lindentea's reviews
537 reviews

Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir by Lamya H

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

Awesome. Beautiful. Felt like looking into a mirror sometimes. Cried!

Ghost Season by Fatin Abbas

dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

This was insane to read. It caught me completely by surprise — I didn’t think much at first and then BAM I was so invested in everything and couldn’t put it down. It’s also crazy that this is a debut?? Because the writing was really beautiful without being like overly flowery or pretentious, all the characters were really beautifully realized, and just like the whole building of atmosphere and the emotion of it all….. just chef’s kiss. I kept being absorbed in this instead of studying like I had told myself and I love when a book does that. At the end I sobbed my eyes out when

when the compound got raided and they found the guns and William took the fall for Mustafa

and I sobbed my eyes out when

the ceasefire got signed and William and Layla had their wedding and everyone was so happy and I was so hopeful that it was gonna last

and I especially sobbed my eyes out over breakfast when I should have been headed to the library an hour ago at the very end when

they killed William at his wedding AT HIS OWN GODDAMN WEDDING and everyone still had to disperse after, and they argued about which cemetery to bury him in just like with the dead body in the beginning, and Layla and Mustafa had to go to Khartoum without him and she claimed him as her son

and ohhh my god im gonna sob my eyes out again. Fatin Abbas I am picking up every book you put out ever for the rest of my life that is a promise

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

2.75

So yes I've only read 2 books by him, but I keep having the same problems with P Djeli Clark's books: really really awesome and exciting premises that miss the mark for me in execution. I didn't have as much of a problem with the relatively flatter characterization because like this is a novella, ofc you're not gonna get as much space to develop the characters, and the fleshing out we did get was interesting enough! But I think this book was just too packed with... magic?? ... for those characters to have really shined. Did we need 3 (or potentially 4? ) different forms of supernatural entities from 3 different supernatural realms, one of which doesn't even enter the story until the last like 75%?  The horror just leaned a lot more fantasy than I was expecting, which like isn't the book's fault,  but like what can I say!!

The Marquis who Mustn't by Courtney Milan

emotional funny hopeful 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

4.5

I’m crying they’re so sweet! And I loved how puzzle-piece they are <3 This kind of ended up being more Kai’s book than Naomi’s just bc of the whole fraud of it all but I honestly didn’t mind since he’s SUCH a compelling character to me and I’m sure if I was into men I’d be head over heels in love with him. This being said Naomi also definitely had her moments to shine, and their entire romance was really well-developed imo. The only thing I didn’t enjoy that much was just how convoluted the setup was, partially because we don’t even know the whole story until, well, the end. I know every lie has an inside and an outside but

as a reader I would have loved to either be much more inside or outside Kai’s ultimate plan. Like I think there could have been more untrustworthiness for the readers if we knew about Kai’s training in Japan earlier, or if he was shiftier with his plan with US as well, or on the other side if we knew what the plan actually looked like and saw everything fall into place.

But basically Courtney Milan does it again and I actually so badly need 4726262736 more books in this series - I need books until we get a love story for every resident of Wedgeford ever. I nominate Andrew (🫶🏼) for our lead next book

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

funny medium-paced

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

4.0

I never really know what to say about short story collections but I really enjoyed this!! I don't think any were doing super revolutionary things but I was super invested in all of them, which for me is HARD when it's short stories! An awesome debut, would love to read a full novel from Philyaw because she's really great at creating some vivid characters

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

challenging dark emotional funny reflective slow-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

4.5

So I thought this was awesome. Hilarious at parts, really poignant and moving at others, and really good at keeping that balance too! I didn't mind the repetition so much as other readers because I listened to this on audiobook (which imo was the superior way to read this -- this is maybe one of the THE most well-done audiobooks I've ever read). The animal motif did get muddled for me at points (like, why are certain animals the animals they are? why aren't the species also divided along ethnic or racial lines (I know this one, it's to avoid explicitly or implicitly stereotyping, but it was still strange to me that there would be discrimination along those lines and not those of species)? is everyone animals, or just the citizens of jidada (this one might have been specified, and got lost in the sauce bc of the listening)?) , but I still appreciated a lot of what Bulawayo was doing throughout. 

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

dark hopeful lighthearted reflective 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

4.0

What a cute little book!! It’s short but sweet and just what I needed to break myself out of the reading slump I felt myself going into. Halim I love you I need a whole 5-to-10  500-pages-each book series following you

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

adventurous lighthearted fast-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? Yes

3.5

I mean it was cute! Again I always have this thing when I'm reviewing books written for people way younger than me where like... yes I as a grown adult probably would have enjoyed this more when I was 12. But I genuinely did appreciate a lot of the aspects of it -- I actually really like Alanna as a character, shes really easy to root for, and I liked the kind of slice-of-life vibe that a lot of the first ~80% of the book had. I think if I did have to critique this first 80% my only thing is that the world is, imo, comparatively bland when it comes to fantasy and *could* have used a little more whimsy? But that's also not the tone and a personal preference so I get it. Also George -- I can tell we're setting up a love interest and I don't like that he's 17 when he meets her at 11. And also I was worried (and still am for future books) the Bazhir are really quickly gonna swerve into orientalist territory? But I was like whatever these things don't matter so much / I can ignore or "fix" them in my head (I just started pretending George was the same age as like Jon and Gary and so on). However. The ending.

What the fuck do you mean the climax of the book takes place defeating people who's existence we learned about maybe 10-15 pages ago, using magical powers we didn't know Alanna & Jon had (YES i know they have the gift and YES i know it said they were both more advanced than what Roger is teaching them in class and YES Alanna healed Jon but I mean just in terms of fighting magic, I did not know they could do all that and I understand that they didn't either but it felt ?? as a reader ok), AND having Alanna outed to Jon rather than getting to tell him she's a girl on her own terms? And the book fully ends with no resolution to anything, just them chilling like yeah you'll be my squire :D wonder what consequences we'll face tomorrow?? Idk man the ending just brought it down so much for me because it was so damn random like why did any of that happen? Sorry to go off on a book for kids but I'd feel the same if I was 12, trust I knew what I liked and had media literacy back then

Still think it's funny that I read this for a college class

Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury
Did not finish book. Stopped at 16%.

I actually want to keep reading this and it’s really well-written but i can feel it ACTIVELY putting me into a reading slump :( sorry but i might pick it back up at another point!!

Rememberings by Sinéad O'Connor

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

Wasn't gonna drink tonight but man... I miss Sinéad O'Connor like a mf....

Ok but fr I feel weird rating someone's memoir, especially since

my favorite parts of the book were written before she had a very traumatic surgery and post-surgery, and she literally was not able to write the rest of it the same way. Like Jesus Christ??

But anyway even though I literally only know her from Nothing Compares 2 U I found this memoir just so affecting and emotional, and especially since she did the audiobook herself I felt like I was just sitting down to talk with her, which was awesome because I loved hearing her kinda chuckle at her own jokes and mimic voices and so on. And ohhh my god every time she mentioned plans for her future I would just tear up and get so emotional... I know I literally don't know her but when she died it was the first time I heard about everything she did and all her activism and I thought it was just so sad that I didn't know until after she left us. Anyway huge amounts of respect and yes I will be streaming her!