puglord's reviews
177 reviews

Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption by Rafia Zakaria

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challenging emotional informative medium-paced

4.25

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

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challenging dark informative tense slow-paced

4.0

The Neptune Project by Polly Holyoke

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

The Consultant by Im Seong-sun

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dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The plot follows a man with is an aspiring writer. He posts his true crime stories online planning out intricate murders. He wounds up recruited to write stories to be published, but it turns out it’s a consulting firm for ‘restructuring.’ The language was funny and entertaining, and the translator did a good job. I liked the beginning but the story went downhill in the second half. I didn’t like the way women were treated in the story, with each one reduced down to sex. The Manager is his ‘wet dream.’ As for his first girlfriend, she and him had good sex, but just not good enough for him to save her life and she winds up dead. Yerin is his wish fulfillment fantasy. While arguably that this is due to the Company, they aren’t treated with the fairness the male characters are. The Chairman is treated sympathetically, trying to recruit the protagonist to his side, before he winds up killed by his heir. The old high school classmate is more fleshed out, being trapped in the corporate monotony and forced to fire two interns since he needs to pay off his bills.
When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Michael Forsythe, Walt Bogdanich

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dark informative medium-paced

3.75

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Wtf
Sounds Fake But Okay: An Asexual and Aromantic Perspective on Love, Relationships, Sex, and Pretty Much Anything Else by Sarah Costello, Kayla Kaszyca

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informative medium-paced

2.75

Surface-level overview of the aroace spectrum. The authors acknowledge that their identity as cisgender white women made it limited, but the book still felt like it was trying to tackle a range of identities the authors just weren’t equipped for. The constant qr code  plugging their podcast at the end of every chapter was also annoying 
Biting the Hand: Growing Up Asian in Black and White America by Julia Lee

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emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

Twisted Hate by Ana Huang

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

2.0