saint_eleanor's reviews
264 reviews

Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction by Zelda Knight, Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Favorite stories: deification of igodo, rear mirror, the soul would have no rainbow, liquid twilight, once upon a time in 1967, a girl crawls in a dark corner, a soul of small places, star watchers, biscuit and milk. 

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A Child Alone with Strangers: A Novel by Philip Fracassi

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes

3.0

This was way too long for what it was, the plot was incredibly simple idk how it stretched on for so gd long. The first half was addictive, and then he lost me, and then the ending got me again but just not enough for me to think this was good. The characters were flat and stereotypical even tho the writing was good? Idk
Would make a great show for tweens tho and a good read if you want to shut off your brain. 

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Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd

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dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0

heartbreaking ❤️‍🩹 
Ive been reading a lot of palestinian lit recently and i love seeing common important themes amongst all of them (olive oil, pomegranate, chewing gum, grandmothers and aunts) 

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Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind by Peter Godfrey-Smith

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challenging informative relaxing slow-paced

5.0

sheesh
i definitely have more questions than answers and am only starting to grasp how little we actually know about our brains, but this book was so insightful to the ways in which early cell development has contributed to consciousness and what that actually means. 
I also was super pleased that the author mentioned Blindsight as that's one of my favorite topics. 
I learned so much that I didn't know, like about EEG fields and ephaptic coupling, and that some of the 'mind' of an octopus is in their tentacles! 
this book was also really easy to understand and quite beautiful. 
Mary: An Awakening of Terror by Nat Cassidy

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Solid 3, i feel very conflicted abt it so pros
  • Middle aged woman main character 
  • Gory 
  • Mysterious 
  • Relatable main character 
  • Interesting plot 
  • Bloodbath 
Cons:
  • Insufferable main character 
  • Flat character writing
  • Slightly confused worldview, inconsistent details or forgotten details 
  • Unsatisfying ending kind of? 
  • Feel like it should have been either shorter or longer

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Real World by Natsuo Kirino

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dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

There’s a saying that says “every translation is a betrayal” and i think that applies here— Japanese to english is so hard and i think it results in writing that feels super detached. Otherwise the characters were super believable and the story was interesting but it was just meh. I feel like the author was on to a lot of cool themes like repression of the self and disassociation and then she just like stopped writing lol

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Páradais by Fernanda Melchor

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 9%.
Reading in español which is hard for me, hopefully will finish someday
Medea by Euripides

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

4.5

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring lighthearted sad fast-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

This was great, there are SO many stories so you’re not gonna like every single one, but so many of them were so beautifully written and i added sooo many authors to my TBR, a lot of them i hadn’t heard of!! I listened to the audiobook and Kaniehtiio Horn narrated a lot of it and i love her and her lovely voice, also Stephen Graham Jones did the intro and i love his work as well. My favorites were probably
Eulogy for a Brother
, Uncle Robert Rides the Lightning, Human Eaters, 
Before I go,  
the Ones who killed us, and Night in the Chrysalis.

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