sarah984's reviews
604 reviews

Warchild by Karin Lowachee

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

2.5

I thought the last 20% or so of this was pretty good, space action, catharsis without being too pat, but the rest of this was a slog. I'm assuming from how graphic it gets with sexual violence that the intended audience is adults but the main character is a child so it feels very YA in parts. The cyberpunk stuff feels goofy and pointless. The aliens are basically just cobbled together Japanese stereotypes which is kind of weird when there are theoretically Japanese people in this universe (the main character's home ship has a Japanese name!). Zero plot important female characters. Weird time skips. A whole chapter in second person for some reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Rape, Torture, and Child abuse

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Slavery, Homophobia, War, Confinement, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Trafficking, Death, Physical abuse, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, and Violence

Minor: Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Drug use

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

Deeply silly and predictable, this contains a lot of images that the author clearly thought sounded really cool, and some very weird thoughts on women. I wasn't surprised to see in the afterword that this was her debut.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Medical content, Misogyny, Child abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism, Classism, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Fatphobia, and Murder

Minor: Kidnapping, Ableism, Rape, Animal death, Bullying, Torture, Trafficking, Addiction, Body shaming, and Racism

The Whitewash by Siang Lu

funny informative 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? It's complicated

3.0

The subject matter was interesting enough but the humour only landed about half the time for me, and it was kind of annoying how all the women were written in relation to men only. I wish the author had trusted the reader a little more instead of spelling everything out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Ableism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Dementia, Racial slurs, and Stalking

Minor: Addiction, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting

Linghun by Ai Jiang

challenging reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

A really interesting novella about being unable to move on from grief and about immigration and how it affects people and their families. There was a little too much going on for me - the book was already so short and the character I found most interesting wasn't featured much until near the end - but a thought provoking read overall.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death, Terminal illness, and Violence

Minor: Deportation, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, and Racism

There There by Tommy Orange

challenging reflective sad 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

4.5

I really liked this a lot: a story of various interconnected characters converging on a tragedy that is foreshadowed early on but impossible to look away from. Each character had a unique voice so they were easy to tell apart even though there were so many. It bugged me a bit that some chapters were in first person and some were in third (one even in second!) but not enough to really affect my enjoyment. I'll think about this book for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Alcoholism, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Death, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Genocide, Animal death, Ableism, Colonisation, Abortion, Drug use, Medical content, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, and Rape

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

dark

3.0

This anthology was interesting to see what the different takes on "dark fiction" were. Some were straightforward horror stories, some were noir type stories of people being awful to each other, and others were kind of a mix. I found the first and last few stories to be the strongest, with some weaker ones dragging on for a bit in the middle. There's something for everyone, except maybe the faint of heart.

Favourites: Capgras by Tommy Orange and The Longest Street in the World by Theodore C. van Alst Jr.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Murder, Racism, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, and Religious bigotry

The Terror by Dan Simmons

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

There are some great scares here, and some really well done character moments. Overall though, this book is too long (so many things are repeated unnecessarily), every woman is written really badly (but hey, at least

the author makes it clear that Big Tits survived!

) and the ending was terrible. I don't regret reading it but it's hard to recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Colonisation, Torture, Gore, Toxic relationship, Classism, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

Minor: Abandonment, Excrement, Incest, Pregnancy, and Vomit

The Way Past Winter by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

1.5

Absolutely bizarre story. The endless winter has somehow been both eternal and five years.

The endgame villain is an animal spirit defending the environment.

The main character (and narrative) is needlessly cruel to her older sister in a way that felt very Narnia to me.

A major character dies and it's just nothing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Kidnapping

Moderate: Grief, Abandonment, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Minor: Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Blood, and Animal cruelty

THE CHRISTMAS MORNING MASSACRE: A Slasher Horror Novel by Nasser Rabadi

dark tense 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? No

2.5

This was fine, but nothing to write home about. The characters were pretty thin and the writing was nothing special, but the kills were creative and the ending was a little creepy. The stuff about the ghosts didn't really go anywhere and a bunch of dialogue was in italics for no reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Grief

Minor: Confinement, Child death, Alcohol, Abortion, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Fatphobia, and Toxic friendship

Fearless by Shira Glassman

emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

3.5

A short and sweet little romance - I liked the theme of rediscovering music and the relationship between the main character and her daughter. It's nice to see stories like this featuring older characters.