booktribe's Reviews (603)

All of the artwork was beautiful and I enjoyed a lot of the conversations in this collection! But the words were really hard to read at times. Partly because of the font, it was a handwriting type of font and it was aesthetically pleasing, but not easily readable. And also the color choices sometimes made the words blend into the illustrations. 

So although aesthetically this book was beautiful, it wasn’t as easily readable as I would’ve liked.

Sophie and Jo, two aromantic and asexual  college students, find themselves in a big social media beef, but they don’t know each other’s real identities and they have no idea that simultaneously they’re becoming friends in real life!

We need more ace books like this!!! This was a really lighthearted, low conflict, cozy book🥰 And I loved the ace rep. It was relatable to aromantic asexuals, as well as other identities across the whole ace spectrum! The characters touched on so many topics that aro-ace people have to think about, like how friends ditch you for their significant others or worrying that you’ll wind up alone because everyone else is going to pair up with a partner. I’m not aromantic, but when the characters talked about those topics they made me feel LESS alone. And I’m so happy that teens across the asexuality spectrum will have access to the book so that they can see that they’re not alone.  

Speaking of the characters, I absolutely LOVED Sophie! Sophie and I are a lot alike. I saw myself in her so much! She was so kind and very much Type A, like myself. I even related to her turning her stuffed animals around when she knew her roommate was going to be having sex in their room while she was gone. That was so funny and definitely something I would do because those babies don’t need to be exposed to all that!😂 But I just could not connect to Jo’s character. I feel like the whole internet drama was completely her fault. She not only copied Sophie’s idea, but she kept messing with her. Jo bullies Dear Wendy (Sophie’s Instagram advice account) for fun, but it’s one sided, because it’s not fun for Dear Wendy, only stressful. If it was fun for BOTH of them I could understand, but Jo is just purposely annoying people just to be annoying and I can’t stand people like that. Jo reminds me of Jimmy Pesto from Bob’s Burgers, just annoying people for fun. But, then again, I am definitely a Wendy, so maybe that’s why I just can’t connect to Jo. She’s the complete opposite of me. The book could’ve been an easy 5/5 stars for me if I didn’t dislike one of the main characters.

But other than my dislike of Jo, I loved everything else about this book and really enjoyed it! I can’t wait for ace teens (& adults actually) everywhere to be able to read and enjoy this book!

Thank you Feiwel and Friends and NetGalley for this arc! All opinions are my own.

TW: acephobia & arophobia 

So weird! So disturbing! I’m obsessed & I have to read everything Junji Ito has ever written!🙌🏽

Here’s my reading vlog + book review for it!

https://youtu.be/e_1z299f5sY?si=ca18J0S-csP_wSHY

📚 The Dirty Kid: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📚 The Inn: ⭐️⭐️✨

📚 The Intoxicated Years: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

📚 Adela’s House: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📚 An Invocation of the Big Eared Runt: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (TW: graphic child death)

📚 Spiderweb: ⭐️⭐️✨

📚 End of Term: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📚 No Flesh Over Our Bones: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (TW: fatphobia)

📚 The Neighbor’s Courtyard: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📚 Under the Black Water: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (tw: suicide, ableist language)

📚 Green Red Orange: ⭐️⭐️✨ (tw: depression, mentions of rape, child SA and death, animal cruelty)

📚 Things We Lost in the Fire: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (TW: domestic abuse, self harm)

Average rating: 3.7 ⭐️’s

I wish a lot of the stories had been longer!

This is too long. There’s too much unnecessary stuff going on that doesn’t add to the story and even the things that do add to the story are happening for too long. And the book is character driven, but it shouldn’t be because the characters aren’t interesting enough to spend this much time with them…

I was so excited to read a book from the perspective of a Black asexual person because I am always on the lookout for more Black asexual books. Especially because the title put words to thoughts that I’ve been having for years. I had never heard the term “compulsory sexuality” before finding this book and when I saw that term something clicked in me and I finally had words for what I’d been warring with for a while. So, as you can guess, I was incredibly excited for this book! But, sadly I could not finish it. I had to give up halfway through.

The topics that this book touches on are necessary, interesting, and enlightening. However, the writing is not for me at all. It is INCREDIBLY pretentious. The author writes the same thing over and over again in different ways, not because they want to make sure you understand, but just to fill up space. Reading this book feels like reading a textbook without learning anything. The writing is so clunky and hard to digest. There was a lot of pontification to the point where the book felt like a chore to read. 

I did enjoy some parts of this book despite my problems with the writing style, but I just can’t continue. I am grateful to this book for giving me the words I was looking for in the term “compulsory sexuality”. Now I will try to find other books and articles on the topic for further reading because as much as I tried to push through and love this book, I just couldn’t. We need more books about this topic. Better books. 

If you’re a person who doesn’t mind pretentious writing, I’d still recommend giving this book a try because the topics discussed are so important and these conversations are necessary to have in our current society. 

Thank you North Atlantic Books and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: rape

Just a Little Snack is a gothic short story collection with stories featuring incredibly weird pregnancy cravings, changelings, and murder!

I read Yah Yah Scholfield’s book, On Sundays She Picked Flowers, a few months ago and enjoyed it! Plus I always loved gothic books, so when they’re by Black authors, I HAVE to read them! So I jumped at the chance to read this book when I saw it available! But, I have some mixed feelings about this book. Some stories I really enjoyed, and some not so much.

First let’s talk about the things I enjoyed! For one, I felt that the second person POV in some of these stories was very interesting. I saw a few common themes in this collection such as women empowerment, interesting family dynamics, and religious trauma. And there were so many great concepts in these stories! My favorite stories were definitely Niecy’s Garden, A Girl Walks Alone, Something Got a Hold Of Me, and Just a Little Snack!  

But there were other things I didn’t enjoy. A lot of the stories left me with questions or left me wanting more resolution. Some stories felt unfinished. I understand stories ending ambiguously, but it wasn’t satisfying ambiguity, it was just frustrating. Suddenly I See and Ain’t No Grave were the biggest offenders of this problem. As I said earlier, there were so many great concepts with the stories, but at times they weren’t executed the best, like with those two stories I just mentioned, and a few others as well. I almost didn’t finish this collection because of that, but I’m glad I did because the last few stories were really great!

I definitely think this collection is worth a try if you love horror, specifically gothic horror! Like any short story collection, there are hits and misses, but I did enjoy this collection!

Thank you Nyx Publishing and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

**Individual Story Ratings**

🫀 Just a Little Snack: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🫀 In Which Two Women Kill a Man: DNF (TW: misogyny)

🫀 What We Owe Each Other: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

🫀 What Dinah Knew: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

🫀 Suddenly I See: ⭐️⭐️✨ (TW: child abuse)

🫀 Ain’t No Grave: ⭐️⭐️ (TW: homophobia, religious trauma)

🫀 Something Got a Hold On Me: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

🫀 A Girl Walks Alone: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🫀 Niecey’s Garden: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (TW: suicide)

Average rating: 3.3 stars

Overall rating: 3 stars