ominousspectre's reviews
247 reviews

Do note this is a cultural deep dive into the culinary world, not the usual deep dive into other cultures his shows. It contextualized a lot about his life. Some stuff he says is very 2000, so ah, keep that in mind if you will.

Rest in peace, king.

I think marketing did this book a great disservice by not making it clear it's a prequel to Borne. I have a feeling a lot of people picked this up as a standalone and were left hopelessly confused. I almost did! But you gotta read Borne to read this.

You know how as a writer, you sometimes just want to write about the world you've created in itself, all the little details you created outside of the plot? Dead Astronauts is this. It reads like a bewildering lyrical fairytale at times, which I loved, but I also understand why people might hate. 

Reckless Eyeballing | NK Jemison (3 stars)
love u NK Jemison but this one was a little goofy to me though I enjoyed the theme

Eye & Tooth | Rebecca Roanhorse (4 stars)
Slay brother and sister monster hunter duo

Wandering Devil | Caldwell Turnball (3.0 stars)
felt very neutral about this one

Invasion of the Baby Snatchers |  Lesley Nneka Arimah (5 Stars)
I wanted this to be a whole novella

The Other One | Violet Allen (4.0 stars)
abandonment issues oof

Lasirèn | Erin E. Adams (5 Stars)
"When I wrap my lips around a story I'm not supposed to tell, it turns sour on my tongue. The only way to sweeten it? Name some truths before the lie."

The Rider | Tananarive Due (3.0 stars)
also neutral about this

The Aesthete | Justin C. Key (5 Stars)
"Death is not art...We are all born nearly the same. And there're as many ways to die as there are people."

Pressure | Ezra Claytan Daniels  (3.5 Stars)
This was good I'm just not big on end of the world stories personally!

Dark Home | Nnedi Okorafor (5 Stars)
"When you hang on like that, sometimes things hang on to you."
I love a folklore story.

Flicker | L.D. Lewis (3.5 Stars)
Same as Pressure. Really good but end of the world stories just make me tired.

The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World | Nalo Hopkinson (5 Stars)
WOW I'VE BEEN SLEEPING ON THIS AUTHOR.
Probably my fave story. Moving her books up in my tbr.

The Norwood Trouble | Maurice Broaddus (3.75 Stars)
"The orchard protects us."

The Grief of the Dead | Iron Amilcar Scott (4.5 Stars)
D:

A Bird Sings by the Etching Tree | Nicole D. Sconiers (4.5 Stars)
Girls killing people. My brand.

An American Fable | Chesya Burke (4.5 Stars)
Cincinnati mentioned O_O

Your Happy Place | Terence Taylor (4.75 Stars)
This story made me sooo itchy ooough

Hide & Seek | P. Djèlí Clark (4.75 Stars)
This hit me in a sad place.

Origin Story | Tochi Onyebuchi (4.75 Stars)
This one mostly made me laugh but in an existential way

I have many Thoughts™ but I think those are best reserved for those who have read it. I do wish I'd bought a copy instead of my normal library borrowing, as I think I need to reread sometime and make notes.

my only big critique is that sometimes Truant's entries were a bit Much and for those who've read it you'll know exactly what I mean

anyways, measure you house kids! inside and out!

I am still giggling at the fact that the sorcerer villain is named Charles le Sorcerer. This is mentioned in an old Tumblr post , so I needed to see it with my own two eyes. 

It's true besties,

there is no curse, Charles le Sorcerer just breaks into their castle and keeps killing them in normal ways

(As a disclaimer, I have a complicated relationship with HP Lovecraft because he invented one of my fave genres of horror but I also hate him and need to travel back in time and beat the shit out of him)

This book is such a beautiful love letter to C.S. Lewis and the Magician's Nephew, the first in the Chronicles of Narnia. The amount of little references made me smile with childish delight, as that will always be my favorite childhood series. 

Though it is definitely no book for children; there were moments it had me anxious and nauseous. Even as someone who does not suffer from DID/blackouts, just knowing someone who does, I can say this could be a tough one. Proceed with caution if that is the case.

Holy shit

Okay Bri, I see why you did not vibe with this one. As an author writing about their own oppression, I think it you have to walk a fine line or you can end up alienating the people in your audience that bleed with you.

I love Rivers. The Deep and Sorrowland are both very dear to me in different ways. All of their style and intriguing ideas are here, but I think this would have been better as a novella? It felt endlessly long while also feeling like very little happens until the end. I did love the ending, and am obviously still a rabid follower of what this author will do next, but this debut just wasn't for me!

A good unreliable narration, but far from my favorite of his works. I am reading through every Dostoevsky novel/novella, and as one does with any author they read a lot of, patterns start to emerge.

One pattern in his writing that I don't like, despite being an obvious fan of his, is the Woman Problem. I like to joke that Dostoevsky reminds me that incels existed long before the Internet, and this is another example.

It's not that the portrayal of Katerina is bad, but it's not his first depiction of a woman who is mad yet somehow wise, childlike yet lusted after. If a woman isn't that, then she's often a sex worker he has the main character project his flaws and lack of emotional intelligence on, which is a WHOLE other thing I could write an essay about.

This story gets into agency (or lack thereof), and I don't know if I like the implications of it, but I also think it's up to interpretation. Is he critiquing a women's lack of agency in the time period? One could choose to see it that way, but just knowing his history and his work, it's hard not to see a more nefarious interpretation of gender essentialism :/ 

anyways I'm done yappin!

I love miss Silvia but I think I wanted this to be Silver Nitrate really bad but it was never going to be Silver Nitrate. It felt more like The Craft in a way, but less magic?

I'd hoped it'd dig into the darker occult stuff but this is a character driven story about the ills of teenhood. Which is good for some, just not for me! I don't care about teen romance drama heh. 

With this being her first novel, it all makes sense...and I can see the throughline to eventually writing Silver Nitrate. Did I mention I love Silver Nitrate?