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totini's reviews
199 reviews
Mizuno and Chayama by Yuhta Nishio
fast-paced
2.0
I'm so sad to have to give this a 2 stars but it just felt so unsatisfying to me.
The relationship did not feel fleshed out at all and so, I couldn't get myself to feel anything for them. I love the idea of two girls finding solace in each other through abuse and the pains on growing up. But for mizuno, I never understood what she needed chayama for. Chayama finds peace in being with her due to the abuse she suffers but mizuno is just annoying. They don't even seem to have any deep feeling for each other. Couldn't get myself to believe in they're love at all.
But, I do like everything outside the romance. The themes portrayed about bullying, the family troubles, the neglectful parents. How all of these were portrayed were very good and felt realistic. Those ate the scenes that really hit me. The love story was just so underdeveloped. It had so much potential to be so emotional and rich but it wasn't.
The relationship did not feel fleshed out at all and so, I couldn't get myself to feel anything for them. I love the idea of two girls finding solace in each other through abuse and the pains on growing up. But for mizuno, I never understood what she needed chayama for. Chayama finds peace in being with her due to the abuse she suffers but mizuno is just annoying. They don't even seem to have any deep feeling for each other. Couldn't get myself to believe in they're love at all.
But, I do like everything outside the romance. The themes portrayed about bullying, the family troubles, the neglectful parents. How all of these were portrayed were very good and felt realistic. Those ate the scenes that really hit me. The love story was just so underdeveloped. It had so much potential to be so emotional and rich but it wasn't.
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Did not finish book. Stopped at 32%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 32%.
Nothing wrong with the book at all! I just wasn't interested anymore
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
2.0
This was a slog to get through, and I had such high hopes.
I almost dnfed it by Yazz's chapter. I know what the writer was trying to do, I understood more as I kept reading, but goddamn.
There were definitely characters I liked reading about more than others. They're all unlikable, but some were portrayed better for sure. The standouts to me were Grace, Bummi, Carole and LaTisha. Morgan and Dominique were also good after i read on a little bit more. I liked the ones whose characters felt realistic to what they'd been through. I like reading about women and their trials and tribulations, and how it shapes them. What it says about womanhood, racism, and intersectional feminism. That's what I thought this book would be and I liked it when it was that. But more often than not, it was not that.
But despite all this. Even though by the middle I started liking this more, I just slogged though this even on the interesting parts. And by the afterparty I was BEGGING for it to be over and free me. There was no need for 40+ pages of afterparty goddamn.
Also, some lines my god. I'm not gonna pull low hanging fruits from Yazz's chapters but there are some lines played completely straight that gave me Rupi Kaur Instagram poetry sorry. The punctuation capitalization-less writing was pretentious as hell too for the quality of prose we actually got. Which was mid. At least it didn't hinder the reading I'll give it that.
Shout out to Grace and Bummi for carrying this book to 2 stars.
I almost dnfed it by Yazz's chapter. I know what the writer was trying to do, I understood more as I kept reading, but goddamn.
There were definitely characters I liked reading about more than others. They're all unlikable, but some were portrayed better for sure. The standouts to me were Grace, Bummi, Carole and LaTisha. Morgan and Dominique were also good after i read on a little bit more. I liked the ones whose characters felt realistic to what they'd been through. I like reading about women and their trials and tribulations, and how it shapes them. What it says about womanhood, racism, and intersectional feminism. That's what I thought this book would be and I liked it when it was that. But more often than not, it was not that.
But despite all this. Even though by the middle I started liking this more, I just slogged though this even on the interesting parts. And by the afterparty I was BEGGING for it to be over and free me. There was no need for 40+ pages of afterparty goddamn.
Also, some lines my god. I'm not gonna pull low hanging fruits from Yazz's chapters but there are some lines played completely straight that gave me Rupi Kaur Instagram poetry sorry. The punctuation capitalization-less writing was pretentious as hell too for the quality of prose we actually got. Which was mid. At least it didn't hinder the reading I'll give it that.
Shout out to Grace and Bummi for carrying this book to 2 stars.