saint_eleanor's reviews
290 reviews

One's Company by Ashley Hutson

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Okay I took forever to review this but truly this is one of the most interesting books ive read. It's all about people processing trauma in their own weird and twisted ways which I can unfortunately relate to really really hard. The main character is incredibly relatable and just the perfect amount of unlikable, supporting her believability. The book also comes from a very modern lens I feel in our society that demands rights to literally everyone else's business and our inability to put down our camera-phones and leave people alone. Jake Paul in the suicide forest comes to mind. Since the TV show in the book is a real show I'd love to know more about the place the author was in when she wrote it and why she chose 'three's company' for the book. I also felt there was a very strong feminist theme and also the queer undertones and scenes were so well written. Another banger for the girls who have no sanity left!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Minor: Rape

Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future by Gloria Dickie

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

3.5

This book was so incredibly informative I did not realize how much bear information I had been missing! It was quite devastating particularly the chapter about the Vietnamese practice of harvesting moon/sun bear bile for medicine and aphrodisiac, which I had no idea about. As well as the ignorant practices of yellowstone campers, torturing bears into dancing bears in India, and the misconceptions about spectacled bears in Latin America. I also learned that polar bears are the only bears who can smell period blood which confirms that they are the scariest bear lmao. I wanted to know a little bit more about the author while she was writing it but otherwise this was awesome. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death

Sunny, Vol. 1 by Taiyo Matsumoto

emotional funny relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

A little slow but sooooo enjoyable. Slice of life manga about a bunch of kids in a foster home in rural japan and their lives. Pretty sad but also really funny and the art is amazing and different from Taiyo’s other works, more brushstrokes.

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This was really awesome and well written so im logging it at a 4 but my personal rating is probably 3.5 tbh. A classic mystery novel set on a Lakota reservation in which a local justice enforcer is trying to figure out who is bringing heroin etc into his community.

 It was definitely super addictive and the writing was great and the characters were believable and i feel its a particularly important story to tell, but crime mysteries just arent my thing I’m realizing.

Walking Practice by Dolki Min

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

I loved this it was super short and cute and gross. Think american psycho but patrick is a cute alien in Korea named

Mumu

who feeds on human flesh and is really horny all the time. The descriptions were so gorey and visceral and poetic and the text art and illustrations were so cool. I really liked the inner monologue i thought it was rly funny! The author uses a pseudonym and wears a mask too which is interesting, we don’t know their identity 

Hoodwitch by Faylita Hicks

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious relaxing slow-paced

5.0

This was such beautiful poetry oh my goodness. I rarely feel like poetry written recently can incorporate  slang / colloquialisms without sounding forced but there was so much of that in this book and it was just so natural and beautiful and i felt like i could hear the poet.
The poems were stunning

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really loved this book, it was so heartbreaking and weird. Some of it seemed kinds on-the-nose but i lack the cultural background to appreciate 100% of the writing. Its really interesting how vegetarianism is received in Korean culture, though obviously the vegetarian aspect was more of a metaphor for going against the grain as a woman, and also picked up major  anti-consumerism anti-individualism vibes, the people in the MC’s life can’t fathom that she would want to do something for herself or have her own thoughts that conflict with High Society, and it ultimately breaks her. If you like this book you should watch Kotoko (2011)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual harassment

Vagabond, Vol. 1 (VIZBIG Edition) by Takehiko Inoue

adventurous challenging dark funny tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Worth the hype holy shit

You've Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Ugh so creepy and sad!! Eric Larocca always gets me. I got kind of confused around the end but then the ending itself was really crazy and devastating. Not as scary as his other works but still so addictive. And i have to say i agree with Martyr… ‘Mother!’ WAS a masterpiece

The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

This is definitely a book only a translator could write, I'm not sure i can like condense my thoughts on it into one review because its like 3 times removed from reality but i also suspect its a form of auto-fiction?? I know this author translates for Olga Togarczuk and then like references that many times in the book, but the book is a novel within a novel translated by one of the characters the "story" is based on. You'll see, its crazy. Its one of those books where kind of nothing happens but its still so weird and mysterious and meta so it was good. Extremely well-written i think i wanted a diff ending is all