sarah984's reviews
631 reviews

Aesthetica by Allie Rowbottom

emotional 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? Yes

1.0

Very preachy and unpleasant writing, a lot of mean spirited railing against straw libfems the author imagines on Instagram. The #MeToo plotline is poorly integrated and resolves in a stupid, nothing way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Fatphobia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Confinement, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Self harm, Excrement, and Car accident

These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart by Izzy Wasserstein

dark mysterious slow-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? No

2.0

I could see some of what this book was trying to accomplish, but I just didn't like it. The writing style was bland and felt self-conscious, always having to state everything directly instead of trusting the reader. The characters' relationships felt weird and the plot felt kind of half baked. It seemed like the author kept forgetting that the main character had broken fingers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming and Transphobia

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Incest, Mental illness, Racism, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Dysphoria

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

adventurous challenging hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

A really original and beautifully told story. The structure takes some getting used to but it's ultimately worth it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Incest, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Encounters on the Passage: Inuit Meet the Explorers by Dorothy Harley Eber

adventurous informative medium-paced

4.0

Interesting perspective on arctic exploration from the Inuit point of view. I like that the author always names both the storyteller and the translator. Unfortunately the kindle edition had a lot of formatting issues and most of the images were removed.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Torture, Kidnapping, and Cannibalism

Blackouts by Justin Torres

challenging dark reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

This was a really interesting book, a sort of auto-fiction/historical fiction combination about telling stories and being interpreted and pathologized. I liked it a lot.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, and Medical content

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol by Mallory O'Meara

informative lighthearted fast-paced

2.5

I thought this was an interesting concept, but it wound up being way too pop-history for me. Each chapter features a story about a specific woman (with varying levels of connection to alcohol culture, there were a couple extremely tenuous links that felt like "diversity hires" unfortunately) interspersed with buzzfeed listicle style writing about other things happening globally during that time period. The footnotes are not citations (there's a bibliography at the back, but specific facts aren't cited directly) they're just more unfunny "snark" and some of the chapters (especially the more modern years) feel uncomfortably preachy. Also acting like Hammurabi invented misogyny whole cloth is extremely silly.

The different types of alcohol and how they're made were interesting though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, and Colonisation

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

Ito Junji's Cat Diary by Junji Ito

funny lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

Charming vignettes in the life of a cat owner, drawn in Junji Ito's trademark horror style. Very cute and relatable.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Excrement, Vomit, and Medical content

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

3.0

This was an interesting portrait of a tumultuous time, but the pov character (and most of the other characters honestly) was almost unbearable to read about, and the ending felt like it kind of petered out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Vomit, and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Y/N by Esther Yi

challenging 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

2.0

There were some interesting points and turns of phrase but overall I found the characters' views on almost everything kind of weird and annoying. Very off putting descriptions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Ableism, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Dementia, and Stalking

Minor: Sexual content

The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley

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

2.5

As soon as it was revealed that one of the pov characters in this book has amnesia it had a long road ahead to appeal to me, and it never really got there. The reason for the amnesia seems silly once it's revealed (and the mechanism of what's causing the cycles is super unclear anyway so why do all that), the romances are superficial, and most of the characters pretty much only have one trait. It's unclear why any of them like each other enough to justify what's happening in the plot. There's a huge section in the middle devoted to a fantasy world walking around quest. Most characters sound the same and speak in a way that feels designed to be quoted. I think the basic concept could have been something cool but also reading this felt like a waste of my time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Pregnancy

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Child death, Infertility, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Cannibalism, and Abortion