otherworlds's reviews
122 reviews

Chokechain by Andrew Joseph White

emotional hopeful reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The Constellations Are Unrecognizable Here by Andrew Joseph White

emotional reflective

4.25

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

dark funny mysterious 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? Yes

2.75

EDIT: the longer i sit with this book and think about it, the less i like it or feel compelled to continue this series tbh

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

i personally didn't enjoy it as much as i did annihilation, but it was good in its own way! it was so interesting getting to see the investigation of area x from the perspective of someone who hadn't been there, because it stripped away the eerie romanticism of the biologist and left us with a new angle of horror - control's struggle to intellectualize it instead. and i think it's because of their opposing mechanisms of coping that control and ghost bird have a good chemistry and play really well off one another as characters.

that being said, this one was so slow-paced that it was a bit of a struggle to get through, even though i was interested. it picked up in the last part for sure, though! that part with the  i'd still recommend it, just don't expect it to have the same pace as annihilation.

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

emotional informative reflective

5.0

extremely necessary part of deprogramming from american nationalism. it made me realize i have much more to learn and do

From Below by Darcy Coates

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker

medium-paced

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

4.5

The Book of Queer Saints by Mae Murray

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

i'm too tired to properly review this but i really liked most of the stories! tho there were definitely a couple that i wasn't as fond of

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Domestic abuse, and Sexual content

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The Red Tree by Caitlín R. Kiernan

mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

This was honestly such a disappointment for me. In this book, Kiernan heavily overused quotes from other authors, and I felt like the plot itself was too derivative of House of Leaves yet without recapturing what made House of Leaves scary or good.
Also, the way Indigenous people were talked about in this book made me distinctly uncomfortable. It repeated some tired, racist horror cliches about ~scary, mysterious~ Indigenous folklore.
The ending was also so anticlimactic for the convoluted build-up I've been trudging through for over, what, two weeks? I don't even remember anymore.