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ribbenkast's reviews
72 reviews
The Breadwinner: A Graphic Novel by Nora Twomey, Deborah Ellis
3.0
Whilst I understand the work that goes into a comic book, this was just too short for me. It felt rushed and it did not get the point of the story across in just 80 pages with very little dialogue.
Fluids by May Leitz
dark
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? No
1.5
I only finished it because it was so short. There was some good prose in there, but the dual pov between the characters was done poorly. Neither of them had a distinct voice.
Some people read and write the most gross books imaginable and think that just because it's shocking it must be good and deep. But without a deeper tangible meaning, all the gore and violence is quite literally pointless. I love reading horror, especially with violence and gore but there was no point to this book. Worse, it absolutely bored me to death with the unnecessary eyerolling shock factor. In some roundabout way, it's almost pretentious and overly edgy.
The gore would've worked if the the plot and built up had been stronger. I don't think the author is a bad writer, I can see the potential. This book needed some extra time in the oven, but as it stands it's unfortunately not good.
Some people read and write the most gross books imaginable and think that just because it's shocking it must be good and deep. But without a deeper tangible meaning, all the gore and violence is quite literally pointless. I love reading horror, especially with violence and gore but there was no point to this book. Worse, it absolutely bored me to death with the unnecessary eyerolling shock factor. In some roundabout way, it's almost pretentious and overly edgy.
The gore would've worked if the the plot and built up had been stronger. I don't think the author is a bad writer, I can see the potential. This book needed some extra time in the oven, but as it stands it's unfortunately not good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Murder, Body horror, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Incest, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Violence, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Alcohol, Body shaming, Stalking, Suicide, Transphobia, Death, Mental illness, Addiction, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Toxic friendship
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty
adventurous
funny
informative
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
What a ride! I got stuck in the "one more chapter" loop until it was six in the morning and suddenly I had finished it.
The first 120 pages or so are admitedly a bit slow, but necessary set up. It took me a bit to get through them but I read the last 350 pages in one sitting.
There is so much love put into this world and the characters. Every character has been so well developed, even the villains are truly complex multifaceted characters. I know the bar is on the floor sometimes, but reading about a mother (Amina) who did not lose herself in motherhood and who has her own complex motivations and is still a good mom is a breath of fresh air.
Chakraborty sines when writing dialogue, which made me literally kick my feet and laugh out loud sometimes. The story is beautifully weaved together and everything falls into place in the end.
It has strong themes of found family, parenthood, colonisation, class struggle. You can tell the author is passionate about the history she's portraying and it was handled with a lot of care in my opinion. The book literary ends with suggested readings and a bibliography.
But the best part: she did all this, and on top of that this book was just full of whimsy fun.
The first 120 pages or so are admitedly a bit slow, but necessary set up. It took me a bit to get through them but I read the last 350 pages in one sitting.
There is so much love put into this world and the characters. Every character has been so well developed, even the villains are truly complex multifaceted characters. I know the bar is on the floor sometimes, but reading about a mother (Amina) who did not lose herself in motherhood and who has her own complex motivations and is still a good mom is a breath of fresh air.
Chakraborty sines when writing dialogue, which made me literally kick my feet and laugh out loud sometimes. The story is beautifully weaved together and everything falls into place in the end.
It has strong themes of found family, parenthood, colonisation, class struggle. You can tell the author is passionate about the history she's portraying and it was handled with a lot of care in my opinion. The book literary ends with suggested readings and a bibliography.
But the best part: she did all this, and on top of that this book was just full of whimsy fun.
Keanu Reeves is Not in Love With You: The Murky World of Online Romance Fraud by Becky Holmes
2.0
"I was approached by a security-awareness networking group, who asked me to join an online panel of romance-fraud experts. I was amazed – how on earth could I possibly be considered an expert?'"
Girl, I am also confused. The author is by no means an expert on the presented topic. She's neither scholar nor journalist, or victim of the prescribed romance fraud. This book is just a word vomit of her covid-lockdown hyperfocus.
The author basically became twitter famous for wasting these romance fraudsters time by keeping them engaged with her weird stories for a long time. Those bits are immediately quite funny.
Those text excerpts combined with actual victims accounts and the ocassional educational nugget kept me going. But if you really want to learn about this topic find another book.
The book didn't deliver me what was promised. I picked this up because I realise there is a lot of victim blaming going on when it comes to romance fraud. I was hoping this book would give me a different perspective and show me the ins and outs of the psychology behind becoming a victim. There where a bunch of victims accounts in the book. I understood all of these women to a certain degree, but the scams described where elleborate and believable. I still don't know what goes through the heads of the people who think @realkeanureeeves87 is the real Keanu Reeves, that he is talking to them, let alone be in love with them and then proceed to send the super rich multi millionaire Keanu Reeves a £1000 Steam gift card.
Becky Holmes is just a deeply weird and insecure person I think. Despite this book having nothing to with that, she kept mentioning her weight and losing weight so much it was deeply triggering my ED. When walkin us through a scammers handbook given to people kept in captivity who are forced to scam people to pay of their debts al she comments on is that at age 42 she is considered unattractive and gets offended by that.
Furthermore, the author was weirdly gross about the real live celebrities and regular men that have their fotos stolen for such scamms. At one point going on a long tangent about wanting to find Liam Neeson's dick picks. I felt gross reading that. It's as if she forgot that despite having their pictures stolen, these men are also real people.
There where multiple times in the book where Holmes centered herself in the narrative despite the fact that the subject has nothing to do with her. She ends the book by saying she got over her imposter syndrome. I think she did all this in an attempt to be more relatable, but al I heard is: me me me me me me.
Lastly, the fact that most of these scams origin from Nigeria is handled with a "revoking my woke card" joke, followed by what I think is a gross racist overexaggeration of Nigerian scammers doing murder and blood magic in order to scam better.
I think she accidentally stumbled into a much bigger story about the circle of exploitation and colonisation but that would require more research and way less HaHas and Holmes appears way to dense to see that.
Ultimately, I don't think Becky Holmes had the grace to handle such a sensitive topic. A massive bummer. I do think it's possible to write such a book with humor, but you need a lot more journalistic integrity.
Girl, I am also confused. The author is by no means an expert on the presented topic. She's neither scholar nor journalist, or victim of the prescribed romance fraud. This book is just a word vomit of her covid-lockdown hyperfocus.
The author basically became twitter famous for wasting these romance fraudsters time by keeping them engaged with her weird stories for a long time. Those bits are immediately quite funny.
Those text excerpts combined with actual victims accounts and the ocassional educational nugget kept me going. But if you really want to learn about this topic find another book.
The book didn't deliver me what was promised. I picked this up because I realise there is a lot of victim blaming going on when it comes to romance fraud. I was hoping this book would give me a different perspective and show me the ins and outs of the psychology behind becoming a victim. There where a bunch of victims accounts in the book. I understood all of these women to a certain degree, but the scams described where elleborate and believable. I still don't know what goes through the heads of the people who think @realkeanureeeves87 is the real Keanu Reeves, that he is talking to them, let alone be in love with them and then proceed to send the super rich multi millionaire Keanu Reeves a £1000 Steam gift card.
Becky Holmes is just a deeply weird and insecure person I think. Despite this book having nothing to with that, she kept mentioning her weight and losing weight so much it was deeply triggering my ED. When walkin us through a scammers handbook given to people kept in captivity who are forced to scam people to pay of their debts al she comments on is that at age 42 she is considered unattractive and gets offended by that.
Furthermore, the author was weirdly gross about the real live celebrities and regular men that have their fotos stolen for such scamms. At one point going on a long tangent about wanting to find Liam Neeson's dick picks. I felt gross reading that. It's as if she forgot that despite having their pictures stolen, these men are also real people.
There where multiple times in the book where Holmes centered herself in the narrative despite the fact that the subject has nothing to do with her. She ends the book by saying she got over her imposter syndrome. I think she did all this in an attempt to be more relatable, but al I heard is: me me me me me me.
Lastly, the fact that most of these scams origin from Nigeria is handled with a "revoking my woke card" joke, followed by what I think is a gross racist overexaggeration of Nigerian scammers doing murder and blood magic in order to scam better.
I think she accidentally stumbled into a much bigger story about the circle of exploitation and colonisation but that would require more research and way less HaHas and Holmes appears way to dense to see that.
Ultimately, I don't think Becky Holmes had the grace to handle such a sensitive topic. A massive bummer. I do think it's possible to write such a book with humor, but you need a lot more journalistic integrity.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Eating disorder, Stalking, Colonisation, Racism, Body shaming, Infidelity, Classism, Trafficking, Cursing, and Bullying
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
4.5
This book is completly out of the ordinary for me, it didn't seem like my cup of tea at all, but then I saw snippits of the TV show and decided to give it a go. I'm so glad I did!
This book is just delightful, I rushed through it. Rarely do I read a book that is just so much fun. It made me laugh out loud multiple times and at moments it was very touching.
It's a bit feminism 101 and some of the coincidences are a little bit too coincidentally, but that didn't take away from the book at all.
This book is just delightful, I rushed through it. Rarely do I read a book that is just so much fun. It made me laugh out loud multiple times and at moments it was very touching.
It's a bit feminism 101 and some of the coincidences are a little bit too coincidentally, but that didn't take away from the book at all.
Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval
fast-paced
3.0
It's genuinly beautifully written but I feel like the strong prose and the extensive metaphores were hiding the the fact that the book barely has any substance. I really like the rotting paradise imagery, it was very evocative. But the plot didn't have enough built up and bulk to warrant it. It feels like a waste.
I don't think I'm the right audience. Im Dutch and I don't know much about Norwegian literature. But the "weirdness" of this book is bog-standard Ducth lit nonsense. I think this book was meant to shock me somehow. And from that shock it wanted me to draw the conclusion that this book must have a deeper meaning. But to me it wasn't shocking, maybe this works better on less desensitised audiences. Long overly descriptive passages about piss don't necessarily make a book literary or deep, unfortunately.
I loved the themes and I desperately wanted to connect more with this book, but when I finished I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on.
I don't think I'm the right audience. Im Dutch and I don't know much about Norwegian literature. But the "weirdness" of this book is bog-standard Ducth lit nonsense. I think this book was meant to shock me somehow. And from that shock it wanted me to draw the conclusion that this book must have a deeper meaning. But to me it wasn't shocking, maybe this works better on less desensitised audiences. Long overly descriptive passages about piss don't necessarily make a book literary or deep, unfortunately.
I loved the themes and I desperately wanted to connect more with this book, but when I finished I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on.
The Postmortal by Drew Magary
funny
reflective
tense
2.25
When I started reading this book, I truly thought this book was going to be 5 stars. The more I kept on reading the worse it became. The ending belongs in a 1 star book. So let's meet in the middle?
The Postmortal is written in 2011 and tells the story of an alternative timeline where in 2019 the cure for ageing (not the cure for death) is discovered. It tells this story through the diary entries of the main characters John Farrel in 2019, 2029, 2059 and 2079. This is all intermixed with selected news excerpts, online posts and interviews John finds relevant to share with us.
This all sounds great, and it's a great way to tell the story. The book gets a bit philosophical with what such a cure would mean for all of us, what to do with overpopulation climate change, what does this mean for politics and hpw do we punish crimes if live in prison really means forever? Admitedly this book has a very politcally American take l, but hey the book takes place in America so can you blame the author? The writing is at times very funny as well.
But oh boy, does the positive end there. The main character is an unlikeable asshole who's only interested in himself and his self interest. This would be okay, authors write unlikeable protagonists all the time, however the way the book is written makes me feel like this wasn't on purpose. Drew Magaray probably set out to create an every day American man. This man never sees the consequences of his bad behaviour. He gets the girls, the money, and even the undeserved unconditiona love of his family who he has abandoned multiple times.
I am confused by the author's note where Drew Magaray thanks his wife and children. This is because I am convinced Drew has never spoken to a woman, ever. Every woman in this book is obsessed with having children, and that's it. That's their only personality trait, besides being inexplicably immediately into this douchebag of a man. Not to mention, not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4 separate women get fridged to further his character arc. Besides being really weird about women, this book is also weird about its descriptions of black people (which is impressive because there aren't barely any).
The ending completely went off the rails and turned into a self-indulgent action movie of some sorts completly stepping away from the original draw of the book. It was a chore to get through and I had to push myself to finish because at that point the sunk cost fallacy was too big.
I'm honestly very upset that this book was this bad. Last year, Drew Magaray's book The Hike pulled me out of an 8 year reading slump. I went from reading 1-2 books every summer to reading 5+ books a month. This book nearly put me back into one.
The Postmortal is written in 2011 and tells the story of an alternative timeline where in 2019 the cure for ageing (not the cure for death) is discovered. It tells this story through the diary entries of the main characters John Farrel in 2019, 2029, 2059 and 2079. This is all intermixed with selected news excerpts, online posts and interviews John finds relevant to share with us.
This all sounds great, and it's a great way to tell the story. The book gets a bit philosophical with what such a cure would mean for all of us, what to do with overpopulation climate change, what does this mean for politics and hpw do we punish crimes if live in prison really means forever? Admitedly this book has a very politcally American take l, but hey the book takes place in America so can you blame the author? The writing is at times very funny as well.
But oh boy, does the positive end there. The main character is an unlikeable asshole who's only interested in himself and his self interest. This would be okay, authors write unlikeable protagonists all the time, however the way the book is written makes me feel like this wasn't on purpose. Drew Magaray probably set out to create an every day American man. This man never sees the consequences of his bad behaviour. He gets the girls, the money, and even the undeserved unconditiona love of his family who he has abandoned multiple times.
I am confused by the author's note where Drew Magaray thanks his wife and children. This is because I am convinced Drew has never spoken to a woman, ever. Every woman in this book is obsessed with having children, and that's it. That's their only personality trait, besides being inexplicably immediately into this douchebag of a man. Not to mention, not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4 separate women get fridged to further his character arc. Besides being really weird about women, this book is also weird about its descriptions of black people (which is impressive because there aren't barely any).
The ending completely went off the rails and turned into a self-indulgent action movie of some sorts completly stepping away from the original draw of the book. It was a chore to get through and I had to push myself to finish because at that point the sunk cost fallacy was too big.
I'm honestly very upset that this book was this bad. Last year, Drew Magaray's book The Hike pulled me out of an 8 year reading slump. I went from reading 1-2 books every summer to reading 5+ books a month. This book nearly put me back into one.
Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat
Did not finish book. Stopped at 29%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 29%.
Not sure what would be worse. If there was no actual sex in this book or if there was. You can tell that the author is truly self indulging in her kinks. Which is 100% okay I do not intent to kinkshame here. However so far it is taking the cowards way out by trying to still be marktable as a fantasy novel.
Either the horniness should've been editted down or this should be a cnc kink novel marketed as such. Now it's neither. I'm pretty sure I've read more selfaware stuff on A03, where it comes with the approptiate content warnings.
Either the horniness should've been editted down or this should be a cnc kink novel marketed as such. Now it's neither. I'm pretty sure I've read more selfaware stuff on A03, where it comes with the approptiate content warnings.
For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria MacKenzie
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
The prose of this book was beautiful, you can really see that MacKenzie is a poet. The book is a beautiful transformative text of two of the first written texts by women in English. I love the creativy of the concept and the love that went into this book.
But other than that, it felt a bit... boring? Part 1 (which was a 130 out of 164 pages) kept dragging on a bit too long. The meeting between Julian and Margery could've been fleshed out a bit more, that probably would've made a bigger impact. It's a good book, but I wish it made a bigger impact on me as well.
But other than that, it felt a bit... boring? Part 1 (which was a 130 out of 164 pages) kept dragging on a bit too long. The meeting between Julian and Margery could've been fleshed out a bit more, that probably would've made a bigger impact. It's a good book, but I wish it made a bigger impact on me as well.
You've Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
2.75
The premise of this book is strong, a report of the found bemusings of a serial killer; transcripts of sound recordings, diary entries, poems, intertwined with another horror novella written by said serial killer.
The execution, less so..
The writing is unfortunately not that strong. The poems are cliché and most prose lacked substance. The bad writing for the poems and in the novella could theoreticall be explained away as LaRocca simply writing in another voice, the voice of the character, named Martyr Black, he has created. But in the least spoilerly way, that is not the case. The writing is unfortunately just not that great, not because LaRocca was trying to do something clever, they just didn't write a better book.
Overall the book felt very disjointed. It felt like LaRocca came op with too many concepts that on their own wouldn't be enough to base even a short story on so he threw them all together in one book. The novella within the novel was the best part but it has zero thematic resonance with the rest of the overarching story. This could've been done way better.
There's a small "twist" at the end which I really liked. The ending was strong and it made me see what the author was getting at the entire time. However it was somewhat poorly forshadowed. I feel like If the author went back and tweaked some things in the poetry and the Novella that the book would've worked way better overall.
Last year I read 'Things have gotten worse since we last spoke' and absolutely loved it. In my eyes, Eric LaRocca had cemented themselves as one of the new voices in horror. But now I'm afraid it might have been a one off
The execution, less so..
The writing is unfortunately not that strong. The poems are cliché and most prose lacked substance. The bad writing for the poems and in the novella could theoreticall be explained away as LaRocca simply writing in another voice, the voice of the character, named Martyr Black, he has created. But in the least spoilerly way, that is not the case. The writing is unfortunately just not that great, not because LaRocca was trying to do something clever, they just didn't write a better book.
Overall the book felt very disjointed. It felt like LaRocca came op with too many concepts that on their own wouldn't be enough to base even a short story on so he threw them all together in one book. The novella within the novel was the best part but it has zero thematic resonance with the rest of the overarching story. This could've been done way better.
There's a small "twist" at the end which I really liked. The ending was strong and it made me see what the author was getting at the entire time. However it was somewhat poorly forshadowed. I feel like If the author went back and tweaked some things in the poetry and the Novella that the book would've worked way better overall.
Last year I read 'Things have gotten worse since we last spoke' and absolutely loved it. In my eyes, Eric LaRocca had cemented themselves as one of the new voices in horror. But now I'm afraid it might have been a one off