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caseythereader

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adventurous challenging funny mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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On the Corner of Hope and Main: A Blessings Novel

Beverly Jenkins

DID NOT FINISH

The writing unfortunately read more like a plot outline than a novel, with a lot of clunky expository conversations and inserted backstory instead of action.
challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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adventurous emotional funny fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

 📚 This use of the archive of Geller's life is incredible. It's such a unique structure for a memoir.
📚 Additionally, the photographs and other items help to remind the reader that this isn't just a parade of anonymous events, it's the life of a family.
📚 Reading a description of something awful her father did and then looking him in the eye on the next page...I can't even find words for it.
📚 There's so much in here about generational trauma and cycles of addiction and abuse, and yet, there is a feeling of healing and growth by the end of the book, even though things aren't "fixed" or "solved." 

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

 📚 LOST IN THE NEVER WOODS is not just a modern retelling of Peter Pan, but an exploration of loss and grief, and the many ways trauma and PTSD can manifest for survivors of terrible events.
📚 I loved Peter and Wendy's dynamic - the fact that Peter isn't a static young boy in this version gives them so much more room to grow.
📚 Thomas' creepy visuals remain a highlight of his writing.
📚 The big drawback of this book for me was that because we already know the classic Peter Pan story, we are a few steps ahead of Wendy for much of the book. Even when the plot is unfolding fast, it still feels like it drags a bit while we wait for her to piece things together. 

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

 📚 I think WE PLAY OURSELVES isn't going to be for everyone - it's a bit wandering, almost none of the characters are likable, there's some really horrific stuff happening in the name of art - but I LOVED IT.
📚 This book is like PLAIN BAD HEROINES + PIZZA GIRL.
📚 I felt Cass on a few levels - trying to make art work, trying to find yourself by dropping out of your life, being an elder millennial trying to understand the universe young queer people live in - whewwww!
📚 Everybody is such a mess, but in a way that feels true to life. I've known (and sometimes been) these women trying to figure out where they belong and how to exist.
📚 There is a painful two-pronged critique of the art world: one thread about how tastemakers jump on what they think is new and cutting edge but it's really the same stuff repackaged in a more soul-crushing way, and another thread about how people in power will put that pain on display and mine it for profit, even when the creator is visibly suffering.
📚 There's also some really good stuff about tokenism and molding people to fit the story in your mind. I do want to point out what at first seems like some nasty asexual rep, but I do think it's pushed back on as much as possible in the moment (and it feeds back into my previous point about people in distress not getting the support they need). 

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challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

📚 LET THE LORD SORT THEM is essentially a legal history of the death penalty, particularly in Texas. I kind of assumed we'd always had such a high execution rate, and I did not know we'd almost eradicated it until a 1972 Supreme Court ruling kicked off a backlash that brought it back.
📚 This book is very explicit in drawing a straight line from slavery through lynchings and Jim Crow to our current incarceration system - right down to how many prisons are built on former plantations and use inmate labor for farming.
📚 There are a lot of people and cases in this book, and it was sometimes hard to keep them all straight. I'd recommend reading a hard copy to make it easier to flip back and forth.
📚 I wish this book had taken a stronger stance on the idea that people shouldn't be executed, full stop, rather than leaning on mitigating circumstances like brain injuries, bad childhoods, learning disabilities, etc., but I understand that mainstream rhetoric on this topic isn't entirely there yet and that's what this book focuses on.

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emotional funny tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

 📚 Y'all, I love Cherry so much! Hibbert is so great at creating women who power their way through the world, but aren't so armored that the book becomes entirely about letting down walls.
📚 Loved the extremely casual bisexual rep - Hibbert is the queen of "everyone's a little queer."
📚 Loved how populated this book felt for being a standalone - Ruben and Cherry had what felt like complete lives and relationships outside of each other.
📚 This book's main drawback for me was that the power/kink stuff felt really undernegotiated - Cherry barely consented to it at the beginning and then didn’t have much of a say in how it proceeded. 

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