julis's reviews
538 reviews

The Actual Star by Monica Byrne

slow-paced

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

2.0

Hope to god that book 3 will be decent because ohhh my god.

Problem 1: It’s boring.

It’s set across 3 stories in 1012, 2012, and 3012. The modern day one and the future one are interesting; I could not get into the 1012 one despite pre-contact Americas being one of my jams. In the last third of the book I also lost interest in Leah and Leah’s issues, and mostly wanted everyone to perhaps talk to each other or maybe stop talking to each other.

Nor do I know what the hell happened at the end.

Research good worldbuilding interesting but what?? happened. what happened. what. 

The Outside by Ada Hoffmann

slow-paced

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

2.0

This took me forever to read and almost as long to review. I believe I picked up a rec for this on one of the sf/f character showdowns, which makes sense because the MC is autistic and queer, and that’s where I’m starting.

I have read many more books with unintentionally extremely vibrant, realistic, autistic main characters. Yasira just feels 2D at best. To the extent that she’s autistic, so is everyone else in the story; it’s not like the other characters are any better at social interactions or coping with overstimulation than she is.

The plot is whatever. The cosmic horror is bland. I was initially interested by the setting (our computers turned themselves into gods and are now dictating the direction of human technology; some people graft the gods onto themselves as angels) but boy does it not bring that to life in any way. It is all so distant. 

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

medium-paced

3.0

I’d heard this book talked about in self-employed groups, and eventually read it. It’s…okay? There’s some good stuff in there, but there’s also a lot of a) capitalist mindset nonsense and b) Mormonism.

Which had not been mentioned by anyone so let me flag that Covey was a Mormon and this is a VERY Christian book. If you’re willing to do some self-interpretation to find the usable takeaways for a non-Mormon anticapitalist, there’s some useful stuff in here, but otherwise there are better self help books. 

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein

fast-paced

4.0

First thing I’ve read by Gertrude Stein and I spent the entire book going like. Oh I see why people hated you. Yeah sure it’s lesbians in early 20th century Paris but jesus christ, epitome of nobody in this book is a good person. Incredibly readable, but I did keep wondering why nobody has punched her yet. 

Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps by Seirian Sumner

adventurous informative medium-paced

5.0

 95% perfect! I love unloved animals, I love scientists whose passion overflows, I love the massive unknowns in the world where we just haven’t bothered to find out. I now also love wasps, so success there.

I am less clear on why one chapter is written entirely as a dialogue between the author and Aristotle but okay. Everyone has their quirks. 

A Natural History of the Future: What the Laws of Biology Tell Us about the Destiny of the Human Species by Rob Dunn

medium-paced

3.0

 Eh? Eh. There were some factual errors right off the bat that had me suspicious for the entire rest of the book (he gave world population in the year 0 (I know, he clearly did not) as 10 million, never mind that this was closer to the population of Italy in the year 1), but mostly it’s just…eh.

Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid was both better written and more informative about the state of the world & the near future. Dunn makes the occasional attempt to remember that this will primarily impact the global south while being driven by a very small percentage of the world population, but is uh…limited in that this book, by its nature (ie, English, published in the US) is primarily going to be read by those people driving climate change, ie, he could’ve been meaner.

Also in the intro he writes like the book is going to be structured around laws of ecology, and to some degree it is, but also it isn’t, and it’s not at all clear what those laws are. 

Wounds Into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma by Tirzah Firestone

challenging emotional medium-paced

5.0

Well this was timely.

I actually had it on hold from the library for a bit, but Recent Bullshit makes it super pertinent.

Very, very good look at specifically Jewish trauma and how to approach it from a Jewish lens–there’s a little bit in the beginning that’s SUPER Jungian bullshit but it moves past that and can be easily ignored.

This is a book for us, about us, about our collective historical trauma, both directly inherited and radiated throughout diaspora & Israeli culture, and how we can grow through it, not let it dictate our fears. And–again, extremely pertinent–how to keep from perpetuating the cycle of trauma and oppression. 

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This came from one of those tumblr posts on what to read when GtN has just occupied your brain and yeah.

Anti-colonialism fantasy about French North Africa and how it only takes a handful of genuinely bad actors to completely destabilize a good faith attempt at peace. Also, as might be guessed, queer women.

Has a few moments that made me go “yeah this is a first novel” mostly in some of the transitions, but exceptional work otherwise. 

The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

adventurous tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Literally every potential flaw in this book (sometimes the writing is clunky, the pacing can be odd, the style is occasionally jarring) I am ignoring in favor of the ship, which is incredibly toxic and balls-to-the-wall insane and 100% my jam. God. She terrifies him and he wants to climb her like a tree. I love it.

I am though Hmm at like. This is not a work of historical fiction it is Greek-inspired but not about Greece and yet the Medes are just straight out of an Ancient Greek text on Persia like. A little deconstruction would’ve killed you? I get it’s YA published in 2000 but come on. 

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

challenging dark tense 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

5.0

GOD. This one’s gonna be rattling around my brain for a while.

I absolutely see how you go from Six of Crows to this; I still have no idea what went wrong to produce the Grisha trilogy but as long as I don’t need to read it again I don’t care.

Bardugo posits an Ivy League filled with secret societies, each with their own variety of horrible rituals, running America–wait, that’s just reality.

Part of the fun is that NH’s Yale is so real, it’s so palpably close to truth that the side characters feel like guys you know or friends of friends, you know, that frat that got kicked off campus for a hazing ritual involving sheep?

Which in turn leads to some of the most repellent characters, BECAUSE they are so true to life.

Plotting is aces, pacing phenomenal, etc.