slimy's reviews
186 reviews

Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson

adventurous challenging emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.0

Under One Roof by Ali Hazelwood

fast-paced

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

3.0

The Grown Up by Gillian Flynn

dark mysterious fast-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

2.0

This feels like the sort of unfinished, hurried, underdeveloped short story I'd read in an undergrad creative writing critique by a psychology major who has one more humanities credit to fill before graduation and no self-governance. Kinda just makes me go: "why? why did you do this? why am I reading this right now?" Not what I was expecting from ms. gone girl herself gillian flynn. ANYWAY... 

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

I was really pleasantly surprised by this book- it was recommended to me by a friend, and just really isn't my typical jam, but I really enjoyed it. 
Cheryl Strayed has such a smooth and deep-cutting voice in her work- it really is a great tool for an advise column. She says so much in so few words. She leads with empathy and compassion because as she says: "our heads are small but our hearts are big". 

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This is one of those books that feels like it should be a 4/5 star rating, but just fails to connect emotionally to tie it all together. I don't feel like the political/war strategy side of things and the self-discovery/romance side were very balanced. There's too much romance for this just to be a fantasy political/war novel, but entirely too much political drama and complicated war maneuvering for it to really be considered anything else. 

I just didn't connect with it. I stuck with it in hope it would all click, but I guess it just wasn't for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, Blood, and War

Isaiah: A 12-Week Study by Drew Hunter
Did not finish book. Stopped at 45%.

This really just feels like homework. Fails to draw in any sort of emotional or spiritual resonance. 

Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason by Michel Foucault

challenging informative slow-paced

3.0

Great research and historical context, but written in such a complicated language you have to really work to understand it. 

Assembly by Natasha Brown

challenging emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Beautiful prose, and engagingly relevant.
 The narrator observes the different positions her race puts her in: from situations of overt corporate racism, to the awkward, insincere interactions with her white boyfriend’s family, to the unavoidable otherness she feels at his family’s home. She examines the place and influence of her Blackness as currency in both liberal and conservative politics and what it would take theoretically to change any of it. 

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

How to Set a Fire and Why by Jesse Ball

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Fabulous. Nihilistic. Smart. 

Written as the journal of a highly-intelligent but socially outcast teenage girl, this book explores grief, violence, and education in low-income environments. Funny, creative, righteous. I knew this would be five stars in the first chapter.