rosa44's reviews
248 reviews

i am tired of being a dandelion by Zane Frederick

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

3.75

pittsburgh
and when i love
it’s only ever
from far away

never close enough
to stay

hope
it’s the only hand
i’ve ever been able
to comfortably hold the hand
 that never lets go

El gran cuaderno by Ágota Kristóf

challenging dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

"Un hombre dice:—Tú, cierra el pico. Las mujeres no han visto nada de la guerra.  
La mujer dice:—¿Que no hemos visto nada? ¡Imbécil! Nosotras hacemos todo el trabajo,tenemos todas las preocupaciones: alimentar a los niños, cuidar a los heridos...Vosotros, una vez acaba la guerra, sois todos unos héroes. Muertos: héroes.Supervivientes: héroes. Mutilados: héroes. Y por eso habéis inventado la guerravosotros, los hombres. Es vuestra guerra. Vosotros la habéis querido; ¡hacedla pues,héroes de mierda!"

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

4.0

El núcleo del disturbio by Samanta Schweblin

funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Una muerte muy dulce by Simone de Beauvoir

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

4.0

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

"Chie looks hard at the photograph. They had it displayed on one of the walls at home; she remembers her mother pointing it out. Look, Chie-chan,that’s me the day the men went to the moon. Even now she doesn’t know what she sees in that Moon Landing Day on the beach; she doesn’t know what to read into the strangeness of the scene, the incongruity of image and title. She examines her mother’s face, interrogates the scowl for a clue as towhat it denotes, but she doesn’t know. Everything she reads into it is after the fact, superimposed, and a guess at the truth. Why did the photograph end up on the wall when Chie was a child? What was so particular or telling or meaningful about it? Was it a mother saying to her daughter: and now Iwill show you what’s possible in your life, the near-limitlessness of what humans, and therefore you, can do? But then why the scowl, why not an expression of possibility or hope? Or was she saying: here are some men reaching the moon – do you see or hear a single woman among them, much less a non-white, non-American woman, do you notice that this is a collection of men in the full prime of their masculinity with their rockets and thrusters and pay loads and the eyes of the world on them – this is what the world is, a playground for men, a laboratory for men, don’t compete because any attempts at competition will end in your feeling dispirited and inferior and crushed, why run a race you can never win, why set yourself upto fail – so please know, my daughter, that you are not inferior and hold that grandly in your heart and live your inconsequential life as well as you can with a dignity of being, will you do that for me?Or was she saying: look at these men going to the moon, be afraid my child at what humans can do, because we know don’t we what it all means,we know the fanfare and glory of the pioneering human spirit and we know the wonder of splitting the atom and we know what these advances can do,your grandmother knew it only too well when she stepped off the pavement to a sound she didn’t recognise and a flash that seemed both distant and so close it might have happened inside her own head, and in her bewilderment came a kernel of knowledge that this might be it, a knowledge that gave rise instantly to a vision of me, her first and only child, which was the last vision she ever experienced, so I am saying to you Chie, my first and only child, that you might regard in wonder these men walking on the moon but you must never forget the price humanity pays for its moments of glory."

Los Demonios Del Eden by Lydia Cacho

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

The Aye-Aye and I by Gerald Durrell

adventurous funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

3.75

El árbol de las cerezas by Paola Peretti

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

4.0

"Algunas noticias deberían darlas siempre teniendo un gato al que abrazar."

Yesterday I Was The Moon by Noor Unnahar, Noor Unnahar

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing fast-paced

4.0

nothing teaches better than this trio the fears, the tears, the years

{the golden trio}

when you fall
do it gloriously
collapse like a glass building 
sink like a gigantic ship 
and when you’re done 
sinking and collapsing and 
sinking and collapsing 
build yourself 
with your wreckage

the most beautiful thing in this world isn’t made
up of particles. it’s the strength of a person who
has seen the collapse of their world, everything 
they held dear crashing down in a million pieces.
yet every morning, they wake up and build their 
life, all over again. mourning their loss in a
tranquil silence. i haven’t yet seen
anything more astonishingly beautiful.

home murmurs
where have you been?
and i can’t help but say
away; looking for you

someday
something will go
terribly, utterly, horribly
wrong 
one day 
everything 
will be fine

our lives 
swing between 
that one day 
and some day 

so why do you worry
about it
everyday

i am fighting
my losses
trauma
and everything bringing ache
because i don’t want
to look in the mirror 
and see a tragedy staring back