I only read 10% of this book so can't really say if there's anything wrong with it. I struggled to get invested in the characters, especially with the heavy Harry Potter influence. Most of the reviews I've seen from other readers with preferences like mine are pretty meh, and I just don't have any time to waste when it comes to reading! Giving this one a pass - thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC, anyways <3 

There’s nothing wrong with this book! Quite the opposite!!!!! This was an audio reread and as much as I love it, it’s not working for me on audio — complex worldbuilding usually doesn’t. Will be rereading a physical copy before the end of the year! <3

I picked up this book expecting an investigation into the impact of AI on human creativity and creative expression. 30% of the way through the book, the only mentions of AI were the chapters presenting ChatGPT's responses to the excerpts of the book that Vara provided to it. The other chapters explore the early days of the internet and the creation of Amazon and Facebook. While Vara touches on surveillance capitalism and other oppressive aspects of these technologies, her analysis is primarily funneled through confessional memoir aspects relying her own experiences with these platforms. This simply wasn't what I was looking for or something I'm interested in at this time. Fans of Naomi Klein's Doppelganger may like this better than I did. 

As a fellow hypermobile spoonie, I really wanted to love this memoir. Sophie's writing is undeniably beautiful. I enjoyed her reflections on the experience of being ill; I just wish that content had made up more of the book. Instead, most chapters connected Sophie's illness to topics I don't resonate with: animism, new age mysticism, classic literature, mythology, biblical history. To protect my reading energy and time in 2025, I set a rule for myself that I would DNF owned physical books at 30% if I wasn't enjoying them. Unfortunately, almost halfway through Sophie's book, I found myself mostly bored and struggling to connect, so I'll be moving on to something else. Sorry Sophie!

There's nothing wrong with this book! (maybe other than it was a little slow to start). At a quarter of the way through, it's revealed that the central conflict between the sisters is childhood sexual abuse (possibly incestual? unclear). This is one of my no-no triggers, so I had to pass on this one. 

Sorry guys - I couldn't do it with this book. It's extremely dense and academic. I pushed through to about 30% but have been avoiding returning to it for weeks. Snorton has an interesting theory, but I think if you're not working in gender studies academia, it's only so useful. I'm sure this book will be more accessible and enjoyable for other people - I'm unfortunately just not one of them. 

As many other early reviewers have mentioned, this book wasn't appropriately marketed. Rather than historical, it takes a sociological lens to investigate how the state has used confinement to further racial capitalism during times of pandemics. I initially was not dissuaded by this; I found it an interesting angle of analysis. However, the further I got, the less cohesive the analysis felt. Bonhomme shifts between some history and her analytical focus in a way that didn't feel very fluid. After several days of avoiding this book due to disinterest, I gave it another try and just couldn't do it. Perhaps others who are aware of what they are getting themselves into when they pick up this book will find it easier to track Bonhomme's thinking. 

There's nothing wrong with this book! It just took a different angle than I found interesting or useful. As an abolitionist, I'm not looking to operate within the bounds of policy and law-making. Additionally, there were only so many facts I could read about how Americans vote before they started to leak out of my ears. Facts have their utility, but 30% in and I felt like Valenti wasn't going to provide much else. This will probably be a better fit for people earlier on in their leftist/feminist political awakening. 

Audiobook wasn’t holding my attention but gonna give this a try in print eventually!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! This book will be released by Catapult on March 11, 2025 in the US.

I stopped reading On Breathing at around 20% because it simply wasn’t aligning with what I was looking for. As someone who’s deeply engaged in liberatory politics and interested in the intersection between radical political thought and psychoanalysis, I was hoping for a more critical exploration of how environmental catastrophe and care intersect with broader social and political systems. Instead, I found the book leaning heavily into personal, introspective reflections—from the author’s own struggles with asthma and her experiences as a psychoanalyst during COVID, to extended meditations on her infant daughter’s breathing.

This focus felt both off-target and, frankly, borderline problematic for me. I’m uncomfortable with literature that exploits a child’s narrative without the possibility of consent, and I wasn’t drawn to the reliance on older psychoanalytic ideas, especially those rooted in Freudian and Winnicottian thought, which I find outdated and unconvincing. Overall, I was bored, sometimes confused, and increasingly convinced that my time would be better spent on texts that not only engage my interests but also contribute to my personal and political growth.