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mmccombs's reviews
586 reviews
Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
It’s been a bit since I read the first book, but the 2nd installment did such a complete “previously on…” that I immediately felt right back in it. The specific voice of this series, 2nd person omnipresent POV, is so interesting and really works for the over the top drama that occurs in this story.
Sometimes the look into the future (“and she will regret it” etc etc) felt a little cheesy, but this book is kind of inherently cheesy, so it works. I did have some issues with the future tense constantly teasing something terrible and then nothing would happen (or the thing would happen but to a character we didn’t even know existed), it often felt like cheap emotional manipulation just to provoke a response, but never going so far as to actually reap consequences for the characters/story. I was definitely kept on the edge of my seat, but after crying wolf so many times I eventually felt as if there were no meaningful stakes.
This felt like a very natural continuation from the first book, similar themes and turmoil and small town politics, so in some ways it felt kind of repetitive and unnecessary, but mostly it was nice to come back to Beartown. I will definitely finish out this series and am excited to get to some of Blackman’s other titles.
Sometimes the look into the future (“and she will regret it” etc etc) felt a little cheesy, but this book is kind of inherently cheesy, so it works. I did have some issues with the future tense constantly teasing something terrible and then nothing would happen (or the thing would happen but to a character we didn’t even know existed), it often felt like cheap emotional manipulation just to provoke a response, but never going so far as to actually reap consequences for the characters/story. I was definitely kept on the edge of my seat, but after crying wolf so many times I eventually felt as if there were no meaningful stakes.
This felt like a very natural continuation from the first book, similar themes and turmoil and small town politics, so in some ways it felt kind of repetitive and unnecessary, but mostly it was nice to come back to Beartown. I will definitely finish out this series and am excited to get to some of Blackman’s other titles.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Homophobia, Death, Rape, and Suicide
Moderate: Car accident and Gun violence
Henry Henry by Allen Bratton
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
While the writing and developed themes were incredibly compelling, I mostly found reading this to be a chore. I had a difficult time getting into this, I was not really into Hal as a character so I never quite felt motivated to pick the book up.
However, once we got to the incident with Harry Percy, I suddenly felt invested. I loved the charm between these characters, the way their differences and similarities bounced off one another.
But then the energy and momentum of the story kind of fizzled out for me, a lot of the action felt repetitive and I was waiting for a bit more development from these characters.
I did love the connection between Catholicism (and a lot of guilt), Hal’s relationship with his father (complicated, to say the least), the long line of history that tethered this family together, and the Shakespearian-ness of it all. The sentence-level craft of it was well done, so even though the story didn’t totally work for me, the structure of it did.
I have a feeling that this will be a polarizing book people will have opinions about, but if you are a reader that prefers (messy) character-driven novels, enjoyed the Henriad (or maybe even Succession), and are down for some privileged white boy drama, I think this will be a book for you.
Thanks to NetGalley and Unnamed Press for the eARC!
However, once we got to the incident with Harry Percy, I suddenly felt invested. I loved the charm between these characters, the way their differences and similarities bounced off one another.
But then the energy and momentum of the story kind of fizzled out for me, a lot of the action felt repetitive and I was waiting for a bit more development from these characters.
I did love the connection between Catholicism (and a lot of guilt), Hal’s relationship with his father (complicated, to say the least), the long line of history that tethered this family together, and the Shakespearian-ness of it all. The sentence-level craft of it was well done, so even though the story didn’t totally work for me, the structure of it did.
I have a feeling that this will be a polarizing book people will have opinions about, but if you are a reader that prefers (messy) character-driven novels, enjoyed the Henriad (or maybe even Succession), and are down for some privileged white boy drama, I think this will be a book for you.
Thanks to NetGalley and Unnamed Press for the eARC!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Sexual content, Child abuse, Death, Rape, Domestic abuse, and Drug use
Moderate: Medical content and Injury/Injury detail
Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
A book that put words and context to my overwhelming feelings of bleak anxiety whenever going on the internet over the past few years. I found this book accessible and mind blowing, though I do feel like it was very much an intro overview that could have gone deeper in some areas. Especially coming at this from a bookstagram perspective, I leave this book with many ideas about how to improve my connection with the reason I joined in the first place: building community and finding great books to read. How can I curate my feed to better represent my interests? How can I curate my posts to be more meaningful, rather than just throwing posts out there in a desperate attempt to gain likes? Could I leave the platform altogether to achieve something slower, something outside the algorithm? This is a book that truly made me step back and begin to reassess my own habits, while also thinking more broadly about our culture at large, and I had a great time thinking about those things!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness and Suicide
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
This was absolutely a revelation for me! Such compelling character work and beautiful things to say about loneliness, belonging, memory, and love. Adina will be a character that stays with me for a long time, she’s a person I see myself in and also deeply felt for as she navigated her love and her grief. I loved that we followed her for her entire life chronologically which made for a very poignant journey, where things would come full circle in ways that felt so real and devastating. This was weird and charming and smart, absolutely adored this reading experience!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Cancer, Death, and Animal death
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
An absolutely harrowing portrait of war and trauma and loss with an interesting twist. For some reason this is the year of WW1 content for me, I started the year with In Memoriam and the recent movie adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front. Both do a good job of showcasing the horrors of the War, but this book stretched that even further into a blend of horror and fantasy that was very compelling. The message of this book was perhaps a bit on the nose, but the sheer apocalyptic vibes to it felt very visceral and made it hard for me to put this book down.
For me, the characters lacked a bit of depth, but I didn’t totally mind because everything else felt so lush. I also feel like the middle was a bit meandering and bloated, the author notes in her acknowledgments that this book was difficult to write, and in some ways it was difficult to read. There are lots of moving parts to this one (realistic depictions of war, the fantastical elements of Faland and his hotel, and the horror of ghosts and surrealism), which sometimes didn’t feel like the gelled together. But in the end, I thought this was a wholly unique and haunting depiction of a time period that continues to feel all the more relevant to our current moment in time.
For me, the characters lacked a bit of depth, but I didn’t totally mind because everything else felt so lush. I also feel like the middle was a bit meandering and bloated, the author notes in her acknowledgments that this book was difficult to write, and in some ways it was difficult to read. There are lots of moving parts to this one (realistic depictions of war, the fantastical elements of Faland and his hotel, and the horror of ghosts and surrealism), which sometimes didn’t feel like the gelled together. But in the end, I thought this was a wholly unique and haunting depiction of a time period that continues to feel all the more relevant to our current moment in time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Confinement, War, Grief, Medical content, Gore, Mental illness, and Blood
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic
Hope Ablaze by Sarah Mughal Rana
Holding off on my review due to the SMP boycott.
https://r4acollective.org/
https://r4acollective.org/
But the Girl by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
An absolute stunner! It was kind of slow build, but the way we were able to watch our narrator shift and evolve and contradict herself and grow a bit was so rewarding.
I love a book that grapples with itself (what is even the point of a book? Can we ever be truly honest about what we are trying to represent?) and a book that carves into the white supremacy at the heart of academia. The way Girl describes her relationship with her parents and Ah Ma, how they give and give to her while she drowns in the guilt of all that giving, was eye opening and so nuanced. I also really enjoyed the parts about Plath, I’m a casual enjoyer of her work but the narrator’s relationship with and musings on The Bell Jar and her poetry was very interesting. And her relationship with Clementine?! Don’t get me started…
The author’s writing felt pretty simple and straightforward at first, but then I’d be hit with just astonishing sentences and sit with them for a bit while my mind reeled. Wow, to be able to write like that?! Many highlights on this one!
I love a book that grapples with itself (what is even the point of a book? Can we ever be truly honest about what we are trying to represent?) and a book that carves into the white supremacy at the heart of academia. The way Girl describes her relationship with her parents and Ah Ma, how they give and give to her while she drowns in the guilt of all that giving, was eye opening and so nuanced. I also really enjoyed the parts about Plath, I’m a casual enjoyer of her work but the narrator’s relationship with and musings on The Bell Jar and her poetry was very interesting. And her relationship with Clementine?! Don’t get me started…
The author’s writing felt pretty simple and straightforward at first, but then I’d be hit with just astonishing sentences and sit with them for a bit while my mind reeled. Wow, to be able to write like that?! Many highlights on this one!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Racism, and Death
Moderate: Suicide, Grief, Medical trauma, Colonisation, and Toxic friendship
The Unfiltered Enneagram: A Witty and Wise Guide to Self-Compassion by Elizabeth Orr
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
As a person with a pretty basic understanding of Enneagram (any fellow 5s out there??) and a follower of @rudeassenneagram, this was exactly what I expected! Informative, casual, sometimes rude but mostly the tone of an older sibling who is just trying to look out for you, this was a great entry-level introduction to enneagram.
I thought the approach of self-compassion made this stand out a bit from other basic literature I've read on enneagram, making it a tool to be leveraged rather than something that defines everything about you. I did find the voice of this a bit too casual sometimes, I could see the constant "lil"s and "babe"s grating on people who are not into that kind of thing. It was also a bit repetitive, which I think made sense for what this kind of book is (she even mentioned at the beginning that she knew people would skip directly to their Type and never look back, so doubling down on information is important for the skippers), but even within each section it feels like everything could have been summarized in two pages of bullet points. She also does not go into how to type yourself really, so you kind of have to go into this book generally knowing what type(s) you might be and then find what resonates, so I'd recommend having at least a general idea of where you fall beforehand.
In the end, I felt rightfully dragged and also given a few actionable tips to tend to the parts of me that need some tender care. If you're looking for a readable, accessible, and often a bit silly intro to the Enneagram, this is a great one to go with!
I thought the approach of self-compassion made this stand out a bit from other basic literature I've read on enneagram, making it a tool to be leveraged rather than something that defines everything about you. I did find the voice of this a bit too casual sometimes, I could see the constant "lil"s and "babe"s grating on people who are not into that kind of thing. It was also a bit repetitive, which I think made sense for what this kind of book is (she even mentioned at the beginning that she knew people would skip directly to their Type and never look back, so doubling down on information is important for the skippers), but even within each section it feels like everything could have been summarized in two pages of bullet points. She also does not go into how to type yourself really, so you kind of have to go into this book generally knowing what type(s) you might be and then find what resonates, so I'd recommend having at least a general idea of where you fall beforehand.
In the end, I felt rightfully dragged and also given a few actionable tips to tend to the parts of me that need some tender care. If you're looking for a readable, accessible, and often a bit silly intro to the Enneagram, this is a great one to go with!
Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier
dark
reflective
fast-paced
3.0
I read this three years ago and have come back to it to jog my memory before my bookclub. Originally, I gave this a “this was pretty good” 3.5 stars, and I think with some distance and a reread, I’ve come to appreciate it more while also believing this should not have been a full novel. I still feel that this lacked a lot of depth that would have rendered our main character’s choices and thoughts more meaningful. I know exactly what this author is going for and I love what she is saying about loneliness, grief, and the lengths we will go to in order to avoid those feelings, but the novel is somehow both too brief and too ambling to bring it all together. Ultimately, this would have been a very strong short story, but was restricted by having to fill a (albeit short) novel’s worth of pages.
Worry by Alexandra Tanner
dark
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
The statement “I think you guys might be thinking about yourselves too much” in book form. Chronically online, full of mind-numbing Instagram conspiracy theories, endless consumption and misery and nihilism. But I swear it’s also funny! I thought the writing and character work here was very well done. It’s difficult to capture the intense kind of love that is also deeply toxic and often hateful that can exist between sisters (and mothers), knowing that these characters are acting this way out of deep love and even deeper insecurity. I do think the ending was a bit strange and out of nowhere, it kept up the themes of this book but otherwise didn’t feel like it fit, being as quick and jarring as it was. If you are a fan of messy 20-something coming of age stories, I’d say this is another solid installment, though I can’t say it’s the strongest of the genre.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Racism, Religious bigotry, Medical content, Antisemitism, and Transphobia