innerweststreetlibrarian's reviews
425 reviews

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.5

This book reminded me a lot of Never Let Me Go (which I loved). There’s something similar about  Klara’s voice, a naïveté perhaps? 
Nothing much really happens and it’s a little infuriating that we don’t get to see or understand more about the world (so in that sense, it reminds me a little of The Buried Giant, which I didn’t like), but there’s enough to keep the reader intrigued. I was quite amused by the AFs having their own superstitions. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness and Terminal illness

Minor: Child death, Abandonment, and Mental illness

Speak by Louisa Hall

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Animal death, Grief, Antisemitism, Suicide, Homophobia, Genocide, and Cancer

Minor: Colonisation, Vomit, Chronic illness, Death, Outing, War, Confinement, and Fatphobia

This is an odd, meandering patchwork of stories past and future, looking at the origins of artificial intelligence and how we remember the voices of the past. Lots of interesting ethical conundrums and speculation about how things could go very wrong. I note this book was published in 2015, reading it now in mid 2023, it is somewhat more frightening than it would have been, only a year ago. How about we all agree that babybots are a BAD idea, ok?

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

adventurous mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

This is such an excellent book. I’m finding it quite hard to describe why though. I think it’s the kind of story that is best entered knowing as little as possible beforehand. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicide

The Power by Naomi Alderman

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense fast-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

5.0

W O W! 
I really needed the first half of this book after the grinding misogyny of the last one I read, but oof it got really hard to keep going once I was about halfway through. Definitely needed more contemplation time between chapters to process what was going on. And that was quite a LOT. Very, deeply thought provoking, and a tad horrifying. Basically excellent. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Torture, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Hate crime, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Trafficking, and Gun violence

Minor: Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

A Planet for Rent by Yoss

adventurous challenging medium-paced

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

3.0

This is a challenging collection of short stories. Some are quite horrific. 
I found the parallels between this post-alien contact earth and Cuba quite fascinating, and that is what drove me to finish. 
The things I didn’t like, were the sloppy editing (so many typos), the use of the term “social worker” to describe sex workers, and the really strong sexist tone throughout the book that really dates it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Addiction, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Gore, Misogyny, Police brutality, Rape, Physical abuse, Sexism, Blood, Classism, Genocide, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Suicide, Alcohol, Death of parent, Gun violence, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Medical content, Self harm, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Infertility, Medical trauma, Animal death, Cannibalism, Trafficking, Murder, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Torture, Racism, Toxic relationship, and War

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

adventurous challenging emotional medium-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

3.5

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

The idea of being stuck somewhere with no idea when you’re going to be able to leave probably took on a whole deeper meaning by the time this one was ready to publish. Another excellent read. 

The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

A wonderful conclusion to an excellent story. I’m sad it didn’t end up being a trilogy just so I could spend a little longer in that world, but the explanation of why it had to be like this makes a lot of sense. It must be unnerving to have life imitating art in such disturbing ways! 

Nation by Terry Pratchett

adventurous funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

Somehow this delightful book escaped my notice until it turned up in a street library one day. It’s always fun to see a beloved author trying out some new ideas, and there’s some interesting parallel universe stuff going on here, but quite different to what he explored in the Long Earth series. This is much more about relationships, culture, survival and community, with a bit of world building thrown in. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Cannibalism, Gun violence, Colonisation, Blood, Alcohol, Animal death, Vomit, and Pregnancy

Minor: Murder, Medical trauma, Body horror, Cultural appropriation, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

adventurous hopeful reflective slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

I enjoyed this too, but found it a slower read than the previous ones. It was a bit more challenging to keep track of all the different characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Grief and Sexual content

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol