sahanac's reviews
203 reviews

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.0

the adventure felt kinda dull to me tbh. i was skimming through pages and it somehow didnt manage to catch me at any point. if it hadn't been for book club i wouldnt have finished. wanted to like it more than i did. 

The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.5

i hate this series lmao i cant ever get past the writing. the 2.5 stars are simply for the interpersonal relationships which i have to admit are quite good. but god the writing and the complete lack of discerable plot beyond utter pretension do just drive me nuts!

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

adventurous dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

4.5

this was darker than i expected, but i loved all of the references i recognized and all of the exploration of womanhood, caste, and the ways that geeta examined her place within her society more fully thru the book. really enjoyed the humor interspersed throughout, and i found saloni/preity/priya/farah/geeta as a crew So funny when they were together. i honestly wish i had been able to read this in one sitting — i think it would have added to my experience 

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I read this in one sitting. It was heart-wrenchingly, horrificly, maddeningly romantic, and just as sad. This really follows from gothic tradition in a very Rebecca-esque way, which has a special place in my heart, always, so I was already fully committed to this book. Unlike many gothic novels, the home is less the center of the trouble - instead it is the sea, which is a whole ‘nother level of pain for those who have read the book: the sea is the home that fully envelopes Miri and Leah’s relationship and love. We start the book in so much liminality and progress forward to see the ways Miri and Leah loved each other before the sea - and Armfield weaves this together so well, with longing and desperation mounting, and mounting, and mounting, as we *need* to know what has happened, what will happen, what’s next. It feels almost like Emily Austin’s Everyone In This Room… at some points, with a smattering of anxious fiction interspersed with the more gothic notes. The characters are so unfortunately lovable too in their desire for one another, and that’s the real tragedy in the book - Armfield asks what happens when love isn’t enough? Miri says something about trying to make an audience love Leah, because most times, people don’t want to hear about how wonderful other people’s significant other’s are. But then immediately, everything she told me made me fall in love with Leah obstinately, to an unfathomable degree. 

There are books that belong in discussion, that beg to be read in community. And then there are books like this. That I don’t know if I’ll really be able to talk about in a meaningful way. I just know that there was a love there, and I watched something unbelievable happen to it, and now that love is in my head to deal with. 

Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy

challenging informative inspiring slow-paced

5.0

this was an absolutely fascinating read. I’m not a science buff, but I struggled through the descriptions of more nuanced bacterial and viral elements of this book to get to the social implications of these plagues, as promised by Kennedy. I won’t lie and say that I felt like the world can attribute much of it’s development and evolution to plagues as Kennedy seems to assert, but I also can never again claim that plagues did not have a major role to play in the evolution of our understandings of race, class, and capital. Which is a lens I never would have thought to explore, but is one I now will never forget - seeing the world through this public health lens has really made me step back and consider all of the other intersections and influences that I’ve been ignoring. This is a fascinating study of the history of the ways we became what we are now, which makes the fall-out from our most recent plague feel less “unprecedented” and more like something that will have lingering impacts for us as we move, slowly, forward.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

challenging emotional tense fast-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

4.5

I love the way RF Kuang experiences life, and then immediately decides that she’s got to write a critique on it. Live in China for a gap year? Writes The Poppy Wars series. Goes to Oxford? Babel is the result. Has a number-one best-selling book about race and colonialism? Write a book about the racism within the publishing industry in an almost prophetic way. This book took so many twists and turns, and the protagonist (not the hero, by any means) spiraled so far into a mental maze of justification that was absolutely fascinating to watch. I was almost convinced there was going to be a surprise paranormal element, but it was just one person’s unchecked privilege and Murphy’s Law. 

I can’t say if I liked any characters. I can’t say if I respected anyone in this book. Even the protagonist’s rival, the Asian American person she stole from, (who for the record, DID NOT DESERVE any of what happened!) was a touch and go person, and the gray morality present through this book really reinforced Kuang’s mastery of making complicated subjects into bestsellers. 

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

challenging emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

plot moves well, lots of well timed and well researched conversations about 2020, about ability, about happiness science. lost me at about 75% in, but not bad. ending was unsatisfying, hence the lower rating, but it was realistic, so i'm having a hard time faulting it. 

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

i do just enjoy this series!! the characters are delightful and remarkably British in a very entertaining way

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-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? No

4.75

emily wilde got me again! i didn't expect to love this series, but i just love how grouchy emily is, and again, the focus on 20th century anthropological field work interspersed between plot points of the stories of faeries and brownies that enthralled me as a child just makes this series hit every part of me, adult to child, and fill me with a sense of delight that makes it easy to consume. i think the first book was slightly stronger, especially with the fleshing out of the villagers in Hrafnsvik, but the additions of Rose and Ariadne made for a really compelling core four (or five, since Shadow must be included). I also liked Emily being flustered and pestered by Wendell in the first book, and while she was still fed up with him it was less, and he was much mushier. Which is cute, but also I liked when they were snippier because it was quite fun. I am quite pleased with the way their relationship is developing though, so really I have no tangible complaints. 

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

oh...wow. going to be thinking about this one every time i talk about prison abolition or the ways that systemic injustices play out in the american media (so...constantly lol). the metaphors here were never heavy handed, never too hard to parse, but always just sensitive enough to leave me with so much to contemplate and chew on. the fact that the main characters that we were meant to love and have sympathy for were all violent offenders was a really excellent touch in the narrative around prison abolition - it is not just for the people that the justice system *fails* that we want abolition, but for the people who are and have been genuinely bad. it's about changing the whole system. and the concept of high and low freed, the way that so many of the almost-high freed Links chose death felt like a devastating commentary on the way our system is set up for recidivism. not an "enjoyable" read, but a tragic, hard, incredibly powerful, rewarding one.