jainabee's reviews
496 reviews

Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës by Isabel Greenberg

dark funny inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

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

The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg

emotional funny hopeful fast-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

The story is a very sweet and fun teen romance romp, even as it weaves in very serious and challenging themes and topics. Nuanced characters emerge through confronting their own presumptions about each other and about themselves.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Vomit, Racism, Addiction, and Rape

Moderate: Addiction, Grief, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Drug use, Homophobia, Alcohol, Classism, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Minor: Kidnapping, Cursing, Abandonment, Biphobia, and Cultural appropriation

Remarkably realistic and accurate portrayal of rape, dissociation, gaslighting, addiction, and moving through various stages of trauma. The challenging material is handled with great care and shows healthy, functional family and community responses to trauma.

Witches of Brooklyn by Sophie Escabasse

funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

adventurous challenging inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

I couldn't put this down and I told each and every one of my friends, colleagues, and quite a few strangers that they really ought to read this book! I can barely wait for the next one—so curious to see where the story goes from the astonishing set-up of the first book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Colonisation, Classism, Death of parent, Racism, Sexual harassment, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Gaslighting, Genocide, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

The great thing about the challenging content is that is is witnessed from the point of view of a very confident young woman of color who calls out that %$#!

The Tale That Twines by Cedar McCloud

emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

Savored this book for as long as possible, and now I am sure I will be going back to read it again and again like I did with the first of this series. I am in love with these characters and want to live in their world and be bffs with them! Cedar's storytelling is getting even better, with subtle themes filligried throughout the bold and compelling plotline. OMX how can I wait for the next installment?!?!?!?

Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer

challenging dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I am so glad this book exists because I NEEDED it. It needed to exist in the world. The question of how to balance fandom of my favorite works of creativity with the toxic and destructive behaviors of the creators is an issue that torments me. Dederer directly addresses some of my own pet monsters; Woody Allen, David Bowie, JK Rowling, Miles Davis. This book makes me think a LOT. This book is very uncomfortable in a vitally important way. This book challenges me in ways I needed. The chapter comparing and contrasting Valerie Solanas and Sylvia Plath (!!!!!) flipped my wig with the brilliance of unexpected insights about how women respond to the violence of misogyny. The chapter about Lolita is a sparkling gem of brilliant insight and analysis that might be the best review of it I've ever read (spoiler alert: Nabokov is not a monster, though he is a genius). This book is FULL of triggering content, as it describes the crimes of the creators. No way around that. The point of the book seems to be to face the monsters directly and feel the extremely uncomfortable dilemma between loving something, even the monster, "even after everything." I got a lot to think about here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Rape, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Child abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Abandonment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Pedophilia, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Racism, Mental illness, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Classism, Drug abuse, Cursing, Grief, Murder, Racism, War, Xenophobia, Genocide, and Hate crime

Minor: Drug use, Death of parent, Dysphoria, and Fire/Fire injury

I need to read this book again. And probably again.

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Murakami messing with my mind again. A mystery that isn't a mystery. No clues to unravel, no startling conclusions. He'll bring the reader to a moment that seems momentous, and then slyly let it be mundane. And just to be absolutely clear about that, he'll address what you might think he's getting at and tell you point blank that's not what it is. Or you'll think you see a big plot twist and he'll say, nope, it's really what it appears to be. Somehow he fills this stark series of short chapters with lush cinematic details, complete with a playlist of tunes playing in the background of each scene. Or intense silence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Trafficking, Abandonment, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief, Stalking, and Violence

Minor: Cancer, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Xenophobia

Miss Major Speaks: The Life and Times of a Black Trans Revolutionary by Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

adventurous funny hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

Miss Major has been every there and done every that and is still ticking and kicking ass. First hand lived experience of the last 60 years of queer history told with joyful shamelessness and tender affection. Here's a book that deserves to be on every high school history curriculum reading list.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Homophobia, Violence, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Classism, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, and Torture

Minor: Medical content and Fire/Fire injury

omx, the content warnings are just TILIFI (read the book to learn what that means). Miss Major has survived all of this and more and still the overall tone of the book is positive and hopeful.

Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

0.0

Not an easy or light read, yet strangely beautiful and even darkly hilarious in places. The final twist—knowing that the characters were very fictionalized versions of her family— seemed like a vicious cackle to all that had ever tormented the author. It feels like an exorcism and a victory dance!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Classism, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Chronic illness, Grief, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Child abuse, Medical content, Misogyny, Bullying, Alcohol, Confinement, and Dementia

Minor: Terminal illness and Death of parent

Inspired by Janet Frame's family and her experiences in mental institutions. Not factual, but very accurate emotionally.

The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

adventurous emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.75

I got this in the Banned Books Box subscription and was curious to read something totally new to me. Had a hard time putting it down and now am hungry for more! The story twists and turns in ways that startled me and I gave up trying to predict anything about the characters. How refreshing! And lovely writing. A pleasure to read and I'm so glad there's more!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Classism, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Drug use, Slavery, and Blood

Moderate: Police brutality, Child death, Grief, Kidnapping, Torture, Murder, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War

Considering all of the challenging content in the book, it is all handled in a way that I could tolerate (I am somewhat squeamish) and I did not feel personally triggered. I have no problem with putting a book down if the violence is too graphic or gory for my tastes or if the cruelty and abuse goes beyond a brief explicit detail.