pestering's reviews
61 reviews

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

I found this so scary and disturbing that I can't get it out of my head it really got me

A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge

all those ghosties living rent free in her head.... I'd love to have a bear companion in my head that sounds cosy as hell 🐻 

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

this book was absolutely written for me, the man who loves superstition and wishes and any kind of writing about art. 

Written on the Body: Letters from Trans and Non-Binary Survivors of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence by Lexie Bean

this was really, really good. usually with anthologies like this, at least some of it's gonna be poorly written, and that doesn't make it less important, I think; I imagine it must be a tough job editing something like this, about a subject as sensitive as sexual assault. but everything in this ended up being really striking to me. it's very masterfully put together.

wrote a really personal review of this and then deleted it all, suffice to say I will be using this format (letters to the body) as a writing exercise in the lead-up to surgery, which feels at once quite close and painfully far away.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

girlies who are autistic about their minimum wage jobs rise up 

A Natural History of Transition by Callum Angus

trans magical realism should by all rights be absolutely my shit. this started off super strong, but ended up dragging and becoming less engaging with the longer stories. favs were the ones about the girl who turned into a mountain and the swarm of insects.

On Hell by Johanna Hedva

no sorry I generally don't like books that are written in this style of speaking. I kind of liked it when I got it a bit in the latter half. I read it over breakfast and it made me nauseous, but tbf I am very sensitive to words that I dislike.

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

again Sally Rooney writes characters and dialogue in a way that I think, for me at least, is most accurate of any books I read to how people are in real life. I don't know if this makes her books better than others, but I am struck by it.

however I cannot imagine ever writing to any of my friends in the way that Alice and Eileen email each other haha, but I am a simple man (didn't go to Trinity)

Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

it's some time since I read Secrets of the Universe and I can't remember if it was written in the same way - so totally simplistic, almost childish. I think it takes getting used to.

I loved, though. makes me think of the idea of going through life and making all this effort to change and seem grown-up, but what you find at the end of it all is that maybe you had it right when you were a child.

The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel by Matt Zoller Seitz

a small bit technical for my tastes but good nonetheless

I'd be interested to read the French Dispatch book in this series