sadpear's reviews
464 reviews

Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century by Roseanne Montillo

informative sad slow-paced

3.5

Interesting parallels but so little time really is spent on Woodward and Capote's interactions, or how he directly impacted the trajectory of her later years.

Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

Beautifully crafted dual narrators, some magic, will definitely give you some feelings if you were a brand new college student in the late 90s tired of hearing people complain about everything being "too PC."

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

The alternating perspectives made the story richer, and I enjoyed the foxes.

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

I wanted to love this because the elements are all things I love and the premise is a good one. But I could never figure out if the main character was meant to be genuine or a parody of a noir detective. Ultimately I never cared about the characters and so never felt any anxiety or tension for them. Also, it felt like a slog. It's not a slow paced story, things are constantly happening but it took me forever to get through it. I constantly wanted to skip pages because I was not invested. 

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

challenging mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

It's hard to pull off a book with this complicated timeline and yet this works. It's such a magnificent, strange book.

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

dark tense slow-paced

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

4.25

This book kept me guessing up until the final pages about where it would land. Definitely one of the better novels about AI/human relationships in that it does not pretend that Doug is a good dude at all.

tw domestic abuse

There is a scene where Doug abuses Annie in a way I found personally so horrifying that it made me queasy, and I spent the latter half of the novel reading in intense anxiety waiting for him to do something horrible again. I imagine this in some small way mimicked the struggle happening within Annie during that in the book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Confinement

The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West

challenging funny inspiring fast-paced

5.0

Lindy West is right about all this shit and she should say it!!!!!!

Goldenseal by Maria Hummel

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

Luxurious in a way that much literary fiction does not allow itself to be, this book gives a finely textured portrait of friendship and a vanishing world. As it slips from past to present, it mimics the quality of memory and reverie. 

Family Meal by Bryan Washington

challenging emotional slow-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

5.0

If you want grand literary fic about food and family and love and death, but also queer and full of people of color, Bryan Washington has got you. This is a heart breaker, intense and beautiful. Not your stereotypical vision of Texas but one that people who have lived there will recognize instantly.

Spook Lights: Southern Gothic Horror by Eden Royce

dark mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Spooky southern gothic tales of magic and blood, broken hearts and dark nights. Vibes for days.