Take a photo of a barcode or cover
worm_food's reviews
178 reviews
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
4.75
Noting here that the 2016 anniversary edition introduction that I found online added very good context to this book. Fuck me up narrative style maybe Thatchers England was the Japanese imperialism novel we met along the way? Insane in a lot of ways. Having him write this at the age he did and making it about, weirdly ambition? Hit me in a very specific way. Damn
The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri
5.0
When I started this series I said that its first book was unfortunately weaker than the rest of the lesbian fantasy teifecta, but that I also remained hopeful that I'd eat my words. Well nom nom nom bitch this is just as much about lesbianism as it is about grief Tashaaaaa Tasha if I catch you Tasha! She made leaps n strides between books it's so fucking good fantasy that takes itself seriously emotions SERIOUSLY knows how to build one of the juiciest yummiest magic systems I've perhaps ever seen!!!! Bigggg fan of abandoning the flesh for the machine and the machine for the divine just to see that divinity will ask for your humanity in a way that you can only recover from by feeling a love so deep it transcends it all Tasha Suri I am going to fucking kill you!!!!! It was exceptional once again the whole trilogy snuck up on me but this book was just. An orchestra of things so perfectly in synch so so perfectly paced it makes me insane to think about! Her dialogue is so fucking good the MAGIC SYSTEM ONCE AGAIN I CANNOT EVEN BE NORMAL ABOUT and it's so cohesive and it makes sense and the respect for human emotion running thru this book like a thread like water!!!! Tashaaaa come here Tasha
The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins
5.0
Hopefully I remember to come back to this, there's a lot to put down but not rn. Damn. I am not sane enough to attempt a review. Damn. Damn!!! This baby can fit so much literary device within it, can you believe?
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
4.75
Giving this less than 5 stars is only because ONLY BECAUSE! Psalm made me go absolutely batshit insane in a way different to how this one made me feel and I think ratings should reflect that - it's not as purpose driven as the first part of this series (since its protagonists also aren't) but very very beautiful in its own way. I hate being a cynical motherfucker thinking it's because I am not disillusioned about how the world works, and then reading a book that is written by someone also not disillusioned, but hopeful. Beckyyyyyyyy if I catch you Becky! The worldbuilding remains absolutely stunning and so unique. A real delight to dip back into the story. Thinking about Shon Faye's last words in Love in Exile (once issues are resolved what you're left with is yourself) and how it relates to this book specifically! Very very very good.
Love in Exile by Shon Faye
4.25
Not every books a magnum opus! Not every book attempts to do the unattempted! Not all nonfiction should be needlessly dense and unenjoyable!
I liked this one I really did! Very interesting to read, I really enjoyed the structure of the different institutions of love, it made it a bit looser in its structure but more cohesive overall I think. Non fiction writing about love as Shon says has existed since the beginning of time, so this book doesn't try to reinvent the wheel - it tries to be (and is, successfully) what it actually is, personal anecdotes blended with an honestly very pleasant theoretical analysis that doesn't necessitate 5 references per sentence.
Especially fun to read considering how my experiences with sexual attraction towards men and, and my relationship with femininity (which is to say I don't have one w either. I pay alimony to one and I am paid alimony by the other. Which is which you gotta guess) diverge from hers - that and also age (being Gen Z, derogatory). Not because of the similarities I found beyond our differences, but rather because thru her writing I could understand her despite them. Good! Fun! Very easy to follow and read! Non fiction that's fun! Yippee!
I liked this one I really did! Very interesting to read, I really enjoyed the structure of the different institutions of love, it made it a bit looser in its structure but more cohesive overall I think. Non fiction writing about love as Shon says has existed since the beginning of time, so this book doesn't try to reinvent the wheel - it tries to be (and is, successfully) what it actually is, personal anecdotes blended with an honestly very pleasant theoretical analysis that doesn't necessitate 5 references per sentence.
Especially fun to read considering how my experiences with sexual attraction towards men and, and my relationship with femininity (which is to say I don't have one w either. I pay alimony to one and I am paid alimony by the other. Which is which you gotta guess) diverge from hers - that and also age (being Gen Z, derogatory). Not because of the similarities I found beyond our differences, but rather because thru her writing I could understand her despite them. Good! Fun! Very easy to follow and read! Non fiction that's fun! Yippee!
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
3.0
Some takes were better than I was expecting, others more boring than they should've been. My main gripe w it is that it attempts to be centrist about things that would actually benefit from having their author admit he's biased one way or another. Don't get me wrong, I'm not insane, I do know that things about our history as a species are objectively true, and not just about our biology, but about money, religion, imperialism, conflict. There's that ancient greek text also that says that the duty of the historian is to be as objective as possible, something that is akin to sacred duty - and it's clear that this is what this book tries to do. I do think that we ought to know more than our ancestors by this point though and just admit that, when a feat like this compilation of history is attempted, bias will creep in. For me, it is much more valuable to be mindful of that bias and address it, but write thru it anyway, than to pretend it doesn't exist. I don't know! This might've made the book worse I guess, and I will say that it was interesting after the biology of evolution was covered (I found these chapters too simple and thus a bit boring, my own bias here). Anyway, not too mad about it, and for a book of its length it manages to not repeat itself much.
Granta 158: In the Family by Sigrid Rausing
4.0
Being densely packed w family matters very expectdly made this one a bit dizzying to read but not in a bad way. Only a few misses overall. Faves were: Claire Schwartz, Moses McKenzie (!!!), and Debbie Urbanski (!!!)
The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri
5.0
Ohhhhh Tashaaaaa you did this one you truly did. The pacing of this one is a toughie it happens so gradually and then all at once. Damn. Incredible back half of a book. So stressful and yet so beautifully just.... Woven? It's hard to explain but its density sneaks up on you. It has a lot less of the grandiose plot twists and emotional stand offs that a lot of fantasy has and yet the build up caught me unaware by the end of it. I keep thinking about everyone and everything. A work that's just. Meticulous. Meticulous!!!! I'm so fucking excited to read the last book this one was such a beautiful sequel to the Jasmine throne but elevated in so so so many ways. Suris writing man DAMN the WORLDBUILDINGGGGGG THE MAGIC SYSTEM SO FUCKING GOOD KILL ME IMMEDIATELY. Big up. Huge. Thank you Tasha Suri for the representation of lesbians really passionate for each other but that unfortunately have work get in the way all the time. Malini would thrive in a corporate setting. Banking perhaps
Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima
2.0
If I had a nickel for every book I read in 2025 that mentions inversion and Hirschfield I'd have two nickels! Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice, right?
I wrote a whole review and then storygraph crashed and I don't feel like rewriting the whole thing. Very interesting read knowing how his life panned out and ended, especially after having read the sailor first - seeing the flowery prose be a lot more prominent. Looking at inversion as a fact of this book, it's also interesting to me that the conclusion of it being a natural thing was reached by the end instead of being the logic from the get go. It's the one thing that differentiates it from the well of loneliness, a book very much still indulgent in its self loathing but one offering a much more forgiving narrative nonetheless.
Overall, it was a bit insufferable to read for reasons similar to why the sailor was insufferable to read, but in a different way, which is intriguing in its own right I guess. What the whole book is, is simply mental acrobatics, what it would take for someone to reason their way out of naming their desires, framing them in a way that makes them excusable, but also treating them as vile and inexcusable anyway. Which is a way to talk both of and about comphet, sure, with none of the hindsight or self awareness. Anyway. Rest in peace I fucking guess Yukio Mishima. It's a real shame post WWII Japanese ethnicist alt right mentality got you, but not really surprising. I think bringing him back to life to explain who aroace and bi romantic homosexual people are just to have him try n kill me is the main desire this book elicited and I think that's fair.
I wrote a whole review and then storygraph crashed and I don't feel like rewriting the whole thing. Very interesting read knowing how his life panned out and ended, especially after having read the sailor first - seeing the flowery prose be a lot more prominent. Looking at inversion as a fact of this book, it's also interesting to me that the conclusion of it being a natural thing was reached by the end instead of being the logic from the get go. It's the one thing that differentiates it from the well of loneliness, a book very much still indulgent in its self loathing but one offering a much more forgiving narrative nonetheless.
Overall, it was a bit insufferable to read for reasons similar to why the sailor was insufferable to read, but in a different way, which is intriguing in its own right I guess. What the whole book is, is simply mental acrobatics, what it would take for someone to reason their way out of naming their desires, framing them in a way that makes them excusable, but also treating them as vile and inexcusable anyway. Which is a way to talk both of and about comphet, sure, with none of the hindsight or self awareness. Anyway. Rest in peace I fucking guess Yukio Mishima. It's a real shame post WWII Japanese ethnicist alt right mentality got you, but not really surprising. I think bringing him back to life to explain who aroace and bi romantic homosexual people are just to have him try n kill me is the main desire this book elicited and I think that's fair.
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
3.5
I found this well written easy to follow, most of this high ranking is attributed to how much it made me think and wanna talk about its contents in so many different ways. People say that classic novels where all you have to say is "I think it's important" are dogshit - I see the point but I do disagree with the dogshit part for this book. Stephen's relationship with her parents and the conversations and dynamics w Angela especially are endlessly intriguing to me and as the introduction of this edition states the book itself is outdated by its own existence - progress made BECAUSE of it that makes its contents feel old, and of course, that is important. I enjoyed it overall but its ending and final thesis pissed me off so much my vision went completely black for a sec and I lost my hearing for 3 days.
This book is less devastating if you see Stephen's "self sacrifice" and aversion to community as the internalised homophobia that it is, and I AM cutting her some slack but you have Brockett you have Valerie you can't show me people who revel in the company of others' queerness, who tried for YEARS to get Stephen to do the same and her rejecting any and all olive branches. Stop pursuing straight women and go to a butch centered event find a hot dyke n fuck them is advice that has been and is still relevant for the past, present, and I am sure will also be for the future eternal.
It's interesting to me how this book also sees Puddle as the voice of reason, an understanding voice that never condemns Stephen's nature, but the book also sees her as something holding Stephen back - it was only after her departure that Stephen could allow herself to be happy. Self policing WITHIN "inversion" is seen as a noble act (being one of the good gays etc) for the biggest chunk of this book, it's interesting how Stephen is so resentful of her mother for hating her for doing femininity wrong, but she herself is very much a cop about it still in the way Brockett is always described as effeminate n slimy, how he does feminity wrong. Femininity is only noble when it's 'right' and when it fits: Anna, Mary, Angela. With Brockett and Valerie she fucking hates so much oughhh how dare you not suffer! Radclyffe put the Catholicism DOWN I beg.
Speaking of, I believe the real sin here isn't lesbianism but completely removing any and all personal agency from Mary and have the narrative JUSTIFY that as a noble act. Who was introduced mid-war as a confident and self assured young woman who we are then forced to accept that should not have any say on her fate because she's too young and naive I am SICK OF IT. God.
Anyway. Go to a gay club and understand even the most obnoxious of queers are your real ride or dies, not French countryside hags who think are arbiters of what is and isn't socially acceptable. Fuck
This book is less devastating if you see Stephen's "self sacrifice" and aversion to community as the internalised homophobia that it is, and I AM cutting her some slack but you have Brockett you have Valerie you can't show me people who revel in the company of others' queerness, who tried for YEARS to get Stephen to do the same and her rejecting any and all olive branches. Stop pursuing straight women and go to a butch centered event find a hot dyke n fuck them is advice that has been and is still relevant for the past, present, and I am sure will also be for the future eternal.
It's interesting to me how this book also sees Puddle as the voice of reason, an understanding voice that never condemns Stephen's nature, but the book also sees her as something holding Stephen back - it was only after her departure that Stephen could allow herself to be happy. Self policing WITHIN "inversion" is seen as a noble act (being one of the good gays etc) for the biggest chunk of this book, it's interesting how Stephen is so resentful of her mother for hating her for doing femininity wrong, but she herself is very much a cop about it still in the way Brockett is always described as effeminate n slimy, how he does feminity wrong. Femininity is only noble when it's 'right' and when it fits: Anna, Mary, Angela. With Brockett and Valerie she fucking hates so much oughhh how dare you not suffer! Radclyffe put the Catholicism DOWN I beg.
Speaking of, I believe the real sin here isn't lesbianism but completely removing any and all personal agency from Mary and have the narrative JUSTIFY that as a noble act. Who was introduced mid-war as a confident and self assured young woman who we are then forced to accept that should not have any say on her fate because she's too young and naive I am SICK OF IT. God.
Anyway. Go to a gay club and understand even the most obnoxious of queers are your real ride or dies, not French countryside hags who think are arbiters of what is and isn't socially acceptable. Fuck