onespaceymother's reviews
869 reviews

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense

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

5.0

I’m becoming a Becky Chambers fan girl I think. This was a beautiful character study and a fun scifi romp.

Ravenfall by Kalyn Josephson

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adventurous dark hopeful relaxing fast-paced

4.75

Sweet middle grade age book I read out loud to my two kids. There’s a sequel and I think we’ll pick it up. Loved all the Irish lore!

Fables and Spells: Collected and New Short Fiction and Poetry by adrienne maree brown

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

4.25

I struggled to pick it back up a few times, but then enjoyed it every time I did. I love poetry, but sometimes have to force myself to it. I read a lot of this book out loud to myself which helped quite a bit. I very much enjoyed the short stories. Favorite stories/poems: a moon kind of night, Nikki Giovanni in Space, I’m Rare, The Children (a solstice poem), and Marla and the Creation Committee.

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

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adventurous dark emotional

4.25

This series is a good time, sexy, and hey! Dragons! Is it serious literature? No. Are the characters a little one-note in tone/thoughts? Yes. Did that make it less fun to read? No.

The Lady with the Dark Hair by Erin Bartels

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adventurous hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5

The First Bright Thing by J.R. Dawson

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adventurous dark hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Plot in one sentence: A time-traveler, gay, jewish ringleader leads a 1920’s train circus of superheroes through the Midwest, trying to stop WWII from happening after-work, while outrunning her abusive ex whom she met when accidentally saving him the trenches during WWI.

This is a WILD sentence. I wanted to love this more. Local author, Midwest locales, etc, but the messaging was heavy handed and the plot tried to do too much for too many characters. Also time travel almost always fucks up a story. There’s so much more that could’ve been done about the Circus King.

The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall

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hopeful slow-paced