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alexture's reviews
946 reviews
Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn
3.75
I find too many dystopias boring because of their focus on very normal people.
This one doesn't really fit the general model, if only because everyone's extremely queer. Even though the premise is extremely basic, and the plot twists are overdone, there are a couple of very interesting characters who breathe just enough life into this novel to make it worth reading, in my opinion.
What I liked:
- Unlikeable characters, but also, I wouldn't do any better than them.
- The setting: as I said, it's basic, but there's a reason why it's been done so much. It just works.
- Lesbians.
What I liked less:
- Sometimes the novel felt like a pamphlet when it came to the not all men are bad, not all women can have babies, trans women are women, etc. I think the story was enough on its own for all these themes and it didn't need the monologues to drive the point home.
- It was a smooth read but also maybe a bit too smooth - what happened?
- Uninteresting characters, and yet I wanted to know what would happen to them.
It's hard to know if it was a good book. I'm going to say it was nice to have something so conventional and yet so queer, because that's still rare, but that's about it.
Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
perfect. absolutely perfect.
short and sweet and adorable and this novel feels like a piece of chocolate.
short and sweet and adorable and this novel feels like a piece of chocolate.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Alcohol
8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster by Mirinae Lee
4.0
a very smooth read. feels like I'll forget it quick, but it was really good.
Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe by Fred C. Abrahams
3.5
Honestly not sure how I feel about this book. It was a great, instructive and well-written story... but it's a story in which the US do no harm, written by an American, and I tend to be very very suspicious of cold war / immediately post cold war stories that don't mention a US-backed anti-communist coup at some point. Maybe I'm worried for nothing, but I'm wary just on principle.
Excellent read with great insights, though. I just feel like I'm going to want to complement it with more stuff to make sure it's not just one account.
Excellent read with great insights, though. I just feel like I'm going to want to complement it with more stuff to make sure it's not just one account.
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
3.75
A haunting, terrible tale.
Lala has a husband. He's not a good man. In fact, he killed a man, whose wife had a husband and doesn't anymore.
Lala has a child, for a week. Then she doesn't, and her husband blames her and she knows he'll kill her if she doesn't leave.
Lala doesn't leave.
There are no good characters in this novel, least of all the cop who only follows his prejudiced instincts and his horny thoughts - in another world, this could have been a crime novel with a great detective story. It's not, it's really not.
Awful and brilliant.
Lala has a husband. He's not a good man. In fact, he killed a man, whose wife had a husband and doesn't anymore.
Lala has a child, for a week. Then she doesn't, and her husband blames her and she knows he'll kill her if she doesn't leave.
Lala doesn't leave.
There are no good characters in this novel, least of all the cop who only follows his prejudiced instincts and his horny thoughts - in another world, this could have been a crime novel with a great detective story. It's not, it's really not.
Awful and brilliant.
When the Ground Is Hard by Malla Nunn
adventurous
emotional
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I really enjoyed When the ground is hard. The protagonist, Adele, has learned all the tricks to make the popular girls like her and to be one of them... until suddenly she isn't anymore, dethroned by a new rich girl.
In 1960s Swaziland, broken by Apartheid, a school for mixed-race girls (the richer the kid, the more lenient the teachers; the whiter the kid, the more helpful their "pet" classmates) has an empty room. When Adele is booted out of the Plastics (or their 1960s Swazi equivalent), she ends up in that room, sharing it with Lottie, the daughter of a woman who has boyfriends instead of a proper man, and a dark and fierce girl who fights for what's hers.
A beautiful tale of a child who starts to understand privilege and to question the establishment - all this with the side story, and really it's terrible to call it a side story, of a young disabled kid who would do anything to get out of school, wherever that brings him.
In 1960s Swaziland, broken by Apartheid, a school for mixed-race girls (the richer the kid, the more lenient the teachers; the whiter the kid, the more helpful their "pet" classmates) has an empty room. When Adele is booted out of the Plastics (or their 1960s Swazi equivalent), she ends up in that room, sharing it with Lottie, the daughter of a woman who has boyfriends instead of a proper man, and a dark and fierce girl who fights for what's hers.
A beautiful tale of a child who starts to understand privilege and to question the establishment - all this with the side story, and really it's terrible to call it a side story, of a young disabled kid who would do anything to get out of school, wherever that brings him.
Remain Silent by Robyn Gigl
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Nice trans thriller for cis people. Sometimes (often) focused more on educating the reader than on the story, but the story was still good − although it had _many_ characters.
Rouge Karma by Jean-Christophe Grangé
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Jean-Christophe Grangé, le Marc Lévy de l'atroce.
Je les lis tous, en levant bien les yeux au ciel, et en attendant le prochain. C'est terrible.
Je les lis tous, en levant bien les yeux au ciel, et en attendant le prochain. C'est terrible.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Racism, Torture, Police brutality, and Murder
Moderate: Infidelity and War
Minor: Homophobia, Racial slurs, and Rape
Software Technical Writing: A Guidebook by James Gallagher
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
An excellent introduction guide that was extremely useful to me.
Note that this isn't really a book, though: James compiled all his blog posts about technical writing into one document. Given this format, there are sometimes redundancies, regular occurrences of "see you tomorrow for another post!", and the structure is not always very clear. (Since it's published under a free license, I might just take the time to reorganise it a bit, some day, for a Second Edition. It would be a good exercise, too!)
A highly recommended read.
Note that this isn't really a book, though: James compiled all his blog posts about technical writing into one document. Given this format, there are sometimes redundancies, regular occurrences of "see you tomorrow for another post!", and the structure is not always very clear. (Since it's published under a free license, I might just take the time to reorganise it a bit, some day, for a Second Edition. It would be a good exercise, too!)
A highly recommended read.
Sorry, Bro by Taleen Voskuni
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Bisexual romance!!
Bisexual romance is special. There’s your good old straight romance, also known as romance with no adjective in front of it. There’s your gay and lesbian romance, sometimes including a painful coming out, with recent examples including Rana Joon and the One and Only Now and The lesbiana’s guide to Catholic school. But bisexual romance? How do you make a character bisexual in the first place if they’re only going to have one romance, huh?
Easy − remind us that they’re bisexual. Remind us that they’re looking to date and don’t really care about the identity of who they’re dating. Make them break up with someone and make up with someone of another gender. Tell us. It’s fine, you know − showing bisexuality can be hard. Telling us « hey by the way, I’m dating you but I also like guys! » is great. And very well done in this novel, too − although there are painful outing and coming out stories because, well, it’s 2024 and queer novels still don’t allow their characters to just be happy.
And speaking of painful coming out stories: this one is based on identity. Like in the two books I quoted above, our narrator, Nar, is a second-generation American. Her Armenian identity is incredibly important in the novel: after breaking up with her very very white boyfriend, Nar allows her mother and auntie to rope her into Armenian-Armenian dating life and commits to trying to find the perfect boyfriend (or girlfriend, she adds silently) at one of the cultural events. Except, of course, 90% of the cultural events are about the genocide, which doesn’t make for great date material.
Nar’s first thought of « I’m so tired of everything being about the genocide » gets revisited several times throughout the novel, with our girl getting closer to her own culture and understanding that history doesn’t have to only be about grief. I love the way she reconciles with her heritage and starts feeling like a real part of « the community», and every single one of the sometimes complicated and painful steps that lead to that.
Also, the book is actually really good − I’m not just impressed with the theme, the romance was really nice and the characters were lovable or hateable or, in some cases, very much both.