sarah984's reviews
621 reviews

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

challenging dark medium-paced

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

5.0

Time travel stories can be a bit hit or miss for me - I find that a lot of the time they get too caught up in either the mechanics or the power fantasy, so they don't feel like they have anything to say. Kindred knows what it wants to say and says it effectively. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

Minor: Gun violence, Incest, Abortion, and Fire/Fire injury

Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by Sarah Ladipo Manyika

emotional hopeful medium-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? No

3.0

This was a sweet little story and I loved the main character's voice, but I think it needed to be either shorter or longer. Near the end it felt like it was kind of losing focus because there are so many side characters  for a book of this length. Most of it is kind of cozy and charming and then there's a terrible event that gets maybe 3 pages devoted to it near the end. Left me feeling a little weird.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Infidelity, Medical content, and Dementia

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee

dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.0

I loved the first two books in this series, but this one unfortunately disappointed me. The massive time skips made it feel like reading a summary a lot of the time, and the book's length felt unnecessary - a lot of things happened that didn't really seem to be that important and a lot of time was wasted restating the themes in case we missed them. A lot of the characters I liked in the earlier books (especially Shae and Wen) felt diminished, relegated into uninteresting roles and this book seemed way more invested in upholding the clan structure and nuclear family as solely positive forces than the previous books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Racism, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, Trafficking, Stalking, Car accident, Abortion, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, War, and Classism

Long Division by Kiese Laymon

adventurous challenging funny 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? No

4.0

Fascinating time travel novel with great characters, use of place and language, and mind bending meta elements. Dark and sad and funny and hopeful all at once, and full of characters I'd love to meet. Some parts were a bit confusing to me (what was up with the cat??) but if you can handle that I highly recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism

Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Grief, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

How to Kill Men and Get Away With It by Katy Brent

dark funny fast-paced

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

1.0

Absolutely nothing about this worked for me. The humour wasn't funny, the characters had no personality, the plot twist was ridiculous. A lot of it felt like it was written to be quoted on twitter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Self harm, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, and Cannibalism

The City & the City by China Miéville

challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I thought the setting was fascinating, and the way the thought processes of the characters navigating the city are handled was really well done. However the actual mystery wasn't that interesting or surprising, and I felt like the story kind of fell apart once more information about

Breach

was revealed.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Car accident, and Murder

Minor: Racism, Antisemitism, Trafficking, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany

challenging mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0

This book has a fascinating structure, some really beautiful imagery and some striking set pieces, but it's also an overlong slog and a lot of it felt off putting. It somehow both feels timeless and extremely dated. I can definitely see the influence on other books that I've enjoyed. I'm glad I read it but I don't think I'd ever read it again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Violence, Excrement, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Biphobia, Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, Incest, and Antisemitism

The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada

challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Somehow despite the short length, this book felt just a bit too long to me - when it hit it was incisive and really made me think, but other parts felt a little pointless. Overall good if you want to be depressed about your job.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Fatphobia, Mental illness, and Sexual harassment

The Cipher by Kathe Koja

challenging dark slow-paced

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

4.0

I've been wanting to read this one for a while and it did not disappoint: nasty characters in nasty situations as everything spins out of control. It got a little repetitive for me near the end and the kindle edition had some annoying OCR errors but overall highly recommended to anyone who likes weird horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism, Drug use, Eating disorder, Excrement, Vomit, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel by Julian K. Jarboe

dark reflective slow-paced

2.5

I enjoyed a few stories in this collection (particularly Self Care, Estranged Children of Storybook Houses, and I Am A Beautiful Bug!) but the more poem-like pieces didn't really interest me and there were a lot of distracting usage errors in the kindle version.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Self harm

Moderate: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail