malayapapaya's reviews
50 reviews

Nevada by Imogen Binnie

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funny

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

4.0

Content Warnings

A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson

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challenging emotional funny reflective

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

5.0

just reading doesn’t do it justice of course, but having seen it/heard the soundtrack and now getting to see how it’s written, how it changed from offbroadway to broadway, and look at moments that move quickly when you watch it is a great way to dig deeper. watching this show was incredible half because i’ve seen a lot of shows and it was really incredible to see these things being addressed and talked about like this in a broadway theatre. it’s so refreshing to see something so different from the same shit that broadway loves to churn out, that criticizes the constant centering of white queer people, and does so while making you feel literally every emotion and also showcasing so many queer (and also so many trans cast/understudies?!!) and Black artists and people being incredible!!

Content Warnings

All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

My Broken Language: A Memoir by Quiara Alegría Hudes

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Did not finish book.

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

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challenging emotional funny slow-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

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emotional hopeful reflective sad

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

Writing this review a few months later, so I have a little distance from it, but wow wow wow. This was one of my first forays into queer fiction since coming out as a lesbian myself, and the way it explores the feeling of discovering this on your own in some isolation plus the intersection of this process with being an Asian woman was so so life-affirming as a fellow API lesbian. Even if the world is vastly different in many ways, there are so many emotions that resonated and hit in the best way. Also, reading about what sapphic culture was like back in the 1950s was really moving and made me so excited to move to a city and find my own queer community. I feel very grateful to not live in an environment where it's as risky as it was then, but it was so surreal to read this and know that Lily is around the same age my grandparents were and that this stuff is not that far off from the way things are now. The book treats all these subjects so beautifully while also being realistic about what the characters were facing in the time. It made me want to start learning about Asian and queer culture in San Francisco, which I have heard about but don't know too intimately.

#Entry Level Boss: How to Get Any Job You Want by Alexa Shoen

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Did not finish book.

lost focus/busy w school and had to return

Sula by Toni Morrison

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

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Did not finish book.

Did not finish— Some typical fantasy violence that I was not in the right mental place for. Would like to return to it though!

Café Con Lychee by Emery Lee