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bashsbooks's reviews
207 reviews
Queen's Shadow by E.K. Johnston
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I'm biased because Padmé Amidala is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time... but I love this book. Johnston has such a good grasp on her voice, and her belief system. The Clone Wars is my favorite version of the Star Wars canon, so seeing characters like Bonteri and Clovis was really cool. I've always wanted more political nitty-gritty from Star Wars (which feels like a weird thing to say, but it's true), so Queen's Shadow felt tailored to me. Can't wait to read the other two!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery and Trafficking
Moderate: Misogyny, Violence, and Xenophobia
Minor: Death, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
-Evils of capitalism
-Space pirates
-Major natural disaster
-Assassination attempts
Educated by Tara Westover
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I see why Educated is such a popular memoir - an avid reader of the genre myself, many people have told me that this is the only one that they've read in the past half-decade or so.
Westover has a vivid and transporting sense of description, and Whelan reads her words with a measured and flowing cadance (although I could do without her attempts at Idaho accents and masculine tones when reading dialogue). Westover is also extremely cognizant of the core of memoir - that it is one person's truth, and that one person's truth has power. Add that to how it demonstrates the highly political nature of education, and of course Westover has a captivating book.
That said, I feel part of the appeal for a lot of people is the shock of Westover's upbringing and a certain desire to gawk. This gawking desire draws lots of people to memoirs, but Educated is especially primed for it. I have to wonder how others are engaging with it - hopefully more than on a 'damn, that was crazy' level.
Westover has a vivid and transporting sense of description, and Whelan reads her words with a measured and flowing cadance (although I could do without her attempts at Idaho accents and masculine tones when reading dialogue). Westover is also extremely cognizant of the core of memoir - that it is one person's truth, and that one person's truth has power. Add that to how it demonstrates the highly political nature of education, and of course Westover has a captivating book.
That said, I feel part of the appeal for a lot of people is the shock of Westover's upbringing and a certain desire to gawk. This gawking desire draws lots of people to memoirs, but Educated is especially primed for it. I have to wonder how others are engaging with it - hopefully more than on a 'damn, that was crazy' level.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, and Xenophobia
Minor: Cancer
I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
I wish I had a whole discussion group, full of individuals of wide backgrounds, to engage with about I Saw Ramallah. I must confess upfront that I definitely did not understand all of it - my knowledge of Palestine and its history is woefully limited, and I'm still trying to fill in those gaps. That said, what I did understand was beautifully written and agonizingly heartbreaking in content. To be ripped from your homeland, from your family, to be painted as the agressor, to lose your loved ones thousands of miles from yourself - I cannot imagine any of these horrors, but Barghouti gives raw and gutting approximation in how he writes. I need my own copy of this - there are too many poignant passages for me to quote one or two here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation
Moderate: Gun violence and War
Minor: Hate crime, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy
Dinner on Monster Island: Essays by Tania de Rozario
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Dinner On Monster Island is a crazy-good collection of essays. I love the reflections on Singapore and its issues intertwined with (mostly horror) media analysis, as for the most part it works well, and it's extremely compelling. The essay that talked about Crazy Rich Asians and De Rozario's dislike of it was especially enlightening to me - as an American, I feel like I don't have a great grasp on how racism, xenophobia, and colorism function in other parts of the world.
There were a few parts where I felt that threads were woven and then not followed through (honestly, I think that could've been fixed by reordering some of the middle essays), but overall, superb. De Rozario is the narrator for the audiobook as well as the author, and she is just as fantastic of a reader as she is a writer. Can't wait to read more of her fine work!!
There were a few parts where I felt that threads were woven and then not followed through (honestly, I think that could've been fixed by reordering some of the middle essays), but overall, superb. De Rozario is the narrator for the audiobook as well as the author, and she is just as fantastic of a reader as she is a writer. Can't wait to read more of her fine work!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Racism, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic
-Colorism
-Censorship
What Once Was Mine by Liz Braswell
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
What Once Was Mine is a very fun book. As an avid reader of fanfiction, I love the transformative possibilities that come with the question "what if x was different?" and I felt like this book answered that question for Tangled pretty well. And this whole series gives a pretty positive spin to this kind of fanfiction-adjacent transformative property, so that's cool. I don't know that I fully understand the inclusion of the frame story (although it was really sweet! It just felt kind of unnecessary as well). I also don't know why there was repeated Bathory slander (on one hand, I think it's weird as someone who assumes that most of the vampiric tales about her were lies, but on the other, it's very fanfic core). Will probably read a few other Twisted Tales.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Classism
Minor: Fatphobia, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
Corpse Party: Blood Covered, Volume 1 by Makoto Kedouin
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.25
I need to start this review by emphasizing how incredibly biased I am - I have loved the game that this manga is based on since I was thirteen. That kind of teenage attachment makes you handwave a lot of flaws, and I feel like if I didn't have it, I would've disliked it way more.
Obviously, it has some issues (pretty genre-typical ones I think); the oversexualization of the teenage girl characters and the predatory lesbian trope in Seiko being the most glaring to me. That said, I love Seiko as a character (not a lot of lesbian rep available to me as a kid, what can I say?) and this manga did a great job of translating the impact of her death.
Something else I like about the manga is the stylization of the corpses - it's really gritty and gross in a way that couldn't be depicted in the game (though it was described).
I'm excited to read Kishinuma and Shinozaki's arc next, as it's my favorite. Also I'm fighting for my life trying to get a paperback copy of Volume 4.
Obviously, it has some issues (pretty genre-typical ones I think); the oversexualization of the teenage girl characters and the predatory lesbian trope in Seiko being the most glaring to me. That said, I love Seiko as a character (not a lot of lesbian rep available to me as a kid, what can I say?) and this manga did a great job of translating the impact of her death.
Something else I like about the manga is the stylization of the corpses - it's really gritty and gross in a way that couldn't be depicted in the game (though it was described).
I'm excited to read Kishinuma and Shinozaki's arc next, as it's my favorite. Also I'm fighting for my life trying to get a paperback copy of Volume 4.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Kidnapping
Minor: Excrement, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment
-Gross depictions of hair
-Oversexualization of teenage girls
The Rose of Versailles Volume 2 by Riyoko Ikeda
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
The Rose of Versailles, Volume 2 is much like the first volume. I don't really have much to add - my general impression of it is mostly the same. I am enjoying Oscar's growth away from being a monarchist. Antoinette and Fersen still bore me. There isn't a ton in this volume that makes it stand out - I suspect all of them will blend together in my head. The scandal of lesbianism was both funny and exasperating.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Infidelity, Violence, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Child death, Fatphobia, Suicide, and Toxic friendship
Priest by Sierra Simone
Did not finish book. Stopped at 35%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 35%.
Just could not get into it. Sad cause I enjoyed the Thornchapel series so much.
The Rose of Versailles Volume 1 by Riyoko Ikeda
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The Rose of Versailles, Volume 1 was not what I anticipated, but it was still quite good. I was uncertain about the choice to make a woman acting out a man's social role in a rigidly gendered society, and I still think it results in some wonky gender implications - but Oscar is such a cool character and the fact that she is incredibly overtly nonbinary is awesome, especially coming from a manga that started in the early 70s. (I'm also interested in Oscar's slow-burn arc against monarchy and how that is going to play out.) Unfortunately, I find Marie Antoinette to be mostly boring, and the love triangle with Fersen to be eyerolling (though it's super funny that he leaves a lot and is super shallow next to Antoinette and Oscar). The Court DramaTM is so over the top that is also hilarious (love that final plot twist!).
I'm not entirely used to reading manga, and I think sometimes it's unclear what order to read the text in. On that note, I think that sometimes the switch between characters/plot threads is muddy, too.
I'm not entirely used to reading manga, and I think sometimes it's unclear what order to read the text in. On that note, I think that sometimes the switch between characters/plot threads is muddy, too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Classism
Minor: Bullying, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Colonisation
Brief mention of fertility issues, but not outright infertility.
Breath & Name by Makari Clove, Pur Durance
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
On the flip side, this was my least favorite book in the series. It was much shorter than the other books for reasons unbeknownst to me (my understanding is that the authors head the indie publishing company by which these books were published so surely it wasn't an external deadline...?). Kian and Rosemary were separated for the vast majority of the book, and the tidbits of their relationship that had been sprinkled throughout the other three books weren't really resolved, which was supremely disappointing. I found the plot with the elfs to be super interesting and compelling, but it seemed like it supplanted most of the character work at the heart of the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Torture, and Kidnapping
Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, and Medical content
Magically-induced depression