mortimer's reviews
11 reviews

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

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challenging dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
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None Dare Call It Conspiracy by John G. Schmitz, Gary Allen, Larry Abraham

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1.0

This book has aged really quite poorly in the face of the fall of the soviet union. This, like other conspiracy theories, has a kernel of truth in it, in that the hyper wealthy are trying to consolidate power, but it misdirects the reader away from the actual systemic injustice built into capitalist society using communism as a scapegoat. The logic is not sound, the arguments substanceless, and all couched in dramatic "they don't want you to know this!" type language- Despite the fact that it is literally endorsed by a United States congressman, who wrote the introduction. The authors cannot decide between using appeals to authority or playing off the average person's (rightful) distrust of the government. Ultimately, I am not worried about this book. I don't think it's convincing or up to date enough to convince anyone whose mind wasn't already made up. While it certainly isn't worth the pulp it was printed on, I think it's pretty interesting from a sociological standpoint, as a study in conspiracy theories serving as propaganda to ultimately reinforce the status quo. 
The Promises of Monsters: A Regenerative Politics for Inappropriate/d Others by Donna J. Haraway

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challenging funny informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Fluids by May Leitz

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challenging dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

i found that this book got off to a rocky start, and then goes from zero to one hundred about instantly. 
this book made me cringe with sympathetic pain about every 5 pages. it made me nauseous. 
funnily, i had an email correspondence with the author because i accidentally ordered too many copies while high and she made a quip about drugs pairing well with this book, but i ended up reading the entire thing entirely sober. 
still makes your head spin. 
i would recommend listening to coil while reading for best experience 
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Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher

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challenging informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

i had an experience recently where i was talking to this person outside a bar at a noise show and they were telling me how they wouldn't date (or debate? we were wasted) anyone who hadn't read this book. they said something about the people they recommended it to finding it devastating, i guess because they didn't understand the pervasiveness of capital beforehand. WELL i must be built different because i honestly found this to be a really energizing read. I blew through it in less than 24 hours and it generally felt like Mark Fisher was articulating the thoughts I'd been grappling with since like, idk, my freshman year of uni. as someone who is interested in theory but generally hates reading it, i found the language used to be colorful and deeply engaging, and Fisher uses popular culture to contextualize his arguments as much as he uses references to Žižek or Deleuze and Guattari.

tl;dr: this book is 90 pages. read it
The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

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adventurous challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

i had to read this book for a literature class and everyone hated it so much that the professor gave in and said that we could write our final paper on any book we'd read. to my knowledge i am the only student in that class that decided to write my final on this book, and it was like a ten page paper on performance art and performing the role of the artist or subverter as it relates to my experience in dealing with big name wealthy contemporary sculptors. this book definitely has some problems, as do all books-- i think the pacing sometimes trips over itself, i don't always love the way the protagonist is written, etc, but i am fully obsessed with this book. i recommend it to everyone i know
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Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion

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challenging tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

very upsetting but engaging read. i blew through two thirds of it in one sitting and then had to put it down for like two months before i could come back to it. there's still a few very specific lines that are lingering with me almost a year down the line
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In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien

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dark mysterious slow-paced

4.0

Hollow by Brian Catling

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dark funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

i haven't really read anything like this book-- it's really unique in its worldbuilding and prose, but i found the ending very, very weak and catling's descriptions of meg, an older female character, sometimes do feel. slimey.