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kalira's reviews
367 reviews
Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived by Ralph Helfer
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
4.0
The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy by Tia Levings
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
4.5
Tia writes her story (and shades of so many others' stories, both in their likeness to hers and in the way she touches on the lives of others in her own) with beautiful and shocking clarity. She clearly illuminates so many reasons why - and ways how - people are pulled into these horrific places (traps, prisons, if not ones that can be so outwardly escaped) and even why they stay - whether or not they supposedly would have freedom or ability to leave.
While she never shies away from the choices she made, nor does she soften what others did that affected her, and the choices she made or options that were removed from her.
I appreciated that her story continued solidly after the theoretical 'breaking point' and her escape, but through her recovery (and finding a type of therapy that didn't work, and later one that did), as well as the wavering path along it. Her search for others who came from the same tight, pressured place she did - those who escaped, those who were still there, and no way to know whether it was happily or not.
While she never shies away from the choices she made, nor does she soften what others did that affected her, and the choices she made or options that were removed from her.
I appreciated that her story continued solidly after the theoretical 'breaking point' and her escape, but through her recovery (and finding a type of therapy that didn't work, and later one that did), as well as the wavering path along it. Her search for others who came from the same tight, pressured place she did - those who escaped, those who were still there, and no way to know whether it was happily or not.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Stalking, and Pregnancy
The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
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? Yes
4.0
Discovering the Folklore of Birds and Beasts by Venetia Newall
1.0
Firstly: no fault of the book itself but I see it described as folklore worldwide (and had some dubious reactions, because it's quite a small book for such a broad topic), and it is definitely in Britain, specifically. (Some mentions of related things in Europe - mostly Scandinavian, Norse, or 'northern' by which she means 'Norse', which are mostly wrong - a few mentioning other places - Asia, Africa, the Americas. She closes with Zebra, which she points out certainly has no British folklore associated, but it's the perfect one to end on, so she quotes an African piece of folklore. Supposedly. It's the only one in the entire book that is not relating to something from the British Isles.)
Secondly: it is mainly not so much folklore as it is superstitions - many things including beliefs and actions, such as historical medical practises and the like. There are very, very few actual folklore stories or beliefs.
Relatedly: there is a lot of animal death. Tons of it. As I would expect from a book focusing on historical medical practises and similar, but a) I didn't know this was, and b) it's . . . a lot even for that.
There are also not a few items that I happen to know from other research are incorrectly reported here - whether that knowledge has been refined in the decades since this book was written or was demonstrably known to be incorrect even in the '70s I do not know. (There are also a number of superstitions repeated identically, say, across half a dozen different bird species - presumably because of variation across regions and time passing, but should then be treated as related or at least mentioned as such, not handled as though they are entirely separate.)
The author occasionally comments on a belief being "still current" - some of them I gave a side-eye but I certainly wouldn't know enough to dispute, fair enough. Some of them I feel fairly certain are not - for example, I doubt people in Britain in the '70s were, say, regularly dosing their children with the ashes of a songbird mixed with honey to cure a cough.
The section on the Cat is the longest in the book (the Wren and the Wolf are the runners-up) and save for one (incorrect) bit at the beginning referring to Egypt, almost the entire several pages are a litany of horrible ways to kill cats and use their corpses. It is unrelentingly negative and it is the only animal in the book that has more than a brief entry that is so. Even the wolf is not so bad and has several positive things mentioned, but not so much with the cat. I know there are positive superstitions from the British Isles relating to cats, but either the author did not or she simply dislikes them.
Secondly: it is mainly not so much folklore as it is superstitions - many things including beliefs and actions, such as historical medical practises and the like. There are very, very few actual folklore stories or beliefs.
Relatedly: there is a lot of animal death. Tons of it. As I would expect from a book focusing on historical medical practises and similar, but a) I didn't know this was, and b) it's . . . a lot even for that.
There are also not a few items that I happen to know from other research are incorrectly reported here - whether that knowledge has been refined in the decades since this book was written or was demonstrably known to be incorrect even in the '70s I do not know. (There are also a number of superstitions repeated identically, say, across half a dozen different bird species - presumably because of variation across regions and time passing, but should then be treated as related or at least mentioned as such, not handled as though they are entirely separate.)
The author occasionally comments on a belief being "still current" - some of them I gave a side-eye but I certainly wouldn't know enough to dispute, fair enough. Some of them I feel fairly certain are not - for example, I doubt people in Britain in the '70s were, say, regularly dosing their children with the ashes of a songbird mixed with honey to cure a cough.
The section on the Cat is the longest in the book (the Wren and the Wolf are the runners-up) and save for one (incorrect) bit at the beginning referring to Egypt, almost the entire several pages are a litany of horrible ways to kill cats and use their corpses. It is unrelentingly negative and it is the only animal in the book that has more than a brief entry that is so. Even the wolf is not so bad and has several positive things mentioned, but not so much with the cat. I know there are positive superstitions from the British Isles relating to cats, but either the author did not or she simply dislikes them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
After We Gazed at the Starry Sky by Bisco Kida
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.75
This is really sweet and really pretty, but also painfully ableist - I expected it to some degree when I read the full blurb, and suspected the 'carrying' was going to be 'without really asking', but. . .
I really liked the characters, and their developing relationship was for the most part nicely done (there was one part that, also pulling in the ableism again from an internalised perspective on Subaru's part, made me argle a bit), along with their earnestness, and the art was great and by turns emotive and telegraphing stillness in very fitting ways.
. . .but the intense ableism from Subaru being picked up and carried without asking, his chair pushed without asking, assumptions made (and more aggravating, not incorrectly, in-universe) about his holding himself back, making it feel rather like treating him like a child 'teaching him better' about his own disability, and similar. It was . . . not great.
I really liked the characters, and their developing relationship was for the most part nicely done (there was one part that, also pulling in the ableism again from an internalised perspective on Subaru's part, made me argle a bit), along with their earnestness, and the art was great and by turns emotive and telegraphing stillness in very fitting ways.
. . .but the intense ableism from Subaru being picked up and carried without asking, his chair pushed without asking, assumptions made (and more aggravating, not incorrectly, in-universe) about his holding himself back, making it feel rather like treating him like a child 'teaching him better' about his own disability, and similar. It was . . . not great.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
Minor: Cancer, Sexual content, and Death of parent
The Shattered Truce by Donna Brown
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
1.0
While I'm all for launching into a story and allowing the unfolding happenings to let me learn the characters, this one . . . went a little too far on that score - to the tune that a prologue and seven chapters in I was still confused as to who these dozen and more names are, how they relate to one another, and going back two generations and from multiple POVs only made it unfortunately more of a muddle. And at least once was incredibly confused between two people doing something in an ongoing dramatic scene.
It doesn't help that while I can see who is supposed to be at the centre of the story, what I'm supposed to be hoping for is very unclear for large swathes of the book - and most of the characters, for me, remain somewhere between 'eh' and 'actively loathe' . . . so rooting for any of them is at best not very exciting.
It does very much feel like an ongoing world, perhaps one that had an entire novel or more before this one began, which is not the case but does leave me feeling off-balance and not well engaged. (And I don't like picking up series in the middle, so the feeling of needing to catch up or missing background from the story prior is not one I enjoy.)
It also felt as though it dropped me in the middle of a rushing plot (fine! let's go!) . . . and then conversely like it then noodled around without that plot . . . going anywhere, despite the tenterhooks feeling. Too long on edge of tension doesn't ratchet the stakes higher - it just starts to dull.
Unfortunately, for such a book as seems to bill itself as being a highly dramatic one, the author seems to struggle with action scenes of any kind - there is little tension within them and time after time mostly they don't really come to an end, resolved or not, they simply . . . wander off - much like the dragon, the first time we see it.
The supposed longing love between Fran and Elsa (which is also part of what drives the plot, or is supposed to be, it seems from the blurbs?) doesn't seem to actually involve a lot of feeling. Elsa doesn't seem thrilled with her semi-arranged marriage but she also doesn't seem terribly bothered by it - and then by turns at times thinks fondly on him. Fran likes Elsa and doesn't want her to marry said arranged husband, supposedly, but doesn't seem to want her himself or think of her much; when it's suggested he should marry her he protests and can't picture it - even thinks it 'would be a delight if they were to visit as friends, but-' not as his wife? Their supposed romance is spoken or thought about more by others than them. Elsa seems fonder and closer to one of her make friends than to Fran - and Fran seems more emotionally attached to Cader, his own best friend, than he ever thinks of Elsa.
(Also at one point her father wonders why must everything centre around poor Elsa - on the one hand, it doesn't seem to, she's not terribly important and she makes almost no decisions of her own ever - even her little sister has more effect on the plot, by far - and seems to have the character of a scrap of wet newspaper; on the other hand, why does everything involve Elsa and why are there supposedly at least five men in love with or captivated by her? Including the villain, if not love really, in a sudden jink into a very tired trope.)
True or not, I also got the distinct feeling that the author is deeply unfamiliar with 'the wilderness', or forest or the outdoors at all . . . which is unfortunate as a lot takes place in the forest. Someone who is within an hour or so's walk of where she's lived for decades (her entire life) panics when she isn't even out of water yet, and is in a forest she knows well and hosts many streams and at least one (three?) rivers, and a lake. (Multiple people try to give someone unconscious water to drink, as well.)
As well, the forest that is part of their home is incredibly inconsistent in their descriptions - for example it is clearly stated that no predators larger than a fox roam these woods, and that boars have not been here for generations. Not long after there is mention of bears in the woods. Also boars. And wolves. And a wildcat, which seems to be at least the size of a cougar.
In honesty, my strongest takeaway from the book was wondering why the author didn't leave out the fantasy elements (of which there were truly not that many, by time spent or focus or seeming effect on the characters and plot) and write a pseudo-historical (with more research first, I beg) melodrama soap opera, because those elements of the settlement and interpersonal dynamics seem to be where her strongest interest lies, along with most of the focus.
(Also the book did not need to be so long as it was, and it felt even longer. And then the end was just sort of there, with no particular wrap up felt.)
In the last 10% of the book we also got a bunch more things crammed in . . . that didn't actually affect the plot at all (including something that was nearly the King In The Mountain trope? only to be dropped again as swiftly as it came up), and then . . . it's the end, with not much any more resolved than it was in the prior handful of chapters.
It doesn't help that while I can see who is supposed to be at the centre of the story, what I'm supposed to be hoping for is very unclear for large swathes of the book - and most of the characters, for me, remain somewhere between 'eh' and 'actively loathe' . . . so rooting for any of them is at best not very exciting.
It does very much feel like an ongoing world, perhaps one that had an entire novel or more before this one began, which is not the case but does leave me feeling off-balance and not well engaged. (And I don't like picking up series in the middle, so the feeling of needing to catch up or missing background from the story prior is not one I enjoy.)
It also felt as though it dropped me in the middle of a rushing plot (fine! let's go!) . . . and then conversely like it then noodled around without that plot . . . going anywhere, despite the tenterhooks feeling. Too long on edge of tension doesn't ratchet the stakes higher - it just starts to dull.
Unfortunately, for such a book as seems to bill itself as being a highly dramatic one, the author seems to struggle with action scenes of any kind - there is little tension within them and time after time mostly they don't really come to an end, resolved or not, they simply . . . wander off - much like the dragon, the first time we see it.
The supposed longing love between Fran and Elsa (which is also part of what drives the plot, or is supposed to be, it seems from the blurbs?) doesn't seem to actually involve a lot of feeling. Elsa doesn't seem thrilled with her semi-arranged marriage but she also doesn't seem terribly bothered by it - and then by turns at times thinks fondly on him. Fran likes Elsa and doesn't want her to marry said arranged husband, supposedly, but doesn't seem to want her himself or think of her much; when it's suggested he should marry her he protests and can't picture it - even thinks it 'would be a delight if they were to visit as friends, but-' not as his wife? Their supposed romance is spoken or thought about more by others than them. Elsa seems fonder and closer to one of her make friends than to Fran - and Fran seems more emotionally attached to Cader, his own best friend, than he ever thinks of Elsa.
(Also at one point her father wonders why must everything centre around poor Elsa - on the one hand, it doesn't seem to, she's not terribly important and she makes almost no decisions of her own ever - even her little sister has more effect on the plot, by far - and seems to have the character of a scrap of wet newspaper; on the other hand, why does everything involve Elsa and why are there supposedly at least five men in love with or captivated by her? Including the villain, if not love really, in a sudden jink into a very tired trope.)
True or not, I also got the distinct feeling that the author is deeply unfamiliar with 'the wilderness', or forest or the outdoors at all . . . which is unfortunate as a lot takes place in the forest. Someone who is within an hour or so's walk of where she's lived for decades (her entire life) panics when she isn't even out of water yet, and is in a forest she knows well and hosts many streams and at least one (three?) rivers, and a lake. (Multiple people try to give someone unconscious water to drink, as well.)
As well, the forest that is part of their home is incredibly inconsistent in their descriptions - for example it is clearly stated that no predators larger than a fox roam these woods, and that boars have not been here for generations. Not long after there is mention of bears in the woods. Also boars. And wolves. And a wildcat, which seems to be at least the size of a cougar.
In honesty, my strongest takeaway from the book was wondering why the author didn't leave out the fantasy elements (of which there were truly not that many, by time spent or focus or seeming effect on the characters and plot) and write a pseudo-historical (with more research first, I beg) melodrama soap opera, because those elements of the settlement and interpersonal dynamics seem to be where her strongest interest lies, along with most of the focus.
(Also the book did not need to be so long as it was, and it felt even longer. And then the end was just sort of there, with no particular wrap up felt.)
In the last 10% of the book we also got a bunch more things crammed in . . . that didn't actually affect the plot at all (including something that was nearly the King In The Mountain trope? only to be dropped again as swiftly as it came up), and then . . . it's the end, with not much any more resolved than it was in the prior handful of chapters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Blood
Moderate: Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail