not broken German? Why is Ebonics a dialect of English if English is not a dialect of Latin? The idea that Black languages outside Africa are broken is as culturally racist as the idea that languages inside Europe are fixed."

"Hip-hop has had the most sophisticated vocabulary of any American musical genre. I read endlessly its poetic text. But parents and grandparents did not see us listening to and memorizing gripping works of oral poetry and urban reporting and short stories and autobiographies and sexual boasting and adventure fantasies. They saw— and still see— words that would lead my mind into deviance."

"One of racism’s harms is the way it falls on the unexceptional Black person who is asked to be extraordinary just to survive— and, even worse, the Black screwup who faces the abyss after one error, while the White screwup is handed second chances and empathy."

"White people and Dark people reject and envy Light people."

"Large slaveholders more often worked Light people in the house and Dark people in the fields, reasoning that Light people were suited for skilled tasks and Dark people for more physically demanding tasks. A body will be all the more animalistic the darker it is."

"Today, skin lighteners are used by 70 percent of women in Nigeria; 35 percent in South Africa; 59 percent in Togo; and 40 percent in China, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Korea."

"Socialist and communist spaces are not automatically anti-racist. Some socialists and communists have pushed a segregationist or post- racial program in order not to alienate racist White workers."

"The top 1 percent now own around half of the world’s wealth, up from 42.5 percent at the height of the Great Recession in 2008."

"King had a nightmare that came to pass. Non-White students fill most of the seats in today’s public school classrooms but are taught by an 80 percent White teaching force, which often has, however unconsciously, lower expectations for non- White students. When Black and White teachers look at the same Black student, White teachers are about 40 percent less likely to believe the student will finish high school. Low- income Black students who have at least one Black teacher in elementary school are 29 percent less likely to drop out of school, 39 percent less likely among very low- income Black boys."

"My ideas of gender and sexuality reflected those of my parents. They did not raise me not to be a homophobe. They rarely talked about gay and lesbian people. Ideas often dance a cappella. Their silence erased queer existence as thoroughly as integrationists erased the reality of integrated White spaces."

"We must continue to “affirm that all Black lives matter,” as the co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Opal Tometi, once said. All Black lives include those of poor transgender Black women, perhaps the most violated and oppressed of all the Black intersectional groups. The average U.S. life expectancy of a transgender woman of color is thirty-five years."

"It is best to challenge ourselves by dragging ourselves before people who intimidate us with their brilliance and constructive criticism."

"ACTIVIST: One who has a record of power or policy change."

"Knowledge is only power if knowledge is put to the struggle for power. Changing minds is not a movement. Critiquing racism is not activism. Changing minds is not activism. An activist produces power and policy change, not mental change. If a person has no record of power or policy change, then that person is not an activist."

"I try to keep everyday people in mind when I use “racist policies” instead of “institutional racism.” Policymakers and policies make societies and institutions, not the other way around. The United States is a racist nation because its policymakers and policies have been racist from the beginning."

"The source of racist ideas was not ignorance and hate, but self-interest. The history of racist ideas is the history of powerful policymakers erecting racist policies out of self- interest, then producing racist ideas to defend and rationalize the inequitable effects of their policies, while everyday people consume those racist ideas, which in turn sparks ignorance and hate."

"Racism is not even six hundred years old. It’s a cancer that we’ve caught early. But racism is one of the fastest-spreading and most fatal cancers humanity has ever known."

The Racial Code by Nicola Rollock

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

I am a white teacher who works with students from a range of backgrounds, living in London. Technically I'm a migrant (from France) but I've suffered pretty much zero discrimination on that basis, unlike my fiancé and many friends, colleagues and students who are not white. I've always been interested in racial justice, and in the past few years I've been reading extensively about anti-racism. I also read a lot of fiction written by Black women - I recommend you check out #20booksbyblackwomen 

The Racial Code: Takes of Resistance and Survival by Professor Nicola Rollock. This is the ideal read for people who don't read much non-fiction, as it is a mix of non-fiction and satire - several short stories based on real life issues and experiences. We follow various individuals dealing with microaggressions and the racism (sometimes blatant, sometimes covert, but insidious nonetheless) of institutions and people within them. There is a plethora of footnotes referring to studies.

I don't think I can make this book justice in a short caption - I have posted some of my favourite extracts on Instagram. I definitely recommend it.

Thank you @penguinukbooks and @profnicolarollock for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

She and Her Cat by Makoto Shinkai, Tsubasa Yamaguchi

emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Do you judge a book by its title? I assumed that "She and Her Cat" was going to be THE book for me. Even more so when I saw the tagline "for fans of Travelling Cat Chronicles and Convenience Store Woman" Well. I'm sorry to report that it's nothing like the 2 books above.

Was it cute? Yes, mostly. Was it original? Not really. Was it well-written? Hmm. I felt like I was reading a kids' book at times. But does it cover important issues? I mean, loneliness, grief and depression are in there, but not explored satisfactorily, in my humble opinion. I didn't cry as I didn't have time to care enough before moving on to the next character and cat(s). The constant switching POVs were also confusing at times.

I liked many Japanese books about cats, but this wasn't really one of them. Not much happens. That said, it is a quick read, and some of the passages were endearing. I liked the couple of drawings too. Perhaps this one is better in the original Japanese…?

My very subjective star rating: ⭐️⭐️💫 (but I've seen many rave reviews already so don't let mine put you off!)

Blurb extract: "A cat named Chobi sends silent messages of courage to a young woman, willing her to end a faltering relationship; a gifted artist fatally misunderstands her boss's enthusiasm for her paintings; a manga fan shuts herself away after the death of her friend, while her cat Cookie hatches a plan to persuade her outside; a woman who has dedicated her life to a distant husband learns a lesson in independence from her cat. Against the urban backdrop of humming trains and private woes, SHE AND HER CAT explores the gentle magic of the everyday."

Thank you @netgalley and @randomhouse for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

RAVEN by Melinda B. Hipple

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

4.25

I love sci-fi movies and series, especially when it explores survival in hostile environments. But often sci-fi books are written by white, straight men, and it shows. So when Melinda B Hipple offered to send me her book, Raven, I was excited. And it delivered! I am so glad I decided to read it now. September is always a month of highs and lows (new classes, lots of work, summer ending) and Raven provided me with much-needed escapism. And chills.

Full of twists and turns, a great villain, a strong female scientist, this novel follows 5 spaceships trying to locate new liveable planets, each in different "corners" of the universe. People stuck in closed environments for years? What could go wrong you ask? Loads! 

I felt like I was watching a TV series and gasped a few times. I am now eagerly waiting for the sequel as I have several unanswered questions. What is happening back on Earth? Will some of the spaceships ever meet again? Will new planets be found, or alien life? What about sentient AI?

I recommend it 😊

Burnt: Fighting for Climate Justice by Chris Saltmarsh

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

Burnt: Fighting for Climate Justice was full of fascinating facts and statistics about the climate crisis. I had already read similar books before, but they were either a lot longer or shorter (eg articles, graphic novels, or very short essays). This 160-page non-fiction book fell nicely in the middle. If you don't know about Pluto Press and their Outspoken series, I urge you to go check them out. Every time I read one of their books, I feel like I've attended a conference about that topic.

Saltmarsh starts with his credentials. Climate activist since his teens, he has gotten involved in many demonstrations (or "demos") and direct action. He clearly cares a great deal about the planet, but also about people who live on it - and not just those in his immediate environment. 

When I started reading this book, we were in the middle of a severe heatwave in the UK. I am writing my review in the aftermath of the deadly floods in Pakistan which affected 33 million people and have already killed thousands. 

Pick up this book to understand better what is awaiting us if we remain passive. I know a lot of you (me included) think that you are already doing your "bit" by recycling, choosing more eco-friendly products, perhaps changing your diet. But here Saltmarsh tells us that we won't get where we need to be within the current capitalist system. An economy which had growth and profit at its core simply cannot be sustainable. Period. 

Where the author lost me a bit is when he started offering possible solutions, relying heavily on governments to take the reins, renationalising transport, heavily regulating food, and ensuring that staff currently working in polluting industries get offered green jobs. Some of the passages sounded so idealistic and utopian, I really could not see how today's citizens would buy into it. For instance, travelling by train across continents instead of flying. Maybe I've become extremely cynical after living in London… But when I see the littering, the waste of resources, the number of people being paid double or triple than me for working in jobs making the world even more unequal - I simply don't believe the people in charge will have enough power to force them to give up their privileges.

In summary - I found the first half of the book extremely clear, well-researched and informative. The second half was more political and far-left leaning; criticising many movements such as the unions and XR, whilst offering a way out which I don't ever foresee happening: governments working together on a global scale and nationalising most industries. The experts quoted/interviewed don't seem to have enough weight, and in the end I was left a bit disheartened and helpless. Still, it is well worth a read.