wtb_michael's reviews
2165 reviews

We the Animals by Justin Torres

dark emotional tense fast-paced

4.0

This used some of the same narrative tricks as Machine, but I was swept along much more completely in its short, sad story 

Machine by Susan Steinberg

challenging dark slow-paced

3.0

Concerned with trauma and memory, privilege and spectacle - a bit too abstract for me to really embrace 

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Such a beautiful, simple, glorious novella - a highlight of the year's reading so far 

Desire by Jessie Cole

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

4.0

Cole is such a brilliantly skillful writer, picking over her own emotions and traumas here with bravery and curiosity 

There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura

adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

3.0

Sly, witty examination of pointless millennial jobs, packed a bit too densely with quirk to sustain a full 400 pages 

The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

dark emotional informative fast-paced

3.75

Compelling and moving examination of the damage the drug war has done in Colombia, occasionally overwritten (maybe the translation?), but enjoyable nonetheless 

Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov

challenging funny informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.25

Wry, odd book about a beekeeper living in an abandoned village in the middle of the war in eastern Ukraine - Kurkov is a funny and strange writer and this is excellent 

Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

challenging dark informative slow-paced

3.0

I liked bits of this, but it was all a bit *too* sprawling for my small brain 

The Door by Magda Szabó

dark funny mysterious sad medium-paced

4.75

Brilliant, odd book that's hard to sum up in a tweet: it's mesmerising and bleak and kind of ruthless 

A Palace in the Old Village by Tahar Ben Jelloun

emotional sad medium-paced

3.5

A short, sad book about migration and the impossibility of really returning home