wilt's reviews
91 reviews

Oleander: A Great Expectations Retelling by Scarlett Drake

dark emotional

4.0

i wouldnt say this is the most perfect book by any means, or even the type of book i would usually speak of highly, or the most technically impressive, but i really enjoyed reading it so hear me out. 

oleander is a mature m/m contemporary dark toxic romance between two boys that starts at adolescence and haunts them into adulthood. the writing is crisp, simple, but highly effective with a satisfying flow. jude is a very sympathetic protagonist, and i enjoyed how it was presented as a telling of the past by a narrator who knew every ugly hurt that lingered around the corners but could still evoke deep love on the pages for the boy at the center of his world. and though i typically dont like reading about teenagers - i liked this one for how awkward and true and messy they were allowed to be at that stage in their lives, about just as much as i enjoyed watching them grow and mature later on. i liked how it dealt with its dark unpleasant themes and it always had me wanting to read more. my biggest criticism is that at times it hit the nail far too firmly on the head with some of its messaging, especially near the end, but this is still some of the deepest enjoyment ive gotten out of a book in ages. it scratched the itch of tragic obsessive lovestories i love so dearly while commiting to its complexities and not shying from its darkness and hurt. an absolute solid read.

The Dragonfly Gambit by A.D. Sui

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

this could have been a toxic yuri revenge story. i think this book really, really wanted it to be. but it had no idea how to execute it. this story has no meat. as a scifi, it is generic, underdeveloped, and juvenile. the entire setup for the conflict feels incurious and lazy and one of the most important things for writing a good convincing revenge story is conflict. the reader should be rooting for the main character, should feel their rage and understand its roots. At no point did I feel interested in the conflict (both on a larger scale and the more personal feelings between Kato and Rezál) or convinced by Kato's motivations. But most egregiously, this book just made no damn sense. Why was Kato picked for this job in the first place with her background if she is known as an anarchist terrorist? What did she even do to get that renown? Why are there barely any mentions of her ties to the resistance and why is it presented like she's better than them and that none of it will be worth it if it doesn't all come crashing down according to her personal solo plan? Why does Kato feel like she's failed right when Rezál is telling her

she's done with the war, after Kato herself acknowledges that the loss of their most famous pilot could be a very effective morale killer?

Why am I supposed to feel convinced of Kato's lingering feelings for ex? Why am I supposed to feel Kaya's love for Rezál after she fires missiles at her and nearly kills her during a game? What even went wrong for Kato to get the injuries that disabled her? I could go on. I have so many questions - most of all why this has overwhelmingly high ratings when it reads worse than marvel slop, and like the author has never read scifi before. You can say this is a novella and that it didn't have enough time to develop a convincing conflict, or interesting worldbuilding, but this lacked even the barest breadcrumbs and even the shortest of short stories can do more effective worldbuilding than this. 

Genuinely one of the sloppiest books i've ever read. 

The Devourers by Indra Das

4.75

The Granite Shield by Fiona Patton

3.0

i like military fantasy. i really do. but this one tested even my limits. i would describe this 500 page book as 80% battles, 10% branion history lesson, and 10% character development. it depicts a facet of a many centuries long religious war in which the current ruler is secretly seduced by the enemy so that she can raise his child and prime him to usurp the throne. we follow this child and his fellow bastard siblings as they grow up on opposing sides of the war, along with other key figures in the conflict. and i like how this book gives us POVs from both sides, its all very interesting, but i did struggle to feel fully invested in any of these characters because we jump around so much. but i can't say i disliked it. its exhausting at times, yes, and very robust. but i have to give credit that every battle felt different and the sheer exhaustion by the end of it all added weight to the final climax. i also liked the characters. they're nuanced, they struggle with their allegiances, they're loyal but have breaking points to their oaths, and the theme of free will vs. the whims of manifesting warring gods and prophetic visions of fate appeals to me. 

wouldn't recommend it to the feint of heart. the queerness is also casual and minimal. more than half the cast is in a same-gender relationship at some point but none of it holds much space in the story, with the exception of

a situationship between two non blood-related brothers

towards the end. the first book is still my favorite, but i liked this one a lot more than the second. 

Wizard by John Varley
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.

DNF 15%

i went in expecting it to continue cirocco's journey but instead we get 2 new characters, both with debilitating health issues, who have to prove themselves as heroes in order to earn a cure from gaea. and im sure this is all in the spirit of social commentary and i kind of want to see where varley is going with this, but its dreadfully boring so far and i dont like either character. at all. even though one of them grew up in a moon witch colony coven and literally carries a snake witch-familiar and believes lesbianism to be the natural state of things and doesnt shave her pussy except where she has a tattoo (one among many), i can't stand how they're presented. i expect character development is in the cards, but i just dont care enough to stick around and find out, and in many ways it feels tactless. 

miiight try it again in the future but for now im moving on.  

Titan by John Varley

3.75

compared to the eight worlds books, this one shows its age a bit more, starting strong with at least 3 different unfortunate, ignorant racial remarks within the first 10 pages. there also isn't as much play with sex and gender. the centaurs are there, and i love them, but their presence is relatively brief. i did really like the queer relationship between cirocco and gaby though. you can't ignore it, it has an interesting build-up, it doesn't feel randomly tacked on, and it's definitely not shallow. and i like how john varley writes women. he has a way with it that i find compelling, compassionate, and complex, especially for its time. here is an adventure novel with a flawed character at its heart experiencing a deeply strange world with another woman who would follow her anywhere, through peril and hardship and life-threatening danger, because she loves her, without asking anything in return except for cirocco to not force herself to return her feelings. and what an adventure it was. the sheer scale of gaea is very effectively presented. it boggles the mind at every step and of course i really enjoyed the fantasy flavoring of centaurs and angels within this complex space construct. 

curious to read on and see what else is in store. 

Price of a Thousand Blessings by Ginn Hale

3.0

first off, i would not recommend this as a starting point to ginn hale. structurally this is not her strongest work. for reasons you might be able to pick up on from the book's description (and early in the book itself) its hard not to compare this to the rifter, and the way some revelations are presented in thousand blessings just dont pack the same punch or weight as they do in the rifter. i also found half the side characters to be one-dimensional, with repetitive quirks that erred more on the side of mildly annoying than charming. i enjoyed the few that we were able to get to know better towards the end of the book. but there was too much time spent on those repetitive traits, and also too many sections describing what every single character is doing in a group setting (and where exactly they are sitting) in one continuous scroll of text that didn't give them any favors either. i was also confused by how chill everyone seemed to be about the bomb at the start of the book. even if they didn't know it was a bomb per se, something was still very clearly wrong, and not even our deeply injured main character seemed to feel any urgency about the potential reason behind a massive bombing attempt at a majorly important event. neither did the intended targets (?). and the whole spywork / espionage plot (and cymin's conflicting feelings about it, and the role he's supposed to play in it) didn't seem to hold much relevance after the first day or so, which was kind of a let down.  

that being said. this is only volume 1. im still very intrigued by the story itself. there is some really juicy stuff going on here and it feels like things are being set up to get even juicier and potentially blow my hair right off my skull. i will preorder volume 2 as soon as it drops. i am invested. and im also enjoying the world itself. i dont normally like seeing more modern tech in my high fantasy novels, but theres enough magic powering the tech in this world to make it fascinating. and who doesn't love trains? finally, i have to say i'm very interested in a (sort of) spoilery element regarding

deities and the.... spread of their memories

. it puts a fresh spin on things and i have no earthly idea how it will all play out, but i so badly want to find out. 

tldr; i want to see where this goes.

Queer Fear: Gay Horror Fiction by Michael Rowe

3.75

overall i liked it. not every story hit. ghost stories and contemporary horror in general are a hard sell for me. but some of them were satisfyingly gruesome and perfectly strange and disgusting <3 and for the most part i tore through this collection. super awesome to see gay people as the stars, the screamers, the victims, the aggressors, and the survivors in these strange and unsettling stories through all the different ways 'gay horror' was portrayed. definitely feels dated in some aspects. but i love the idea of this. and there are some stellar, stand out stories compiled here. hard to pick a favorite, especially with how quickly i devoured this. but the nightguard, piercing men, bear shirt, the sound of weeping, the spark, and second shadow all had that special kick. 

Fall and Rising by Sunny Moraine

2.0

i really enjoyed the first book when i read it last year. very sad to say this one didn’t click for me. and i’m not sure if its because i waited too long to read this one, or if it suffered from losing its co-author from the first book. but i just couldn’t get into it and one of the main issues i had with it was adam and loch’s relationship, which was in dire need of further development after the first book. and i was looking forward to seeing that development! i wanted to see how this rocky relationship might grow into something like love. but no matter how many times they threw around the word ‘love’ in this book i didn’t feel it. at all. i’m not even sure what they like about each other anymore, despite how many times they tried to explain their relationship to others. and i would have enjoyed a continuation of their rocky questionable relationship, if that’s all it was, if i wasn’t being told every other chapter about how deeply they love each other when their actions are full of constant arguments and a total drift in their motivations and ideals. if you need to say they love each other in order for me to believe it (and even then i don’t) then what are we doing here :(

the trans man side character continues to keep slaying though, and i almost wish he was the third in adam and loch’s relationship, to act as the glue that holds them together. because i don’t see it working out otherwise. 

small chance i’ll read the 3rd book. i wanted to DNF this one at multiple points, but i also still kind of want to see how it ends. we will see. 

Honeytrap by Aster Glenn Gray

3.25