lcr16's reviews
42 reviews

Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

If you’re looking for a combination of hopeful, inspiring, and bittersweet, this is the perfect book. A beautiful addition to the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. Kawaguchi’s exploration of grief allows characters to be imperfect and messy in their journey without judgement. With a new location and some new faces to keep the series fresh, Kawaguchi sticks to the heart of the series. Many of the new characters are professional comedians who are trying to find balance in happiness through laughter while honoring their loved ones and their grief. Burnout, anxiety, and regret are central to these characters lives. This dynamic brings both tension and a hopeful tone. The last paragraph of the book is so incredibly bittersweet, you want to wallow in it. Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC in return for the honest review!

A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories by Leonard Cohen

dark emotional medium-paced

4.5

     Truly a treasure for fans of Leonard Cohen or not! The novella is a strong start with an intriguingly dark view of life.  The main character seems to have a spark ignite in him upon seeing his long-lost grandfather beat a police officer while picking him up from the train station. The main character begins to be drawn to extreme acts and emotions, whether it is lust and sex with Marilyn, anger and ego with his coworker, or obsession and violence while stalking a baggage claim worker. In particular, the conversations between Marilyn and the main character are poignant, raw, and heart wrenching. She seems to be aware there is a change in the narrator, but believes it is his love for her, not the physical and emotional violence he craves.   

The only thing that seems to stop the violence is the narrator witnessing his grandfather beating the landlady whom the grandfather has sexually engaged with in the past.

It is like a mirror to his own behavior and desires, dark and deeply honest.
     The themes of darkness, honesty, and shock continue into the short stories. Many of the stories are sweetly mundane, contrasting with the dark themes. Like a mirror, many of the stories revolve around a repulsion to one's desires. One story incapsulates this perfectly.  

  A man is remorsefully reminiscing on a past lover that is getting married in town. He goes over to drink with a buddy, recounting the past summer romance he let slip through his fingers due to his lack of honesty. Only then, his buddy reveals he too was sleeping with the same women that summer. Bereft, he goes back to her house only to see her once more and wonder if she will join him one last time.   

Shame, lust, and a desire for violence seem permeate the pages of this earlier previously unearthed work of Cohen's. The biggest flaw is his use of archetypical characters in lieu of character building. Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC! 

Off with Her Head: Three Thousand Years of Demonizing Women in Power by Eleanor Herman

informative fast-paced

2.0

The most interesting part of this book is definitely setting the record straight on women leaders in history. Whether it was Isabeau of Bavaria, Catherine de Medici, Cleopatra, Mary Queen of Scots, or Marie Antoinette. Herman does a great job of infusing humor to persuade her argument in support of malign women throughout history. Even most of the women today are fascinating, I cannot get the story about the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard out of my head! However, I feel it lacks nuance in how it discussed modern American women politicians. I was disappointed in the early chapters not discussing the racist and xenophobic criticism of Harris. It also never discussed some of Clinton or Harris' larger controversies such as Benghazi or around being a public prosecutor while being critical of policing. I was interested to hear her perspective! It made her accounts of historical women I was unfamiliar with feel less credible. The chapters were also organized a little odd, which made it hard to follow her string of thought. Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC!

No More Police: A Case for Abolition by Mariame Kaba, Andrea J. Ritchie

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

Kaba and Ritchie use a deep breadth of their knowledge and experience of activism to give this well thought out book. It reads like a call to action and a manual. The chapter are divided up well to answer specific questions and abolition, the prison industrial complex, and community work. I particularly loved their use of examples to show mistakes they have seen, such as more cameras in neighborhoods, as well as good work like inviting loud teenagers to have a conversation with a community member rather than calling the police. I do wish they discussed frameworks for helping survivors of violence after the fact. They do briefly discuss restorative justice, but a whole chapter would have been great. They do state they do not have all the answers and call in the reader to imagine what a world with police or the prison industrial complex. 

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee

emotional reflective fast-paced

2.0

Although interesting in concept, it didn’t fully deliver. Sehee anxiety is extreme to the extent where she records her therapy sessions in order to remember what was said because she essentially blacks-out from the stress. The majority of the book is her verbatim conversations with her psychiatrist with Sehee’s hindsight and elaboration at the end of each conversation. The majority of the best writing is in these small sections after the dialogue in small nuggets of one or two beautiful lines. However, the conversations themselves felt uninteresting. Maybe I’m missing the cultural significance or something was lost in the translation. A mixed bag unfortunately. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review!

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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

4.5

If you’re looking for a combination of hopeful, inspiring, and bittersweet, this is the perfect book. A beautiful addition to the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. Kawaguchi’s exploration of grief allows characters to be imperfect and messy in their journey without judgement. With a new location and some new faces to keep the series fresh, Kawaguchi sticks to the heart of the series. Many of the new characters are professional comedians who are trying to find balance in happiness through laughter while honoring their loved ones and their grief. Burnout, anxiety, and regret are central to these characters lives. This dynamic brings both tension and a hopeful tone. The last paragraph of the book is so incredibly bittersweet, you want to wallow in it. Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC in return for the honest review

Which as You Know Means Violence: On Self-Injury as Art and Entertainment by Philippa Snow

dark funny informative

5.0

After reading the first two lines of the introduction involving Zizek and Fight Club, I knew this book was going to be a great read. Snow manages to be both engaging and insightful. Snow is particularly masterful in discusses how the identity of artists affected the intended meaning of their work or how the public tended to interpret them. Abramovic and Arsenault's respective art varies greatly in how they engage with pain, and risk of death. Like many artists within this genre, they are willing to die for their art and toy with the idea of their own death being made into art. The analysis of Jackass being a reaction to 9/11 for disaffected young men wanting to see other disaffected young men putting mousetraps on their nipples is genuinely hilarious and true. Knoxville might cringe at being called an artist, but he sacrifices his body for his craft continuously. Even John Waters recognized the campiness of Knoxville's craft. This was such a well-researched and refreshing read I could not put down! Thank you to NetGalley and Repeater Books for the e-ARC in return for an honest review.    

Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson

funny lighthearted 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

2.75

This is a sweet romance, the characters or lovable and well developed. Certain plot points are under developed such as Phoebe truly believing Sam could be a serial killer and is therefore dangerous. 

  Also plotline about the local serial killer whose daughter wrote about her experience growing up could mirror Phoebe's relationship, but the plotline is dropped only to be brought up towards the end as a way to show growth. 

  With this being a romance, that aspect did deliver. Phoebe and Sam's relationship is so sweet and electric. Their problems in the relationship are believable and relatable and it is satisfying to see them overcome them to ultimately be together. Also, the diversity in the book feels easy like real life. None of the characters feel one dimensional caricatures. It was also refreshing to see a fat character's challenge that she must overcome not be centered around her body. I will definitely pick up another Alicia Thompson book. Thank your to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC!

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

emotional funny sad fast-paced

5.0

This book feels like you’re slowly boiling in a pot of water and a voice keeps telling you it’s just lukewarm. McCurdy details her relationship with her abusive mother. Her mother forced Jennette into acting at age six to vicariously fulfill her own dream and financially support her family. Jennette develops a set of self-destructive skills to get her through her exploitation and abuse which she has to reckon with once her mother dies and she quits acting. McCurdy’s writing is darkly witty, emotionally vulnerable, and deeply captivating. Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC!

Mary: An Awakening of Terror by Nat Cassidy

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

This was my first read fully in the contemporary horror genre, and it was a lot fun. Imagine of Stephen King's "Carrie" was about perimenopause and was about the patriarchy's voice constantly in your head. My only criticism is it seemed to drag a bit in the middle, but so much happens I would not know what to take out. The voice actor's portrayal really brought out her character's multifaceted personality in her mean snide comments to her true love for Mary, and true fear of being alone. The action and gore was so well described and disturbing, without feeling gratuitous. Cassidy manages to make Mary, a character so heavily flawed with her odd behavior towards her figurines, having no stable relationships, whose prone to angry outburst and bouts of anxiety, feel really relatable to the reader and portrays her with kindness. The ending of having 

Mary exorcise Damon from her head was perfect

. The addition of Cassidy's thoughts in the beginning and the end were insightful and sweet. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, and Death