rigbees's reviews
271 reviews

How to Dispatch a Human: Stories and Suggestions by Stephanie Andrea Allen

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

This short story anthology really suffered from being an anthology. Each of the stories were interesting in their own right, but hit on the same plot structure. As a result, it felt very same-y: There is a foreboding oddity, and then a dramatic, last-page twist. I maybe would've appreciated this more if I read a story at a time, but as-is, it didn't have enough variety between story structures to make for an enjoyable reading experience.

The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World by Patrik Svensson

adventurous informative sad slow-paced

4.0

One part memoir, one part scientific discussion. The Book of Eels focuses on the limits of human knowledge, how we got to that point, and imagining what it'll take to move beyond. There is a good amount of Eel Content and Eel Facts in this book. However, its core threads are much more focused on the relationship between the author and his father, plus the ways in which research about eels affected past researchers.

I listened to this as audiobook and found the narrator to be easy to listen to and comforting. 

How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo

This book is not what I expecting it to be. It's called How to Read Now, which I hoped would provide some techniques for criticism that are takes into account the contexts we're in. Instead, this was a deep reading on a variety of media, including film and books. These were well-written, but ultimately not media I already knew - very much focused on the California literary scene, I think.

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

I was surprised by this book. To be honest, most books that are about books turn out to be hokey, and I was solidly expecting the Book Eaters to be the same. Instead, I found that this book was a darkly atmospheric with an intersperse timeline that kept me interested. It evokes the feeling of a fairy tale where the main character wakes up and realizes it's a horror story. It deliberately evokes these feelings throughout, with in-text references to "princesses" alongside the terrible treatment the main character receives.

This is a book about control. It eases the reader in, starting with Devon's childhood and slowly ratcheting up around her attempts to escape. Likewise, it tries to peel back questions about the limits of escape. I've heard some other readers of this book find the main character unlikeable, and the book itself calls her a monster at points. However, given the constrained options on the table, when did survival end and monstrosity begin?

I'd give it this a recommendation if you're interested in a book about top-down patriarchal control and brutal motherhood with a dark fairy tale vibe. This book does include forcible separation of mothers and children. I wish I could give it 3.9 stars, since it's not quite a 4 star read to me, but isn't a 3.75 read. However, I'm rounding up.

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

challenging medium-paced

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

4.5

The book itself starts as a dark academia novel with secret societies and dovetails into a plot about student resistance movements to British Empire circa 1837 (specifically around the outbreak of Britain's opium wars). It's explicitly anti-colonial and about the trap of academia, in ways that feel particularly resonant with me and my experiences in radical student organizations. 

The book also demands a nuanced reader; not in the "let's think about ways colonialism could be good!" nuance, but instead as it looks at the possible options for resistance. It does examine the ways in which there's no easy way to resist, but doesn't foreclose the possibility of hope that for once, maybe a difference was made. It also sets up and plays off the ways in which solidarity is built and broken.  Absolutely worth reading multiple times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: War

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

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

4.0

I feel like this book has aged well in some ways, but feels like such a time capsule in others.  In part, I think one of its most important roles is to guard against an ahistorical understanding of BLM and other anti-police brutality movements. Since the 2020 surge in awareness, I feel like I've talked to many folks who act like the cause is relatively new. However, this book does a good job of pulling the thread between the deaths of civil rights leaders to today's struggles. It does feel like a very on-the-nose story, but that's how YA functions.

The parts that felt like a time capsule was anything that involved Tumblr. I think what felt off about it wasn't the specific site, but how it played out. 

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

adventurous tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This is a noir-ish sci-fi book where a translator for an alien species finds herself needing to clear her name after one of the aliens is murdered. While the mystery is intriguing and has a strong pay-off, this book takes a long time to get to that point and feels a little bogged down with worldbuilding. That being said, I think that there are interesting parts to the world being built and I would like to see more stories set in this world. In fact, I think that sequels would probably be even better, as they would be able to get into the story instead of having 3 or 4 chapters of set-up.

Docile by K.M. Szpara

dark medium-paced

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

2.5

This book feels like it's at war with itself: one part of it is a dark romance book, while the other part is a philosophical sci-fi novel about debt.  The two parts fight with each other, and I walked away feeling ultimately dissatisfied. It does have interesting things to say, but I'm not sure there's anyone that I would recommend it to.

The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

4.25

The framework of this book is a man telling the lost story of history around a campfire while the night stays away. Between this and the rich imagery, it feels like a bedtime story that gets told over the course of weeks a chapter at a time. If you don't like descriptions of plants or the world around characters, this should be a skip. However, I enjoyed how these descriptions made the place feel real. As a result of the indulgent imagery, the book lags at points. However, it quickly picks back up and gets into its adventurous tale. The sequel is not yet out, but I'll probably preorder it.

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0