shane_the_reading_rat's reviews
1113 reviews

The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg

emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

the more i think about this book, the more i love the creativity in it. sometimes novellas have issues but the creativity can mostly outshine them, and this is a good example of that imo. 
the best part of The Four Profound Weaves is easily the two main characters. it’s pretty uncommon to find a book with even one elderly trans character, much less two, so that was wonderful.
this is described as a standalone, but it’s very much not. felt like i had jumped into a story partway through. i’d heavily recommend you read some of R.B. Lemberg’s other Birdverse work before picking this up

Can't Pay, Won't Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition by Debt Collective

5.0

very glad that one of my book clubs got me to pick up this book!! extremely understandable, makes a lot of sense, and includes specifics of ways that the world can change to make it better (and less debt-filled). awesome read, would highly recommend

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

5.0

aliens!! found family!! music!! donuts (i don’t even like most sweet foods but donuts just look cool)!! fun book i loved it a ton

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

4.5

i may change the rating in a few days to a 5, cause god this was incredible but i’m just not quite sure yet if it’s five stars for me or not. i’m a sucker for friendship stories, and this was an absolutely incredible one.

The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi

5.0

this is genuinely an awesome novella (im also very biased towards fantasy that feels like fairytales or fables and Lies of the Ajungo has enormous fable energy). very excited to read the rest of the trilogy :D also just for your information this also has Avatar: The Last Airbender energy, in my personal opinion

Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio

2.25

i am bewildered???????
this was getting interesting but ended very suddenly. this probably won’t stick with me long at all, characters weren’t around long enough to become very memorable and the horror wasn’t scary enough to be remembered. i love if we were villains with my entire being but :/ maybe graveyard shift will grow on me but i don’t think it will. genuinely what the fuck was that ending im so confused, why did it just end there???

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

2.5

i don't know if it's all the hype around this that ruined it for me, but i just really didn't find this as insightful/impactful as a lot of other people did. it feels disjointed, with plotlines and sections in general that never really get finished (

what happened between Cyrus and his AA sponsor??? why do the scenes in Cyrus's mind between famous figures just kinda pop up randomly???

).  also, i don't know how many people will agree with me on this but

i think it would be a more impactful story if Orkideh and Roya had not been revealed to be the same person. them being the same brings in so many more questions of logistically how Roya got away with using Leila's identity. how did she get to the US? how did Leila's husband never find out, since it says in the book that he has essentially an alert for if Leila's documents are used? legally, does Orkideh still use the name Leila??? so many questions are brought in that for me it just made the story make a lot less sense.

all in all, a decent litfic but did not live up to the hype.

Navigating With You by Jeremy Whitley

4.0

incredibly sweet graphic novel with very lovable characters and disability rep that (imo) was done incredibly well. i didn’t find the manga sections that were spliced in very interesting at all, but that may just be a me thing.

Flopping in a Winter Wonderland by Jason June

2.75

entertaining on the surface, but when you think about it for more than a few seconds you’re like “huh. that actually wasn’t that good”.
THE GOOD: some of the antics were pretty hilarious and while the focus on rainbow capitalism was enormous, i didn’t mind how it was treated (as cringe as it usually is, rainbow capitalism can actually do good things sometimes)
THE BAD: it’s mentioned over and over how diverse the Santas at Winter Wonderland are (different religions and races)/how there are several places of worship for various religions, but that’s never really shown except for 1 singular Black santa and

gay santas getting introduced at the very end

??? really unfortunate, it would’ve been great to actually see that rather than be told how diverse it is while never seeing examples.
i thought it was frankly incredibly mean how Aaron treated Casey. i could handle it until the

trapping Casey in the storage shed

section and there i was just like “oh my god Aaron is a terrible person”. + i thought Kris’s whole game with the other teens at WW was kinda ick.
all in all, very rainbow capitalism, but still fun unless you think about it too much

Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly

4.0

pretty dry in places, but this book made me want to delete my spotify account. so it did a good job