wretchedtheo's reviews
418 reviews

I Am Not Starfire by Mariko Tamaki

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Cool art style, quick and easy read, but the main character was kind of annoying and the diversity was so annoyingly in your face. It's like they were trying to flex how epically liberal they were ON EVERY SINGLE PAGE. I love diversity and am very leftwing but in this book it was just sooooo ugh

Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A piercingly tender examination of womanhood under a totalitarian regime.

The Gay Who Turned Kaiju by Kazuki Minamoto

emotional funny inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

A beautiful coming out story that expertly mixes absurd humor with profound truths. Excellent representation and handling of the themes. The main character is so interesting and has so much personality which isn't something you often see in western LGBT coming out stories. I really loved it, it made me cry. I read it online but I'm going to buy a physical copy too, to support the author, cause blud deserves it 🔥🔥🔥

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, and Homophobia

Romanul japonez în secolul al XX-lea by Florina Ilis

informative

2.75

Basicall  informative but bogged down by an unfortunately westernized perspective and some factual inaccuracies.

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu

challenging reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Macbeth by Jo Nesbø
Did not finish book. Stopped at 41%.

I really didn't like the way the author handled this retelling. The writing style felt superficial, a lot of the occurences were unrealistic, the female characters were very obviously written by a man if you know what I mean. However my biggest complaint is with Duff's character. In the original Macbeth play, Macduff's defining trait is loyalty to his family. He's a tough warrior, but he's also a family man, and losing said family drives his revenge. In Jo Nesbø's Macbeth, "Duff" is kind of a misogynistic jerk, who frequently cheats on his wife. This kind of undermines everything that should make his character compelling.

Epoca mea de aur by Daniel Horia

emotional medium-paced

5.0

Ce frumos 🥹 
Cartea e asa plina de iubire, căldură și culoare!

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
Did not finish book. Stopped at 48%.

The focus on sports wasn't really my thing. (I thought it would be an opportunity to develop characterization and relationships between the characters, but no it was literally just guys playing American football.) Also the characters had NO personality, not even the protagonist. Just zero characterization, introspection, or development. It had a very "for the guys" vibe, which isn't a bad thing, but again, just not my thing. I don't mind reading books with a focus on a certain hobby, occupation or way of life that I don't know much about, as long as it's an actual story with characters and plot and interactions OUTSIDE of that

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

While the message of Glory is a powerful one, in my opinion the execution falls short of it. It's a satire, but it fails by not actually being very funny, as well as sometimes referencing actual current events WAY too closely. I say reference but it doesn't reference, poke fun or critique these particular events so much as it simply unimaginatively retells them.
I got the feeling that the author really had a vision but tried much too hard to live up to the ambition of it. That's why I feel really bad critiquing this book. It genuinely tried to do something really important - but unfortunately it doesn't do satire well, and the style is given to fits of melodrama that made me roll my eyes and yanked me out of whatever emotion it was making me feel at the time.
I must say the dialogue can also get pretty confusing, as the characters will often use a bunch of words of (what I assume are) Shona and Ndebele, interspersed with the English? Now this would've been totally fine and even enjoyable as long as there was a glossary for these terms at the end of the book, or perhaps footnotes giving a definition or translation. But no, they were completely unexplained. I know that when reading literature about a country that isn't England or the USA the writer often needs to use words from their own language to describe aspects of their experience that may not be familiar to English-speaking readers. And I actually love when they do that, because I love learning about different cultures! But then either they must include a glossary or footnotes to explain these words or - if for whatever reason they do not wish to do so - for the sake of accessibility and a smooth, cohesive reading experience, they must at least use those terms sparingly enough that the reader can google them without exhausting themselves. And again, I know that not every book has to be easy to read. But if it's in English, the language used should at least be English. If there are non English terms used frequently throughout every dialogue those terms must be explained. I'm not deciphering the Rosetta stone here, I'm trying to read a novel from 2022 that I bought in the mall.
Also, the main character is a painfully obvious self insert, who in very incongruous y/n style gets a hot boyfriend and then immediately tragically and heroically dies. ...It was painful to read and I don't mean that in a good way.
The ending is also way too picture perfect - a grandiose fairytalesque "take that" moment that is very hard to believe.
Honestly, I tried really really hard to like this book because the story it tells is an important one - but I just really disliked the way it was told.

The Butterfly Box by Santa Montefiore
Did not finish book. Stopped at 31%.

Bland, uninspiring style, uncompelling characters plus weird misogyny and racist/orientalist/fetishist descriptions.