dobbsthedog's reviews
1663 reviews

I really enjoyed this!  It was absolutely absurd and so typically John Scalzi and I loved everything about it!

But my favourite part, truly, were the unionized dolphins. Solidarity! ✊🏼

Strong 4.5 stars

I really enjoyed this book!  It’s great to read something with slightly older protagonists (Maggie is 48, Aidan is 50).

I think that one of the reasons I liked this so much is that it is so relatable!  While I don’t play MMORPGs, I’m very familiar with them, and I think that any nerdy hobby could be substituted here.  I also liked the message that online friends are real friends!  It was quite funny when both Maggie and Aidan were making assumptions about the other’s age, but that they still became friends, even when thinking there was a massive age gap (Maggie assumed Aidan was 20 and Aidan assumed Maggie was in her 80s!).  Also also, I like that “gamer” stereotypes were basically destroyed.  It seems like folks typically think of gamers as being guys in their early twenties, living in their parents’ basement, etc.  This book blew that apart by having gamers of all ages playing and including a woman.  Loved it.

Something I thought the book did brilliantly was showing a lot of harmful stereotypes, toxic masculinity, and homophobia, and then just calling it out.  There were several side characters who were quite awful (in their outdated/homophobic mindsets), and the two MCs just flat out told them they were wrong.  While I don’t enjoy reading about homophobia or toxic masculinity, I thought it was done really well in this book; showing what it looks like and showing how it can be shut down.

Another thing I really appreciated was Aidan’s reactions when Maggie was legitimately afraid, when home alone or being in a new space as a single woman.  That is SO real, and I love that it was addressed.  

The more I write of this review the more I think I should be rating this 5 stars…

Anyway, I’m definitely going to check out some more of Cathy Yardley’s books after this!

*Very, VERY mild spoilers ahead!*

ngl, I *almost* put this down as soon as I picked it up at realized it was a ‘theatre kids’ book.  No offence to anyone who enjoys those stories, but as a 100% not theatre kid, I tend to not like these stories, at all.  Thankfully I kept with it and really enjoyed it!

I really enjoy Adib Khorram’s writing and I was happy to see this, after I absolutely adored his last book (Kiss and Tell).  While I found Jackson a bit annoying, he was also very much a teenager, unsure of himself and making some really dumb choices.  I liked that by the end he was doing the work to get himself, and his relationship, to a better place.  Also, love that he recognized (maybe with a bit of help) that therapy might help him work through some of the things that led to so many things blowing up.

I also appreciated that this was very much an HFN, as YA with an HEA just does not seem realistic at all.  I also like that the book ended before there was even any real discussions of what a post-high school relationship would look like.  When I read that in a book, it often comes across as the author trying to write an HEA when one is very unlikely.  Always here for an HFN when it makes sense, and it absolutely did for this story.

I loved this book.  I absolutely loved it.

It’s a book about love; loving yourself, loving your friends, the love of your family, love of your art.  I feel like it had a lot of nuanced things to say about love, life, death, and identity, and I’m not quite sure how to properly express it.  I feel like I just read something quite profound, but am unsure of how to talk about it.

The book is about Cyrus Shams, an Iranian immigrant whose mother was killed when her plane was shot down when he was an infant.  His father immigrates with him to the US, and he grows up mostly American.  Cyrus is a poet, is in recovery, and is at loose ends, obsessed with the idea of death.  He has the idea to write a book about martyrs, then learns about an artist who has terminal cancer and is living her last days as an art exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, so he goes to speak with her.  This turns into something hugely profound to him, but I can’t say more than that, because of spoilers!

The book jumps around a lot, and while it’s mostly told from Cyrus’ POV, we also get glimpses into other lives as well; his mother and father, his best friend.  There are also snippets from his WIP book, small bits about different martyrs throughout history.  Through these time jumps, we get a pretty clear picture of Cyrus’ life.  I’m not always the biggest fan of these sorts of timeline jumps, but it worked very well in this story.

This is the first I’ve ever read from Kaveh Akbar, and I will absolutely be on the lookout for any future books by him.  I don’t know that I’ve accurately described just how good this book is, so just take my word for it, it really is excellent.

CW: gore, child abuse

I liked this book, though it was not at all what I was expecting!  For it being YA fantasy, it is quite graphically gory throughout, so be aware!

Basically, we have our protagonist, Gem, who is a trans teen.  The book starts with Gem having a graphically gory dream, and we soon learn that Gem is actually a god from another world and these horrific dreams they’ve been having are actually memories from past lives.

I really love the premise, I think it’s really unique.  I am also loving the parallels to one of my favourite X-Files episodes, Never Again, where Scully gets an ouroboros tattoo and there are a lot of discussions on reincarnation and how each time you’re reincarnated you are still surrounded by the people who were important to you in past lives.  Because in Godly Heathens, this group of otherworldly gods are always drawn to each other in each life, and a ouroboros knife is central to the storyline.

I also like the questions it asks throughout the book, about good vs evil, what is good and what is evil, especially when past lives are involved; does this new incarnation bear the responsibility for choices they made in the past?

I loved that the ending was a complete twist (sort of) and I’m so glad that I have the second (and final book) available to jump right into.

Received from the author’s PR person, thanks!

I enjoyed this one! It’s the first in a new series with many of the MCs being on the slightly older side (late 30s-early 40s), which I indefinitely appreciate.

I also like that, while the main couples in Albert’s more recent books have been M/M, she is mixing it up with having well-written non-binary side characters, as well as other queer folks on the periphery.  While I’m all here for books that are all queer folks, it definitely comes off in some sort of way when the entire town is made of gay, allo, cis men.  

In this one we have Sean who is recently divorced and moved back to his small hometown, and Denver, who is a short order cook at the local diner and who always has one foot out the door.  Grumpy/Sunshine doesn’t always work as a trope for me, but it did this time.  Though Denver is basically a big, scared marshmallow and the grumpiness is just a façade.  I really appreciate the lack of angst and lack of third act breakups in Albert’s books; it makes for a very easy read, which is exactly what I needed right now.

I also appreciated how grief was discussed, as it seemed authentic and realistic.  I also liked the discussions of the foster care system, showing how it can really work and also really not work.

Overall, an enjoyable read that covered some more serious topics.  I’ll definitely be reading the rest in this series as they come out!

I did not enjoy this book.  I guess the premise was fine, but I didn’t like that there was no resolution, that it would appear an entire community of women are being murdered and replaced by “perfect” robots.

There were certain aspects of the book that haven’t aged well; “I want my kids to meet some Black people!”. Yikes.

Also, this is very much a book that’s supposed to be from a woman’s POV that is very clearly written by a man.  Any time they are talking about sex it feels really off, the way anytime a new female character is introduced she’s described as being attractive, the way every single man in this community apparently has the exact same idea of what their “perfect” woman is (large, pushed up breasts, small waist, small ass, lots of makeup).

With the way the book ended, with no resolution, it really just gave the impression that it doesn’t matter what you do (as a woman), all that men want are “prefect” wives who only care about keeping the house clean.  Maybe I’m missing some nuance here, but that’s what I’m getting from this.  That even if you’re strong, independent, intelligent, you’re just going to end up a wife who spends her entire day cleaning.

For how short the book was, I was surprised by the amount of sex in it? Nothing graphic, but lots of discussion on it, and it is very much not what I would consider to be a sex positive book.  One of the husbands is said to be quite kinky, and this is seen as this terrible thing that the wife must endure.  And this is before she’s replaced with a housework robot!  Again, this is likely something that just hasn’t aged well, but I really didn’t like the idea that wives are portrayed as just being there to be of service to their husbands.  

Overall, didn’t like any of it, would not read again.

I stayed up way too late to finished this, so RTC. 🥱😴