shoutaboutbooks's reviews
808 reviews

‘If this were a game, he could hit pause. He could restart, say different things, the right ones this time.’

Yes, yes, I know. I am very late to the party on this one. I had actually started reading Tomorrow x3 back in August 2023, but I immediately fled from its palpable nostalgia and sentimentalism. At the time, I was simply too emotionally preoccupied to be swept up by what I felt would be an advocation of love and forgiveness (which, my lived experience was teaching me, should not be considered synonyms). So I turned away and placed it aside. But now it’s literally 2025 and I needed to know what all the fuss was about.

I’m sure you’ve all read it by now, so I won’t preach to the choir but the fuss was valid. It’s beautiful, immersive storytelling and I loved its invokation of literature, art, music and, of course, games. It manages to balance the specific and technical with the relatable and accessible. We are all welcomed into this world, and have understandably been captivated by it.

I loved the first half of this BUT, I’m not sure it managed to deliver the conflict/emotional revelations it took so much care to foreshadow. Everything after the climax was sort of underwhelming. Did I enjoy this? 100%, platinum trophy. Did it make me cry? Yes, several times. Do I feel changed or enriched? No, not especially. Do I feel a bit deflated, actually? Yes, and I think it's because this book made me wish so fiercely that I could be a child again, watching my brother play Banjo Kazooie in a moment where everything is still possible. Instead, my decisions have got me stuck playing the same level every day and now I'm too tired of todays to want to progress to tomorrows. I don't think this is the feeling I was supposed to end up with 🙂

I’m certain nostalgia will eventually call me to read this again and, potentially, I might enjoy it more for not having to contend with my own apprehensions/expectations.

Weyward by Emilia Hart

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emotional inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

'Weyward, they called us, when we would not submit, would not bend to their will. But we learned to wear the name with pride.'

Altha. Violet. Kate. Three women connected by an ancestral line and the (magical) realism of five centuries of patriarchal violence, five centuries of female rage. Altha, 1619, is standing trial for murder by means of alleged witchcraft. Violet, 1942, is reckoning with a trauma she can't name but that pulls her closer to solving the mystery of her mother. Kate, 2019, is pregnant and, in fleeing her abusive partner, finds her way to her great-aunt Violet's rural cottage. The legacy of the Weyward women is hidden, but it screams to be found.

As distinct and distant as they are from each other, I loved all three of these narrators. All three overcome isolation, oppression and ostracisation to find comfort in nature and harness the power within. I'm not sure the ends entirely justify the means, because moments with each of them are near emotionally unbearable lol but I also admire Hart's boldness in rendering female suffering so vividly. Violet's narrative was particularly challenging for me, like uncontrollable sobbing on the train challenging, but I also couldn't bear to stop reading (CWs for abuse, r*pe and induced miscarriage). Go with more caution than I did.

Increasingly, I've been yearning to disappear into the woods to commune only with the pigeons so, if I could call in a Weyward-esque property inheritance from a long-lost relative that'd be great. No worries if not, I'll just live in the vicarious poetic justice instead 🪶

Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry

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adventurous funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

Modern Divination by Isabel Agajanian

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mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

Oop. Let's talk about the danger of expectations because I so wish I had loved this. In theory, I should have. It promised academia, witches, rivals to lovers – there was even a VERY bold comp to Howl's Moving Castle. But, sadly, none of these are convincingly delivered and I fear all the issues I have come back to a questionable editorial process. I've learnt that Modern Divination was acquired by Tor after being independently published and "going viral" on TikTok. This was news to me, but it definitely checks out with my experience of the TikTok hype-trad publishing pipeline.

Agajanian is clearly a talented, creative, passionate writer and artist. Their sentences are poetic, their imagery is vibrant. However, though the level of consideration is admirable, trying to phrase everything in the most beautiful or original way you can doesn't necessarily make for a clear, coherent or enjoyable reading experience. Admittedly, plot and character are also underdeveloped, but Modern Divination is most in need of a substantial 'Kill Your Darlings' edit for clarity. I had to flick back and reread sentences, paragraphs and even whole chapters to check whether I'd missed something critical to understanding what was happening/why/why I should care. I hadn't. Things happen because the author says so and the characters aren't particularly interested in questioning any of it, so why should the reader?

I also had no emotional investment in the dynamic or the relationship shift between the useless main character and the drip love interest, and the eventual sex scenes gave me the ick I am so sorry 😂

If you have the desire to read 500 pages of a vaguely cosy but ultimately confusing, surface-level fantasy, absolutely knock yourself out babes. Have fun. It's just 200 pages of waffling too many for me. Maybe I should've rewatched Howl's Moving Castle instead.

Recognising the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative by Isabella Hammad

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

Ibis by Justin Haynes

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challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

4.0

“Someone needs to magnify the ugly truth of this village’s past.” She added, “We are made by history.”

This novel is an undulating ocean of time, bouying readers between past and present into the lives of a scattering of New Felicity residents.

When Milagros was 11, she and her mother boarded a boat full of other mothers desperate to get their children out of Venezuela. But upon landing in Trinidad and Tobago, they were separated. Milagros is rescued by a New Felicity man and is spirited away to the US, to safety, but she never sees her mother again. 20 years later, she returns to Venezuela and T&T in search of their story and her mother’s fate.

Although occasionally overwhelming in language and concept for mine smooth brain, Haynes deftly employes elements of magical realism, cultural mythology and local lore to sketch a dimensional map of New Felicity and her inhabitants. As we glide through chapters, years, locations and narrative voices, the disparate threads of this story gradually weave together towards haunting understanding.

Reminiscent of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, at its most rudimentary level Ibis explores the dramatic, desperate lengths mothers will go to to protect their children. With its examination of the karmic resonance of Obeah spirits tied to a site of historic brutality on a former plantation, Ibis offers a compelling comparative denouncement of the horrific human trafficking operations which have emerged from the ongoing Venezuelan migrant crisis. I’m simply astounded by the scope of this complex, reflective debut.

Don’t be fooled by the softness of the cover. Yes, Ibis is beautiful and poetic and surreal, but the truth of its central human tragedies is devastating. There are precious few happy endings to be found on the island, but perhaps there is healing.

'It felt like taking care of her was the penance that the village could serve to redeem themselves, that caring for her meant that there was a possibility for them to be good once more [...] Milagros pointed toward a new direction for the village, not a fearful past, but a compassionate future.'

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shoutaboutbooks's reviews 808 reviews

shoutaboutbooks's reviews
808 reviews