leciurro's reviews
20 reviews

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Daughters of Nantucket by Julie Gerstenblatt

adventurous emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This historical novel is centered around the Great Fire of 1846, but its real focus lies with the racial tensions of a "progressive" town, the lives of women who do not wish to live the heteronormative lives expected of them, and on the internal conflict between being good and being seen as good. The use of three separate points-of-view to show how the same event can be perceived in wildly different ways served to highlight how these foci intertwine, and was a great move by Julie Gerstenblatt. 

Daughters of Nantucket is an enoyable and informative read. It is also not subtle with its messaging, which I found to be both refreshing and, sometimes, repetitive. A must read for historical fiction fans.

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

challenging emotional lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

The Ones We Burn by Rebecca Mix
Did not finish book. Stopped at 25%.

The book just isn't that exciting, and the pacing of it is weird. The relationships between characters and their own self-growth feel unnatural, and that things just happen because they need to for the plot.

How to Survive Everything by Ewan Morrison

dark funny medium-paced

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

3.25

Some spoilers included in paragraph 4 of the review (and by that I mean I completely spoil the book):

I love a good "is there or isn't there an apocalypse going on outside of this place I'm technically imprisoned in" story - 10 Cloverfield Lane , for example. How to Survive Everything by Ewan Morrison is one of those stories, and it's good. Morrison's writing style is very engaging, especially with the voice of his main character, Haley. Her first person perspective gives an often humorous take on what is really a horrific situation. These, and many other positive aspects, kept me reading.

Now, some of the negatives that stopped me from enjoying the story. The pacing of the story felt a little weird, almost like it was completely removed from any structured sense of time. With a story like this, where a person is experiencing Stockholm Syndrome and being held against their will, I prefer feeling like I am going through their captivity with them, which was lost as days, weeks, and months blurred together.

I understand that a satirical story creates caricatures out of its characters, but that doesn't mean they should be devoid of any soul or humanity. This may have been done intentionally, as a way to show the narrow focus of teenage girls and their understanding of the world around them, but it was a big swing and a miss for me. What started as humorous quickly became jarring and, some times, monotonous and repetitive. 

Now, for the real spoilers.

I was disappointed by the choice of conclusion. I would have really enjoyed if the book ended after Haley found out her father really is a manipulative man who truly believes he's doing what's best for his family but was actually just wrong. I would have also really enjoyed if Morrison didn't slip in the oft repeated and tedious take that "technology is ruining our society and tearing families apart." On the one hand, it's annoying. On the other, it felt like Morrison temporarily self-inserted himself into the story so he could share his personal polemic against cell phones, ADHD, and other Gen X woes. It did not sound like something Haley would say, even after months (I think?) of brainwashing.

All this being said, I did still enjoy Ewan Morrison's How to Survive Everything, and believe it will have commercial success. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Body horror, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual content

I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.25

I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself grapples with the dissociative, nebulous, perilous sentence of living after the death of a spouse. I have never experienced this, nor have I ever had to raise a child (let alone on my own), but Crane's writing threw me into Kris, the main character's, life. The loss, and anger, and grief, and all the other words that can't come close to describing how one might feel after losing a loved one were made real. Funnily enough, Crane also made it feel like I was Beau, Kris's dead wife, checking in on my family over the years. 

I kept asking myself when the additional shadows story line would make more sense. At times it felt out of place, like I was reading a story that could exist in our world until the additional shadows would come back again and I felt like I was reading an entirely different story. It wasn't until the end that it clicked and I realized what this element added to the story.

I Keep My Exoskeletons to myself very explicitly juxtaposes the ideas (and actions) of justice and forgiveness.  The use of the physical marker of additional shadows in Crane's world turns the sometimes invisible feelings of regret into something tangible. While Kris's shadow does not have anything to do with Beau's death, it is used as another way to show how difficult it is to forgive ourselves for our past. These shadows also offer a different perspective to how individuals and communities should and should not tackle the task of restorative justice. 

This is a tragically beautiful read, one I'm glad to have picked up in the Summer rather than its January release. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Death of parent

Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

4.0

Noor by Nnedi Okorafor

challenging emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

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

3.0