historyofjess's reviews
2116 reviews

Slayers, Every One of Us: How One Girl in All the World Showed Us How to Hold On by Kristin Russo, Jenny Owen Youngs

emotional funny reflective fast-paced

5.0

I have no clue what reading this book would be like for someone that hasn't spent hours listening the various Buffering podcasts, singing along to the many songs that Jenny wrote for each episode, chatting with fellow fans in the various online Buffering podcasts, participating in countless live-watches with the hosts and fans, as well as attending multiple book clubs with fellow Buffering buds and one of the authors of this book.

I felt incredibly close to this book even before I started reading it and as Kristin and Jenny, with candor and humor, detailed the ups and down of their lives and their personal relationship over the lifespan of the Buffering the Vampire Slayer podcast, it dug its way deeper into my heart.

It's beautiful and incredibly emotional. It's about the many ways that love can exist between people and the ways it can transform and be transformative.

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

Ooof. This one was a struggle for me. I powered through it expecting that there was going to be some kind of a-ha moment at the end that tied everything together in a way that made the long journey worth it but as the book rushed to its conclusion I felt very unsatisfied. I'm mystified by the choices the author made in what to spend huge swaths of time on and what to speed through. I'm just not really sure what the point of it all was. It was long and dark and uncomfortable to read and at no point did I really feel connected to any of the characters and the resolution came so quickly after so much build-up. Just very disappointing.

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett

adventurous lighthearted medium-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? Yes

4.0

I was a bit lukewarm on the first two entries in this series but this one fully enchanted me. I found I was much more invested in the story, less alienated by the time in Faerie and truly captivated by Emily’s, now fully lived in, relationships with everyone (but especially her dog, naturally). 

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-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? Yes

4.0

It took me awhile to get into this but once it hooked me I was so very in. As soon as I started to get a feel for the world of the story, I was able to focus more on the bond between these characters and everything about that was a joy. I look forward to reading further in this series. 

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

In reading this, it felt like Kingfisher looked at the "strong female character" trope and said "fuck it, I'm gonna make a weak female protagonist." And you know what? It was kind of awesome. One of them is emotionally weak and the other is physically weak and the two of them come together to combat an incredibly strong female antagonist.

I really enjoy Kingfisher's style of dark fairy tale. Between this and Nettle & Bone, I think she has an incredible feel for the tropes of this kind of storytelling, while also bringing in her own original ideas to make it fully textured world.

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor by Bianca Marais

lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

This was fun but I was left feeling a little meh about it in the end. I think I wasn't fully engaged in the over-arching mystery set in the present day and the way that how they got there was very slowly rolled out. I was much more invested once I knew more about all the ladies and their relationships with each other, but it took kind of awhile to get there. I love that the author wanted to put elder women at the forefront of this book, but I just did find the elder plot line to be as interesting as the flashbacks as that piece was too dependent on "what happened before" for it to entirely make sense. It was still a fun book to read, but I wish it had gone a bit deeper in the end.

A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.5

I liked the Animal People part of this book much more than the stuff with the humans, which never really lived up to the expectations that were set in the early chapters. But the story of Ollie and his fellow shapeshifters was great and would've enjoyed this book more if it had been entirely their journey, but it was still a really fun story.

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

This was a bit of a tough read because Kobabe's honesty about eir anxieties related to gender and sexuality are so palpable but it was also incredibly rewarding, especially as someone who is married to a nonbinary person as been following them on their journey of coming out and coming into their own. It's wild to me that so much has been made about a single page of this graphic novel by disingenuous folks on the rights when it makes its case for its own existence as you experience Maia's pain and disorientation at not knowing how to exist in the world because e were never never given any template to understand who e could be.

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper

informative reflective fast-paced

3.5

There's something about following a lightweight feminist book written by a white woman with one from a Black woman that really highlights how much more valuable the latter is. Cooper has such a wider view on not only what feminism is but what it can be and what it can do. I was particularly intrigued by how her own intersectional views lead her to acknowledge and recognize where her differing viewpoints contradicted themselves and how that's something she, herself, has to reckon with (this was particularly interesting given that this part of the book came after some Hillary Clinton lionizing that I was a little put off by, myself). Cooper also has a lot to say about the relationships between Black men and Black women and the ways in which many Black men fail to show up for Black women both at home and in the street.

Women Don't Owe You Pretty by Florence Given

informative fast-paced

3.0

There is definitely an audience for this book could be very useful. It's kind of a feminism and empowerment beginner's manual. For someone like myself who is very comfortable in their gender and sexuality and who has done a lot of reading and education in this space, I didn't find anything new here. But if you're looking for a quick and accessible book to recommend to folks who are new to these ideas, I could see the benefit of this book.