ohmage_resistance's reviews
80 reviews

The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

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adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Bones of Green and Hearts of Gold by K.A. Cook

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informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I loved the representation in this anthology! Every story focused a particular issue an aromantic person might face, and they were all really well thought out. There were several that made me see an issue in a new way—and I’m already pretty well versed in the aromantic community. I loved how aro allo perspectives were highlighted, because so often aro aces are the only ones who get representation. There was also a lot of attention paid to aro-spectrum people who use microlabels, trans aros, and autistic aros. Overall, I liked most of the stories. There were a couple were it wasn’t super clear what was going on, but most did a good job exploring a particular theme. Favorite stories for representation: “The Pride Conspiracy” and “Those with More”.

Content Warnings

Not Your Villain by C.B. Lee

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

The Redoubtable Pali Avramapul by Victoria Goddard

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Sea Foam and Silence by S.L. Dove Cooper

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adventurous hopeful inspiring relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I was surprised at how much I liked this one. I thought the verse novel aspect would annoy me, but I got used to it really quickly. The main character's thoughts and personality really came through in the verse novel aspect, as well as the little emoticons that Cooper uses. This was a great queer comfort read for me.

It was cool to see someone take the romantic love-centric fairytale of the Little Mermaid and to examine it from an aromantic and asexual lens instead. My only nitpick is that the main character does act a little bit childlike, which I guess comes with doing a Little Mermaid retelling. Also, this is a good example of how to write a non-human character who happens to be a-spec rather than a character who is a-spec because they are non-human.

Content Warnings

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

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challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Fire Becomes Her by Rosiee Thor

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inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

Political fantasy isn't my favorite, and that was definitely the case here. It was also probably not the most complex political fantasy, most of the ideas seemed to be rather thin analogies for real world situations. There were some plot holes/things in the worldbuilding that didn't make sense.

(Ingrid goes from wearing a suit to wearing a dress in one of the last scenes. Also, I don't know why Gwendolyn even has a chance if the amount of flare you have determines how much your vote is worth, and only wealthy people have flare).

Also, Ingrid made A LOT of less than ideal decisions for someone who was supposed to be really smart, and that was kind of immersion breaking. The prose was a giant step up from Tarnished are the Stars, but it's a little to melodramatic for me (it totally fits the 1920's tone though!)

I really liked the representation (Ingrid is demiromantic, and there are ace and aro ace side characters) and lack of amatonormativity in the novel though! That was the best part. Ingrid has complicated feelings towards romantic love the entire time, and there's a strong emphasis on other types of love as well. It doesn't bring up her being demi too much—but again, the way the book talks about love is from very aro-spec perpective, which is nice to see.

Content Warnings