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vagaybond's reviews
446 reviews
Love at First Knight by Megan Clawson
2.5
I really liked the kind of characters that were here (I *LOVE* to see characters who are well into adulthood who have never been kissed, whose anxieties and difficulties making friends have debilitated them etc - this is so underrepresented), but I wish they'd not had scenes of suddenly grabbing the others face and kissing them unprompted. I don't like the framing that there's some kind of "I can't control myself around you" vibe. I will acknowledge that that vibe is less so here than in other romantic stories, but it still bothers me. There's also a lot of "I didn't want to live before you" stuff that ticks me off.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Stalking, Sexual harassment
The main character deals with severe social anxiety. There's no diagnoses mentioned but a lot of the characteristics of her experiences read as autistic and agoraphobic to me (speaking as someone who relates to those).
Betrothal or Breakaway by Leah Brunner
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
Rep: autistic MC, child abuse survivor MC.
This autistic rep was really shitty. Not inaccurate to how people who have no disabled community are too much of the time, but it felt like the rep was written by someone who is removed enough from disability liberation movements to either not know what ABA is or to be an apologist for it.
My main issues with the autistic rep:
- repeated use of the term aspergers (Asperger was a Nazi who experimented on children. He viewed autistic children as a blank slate with no personality, who could be molded to the will of their abusers.)
- emphasis on functioning labels (specifically calling the MC "high functioning") and never explaining or debunking the myriad of issues with this, no mention of masking behaviour
- the acceptance of his teammates is all the exact same, and is uncomplicated, and everyone seems to know what is meant and what his needs are intuitively (presumably based on assumptions and stereotypes?) and they do not actually ask if there's anything he needs in terms of support
- a lot of basic things like stimming etc are never mentioned
- PFL (person first language ie "person with autism") instead of IFL (identity first languahe ie "autistic person") despite IFL being preferred by the vast majority of the autistic community.
I know a lot of this supposedly makes sense for the context and the knowledge the character would have. That doesn't make it feel any less shitty.
This autistic rep was really shitty. Not inaccurate to how people who have no disabled community are too much of the time, but it felt like the rep was written by someone who is removed enough from disability liberation movements to either not know what ABA is or to be an apologist for it.
My main issues with the autistic rep:
- repeated use of the term aspergers (Asperger was a Nazi who experimented on children. He viewed autistic children as a blank slate with no personality, who could be molded to the will of their abusers.)
- emphasis on functioning labels (specifically calling the MC "high functioning") and never explaining or debunking the myriad of issues with this, no mention of masking behaviour
- the acceptance of his teammates is all the exact same, and is uncomplicated, and everyone seems to know what is meant and what his needs are intuitively (presumably based on assumptions and stereotypes?) and they do not actually ask if there's anything he needs in terms of support
- a lot of basic things like stimming etc are never mentioned
- PFL (person first language ie "person with autism") instead of IFL (identity first languahe ie "autistic person") despite IFL being preferred by the vast majority of the autistic community.
I know a lot of this supposedly makes sense for the context and the knowledge the character would have. That doesn't make it feel any less shitty.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Classism
Moderate: Infertility, Toxic relationship, Stalking
One Killer Problem by Justine Pucella Winans
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Transphobia
Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Grave Expectations by Alice Bell
adventurous
funny
mysterious
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
!!! gay rights. non biney :) rep. ghosts who are friends. silly. love this. (protag is presumably a straight woman disclaimer but everybody else is a lil 💅 el gee bee tee)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Blood, Vomit, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Medical content, Grief
Sophie, the protagonist's best friend and spirit guide, died as a teenager. Other ghosts are abundantly present in the book in various bodily states. There is a ghost child. The protagonist deals with a lot of loneliness and sense of tragedy which seems to overarch most things, but the narrative voice is like a friend retelling to you and it's silly.
The Fake Mate by Lana Ferguson
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.75
1. genuinely impressed that my public library had an omegaverse smut audiobook. het, but still.
2. the gay best friend was. really badly written. he kept saying stuff about "men" while separating himself from them as a category, and it felt like that era where people thought transness was a notch further than a 6 on the kinsey scale lmao. the protagonist did stereotype him more than once, to which he responded things like, "Don't put me in a box!" and it felt really trite and not particularly genuine. parker only exists for the purpose of set dressing. yes, he has a relationship. does he have anything else going on in his life? anything he needs a friend for? or is he solely there to help make a straight woman's life a little better while dealing with these microaggressions?
3. no diversity at all besides that, that I noticed.
4. the falling action was really predictable, but I still thought it was satisfactory.
5. this wasn't particularly special, nor was it particularly bad in any way other than aforementioned in nº2 and nº3 here. solidly mid.
but I am a sucker for some of the tropes here and I did enjoy reading it.
2. the gay best friend was. really badly written. he kept saying stuff about "men" while separating himself from them as a category, and it felt like that era where people thought transness was a notch further than a 6 on the kinsey scale lmao. the protagonist did stereotype him more than once, to which he responded things like, "Don't put me in a box!" and it felt really trite and not particularly genuine. parker only exists for the purpose of set dressing. yes, he has a relationship. does he have anything else going on in his life? anything he needs a friend for? or is he solely there to help make a straight woman's life a little better while dealing with these microaggressions?
3. no diversity at all besides that, that I noticed.
4. the falling action was really predictable, but I still thought it was satisfactory.
5. this wasn't particularly special, nor was it particularly bad in any way other than aforementioned in nº2 and nº3 here. solidly mid.
but I am a sucker for some of the tropes here and I did enjoy reading it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Homophobia, Medical content, Death of parent, Abandonment
Courting Samira by Amal Awad
2.0
I wanted to like this more, but I feel like the love triangle her family and friends were trying to set Samira up with by forcing Hakeem on her was just kind of cruel to them both and it was really anticlimactic when Samira and Hakeem had that convo where she was basically like "dude no" in no uncertain terms. I felt like a lot of the things that Samira said in dialogue came as a surprise to me somehow, even when they seemed like essential character traits. I feel like the secondary characters were definitely fully fleshed out personalities and interesting, but I felt like more time could have been spent fleshing out their actual stories. A lot is referenced to have happened offscreen and it just kind of feels like I barely knew Samira. She didn't know herself either to be fair, but I didn't really get to truly see much of that growth, just the fallout of it.
I also feel like the insults about the emo boy felt like they were more wider judgement issues around men expressing femininity in general rather than about what Samira was attracted to, but that might be down to my own hyperawareness of this kind of thing as I do queer sensitivity reading for people sometimes.
I also feel like the insults about the emo boy felt like they were more wider judgement issues around men expressing femininity in general rather than about what Samira was attracted to, but that might be down to my own hyperawareness of this kind of thing as I do queer sensitivity reading for people sometimes.
End of Story by Kylie Scott
2.0
The premise doesn't make any sense to me. It feels like someone was given an interesting prompt specifically as an exercise, but never really fleshed out a decent explanation for why things were so.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Alcohol, Sexual harassment
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
4.0
I really loved this book and the way that it specifically called out the cowardice of white parents and the misogyny within suburban households toward mothers. I wish Ms Greene was given more due credit, and also that we learned how the actual core book club folks fared after in terms of their book club itself.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Dementia, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Infidelity