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341 reviews

Dragons Within: Guarding Her Own

Hayley Green, Celosia Crane, Kimberly Gail

DID NOT FINISH: 26%

The stories shared a style that I didn't like but don't know how to describe. Since this is an anthology I thought maybe I'd like some stories better than others, but partway through the fourth one I tried, I stopped. The stories tended to gesture at deeper backstories but leaned overly on telling what cool stuff happened before, without letting any of that happen in the present narrative. 
One of the stories contains a graphic depiction of pregnancy and I wasn't able to handle much more after that, so I stopped shortly thereafter. 

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All the Stars and Teeth

Adalyn Grace

DID NOT FINISH: 6%

It felt like I was wading through adjectives and clothing descriptions to get to the glimmer of a plot. I don't like the style, it's just not for me.

Firekeeper's Daughter

Angeline Boulley

DID NOT FINISH: 6%

I thought this was SFF then realized my error a few pages in.

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The Calculating Stars

Mary Robinette Kowal

DID NOT FINISH: 33%

The setting is an alternate-history version of the 1950’s and 1960’s after a meteorite strikes and wipes out most of the USA’s East Coast. While it’s undoubtedly science fiction, it’s not my preferred kind. It has really nuanced portrayals of issues like sexism and anxiety, but ultimately those are too real for me right now, mostly because of the historical setting.

Not my thing but seems well done, try this if you want an alternate history portrayal of women fighting sexist inertia to be in flight after a catastrophe turns the world’s attention to escaping off-planet. 

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Destroyer of Light

Jennifer Marie Brissett

DID NOT FINISH: 24%

I wasn’t connecting with the story and then it started getting very graphic and I decided to stop reading. The twins were cool at first but their characters felt kind of gimmicky and mysterious in a way I don’t like.

The world building was confusing and there were too many settings that seemed to have very different rules but the scenes jumped between them too quickly for me to get a handle on any one setting and I felt lost.

Distant Gardens: Ten Stories of Exploration, Biodiversity, and Found Family

J.S. Fields, Heather Tracy

DID NOT FINISH: 35%

I liked the first couple of stories and then got to one that just didn't click with me and I spent two months trying to get through it before giving up. It's super queer in a lot of great ways. I don't have anything to warn about, it just wasn't a great time for me to try and read an anthology. Hopefully I'll try again later I just don't know when that would be.

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Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

Michael Lewis

DID NOT FINISH: 38%

I thought I'd care more and it just never happened.

The Ruin of Kings

Jenn Lyons

DID NOT FINISH

I was having trouble following the story across points in time, as the narrators didn't feel different enough to be distinctive. The perspectives are labeled at the start of each chapter, but I felt adrift, bored, and uninterested. 

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The Witch King

H.E. Edgmon

DID NOT FINISH: 42%

I loved the first part of the book and I truly love the writing, I just can't read about other people's dysphoria right now. 

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Riot Baby

Tochi Onyebuchi

DID NOT FINISH: 53%

 It’s told in chunks, creating at feeling of jagged edges and snippets of a story. I liked it at first and then got to the
back-to-back detailed descriptions of birth and a stillbirth/miscarriage
, which is a hard no for me. Even if the rest of the book is fine I need to stop. 

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