onamoonbeam's reviews
193 reviews

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

oh! so that's why this author's famous! moment. read a few excerpts of this for a creative writing class and loved them months ago, finally got around to reading the whole thing. the mastery machado has over language is. absurd. somehow lots of colloquial language to illustrate swathes of emotion and history that will be rattling around in my mind for who knows how long. she also likes the word eponymous, which i will now actually remember the definition of. 
notable bits

• as a trope lover, the fact the memoir is formatted like this at all is already fantastic, not to mention. literally everything else
• the three deja vu chapters are marked in my book, and i flipped between them, reading their corresponding sentences in order in awe of oh. everything in this book is put together with intention, and this is just a small piece of it. 
• the choose your own adventure part with the 
  (multiple!!) pages that say smth like 'you should not be on this page, there was no way to get to it with the choices provided. you wanted to get out/you can't get out, this already happened/were you looking for a way out' ARE SO GOOD i love when authors use their mediums to the fullest because in what other format could that exist? it reminded me of some pieces of interactive fiction, where choice being given and then taken away, or pointing out the illusion of choice, is more impactful than starting out with no choice to begin with. 
•  
  the use of footnotes in reference to folklore and foreshadowing is *chef's kiss* both opposite and adjacent to the princess bride to me. some of them, esp the one of 'mother killing her child' i gasped at
•  
  pointing out that the language we use to describe abuse is so trite that horrible experiences seem banal, then pointing out a specific experience
•  
  magical realism almost? of her experiences after the breakup, shrinking and drowning in tears and finding solace in animals
•  
  "We deserve to have our wrongdoing represented as much as our heroism, because when we refuse wrongdoing as a possibility for a group of people, we refuse their humanity" AAAGH
•  
  explicit separation of "you" and "i" in one chapter that continues for the rest of the book, works to 1. separate her experiences at the time of the relationship and at other points in her life 2. a marker of her growth 3. everything becomes deeply personal to the reader. you are running/dreaming/hiding. do you understand, now? 
•  
  "Part of the problem was, as a weird fat girl, you felt lucky." the elementary school me is pounding the floor of my heart, ie. when I read that I gripped the book a little tighter
• HOUSE AND SPACE METAPHORS

 
something about this is peak english major to me, and i mean that as a compliment. guess i gotta go read her body and other parties now

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Infidelity, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen
Did not finish book. Stopped at 27%.

primarily, this is one of the worse modern cases i've seen of wow look at my male mc he's so cool and all these women want him and he does all these dastardly daring things, which bleeds into the women here are just. off. like why are you admitting to sex on a morgue table when you just met a cop. excuse me. also the unreadable changing of spelling to portray caribbean accents. was that really necessary, white florida man? or all the cursing, have you been watching too many tarantino movies? it's a shame, i liked this guy's kids books growing up.

Oblivion Rouge, Volume 1: The HAKKINEN by Saturday AM, Pap Souleye Fall

1.0

this isn't a comprehensible story... i can barely tell what oumi's motivations are and the book just throws a ton of side characters at you instead. it would help being able to distinguish oumi from other characters—the art style is so inconsistent it looks like one of those games you play as a kid where you draw a page and tell the next person to add on with no context—so i can barely tell who the mc is. i get the tournament arc manga inspiration loud and clear, but the panels are so confusing i can't tell who's going for what. i guess paneling is one of those skills you don't notice until its absence. it's a shame, i wanted to like this!

The Name of This Book Is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

3.25

disclaimer i am a college student, i know i am not the target audience for this. however it was delightful. exactly the kind of thing i would have loved as a kid. i commend the author for finding a way to write as if trying to keep information a secret, while the entire point of the book is telling a story. this makes for a very fun narrator. cass and max-ernest are little neurodivergent kids and i am glad they have each other and some very cool spy equipment now.

Stitch & The Samurai (The Complete Collection) by Hiroto Wada

funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

this is peak fiction. i love that stitch on caffeine blows up a house. this is like if there was a chapter in way of househusband dedicated to him trying to befriend a cat (i have barely touched that manga, i have no idea if that happens) except the cat is a very strong and smart alien

The Breakaways by Cathy G. Johnson

3.0

cute! i like that

the point of the team is never soccer and they just leave. that feels right! soccer isn’t the point and none of them enjoy it! i wish each member of the ensemble cast got more time to shine, maybe cutting down on a few more stories

Matchmaker by Cam Marshall

funny hopeful fast-paced

4.5

i love gay people

The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics by The Kao, Min Christensen, David Daneman

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective

2.75

cute! always love a good anthology. wish some of the comics were longer but they did have to fit like 30 artists so eh

Roaming by Jillian Tamaki, Mariko Tamaki

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

1.75

what Was this? i normally like jillian tamaki’s stuff, and mariko’s normally is decent. this one summer is amazing. maybe they should just keep writing about kids bc there is no conclusion here. and i guess that is part of being in your first year of college but still?? the main character was so plain that like. i suppose this could easily be a relatable story in direct actions, not knowing what to do w life, but not any other greater theme. the art’s decent i am always a big pointillism fan. i will say it was a bit strange to read this. in nyc, having been to all of the places the characters visit. esp soho, im there rn! 

Playing in the Light by Zoë Wicomb

informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

mmmm mermaids and light metaphors. i can't tell exactly what the abrupt ending is supposed to portray but i did enjoy reading this, even though i had never heard of the context of

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