charbck's reviews
120 reviews

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

masterful!!!! so so detailed and the pictures he paints are incredible. incredibly vibes based to the point where 1 paragraph could jump to 3 different years and all be in present tense. sometimes it worked and sometimes it didnt

the strongest parts were the character based excerpts. from mom, to lan, to trevor, they were all thorough, complicated character studies that i devoured. i especially loved the trevor parts of course . will be rereading many of those excerpts they were SO beautiful and vulnerable. that being said i think the weakest parts are the stream of consciousness writings
esp the many pages after trevor dies. voungs style is so free flowing that i get lost in his paragraph’s sometimes.
his concrete scene based writing is strong and his wonderful voice compliments it well. you can tell he loves writing in the clouds also, and while that works in poetry, the headspacy excerpts did not always work in novel format. i relate to this 100% as a poet trying to fit their voice into paragraphs. 

obv gave me so much insight about the vietnam war which was very interesting and tragic. would love to read more abt it
Eve's Hollywood by Eve Babitz

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adventurous inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.5

so good and so fun!!! all of her prose is so fantastic and entertaining. writing creative nonfic is so HARD i wish to write like eve does. hard to pick up if you are not motivated to read but so fun once you get wrapped up in her voice!
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

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

3.0

i enjoyed! shiraha’s incel ness had me gripped tbh it was funny. an interesting examination of society’s norms and values, though it is pretty one note. further reinforces my anti marriage stance. also i liked the essay at the end more than the book LOL
The White Album by Joan Didion

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challenging reflective medium-paced

4.75

my second nonfic didion and it was AMAZEEEE. totally shaped the way i wrote this month. her voice is amazing and her story telling is incredible and we all need to aim to be as genius as her. wish i enjoyed journalism more so i could live the joan didion life. -.25 stars bc it took me the whole month to finish
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

3.75

her writing is mid but who can blame her when she didnt even get a chance to go to high school. her story is CRAZY but im so glad she told it. and even tho the writing is mid its impressive and important she wrote it and didnt get a ghost writer which im sure was offered to her. jennette mccurdy deserves every good thing in the world! i hope her story encourages other child actors to speak up and i hope child acting is illegal within the next 20 years
Collected Poems by Vladimir Nabokov

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lighthearted reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

was happy to read nabokov’s poetry bc his word choice is just so wonderful. most of the poems dont have that emotional umpf that makes me love poetry, but hes a master of imagery. his shining poems were of course the narrative ones. i enjoyed the motifs about being russian and being away from home. it mustve been crazy to be of russian heritage while living in the rest of the world during the 20th century. great that he was able to be proud of it and not ashamed
The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry by J.D. McClatchy

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 16%.
i will finish this one day but that day is not soon
Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

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

3.75

the story was compelling and ms mellors absolutely had me turning the pages, and i appreciate her prose and the story structure, but i could not connect to these characters which is a shame. theyre interesting, theyre troubled, they have complicated motivations. but i couldnt click w them, which is what makes a good book great (for me) 

what SUPER bothered me was all of the characters. besides like santiago bc they needed someone to fix all the problems. were SUPER MISOGYNISTS! just look over cleo like shes a doll play thing. and the woman characters give their #feminist comment that the men get annoyed at but they keep sleeping together?? they keep hanging out??? me personally if a middle aged man made a misogynistic remark while flirting w me i would get out of that mans life not MARRY HIM. anyway. even after frank got sober he still just does not understand women at all and eleanor just rolls her eyes for the rest of their lives? whatever

also why is santiago getting married all of a sudden when he just saw cleo and franks marriage fall apart. hello? 


ALSO being marked as lgbtq when its just quentin (who sucks) being closeted and trans for 1 chapter???
and then he ends up strung out on meth and terrible???? #killyourgays
#representation
Just Kids by Patti Smith

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emotional inspiring slow-paced

4.25

her love for robert is so palpable in the way she writes of him and their life together. i feel it deep in my stomach. its a pure, pure love. like all poets her lines are more inspiring than her paragraphs, but i also have that fault. gonna make all of my past and future lovers read this, and im going to search for more patti smith in record stores and used book shops
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

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funny hopeful reflective medium-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

4.0

enjoyed this! i really loved the nuances in this book. about relationships and about living a very long life and about purpose and home and feeling safe. i related to the situation more than id like to admit, as i am very young and she is very old, but it brought me some peace. she really got in my head, im typing like her. i love character studies!