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sucreslibrary's reviews
1242 reviews
The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.
feels like a caricature of poor southern people from someone who has no idea how they actually talk
Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan
3.5
interesting little book but not for the fainthearted. this does go into detail about life working in horse racing, and whatever you've heard about that you will quickly discover it's much worse than you could imagine. this paints a realistic portrait of a working class person making it on the edges of a niche sport, making it out of that niche sport, and her life afterwards.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Misogyny, Sexual assault
Apartment Women by 구병모, Gu Byeong-mo
4.0
this one got under my skin a bit! it so easily sketches out the lives of this apartment complex and the pressure cooker it becomes when you have struggling people all forced to make merry with one another under threat of losing their cheap rent if they can't pull it off. it's a stressful read, and i can see how it wouldn't be a particularly enjoyable one for many, but i liked what this had to say and felt satisfied by the ending.
How It Works Out by Myriam Lacroix
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
i picked this up on a whim when i saw it was 50% off at b&n and was surprised i hadn't heard of it! a weird, speculative concept with a lesbian relationship at the core? how did this slip under my radar? well thank goodness for that sale b/c this was so up my alley.
each story in this follows the same couple, myriam and allison, but with aspects of their world and relationship changed. what if we were poor art punks and found a baby in an alleyway and decided to adopt it? what if you were the ceo of a climate-destroying company and i was a lowly phone operator that went viral for my political views and you start an inappropriate relationship with me? what if i was a praying mantis and you were a dog that rescued me from my tank? what if you had anger issues and abandoned me to go to a therapy retreat and i met a performance artist that looked almost exactly like you but was maybe also an alien and started a new relationship with her?
it goes to dark places pretty quickly, but that's the exact kind of thing i enjoy, and by the end of the last story i was so delighted that i bumped it up to an immediate 4.5. the body horror in that last extremely meta story is so good and so unexpected after several stories that hadn't played with horror as much.
i will say this is extremely millennial lesbian focused, and i'm not sure how much a younger lesbian would get out of it. the humor leans that way as well (so many references to tegan & sara + a scene where characters go on the ellen show), but while that type of thing typically makes it impossible for me to finish a book, it worked well in this one and made me laugh a couple times! the writing honestly reminded me of Kelly Ficarra's work, (an artist that makes sexy + funny lesbian porn comics, highly recommend) in that a lot of the stories the two women at the center are kind of self-centered and vapid but not in a way that makes you hate them, or at least in a way where you're supposed to hate them a bit while reading. the longer stories expands outside of those roles in interesting ways, and i enjoyed that i was never sure who was going to be on which end of the relationship dynamic in each story. for the most part, they kind of suck in each variation, but reading about loser lesbians can be refreshing sometimes!
the reason this isn't a full 5 star is that it is extremely white, and that really hit me when it took like six stories to get to one where any black person is mentioned, and it's done in that way where her race is purposely pointed out when no other character has had that happen so far in their descriptions. sucks that this is still happening in a book published in 2024.
each story in this follows the same couple, myriam and allison, but with aspects of their world and relationship changed. what if we were poor art punks and found a baby in an alleyway and decided to adopt it? what if you were the ceo of a climate-destroying company and i was a lowly phone operator that went viral for my political views and you start an inappropriate relationship with me? what if i was a praying mantis and you were a dog that rescued me from my tank? what if you had anger issues and abandoned me to go to a therapy retreat and i met a performance artist that looked almost exactly like you but was maybe also an alien and started a new relationship with her?
it goes to dark places pretty quickly, but that's the exact kind of thing i enjoy, and by the end of the last story i was so delighted that i bumped it up to an immediate 4.5. the body horror in that last extremely meta story is so good and so unexpected after several stories that hadn't played with horror as much.
i will say this is extremely millennial lesbian focused, and i'm not sure how much a younger lesbian would get out of it. the humor leans that way as well (so many references to tegan & sara + a scene where characters go on the ellen show), but while that type of thing typically makes it impossible for me to finish a book, it worked well in this one and made me laugh a couple times! the writing honestly reminded me of Kelly Ficarra's work, (an artist that makes sexy + funny lesbian porn comics, highly recommend) in that a lot of the stories the two women at the center are kind of self-centered and vapid but not in a way that makes you hate them, or at least in a way where you're supposed to hate them a bit while reading. the longer stories expands outside of those roles in interesting ways, and i enjoyed that i was never sure who was going to be on which end of the relationship dynamic in each story. for the most part, they kind of suck in each variation, but reading about loser lesbians can be refreshing sometimes!
the reason this isn't a full 5 star is that it is extremely white, and that really hit me when it took like six stories to get to one where any black person is mentioned, and it's done in that way where her race is purposely pointed out when no other character has had that happen so far in their descriptions. sucks that this is still happening in a book published in 2024.
The Lamb by Lucy Rose
Did not finish book. Stopped at 3%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 3%.
definitely felt like really corny tumblr "cannibalism is a metaphor for love, im really deep and edgy" moodboard schlock and reading other reviews that assessment appears to be accurate so im moving on to better things!