talonsontypewriters's reviews
314 reviews

The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter

reflective medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Drug use, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Excrement, Cannibalism, and Acephobia/Arophobia

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• 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

2.0

cool magic system. the rest... ehhh

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Grief, Abandonment, and Colonisation

Minor: Ableism, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, and Alcohol

The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths by Brad Fox

slow-paced

1.0

Maybe 10-15% actually about the bathysphere and early explorations thereof, but mostly a bunch of random, poorly organized historical anecdotes with only tangential or sometimes no apparent relevance to that throughline. Occasional interesting commentary about racism and sexism in STEM that doesn't really build to anything. Not super well written in general, descriptive but lifeless style.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, and Xenophobia

Minor: Animal death, Death, Slavery, Suicide, Antisemitism, and War

Wolfpack by Rem Wigmore

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

3.5

whatever the fuck orfeus and faolan have going on >>>>>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Torture, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual content and Transphobia

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

reflective fast-paced

1.0

Straight up badly written: scattered and repetitive with a bunch of shallow, obvious platitudes masquerading as wise advice/insight into the world. Reeks of white middle-class privilege with little to no self-awareness thereof (there's a whole word vomit chapter on what it would be like if we ignored race/gender/etc and just saw each other as ~human~, and another part about how ~inspiring~ a visit to a homeless shelter was... all right man). No direct citations or sources aside from some books quoted in the text; even if you're being purposefully messy, you should still say where you're getting any actual statistics from? I think the alternative is called "plagiarism" or perhaps "making shit up."

Some weird leaps of logic based on anecdotes too -- I really don't think panic attacks occur frequently in supermarkets because of, uh, the unnaturalness of processed foods or the subconscious realization of how companies are manipulating us or whatever tangent Haig went on there. I'd wager it has more to do with the much more obvious factors of the amount of people in them and required interactions with those people, general intense sensory input (smells, noise, lighting, etc), and thought spirals about choices and money.

Overall made me more rather than less anxious, so also kind of failed in its basic purpose.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Medical content

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Racism, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Vomit

Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America's Cemeteries by Greg Melville

informative medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Hate crime, Slavery, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Cannibalism, and War

Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap

dark mysterious medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Deadnaming, Drug use, Sexual content, Suicide, Transphobia, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Bugs, bug death/injury ("Only Unclench Your Hand").

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Slavery, Suicide, and Murder

Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction by Joshua Whitehead

hopeful reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Medical content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, Vomit, and Cannibalism