aimiller's Reviews (689)

This I liked maybe even more than the first book! The storytelling here was so beautiful and clear, and I loved the three tiger sisters, as well as the conflicting stories being told. This was just so delightful to enjoy, and I think fills in a beautiful place of this expanding world! 

This was just delightful, in the ways that a book wherein Thrawn fails again and again and is bullied for being a big nerd. It's also nice to see these character set ups for the future, and to see how Thrawn's experiences in these books shape the way he acts and reacts in the Thrawn trilogy. 

MORE FAILURE FOR THE BLUE BOY, TIMOTHY. MORE!!!

Before I begin my review, I will say that I received a copy of this book via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program, and I am grateful to the publisher for the opportunity to read this. 

I think this is more of an issue with me not loving genre conventions than the book itself being not as good as I wanted, though I will say that it's a slooooooow start for me, and never truly seemed to catch its stride. The queer stuff was fine, and maybe I would have appreciated it more if I had more experience with gothic lit, but it just didn't catch me. (Honestly it could have been a better movie than book, maybe? That would have helped with some of the stuff I didn't love.) 

But I can definitely see how people would love this, so if you find the concept interesting I'd say go for it for sure! Just not super my cup of tea. 

This was just incredible; Solomon manages to grapple with trauma in ways that are deeply familiar and also alien, and manages to show what survival under these horrific conditions might look like. But there's so much going on here on a sociopolitical and interpersonal level, and Solomon does an amazing job of zooming in and out on those conflicts as they are intertwined and also somewhat separate. Aster moving through the world especially is great insight into those systems of power don't work, where they fall apart, and how that happens. 

It's brutal (lots of references to rape and descriptions of brutal physical assault,) but there's also so much about what it can mean to move from a dystopia to something more, something better--and how tha work happens, how an uprising happens and when violence happens. But it was so good and I was so invested in the story and its ending. 

This was just a powerful way of bringing together Black and Native studies, and using especially the the conquistador-settler as a new lens through which to understand the extreme violence that was involved in the settlement of the north American continent, not just ideologically but also in action. King uses the work of Sylvia Wynter a great deal to interrogate how the human is constructed in the spaces she writes about, as well as Afro-pessimist thought, but she manages to make the former very clear and use the latter to push for a different kind of futurity, especially by taking up C. Riley Snorton's use of fungibility and fugitivity to create spaces for Black people to thrive, rather than having the non-human or fungibility be a stopping point. 

My favorite chapter was probably "Our Cherokee Uncles: Black and Native Erotics," which manages to highlight the intimacies possible between Black and Native people, and what that means for "alliances," the futures of both people, and move through and with the sticking points that usually crop up in the conflict between Black and Native studies. 

It's just such a good book, and I'm hopeful that people will be citing it a ton in the future and following the example of as we continue to grapple with working between Black and Native studies. Plus, the bibliography is really great and I have a lot more to read now! 

Oh this was SO SO GOOD. The worldbuilding was just bonkers good--all kinds of magic going on, this balance of Lipan Apache knowledge (and refusal to share knowledge where it's not appropriate to share) and other knowledges and culture, the GHOST CREATURES, VAMPIRES, MAGIC, all of it was just so good. There was a part where I threw the book down and had to pace because it was SO GOOD AND SO CREATIVE AND I'D NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT IT LIKE THAT BEFORE. Just so good, such a beautiful story and I had such a good time reading it, I couldn't put it down. 

I think this was a really solid introduction to the Troubles, following the history through events and major figures, as well as tracing the McConville family through the time through the present. Keefe's reach is pretty expansive and it's clear the careful work he did in interviewing those he was able to and taking a guess based on other work for those he could not allowed him to create a fairly balanced narrative that raises many questions. 

I do think the true crime angle of this book means that some things that I personally find more interesting get dropped out; Keefe touches on some of the connections between the Troubles and other anticolonial struggles through the world, especially as they relate to the British response, but doesn't do much more investigating of colonialism beyond this, or the ways that the IRA saw themselves (if at all!) as part of an anticolonial movement (including with ideas about global solidarity.) Indeed, way more emphasis is drawn at the beginning on the similarity of the nonviolent march that the Price sisters were involved in (and possibly radicalized by) to the US civil rights movement, but doesn't acknowledge MLK's drawing from (among others) the work on nonviolence done by Mahatma Ghandi--in response also to British colonialism. I understand that in some ways that's me pushing this book to move outside some of its scope, but I would have liked a little more of that. (And also yknow any recommendations you have about the IRA and ideological or political connections to other anticolonial movements, I'd love to read that!) 

But I do think it was a really solid book, and if you're looking for an entry point into the history this is very accessible and interesting. 

Really gorgeous poetry; the poems about Marvin Gaye in particular felt so powerful and compassionate at the same time. Sometimes the poems felt kind of cerebral, but then there are just lines that completely rend you and it's amazing. 

Fucking incredible. Smith's poems cut to the bone on so much, and yet have so much tenderness to apply to that pain they reveal. "gay cancer" made me bawl for five minutes straight, and there are so many incredible lines in many of these poems that just kicked me in the gut. Definitely pick this up if you get the chance. 

This was fun and also like a great commentary on how our perceptions shape the stories we tell! The art by Eugene Yelchin is incredible--my landlord glanced at it over my shoulder and commented how cool it looks--and the language is simple but with big enough ideas that I think a wide range of kids (and adults!) could read this and get varying levels out of it. (Teachers I think especially it could be a good read to discuss like meaning and analogy in books.) 

The arc of Spurge in particular was good to see (because BOY was it frustrating to see how poorly he treated Werfel, who was my favorite and who tried so hard!) and the ending was satisfying and cool. Definitely a good read, flies by pretty fast thanks to the illustration, so if you have a kid who hasn't read it, I definitely recommend it!