onceandfuturereads's reviews
277 reviews

Pick the Lock by A.S. King

adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

There was way too much going on: pick one! Victorian time period, punk rock opera, Balkan war. I just think it could have been better if the author had tried to do one thing really well, instead of many things just *okay*. I don’t know if it was a personal thing but I really hated the “lying to god” thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

The Obsidian Mirror: Healing from Childhood Sexual Abuse by Louise M. Wisechild, Laura Davis

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book is hard to read - she details so much abuse - but is healing in the end. I saw my entire family in this mirror. I got chills reading about the family dynamics of dismissal and denial. I wish I could hand this book to other people in my family but I do think it will be triggering if you haven't already had a bunch of therapy. Also, some people may not like the writing style - the way Wisechild illustrates her inner family is through named "voices," a choice I personally found bold and unique for a memoir. I am getting myself a tarot reading from Wisechild for my birthday and I can't wait to read her other memoir. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Rape, and Excrement

Colored Television by Danzy Senna

reflective tense fast-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

4.0

I found this book super meta. Probably because I've been reading so much Danzy Senna lately I feel like I know her. The story is one of a struggling novelist who contemplates turning to TV writing to make ends meet for her family. I pictured an aged Zendaya playing the main character, Jane. Lots of reviews classify Jane as "unlikeable," and sure, some of her decisions

(especially the lying)

are horrendous, but that's what makes her human and relatable. I tend to love stories where the characters get themselves so far in a hole you wonder how they're ever going to climb out (think Wonder Boys). As always, Senna's takes on race and class are sharp, but this one doesn't do for me what Caucasia did. Maybe because we hardly get any of the characters' backstories - it is quite firmly set in the present - which will work for some readers better than others. 

Another thing I noticed was the quality of a person's teeth being mentioned an unusual amount, but I am allowing myself to believe that I *know* Senna enough to know that that is part of Jane's insecurities, not the author's own judgment. 

White Fur by Jardine Libaire
Did not finish book. Stopped at 6%.

Seriously couldn't stand the writing. 

Indexing Books by Nancy C. Mulvany
Did not finish book. Stopped at 23%.

I will only be using this book for reference from now on, but didn’t want to lose the pages I had already logged. 

Farewell, Ghosts by Nadia Terranova

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

Back and forth on this. There are astonishingly good lines. It is dragging and dramatic but true to life. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Rape, Suicide, and Abortion

Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life by Sofia Samatar
Did not finish book. Stopped at 16%.

It just isn’t what I’m in the mood for right now. 

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

I can honestly say I didn't think I'd love this book until two thirds of the way through. I kept getting lost in the too-long sentences, and considered DNF'ing a few times. I thought I would maybe love it if it had been a short story instead. But oh my -- though I may not have loved the journey, I loved the end. I loved getting to know Nadia and Saeed and being a fly on the wall for the ebbs and flows of their relationship. This is a brilliant book about immigration and apocalypse and it is as hopeful as it is sad.  

Deliver Me by Elle Nash

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

At first I thought this was going to be a "fight club" type scenario where it turns out the girls are the same person the whole time. But then it quickly became obvious that it was going the DIY c-section route.

  I think my idea was better. 

I liked the writing but was iffy about how fatness was portrayed. The MC is fat seemingly because she eats a lot and there are lots of descriptions of this, which by itself is fine I guess, but the descriptions are often linked to awful descriptions of animals and/or people. For example,

the beheaded dog calling to mind a ham hock and pea soup for our lovely protagonist.

IDK, it just seemed like a thin author trying to portray a fat MC and missing the mark entirely. 

How to Hide in Plain Sight by Emma Noyes

emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

Three stars because the depiction of OCD was startlingly real, and that is very rare. But I hated the author's choice to make the MC filthy rich. If the point was to illustrate that OCD can affect anyone, regardless of their station in life, then make the MC rich, I guess. But island-owning rich? This will simply not be relatable to anyone. It seemed the author was also trying to push sympathy for the dad, and I just...have zero sympathy for a rich old man who ends up marrying an extremely younger woman and makes his fortune on the misfortune of others

big pharma

. So those are my gripes. But it was seriously refreshing to read about the type of OCD that I have.