The “protagonist” has so many insights about existentialism and how it applies to her, other humans, and her pet. She realizes that she is an animal, and that aliens could see humans as animals and exploit them, and that animals experience deep emotion, and yet, the animals that she eats are purely inanimate objects to her that she continues to exploit nonchalantly. She thinks birds and pigs are magical and that animal lives matter in one thought and complains about how the dead bird she’s about to eat has veins in the next. It’s so uncomfortable reading about her cognitive dissonance. I was hoping her obsession with death and suffering would at least lead her to sympathize with non-human animals, but nope. She has to be the most annoying, hateable “protagonist” in any book I’ve ever read and I say this as someone who has struggled with similar mental health issues. This book felt way too millennial to me.

Content Warnings

Fruiting Bodies: Stories by Kathryn Harlan

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense 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

5.0

Easily one of my favorite books of all time. I cried multiple times and some stories had me on the edge of my seat.

Could’ve done without the repetitive mentions of characters’ sizes.

Content Warnings

Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis by Britt Wray

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

Stepping Off the Relationship Escalator: Uncommon Love and Life by Amy Gahran

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

The Great Plant-Based Con: Why eating a plants-only diet won't improve your health or save the planet by Jayne Buxton

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medium-paced

0.25

Packed full of misinformation and junk science, this reads like an industry propaganda piece, or someone’s desperate attempt to justify their blatant inaction in the face of the climate crisis.

Content Warnings

“We Are Certain of Our Own Insanity”: Antipsychiatry and the Gay Liberation Movement, 1968–1980 by Abram J. Lewis

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fast-paced

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The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery by Marjorie Spiegel

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challenging informative fast-paced

5.0

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ivylovesbirds's reviews 16 reviews

ivylovesbirds's reviews
16 reviews