saint_eleanor's reviews
290 reviews

Lambda by David Musgrave

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challenging dark funny informative slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

I really loved this book a lot, it was super weird and definitely  hard to follow a couple times but I love this genre of specfic with like the alternate race and how we would treat real aliens, and I lost it at the part about Spongebob that was so clever and really placed me into the world. I also loved the Greenland shark details and everything, I was confused about the coup and like the underground lambda uprising or whatever. It feels very slice-of-life, very matter of fact writing on a really interesting moment in time. Definitely Literary SF 
When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was really good and exciting but I feel like the ending was a little bit of a flop. I really loved the story and the world-building/ scene-setting was really really good. I was definitely super engrossed. The plot  reminded me a bit of Jackal but I was definitely way more scared of the people in this book than any 'entity' or whatever. Definitely a good read. Also the prose in between chapters was amazing
The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones

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challenging fast-paced
idk what the hell was happening tbh
Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

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dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

I loved this a lot and honestly it was a really nice break from Graham's Indian Lake trilogy where you have to fight tooth and nail to understand what's happening in any given scene, the writing in this is way more straight up but still very poetic. I love the southern gothic style as well, it's so fun to read and it's so ruff n tumble. It's a werewolf book but it's more of a family drama and examination of class/race disparity in the united states. very very sad but very good.
Hit Parade of Tears by Izumi Suzuki

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challenging dark funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

I really loved a couple of these stories and didn't really like others, but I thought they were really well-written and cool. Short easy read
Strega by Johanne Lykke Holm

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challenging dark lighthearted mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

This was really beautiful and poetic but maybe just  not what I expected, I was hoping for maybe a little bit more of a concrete mystery
The Road: a Graphic Novel Adaptation by Manu Larcenet

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

my heart is frickin broken. This is perfect for me bc i love cormac mccarthy’s plots but find him slightly irritating. The art is impeccable.
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Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

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dark emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The writing style of this was really cool, like 'Beloved' meets 'a Certain Hunger' meets 'Bless the daughter raised by a voice in her head' (i.e. lots of the royal "we" , lots of lust, and all the prose) . I loved listening to it on tape so i could hear the Igbo read by the author and the pronunciation of stuff, Igbo is so beautiful to listen to! But I feel like i had known that this was autobiographical before i read it i would have liked it more, but i was definitely expecting a novel so it definitely felt really slow. 
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A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

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dark emotional funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

Super interesting writing style and I'm not sure i LOVED it especially towards the end but it was so unique that i feel like i want to recommend it to people. The perspective from the young child was so accurate it kind of freaked me out loll and all the extra details just made it super Meta or something it was very fun. It kind of gave me both AHS Ragnarok plus a more avant-garde film vibe lol
Grey Dog by Elliott Gish

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes

3.5

I definitely really enjoyed this but I think reading it so close to 'Nightbitch' made me feel like it was kind of unoriginal? Or idk i feel like i've seen this exact plot in like 3 books this year.  I feel like none of the characters were very complex besides our MC. Kind of all stereotypes. I did absolutely love the main character and her inner thoughts and i loved the witchiness. Super fun to read, for sure and good for Halloween time! Loved the ending especially.