readingpicnic's reviews
487 reviews

Private Rites by Julia Armfield

2.75

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Flatiron Books for a free digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I'm disappointed to say that I just don't think Julia Armfield's writing is for me. I wanted to like Our Wives Under the Sea, and I didn't really, but I thought I would still give Private Rites a chance. This book was incredibly slow, and I felt like I was slowly sloshing through most of it, hence why it took me over a month to finish it. The world building was admittedly super cool--the water rising higher and higher throughout the novel as the rain almost never stops its endless pouring; the feeling of hopelessness so present in this society where the wealthy are able to climb higher in buildings tall enough to withstand flooding, while the poor experience flooding similar to that scene in Parasite. Compared to the slow pacing of the whole book, the ending was way too fast, events happening so quickly in the final 5-10% of the book that I couldn't even tell what was transpiring. Cults? Sinking? I couldn't tell you. It kind of reminded me of the ending of Night in the Woods, but more confusing. My favorite part of the book by far was the troubled relationship between the sisters as they halfheartedly try to get along with each other, but ultimately just get on each others nerves at every turn, or perhaps don't like each other that much. It reminded me a lot of my brothers and I, and I related heavily to Irene as the sibling who feels stuck in the anger of my childhood, which is how my family will always view me. If you like reading about messy sister dynamics, this is for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicide, Lesbophobia

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

4.5

Okay I love this genre of woman punishing men for their abuse, in the realm of Sadie and The Female of the Species, but this one being more new adult/adult. I absolutely did not see the twist coming halfway through

with Scarlet and Carly being the same person, and I was truly flabbergasted, slack-jawed, distraught even.

I knew that dumbass

red diary

was going to screw things up, but I’m so happy with the ending. They’re adorable <3 The audiobook narration was chilling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury

Thirsty by Jas Hammonds

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Good grief, these girls know two things that bother Annetta and pull them out in every argument!! The same vibes as “That’s why your DAD died!!!” from PEN15. The ending was a relief, and although I’m sure the author could have ended the story sooner, I’m glad that we got to see some long overdue conversations happen and Blake gain some necessary support systems. Also, excellent audiobook narration.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail

Sadie by Courtney Summers

5.0

Yeah, this holds up as one of my favorite books ever. The voice actors capture the painful emotions of this book so well, and the cutoffs of each POV were perfect and kept me listening long after my commute ended. The audiobook gave the vibes of ominous videogame voice acting like in What Remains of Edith Finch, Life is Strange, or Oxenfree. Sadie is so important to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse

Minor: Vomit, Suicide attempt

Little Weirds by Jenny Slate
Did not finish book. Stopped at 47%.

This book felt like a YouTuber writing a poetry book that nobody asked for. I love a weird book, but not this, dare I say, millennial, genre of weird which seems to just be repeating silly words like “gobbledygook” or teasing at bestiality. I was so unamused for the two hours I listened to this audiobook, and I felt finishing it would add nothing to my life but cringe.

Long Time No See by Taylor Blossom

4.0

The plot was a little silly to me with most of Olive’s motivations being driven by an average man, but I did get emotionally invested. This reminded me quite a bit of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and the ethics explored in it, which I loved. I just think the style of this graphic novel is so creative as a Flipnote Hantena lover, and I’m just in awe of the art.

Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant by Curtis Chin

4.5

God I love books with in depth food descriptions. I was very caught off guard by the “ugli” mention. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism

Moderate: Homophobia, Police brutality

Minor: Transphobia, Outing

Down the Drain by Julia Fox

5.0

Every female friendship in this book is so intense and homoerotic; very relatable for girl-likers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Miscarriage

Supporting Students on the Autism Spectrum: A Practical Guide for Academic Libraries by Kerry R. Walton, Rachel M. McMullin

3.75

I found a lot of the content in this book very useful, especially since there isn't much literature on this topic (I will be digging into their references at some point). I will say that a few things bothered me while reading, such as the weird how to clock an autistic person vibes of a lot of it. The chapter talking about employing autistic people was also a bit strange with how it correlated autism with productivity in the workplace and talked about how certain employers seek out autistic people on purpose because they view their autistic traits as a utility (like the car wash example)? The statistics for how few autistic people are hired for jobs that they are qualified for, or hired at all, were dismal and saddening though. Some of the statements about autistic people's behaviors felt very generalizing and framed their strengths as surprising, like did you know autistic people have good traits, too! Here's how we can use those good traits to our advantage in the workplace and exploit them! I did write down a lot of the suggestions for making academic libraries more inviting and accessible for autistic people, but overall this book felt very off to me as an autistic person. I suppose it was written for a neurotypical audience, which is okay since they need to educate themselves and this is a good starting point, as long as they're critical of some of the wording.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism

Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

3.0

The Amazon history chapter broke me and had me crying in the bathroom. Ocean’s narration is excellent as always, although a lot of the poetry just didn’t hook me like I expected it to. 
My favorite lines: “Do you know how many hours I’ve wasted watching straight boys play video games? Enough.” Highly relatable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Death of parent, War