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wormkingz's reviews
9 reviews
Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
a horror novel about how bad it is to be a trans woman in britain sounds interesting & rumfitt has some really good ideas, but the book leaves a lot to be desired in terms of execution. i was expecting something like clive barker, but it feels like he writes for love of the game (which is sex) while rumfitt is trying to shock you with the grossest porn shes seen on reddit. its basically just blowfly girl, but 200 some pages long and written by someone who can only think in terms of twitter threads, whether theyre about dismal politics or asinine discourse thinkpieces. this book did make me feel gross, but mostly bc it felt like a really bad multi-hour doomscroll.
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Did not finish book. Stopped at 27%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 27%.
i love to read terrible books for fun but this one was so genuinely awful i couldnt do it. firstly, its apparently a master/slave romance. i hope i dont have to say anything else about that. secondly, its painfully obvious that it was written by an author who got her start in fanfiction: the writing is incredibly poorly done and awkward with seemingly random adjectives thrown in haphazardly to sentences where they make no sense. theres no grasp of tone and the worldbuilding was evidently done by someone whos used to the way you get to lean on the source media's worldbuilding when writing fanfiction. the overuse of sexual innuendo and snappy dialogue, including things shoehorned in to moments that should be serious, mark muir as a homstuck fanfic author specifically.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
5.0
house of leaves doesn't so much feel like a book as it does an experience. i wish i could select "its complicated" to describe the pace of the book because that may be the best and shortest way to put it: you move through the book like characters move through the story and the house. some parts are exceptionally dense, and at other points a few sentences stretch out to 80 pages.
aside from the incredible formatting, house of leaves is beautifully well written and one of the most terrifying books ive ever read. finishing it doesnt feel real, it feels like youll still be in that house forever
finally: yes, the johnny truant parts are long. dont worry, by page 150 youll love him
aside from the incredible formatting, house of leaves is beautifully well written and one of the most terrifying books ive ever read. finishing it doesnt feel real, it feels like youll still be in that house forever
finally: yes, the johnny truant parts are long. dont worry, by page 150 youll love him
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Death
Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation by John Freeman
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
2.25
Any anthology will have variation in quality across the pieces in it, but the variation in this particular book is stunning. The stories range from beautifully written and emotional stoties (dosas, fault lines, some houses, la ciudad mágica, enough to lose) to informative and emotional writing (blood brother, american arithmetic) to absolutely apalling and seemingly counter to all the book has to say. some of the latter are death by gentrification (usage of police brutality for shock value), american work (pitying trump supporters and claiming they voted for him because he promised jobs), white debt (a white woman trying to distance herself from her white guilt, featuring her saying the n word), and invisible wounds (pitying veterans from the war in the middle east). These stories all embody what this anthology should be fighting against; they ignore race issues or take advantage of the suffering of minorities or pity people responsible for carrying american imperialism to the middle east. some of the writing in this is incredible, but the rest is apallingly liberal and ignorant.
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano
emotional
informative
medium-paced
4.5
While there are some aspects of this book I dissagree with (particularly on cis motives for transphobia and straight motives for homophobia, the idea that bigotry is a result of reaction formation is dangerous), this is overall an excellent introduction and foundation to feminism and gender studies, and really puts into perspective how incredibly limited and uninformed most cis feminism is.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
ive definitely read worse, and i wouldnt necessarily say this book is bad, but its not particularly interesting. dont make the mistake of trying to read this as scifi where the focus is on trying to discern what makes us human and different from the robots, the point is that humans destroy everything including each other. this reads as a pessimistic commentary on the futility of technological innovation and attempts at improvement because were so far gone the only place to go is worse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism and Police brutality
Moderate: Animal death and Misogyny
general sex weirdness toward women, including an android who is technically considered an adult but looks very young
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
5.0
one of the best scifi books ive read recently, maybe ever. also one of the only horror books that has actually made me decently uncomfortable! though the writing is very different, it feels a bit like house of leaves with biology instead of film and architecture. i havent read the third book in the series, and while the second has some interesting twists and i do plan on reading the final book, this is perfectly fine and maybe even better as a standalone book; not all questions need answers, open endings can still be satisfying, and i feel like area x would lose some of its frightening intrigue if it were too clearly explained.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Death
Moderate: Violence
this book is scifi horror! if youre bothered by body horror, unreality, or general tense/mysterious/dangerous narratives, you wont like this. additionally the narrator is somewhat unreliable , and lying and conditioning including hypnotism/brainwashing are very important to the plot
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
dark
tense
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
the language used in this book is absolutely fascinating and creative; etymology is an important part of worldbuilding both in terms of the in-universe explanations for word origins, as well as why the author chose said words and what they sound like. the language is by far the most interesting part of the book as any commentary it tries to make is halfdone and unconvincing under scrutiny, and the plot and characters used to make the point are not especially interesting or notable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Violence, and Rape
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