hounded's reviews
81 reviews

Full Surrogacy Now by Sophie Anne Lewis

4.0

I have rarely found a book where I agree with everything! This was incredibly informative and I feel I have such a solid footing to discuss this topic now. 
Plus it helps that the author is not only informative but also makes it very accessible! Plus I was surprised to actually laugh at some of the humor in this book! I know hard to believe there would be humor in this but there was and it was good!
Good messages and good writing made this the exact kind of book an important one! And one that I am going to make many other people pick up

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

3.75

I liked this book a lot! The plot was engaging and I felt like I was as stressed as the characetrs in this. Some of the writing definetly had it's ups and downs but there are parts in this that are genuinely chilling to read. Even things I saw coming made me feel sick when it came about in more detail. I'm so so excited for this author to write more! 

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

4.5

An amazing and difficult book to handle. I love Octavia butler so much and once again she amazes me. I cannot begin to tell you how upsetting this book is and just how much there is to talk about with it. Dana is such a heartbreaking character to follow and all the events and choices she has to make are so harrowing I felt like I aged 6 years reading it. The ending scene of Dana and Rufus is so chilling and upsetting. Butler does such a good job at shocking the reader when least expected and this was truely one of the best. 
I think that everyone who likes sci-fi should read this for this quote from Butler alone:
 

 “Science fiction,” Butler writes, “has long treated people who might or might not exist—extraterrestrials. Unfortunately, however, many of the same science-fiction writers who started us thinking about the possibility of extraterrestrial life did nothing to make us think about here-at-home human variation.”
 ―  Octavia E. Butler, Kindred

The Postcard by Anne Berest

4.75

Ahhhhh! So so good! So touching! I cried so much at parts of this book! The mystery of the postcard and how it all connects to the ending makes me soooooooo ahhhhh!

The entire plot revolving around how the authors grandmother didn't want to forget her family who had died in the holocaust so she sent them a post card with names. Which led to then the author discovering these people and caring so much. Then writing this book which will now be read by thousands of people. Keeping this family alive in peoples minds for generations to come. I'm going to cry again...

Highly highly recommend! I have never read a book like this and I want more! 

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

4.25

Wow! What an intense book! Made even more intense by the fact a friend told me were all the characters are based off someone who exsits in jewish history and this is a fictonalised version of what had possibly happened to them! Which makes it all the more heartbreaking!
There's so much in this book and I can't even begin to name all the times I cried reading it. A heafty book to take on but well well worth it to read

Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo

2.5

I didn't care much for this book. Not that it was all that bad but it really bothered me that the main character was suppoused to be unliked for most of it but the end felt like it was really trying to shove down your throat to root for her anyway. Which I didn't. So I was not happy with the ending (or at least how it was handled)
Overall the concept and a lot of other aspects were very good! I enjoyed the life of the wolves! Plus the actual lab scenes I did not find boring at all!
I've read a bit of this authors other works but this one I think is my favorite. Unfortunatly I think this author strives in stories that settings are in acadamia but not outside it. (I.s "Summer Sons" but this isn't a review for that book). Overall I would say read it!

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen

4.0

I love the mouse guard series!!! Such inventive and fun world building of a society of mice! I feel the story in this first book is a little rushed but overall! Highly recommend to anyone who likes high fantasy as well as beautiful illustrations!
I love love love! the art in this book! Everything has such a nice texture and makes it ffeel older then it actually is! 
Read this pleeeaasseee

Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

3.0

I did like this book overall! But the 2nd half did very little for me as the first half did. I found myself losing interest in the story around that point which is sad :(((

Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power by Jude Ellison S. Doyle

4.25

Very good look at misogyny  in horror!!! I could feel my media literacy getting better as I read it! It gave me so many new ways to look at horror and contemplate story tellers choices with their characters. I never actually realized how many horror monsters/killers have some convoluted way to blame the mothers in the movies....so the men who kill are never at fault. Just a misunderstood under dog who was raised by an "evil mother" that anyone would turn out like that....
Such good in depth thoughts! Definitely as anyone who likes horror read this book! It will blow your mind!

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

4.25

It's a classic. I love it. Heartbreaking as the first time I read it, heartbreaking now. Lennie and George always felt like people I knew and worked with which made this an even harder read for me this time. This book is very short but the just amount to process and look at and pick apart is wild! I didn't appreciate this in high school as much as I do now. 
I forgot how heavily Curly's wife lays over the 2nd half of the book but she is menacing! The scene of them in Crook's shack is so upsetting and sends chills down my spine!
And just the tension as Lennie makes mistakes is like watching a slow and sad train wreck that just makes you feel bad. 
I look forward to reading it again