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kateywumpus's reviews
288 reviews
Flowers for a Vinok, Roses for a Babushka, Poppies for a Grave by Solomon Skalozub
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Even though I have a few issues with this book, I like a lot of what it's doing. Firstly it's being narrated as if it was a mother telling her child a story, or if a storyteller was telling this to a group of people sitting around a campfire. It gives the narrator a personality of their own, which most books don't do. Either they're first person or a kind of depersonalized third person. This is rare enough that I, honestly, don't recall ever reading a book that does this. Short stories, sure, but nothing this length.
Secondly, it's not afraid of trans men's bodies. There isn't any transphobia beyond some teasing at the beginning from children at the beginning, but it's more misogyny than anything else. Otherwise everybody just kind of accepts him as he is. There are no surgeries here, only magical HRT, and he and everybody else are perfectly fine with his body as it is. At one point he fights topless and it's as if any other guy fought topless. His two lovers aren't bothered by his body at all, though there is *some* fumbling around during sex. It's nice to see everything just kind of normalized.
Another thing that I liked was the build-up of the poly relationship. Well, that and the fact that there is one, to begin with, and it's just as normalized as his transness. One of his partners is rivals-to-lovers, and the other is childhood sweetheart-to-lovers, and he ends up marrying both of them, which the village loved because twice as many celebrations!
However, there were a few things I had problems with. First and foremost were the sex scenes. It was kind of tonally jarring when the narrator's voice you have in your head is the mother spinning a tale voice suddenly describing intimate details of having sex. I mean, I applaud the author for normalizing trans sex, but the cognitive dissonance was real. It just took me out of the whole thing.
The other thing was that in the first act, our main character meets Baba Yaga, which set the expectation for me that there would be more magic and myth in this story, but there isn't. It felt kind of cheap to use Baba Yaga as the vehicle in which to give his character magical HRT.
Despite these issues, I feel this is a worthwhile read. It's relatively short and entertaining, and you can bang it out in an afternoon. A very solid three stars.
Secondly, it's not afraid of trans men's bodies. There isn't any transphobia beyond some teasing at the beginning from children at the beginning, but it's more misogyny than anything else. Otherwise everybody just kind of accepts him as he is. There are no surgeries here, only magical HRT, and he and everybody else are perfectly fine with his body as it is. At one point he fights topless and it's as if any other guy fought topless. His two lovers aren't bothered by his body at all, though there is *some* fumbling around during sex. It's nice to see everything just kind of normalized.
Another thing that I liked was the build-up of the poly relationship. Well, that and the fact that there is one, to begin with, and it's just as normalized as his transness. One of his partners is rivals-to-lovers, and the other is childhood sweetheart-to-lovers, and he ends up marrying both of them, which the village loved because twice as many celebrations!
However, there were a few things I had problems with. First and foremost were the sex scenes. It was kind of tonally jarring when the narrator's voice you have in your head is the mother spinning a tale voice suddenly describing intimate details of having sex. I mean, I applaud the author for normalizing trans sex, but the cognitive dissonance was real. It just took me out of the whole thing.
The other thing was that in the first act, our main character meets Baba Yaga, which set the expectation for me that there would be more magic and myth in this story, but there isn't. It felt kind of cheap to use Baba Yaga as the vehicle in which to give his character magical HRT.
Despite these issues, I feel this is a worthwhile read. It's relatively short and entertaining, and you can bang it out in an afternoon. A very solid three stars.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Bullying and Misogyny
Magica Riot by Kara Buchanan
adventurous
emotional
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? No
4.0
Transgender lesbian punk rock magical girls! Transgender lesbian punk rock magical girls! If those four things don't get you excited for this book, then it's probably not for you. If it does? Boy, are you in for a treat. You've got twirly transformations! You've got extra-dimensional alien invaders! You've got kaiju! You've got a girl learning to love herself through the power of love, friendship, and magic! It doesn't really do anything to buck the genre but, honestly, that's okay. There's a reason why there's a billion seasons of Precure, and only one of Madoka. The formula simply *works.* It's fun, and entertaining, and a joy to read. I've been reading a few magical girl online fics this year, and they've all been pretty dark, so this was a breath of fresh air.
I think the transgender themes are particularly suited to the genre. Transforming into something powerful that suits your identity, which gives you the courage to come out and live your authentic self slots into the themes of magical girl shows almost perfectly. I'd love to see more of it, *especially* in anime, but the one I can think of is really only a technicality, and is kinda bad, so I don't count it. The rest of the cast is queer and diverse which is something you *definitely* don't see in anime, so I'm glad for it.
All in all, I highly recommend this book if you're into magical girls at all. Even if you're not, I'd say give it a try. It's a good entry point into the genre, and might get you interested in watching some of the shows this book is inspired by.
I think the transgender themes are particularly suited to the genre. Transforming into something powerful that suits your identity, which gives you the courage to come out and live your authentic self slots into the themes of magical girl shows almost perfectly. I'd love to see more of it, *especially* in anime, but the one I can think of is really only a technicality, and is kinda bad, so I don't count it. The rest of the cast is queer and diverse which is something you *definitely* don't see in anime, so I'm glad for it.
All in all, I highly recommend this book if you're into magical girls at all. Even if you're not, I'd say give it a try. It's a good entry point into the genre, and might get you interested in watching some of the shows this book is inspired by.
I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, especially with how Kara shook things up at the end. Four stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Blood and Dysphoria
Minor: Transphobia
The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-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
Okay. Wow. So this book kind of defies genre. It's a... post-apocalyptic speculative fiction with the narrative structure of urban fantasy. The apocalypse came, and society rebuilt itself, and now another kind of apocalypse is on the horizon that only a few people know about, and it's set in a city that, ten years after a revolution, has eschewed traditional technology, replacing as much as they could with bioengineering. And then there's a kind of hidden world of magic, which is where the urban fantasy part comes from, and all of this is wrapped around a core of Maori culture. It's very bizarre, very unique, and I love the hell out of it.
The main character is bi in a very religious society where any kind of same-sex stuff is considered 'degenerate,' so when they caught her, instead of firing her, since she was only half-degenerate, they demoted her instead. She finds her way to a pirate ship filled with 'degenerates' and other outcasts crewed by a lesbian captain and her trans femme first mate/lover, and a whole host of queer characters of one sort or another. There's only one cishet guy that we follow, but he can be forgiven because he's an interesting character. Oh, and most of the cast are PoC in one way or another.
My only real complaint is that the book is kind of short (at least for me), and the ending was a bit abrupt. It could have used a bit of fleshing out, but as far as complaints go it's relatively minor. But, yeah, other than that it's a solid book that's worth reading, though I will advise before you dig in that there's some pretty gruesome body horror in it. If that's not your jam, then you might want to skip this one. Easy five stars.
The main character is bi in a very religious society where any kind of same-sex stuff is considered 'degenerate,' so when they caught her, instead of firing her, since she was only half-degenerate, they demoted her instead. She finds her way to a pirate ship filled with 'degenerates' and other outcasts crewed by a lesbian captain and her trans femme first mate/lover, and a whole host of queer characters of one sort or another. There's only one cishet guy that we follow, but he can be forgiven because he's an interesting character. Oh, and most of the cast are PoC in one way or another.
My only real complaint is that the book is kind of short (at least for me), and the ending was a bit abrupt. It could have used a bit of fleshing out, but as far as complaints go it's relatively minor. But, yeah, other than that it's a solid book that's worth reading, though I will advise before you dig in that there's some pretty gruesome body horror in it. If that's not your jam, then you might want to skip this one. Easy five stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Sexual content and Transphobia
A Wild and Ruined Song by Ashley Shuttleworth
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
Well, this is it, folks. This is the fourth and final book in the Hollow Star saga, and what a banger. It certainly made up for my disappointment with the third book, though I still have some personal issues with some things that are done. This isn't an indictment of the book, its quality, or its story, but more... personal stuff if you get my meaning.
So let's get into it. Firstly, the main character, the one who these books extensively revolve around, is mostly off-screen and we rarely see things from her PoV. I mean, there's good reason for it, and I understand why it's done, but the series sucked me in with her as its main PoV along with her ex-fury girlfriend, and by the end we barely see her. Again, I understand why it was done. There's so much going on that you kind of need the perspective of the other four characters in order to get the full picture but, honestly, it's not what I signed up for.
Another gripe is that we finally get a sex scene and it's not from the main character and her girlfriend, but rather from two of the other PoV characters who I found to be the least interesting of the four. I'm kind of at the point where I just skip sex scenes if they're not sapphic, and even then I might skip them anyway depending on my interest in mood. While it's *good* to have a M/M scene in it, it's just not my thing.
Finally, there's a bunch of 'destined to be together' and 'soulbond' stuff, which is just eye-rolling for me. I actually don't like these tropes. The idea that there is One True Person out in the world for you, that you're always destined to be together diminishes the work you need to do to build a relationship with your partner. Any partner. There's a whole world out there and you can click with any one of them. It also doesn't help that one of the villains is literallydefeated by the power of friendship. I know I kind of come off as a curmudgeon here, and there are places where I actually like that trope, but it's not really what I'm looking for in this genre.
Like I said. These are personal gripes which bother me, but may not bother another reader, so I'm not dinging any stars off my review. The setting is rich and vibrant, the story is *excellent* and very well told, and the ending.... *mwah*. Perfect ending. Nailed the landing. 10/10, can't complain. I *highly* recommend giving this series a try. You can read the first book and leave it at that, if you wish. It's a fairly self-contained book, but the second leaves you on such a good cliffhanger that you'll want to throw the book across the room. Seriously. Give it a try. 5 stars.
So let's get into it. Firstly, the main character, the one who these books extensively revolve around, is mostly off-screen and we rarely see things from her PoV. I mean, there's good reason for it, and I understand why it's done, but the series sucked me in with her as its main PoV along with her ex-fury girlfriend, and by the end we barely see her. Again, I understand why it was done. There's so much going on that you kind of need the perspective of the other four characters in order to get the full picture but, honestly, it's not what I signed up for.
Another gripe is that we finally get a sex scene and it's not from the main character and her girlfriend, but rather from two of the other PoV characters who I found to be the least interesting of the four. I'm kind of at the point where I just skip sex scenes if they're not sapphic, and even then I might skip them anyway depending on my interest in mood. While it's *good* to have a M/M scene in it, it's just not my thing.
Finally, there's a bunch of 'destined to be together' and 'soulbond' stuff, which is just eye-rolling for me. I actually don't like these tropes. The idea that there is One True Person out in the world for you, that you're always destined to be together diminishes the work you need to do to build a relationship with your partner. Any partner. There's a whole world out there and you can click with any one of them. It also doesn't help that one of the villains is literally
Like I said. These are personal gripes which bother me, but may not bother another reader, so I'm not dinging any stars off my review. The setting is rich and vibrant, the story is *excellent* and very well told, and the ending.... *mwah*. Perfect ending. Nailed the landing. 10/10, can't complain. I *highly* recommend giving this series a try. You can read the first book and leave it at that, if you wish. It's a fairly self-contained book, but the second leaves you on such a good cliffhanger that you'll want to throw the book across the room. Seriously. Give it a try. 5 stars.