imogenrose97's reviews
459 reviews

Biography of X by Catherine Lacey

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

 You spend so much of this book unaware of what CM and X's relationship is like, glimpsing parts of X, and witnessing CM amid her grief. It's hard to get a glimpse of who either are inside of the relationship. I think that this hooked me, I couldn't understand CM's attraction outside of the natural urge to touch a flame burning bright. Which to be fair, is an extraordinarily hard urge to quell. X seemed to be running purely on her feelings in each moment rather than accepting that each action had consequences that would drip long into her future. She made choices that severely impacted her growth, reputation and access not only as an artist and creative but as a friend and partner. It was hard to tell whether she knew that these things would happen or if she blindly walked in the world. What was shown of X was so hard to decipher, we know so much about her actions but due to not ever being inside her head, not ever being able to hear her true thoughts and definitely not being able to trust her actions, words or even her diary entries, we're left with a splintered half person who is reckless and cruel and treats people like they are a cast of pawns to use at her artistic whim.
CM was a whole other kettle of fish, she is fearful, jealous and wary of people who knew X before she did, somehow equating a mysterious past with betrayal of her known relationship and love (though X proves that even a relationship already well established does nothing to quell her thirstless want for more). 
Beyond their relationship the book focused on a fictionalised history of America that intrigued me so much. I thought it provided the perfect backdrop for a messy love and the deeply complexly flawed person shaped by her past. 
 
A Mountain to the North, A Lake to The South, Paths to the West, A River to the East by László Krasznahorkai

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 28%.
It got too slow. I wasn't interested in the writing style. I couldn't get into the depictions of nature even though that's very much up my alley. It just wasn't the book for me
Lover Birds by Leanne Egan

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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

4.0

 At first reading was difficult and cringey but I don't read a lot of YA so that makes sense. As I grew more comfortable with the writing style it became just so gorgeous and sweet and toe curlingly gay. By the end I was drawing so many comparisons between Isabel and I and Eloise and my partner Emma. The author wrote everything so incredibly, with flaws and all. I just can't get over how incredibly kindly she wrote the reactions and where I might have used black and white thinking to absolutely fuck one of their rude friends right off out of my life, they were different and it was beautiful 
Valentino by Natalia Ginzburg

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

4.0

Natalia Ginzburg has an incredible power to write basic situations beautifully, with elegance and humility. People who you might have thought might otherwise be intolerable are written with an unexpected kindness. Ginzburg puts people on display and does not judge them for who they are. I think that's what is most striking in her works—the ability to let people be without writing judgment into the story. You are made to decide who they are yourself, you are made to admonish their behaviours yourself without the help of Ginzburg's own opinion. Though the characters themselves judge the others it does not feel as though Ginzburg always agrees.
Free Food for Millonaires by Min Jin Lee

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

I wish I could capslock the YES that the flaws of the characters were a main focus of this book because this book was messy and long and took place over I want to say 5-10 years. My copy had a foreword about learning to write after quitting being a lawyer. What followed was effectively a masterful collection of human thought, how someone is thinking about a situation, how many different thoughts we all have all happening at the same time in the same room, ricocheting from the things we take in. How separate from those thoughts the other people experiencing that same moment are and how incorrectly we judge what the other might be thinking. 
Thunderhead by Miranda Darling

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

I took a little to get into this book, the pages felt gluey, and the writing so different to the book I had just finished, I felt disjointed. Our narrator hides so much from us, her mind a mess of moments and lists that make so little sense, until all at once they make all the sense until all at once it's too late and you realise the space she inhabits is so different to what we expected. The confusion falls away after that. Suddenly you are tightly wound and holding your breath. Suddenly you can't uncurl your fingers for the fear of it. Suddenly it's over. Suddenly I breathed again.
The Best 100 Poems of Dorothy Porter by Dorothy Porter

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emotional informative

3.75

I've set myself a goal to read a book of Poetry a month because incidentally, I had already started too. This was a beautiful collection though I did find myself a little lost as we flipped between personal collections and fictional poetry. Both had stunning prose but my head felt lost in interpreting.
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li

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adventurous emotional funny 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

4.5

The first time I saw this book I judged it by it's cover and I didn't want to get involved, I did however grab a copy for a friend and she was O B S E S S E S ED, so naturally I found a cover I actually loved and when Christmas came around I was gifted the most beautiful hardback copy from the friend who's copy I bought for her. 
I started as I start so many books, without reading the blurb and it worked out perfectly this time. I got to experience it all blindly. I loved the descriptions of the singularly isolating experience of childhood as a strange child in the countryside, let loose to roam without adult interference, the games you make up, the intense clarity you feel about who you are without knowing how to name each part. The stupidity of adults who don't really know you, despite having known you your whole life. '
I felt a little cheated that queerness was not explored in the intensity of our main characters' friendship. However, queerness is also something that I as a child did not know or acknowledge in my strangely possessive friendships, there was though ample opportunity in the descriptions of the present moment. This likely is why I didn't give it five stars. It felt like it would have slotted sweetly into the plot to answer so many questions on my mind. I guess the beauty of the story was this unanswerable question, why was the friendship the way that it was? 
Open Throat by Henry Hoke

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adventurous emotional funny fast-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? Yes

4.25

I had no expectations for Open Throat, no ideas for how the book might proceed. I was utterly delighted by what I found. I loved the human experience through our protagonist's eyes. I loved the words spelt as they sounded, I loved working what they were.
This was a book I chose to read at the queer bookclub I host through a bookshop, this time I had a few friends and my partner come along as they had read and loved the book. It was so lovely to see the group through their eyes, to get to hear newly how lovely the environment is, to have people confirm what a special place it is. The discussions for the book were overwhelmingly positive, everyone had enjoyed experiencing life through a mountain lions eyes and enjoyed the ways the author played with words to create distance between him and us. 
DallerGut Dream Department Store by Mi-Ye Lee 이미예

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

3.25

What a delightful romp, if romp could be used to describe a book spent mainly in dreams, the characters were varied and interesting though at times very much a type cast of a character rather than one very well written out. Having more interesting lovable characters working in the department store would have enamoured me more with the book. However, I'm sure there is something that I am missing from the characters, something their identities reveal about finding a space for yourself even if you might be found to be a difficult personality by others.
I find it so interesting the books how the books that do so well in countries like Korea and Japan are so often tales of humanity, of searching for a purpose, for who you are, for where you fit. There is often an open sense of curiosity and play that is not often present in mainstream Western fiction.

Special message to read the translator's note if you didn't. Her love for the book shines bright in the passages of the English translation.