notsobinaryart's Reviews (162)

Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese-American

Laura Gao

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Cruel Seduction

Katee Robert

5.0

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Content Warnings

Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow.

Noor Hindi

challenging emotional reflective

So Let Them Burn

Kamilah Cole

DID NOT FINISH: 12%

Great book, will try to return to it later

Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls

Kai Cheng Thom

DID NOT FINISH: 34%

Not in right place for this book, but beautiful book

Love from A to Z

S.K. Ali

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-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

Content Warnings

Removing my review because of the recent allegations that the author was race faking this whole time, in addition to a history of bullying, harassment, racism and more. For more information, Grapie on TikTok has a breakdown of all of the main accusations and evidence: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLaCBrQR/

I’m extremely upset by this information and will no longer be platforming this author.

Content Warnings

Gender Queer: A Memoir

Maia Kobabe

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

So many big thoughts and emotions. I relate to almost all of eir experiences. I felt so seen yet so sad for the confusion and loneliness both of us possessed for so long. So tender yet informative, heartbreaking yet hopeful. Must read for everyone. Redefined what a graphic novel can look like for me.

I’m hopefully going to come back and add to my review once I detangle some of my feelings.

CW for transphobia, homophobia, medical content and trauma, Harry Potter references pre-JKR was openly a blatant transphobe, blood, vomit

Content Warnings

Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey

Ngozi Ukazu

4.0

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

I saw so much hype in the book that while I found the book endearing, I was left disappointed if a few big ways.

Let's start with the good: the way we see a healthy version of masculinity and community and format of this quaint graphic novel. I absolutely loved the found family vibes and the lack of homophobia in the world of a traditionally very masculine sport, showing that these sports don't have to be this way. Everyone on the team treated everyone else like family, and the book felt like a warm hug. The format was also unique in the vlog-esque style, leaving each episode/chapter feeling whole in it's completion yet part of a bigger story. I often have trouble with pacing in graphic novels, but I didn't have this trouble other than one major plot that felt rushed.

First of our issues, the romance. There is not much build up among the relationship. We can see a few sweet moments, but it seems not super differentiable from other genuine moments between the teammates. When I got to the last few pages of the book where we see some of the tweets that Bittle writes, we see so many more hints toward their relationship blossoming. I wish these tweets had been introduced at the end of each chapter instead, or incorporated into the chapters entirely. I see more of a mentor role in Jack to Bittle than a sustained romantic interest.

Additionally, there were several ableist, antisimetic, and faphobic jokes or comments shown throughout the book. I get that there is a lot of toxic masculinity in sports and that these may be realistic, but this book is shown as a more wholesome community than the typical stereotypes of these more masculine men. Some of these include a slur for little people, saying how they'd rather be dead than have seizures, a fatphobic joke, and referring to someone with a phrase somewhere around the ballpark of "hockey nazi" where we don't need to be referring to characters we are supposed to love with that language. These were not overwhelming the book, but they certainly took me out of the moment and caused me a moment to pause for each of these incidents.

Overall very happy that I read this book, but please be cautious if anything in the last paragraph is a trigger for you, and do not go into this book expecting the romance to be center stage.

Themes: found family, identity, confidence, coming of age, new adult

Bride

Ali Hazelwood

3.75

mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Diverse cast of characters: No

If you are looking for a simple fun read that gives the vibes of ann adult, less problematic version of Twilight, this is the book for you.

The basic premise is a forbidden political marriage between werewolves and vampires, two rivaling species that have been in a near endless war. Both species wholly hate each other, and they hope that this marriage will keep their feud at bay.

There are inter- and intra-species politics in this book, yes, but mostly a sworn enemies to lovers tied in with a mystery. In addition, there seems to be the beginnings of Omegaverse in this novel with an Alpha of the pack, mating, and "knotting" (look up this term at your own risk). Overall, though, it mostly leans on a very basic common understanding of werewolves and vampires; there is not much in the way of world building, if that is what you're looking for. For me, it made for an enjoyable “turn my brain off” kinda read while dealing with brain fog.

This is not going to be the next literary masterpiece, but it was a fun easy read while in the middle of a bit of a reading slump. I'd read the next book if the series continues like the epilogue eludes to!

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