sarah984's reviews
634 reviews

Bronze Drum by Phong Nguyen

dark informative slow-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? It's complicated

2.5

This book really interested me as a historical fiction based on women in a setting that hasn't been done to death but I just don't think the end product was very good. All of the characters were surface level and only had a couple of traits each, and the narrative didn't seem to respect most of the lower class characters very much. I would have liked to see more depth in the relationship between the sisters and their other family members, and a bit more pov for some of the other characters. The stuff with the general near the end was well executed though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Grief, Death of parent

Moderate: Genocide, Misogyny, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, War, Classism

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking

Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

informative

3.0

This book was fine, but it didn't feel like it had a lot of depth. The essays felt a bit like blog posts and were a bit too "of course not all men" to me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Rape

There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

There were interesting aspects to this book but (and it feels strange to say this about a book that features

genocide

so prominently) the presentation felt extremely twee to me with the "water memory" framing. I also found the book focused too much on the Arthur character when the women's stories were more interesting and interconnected. I will probably check out more of this author's work (the afterword was very thoughtful) but this one didn't work for me unfortunately.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Classism

Minor: Gun violence, Pedophilia, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Pandemic/Epidemic

At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

3.0

There's some really brutal writing here about war and colonialism and the lives that get swallowed up in them, but I found the first few chapters difficult to wade through (the first was interesting but the next few repeated the story with only minor additions - I believe this is intended to match oral tradition style but it was a challenge for me) and I didn't like the writing about any of the women.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Grief, War

Moderate: Gun violence, Racism, Torture, Violence, Colonisation

Minor: Animal death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Cannibalism, Death of parent

The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti by Stephen Graham Jones

challenging dark medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

A strange little story; sad but darkly funny. It went a little off the rails for me at the end but overall great.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Self harm

Minor: Medical content

Tell A Thousand Lies by Rasana Atreya

emotional medium-paced

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

2.0

Parts of this book were interesting but the plot just got way too wild for me. There was way too much going on (the part with the babies was particularly risible) and I feel like things were wrapped up way too neatly at the end.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Infertility, Misogyny, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Classism

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Sexual content, Stalking

Masquerade by Mike Fu

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

I really enjoyed this odd little coming of age (transition into your 30s) book once I let go of my expectations of it and met it on its own terms. I do think some of the surreal plot lines were a little much for what the actual plot was but I really enjoyed the book within a book and Meadow's relationships with his friends.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol

Minor: Mental illness, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Vomit, Medical content, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Ushers by Joe Hill

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

This story was fine but there wasn't anything really special about it. I enjoyed my time reading it but probably won't remember it in a week.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Car accident

When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O'Neill

dark slow-paced

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

1.0

I did not like this at all. The prose was miserable to read (it's a bunch of sentence fragments telling you what everyone is thinking all the time), the "revolutionary" character is like a cartoon villain and the twist is both deeply stupid and reinforces the class divisions the book is supposedly against.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Fatphobia, Incest, Miscarriage, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Police brutality, Stalking, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail

Butter by Asako Yuzuki

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

An incisive look at gender roles and gendered expectations in Japan, seen through the lens of an ambitious female reporter and how she is affected by interviews with a famous serial killer. There are a lot of interesting characters, and Rika's relationships form the backbone of the book. Her decisions about how she wanted to live her life were more interesting to me than the serial killer drama, which dragged in places.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia

Moderate: Bullying, Eating disorder, Infertility, Misogyny, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism