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1.84k reviews by:
caseythereader
- Honestly, I'd read Alexis Hall's grocery list at this point. I adore his writing: the banter is top notch and the characters feel like real, flawed, lovely people.
- PARIS DAILLENCOURT IS ABOUT TO CRUMBLE was a bit tougher to read than other Hall books, though. Reading from Paris' point of view through his intense anxiety was often hard and frustrating, though possibly because I could see my past self in him.
- One of the best things about this particular series is that I'm never sure if the towns and the pastries Hall names are real or if they're satire, lol. Either way, they sound delicious.
Graphic: Cursing, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Islamophobia
- HERETIC is part memoir, part examination of how evangelical culture and beliefs have impacted every part of American life.
- I didn't grow up in a specifically evangelical church, but having been a teenager in church/America in the 1990s-2000s, all this stuff was simply in the air, and reading this book felt both enlightening and cathartic.
- I also appreciated that this book touched on how hard it can be to find community outside churches in this country, and Kadlec's search for both welcoming congregations and secular fellowship.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Alcohol
- This book perfectly captures the pressures and awkwardness of high school - I went to school in the same place this book is set and WHEW there were some flashbacks!
- I'm not disabled or chronically ill so I'm not the final word here, but I liked how Azar and her family were constantly trying to find the balance between fixing Azar's condition and simply learning to live with it, and how neither route seemed like the perfect answer.
- Plus, this book's characters are effortlessly diverse in terms of race, religion, class, and queerness. We love surprise asexual spectrum rep!
Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical content
Graphic: Child abuse, Pregnancy, Alcohol
Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content
Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
- LAVENDER HOUSE is a wholly unique book: murder mystery, gothic tale, queer historical fiction, and explorations of how much you're willing to give up for safety, along with what you owe others vs looking out for only yourself.
- Every time I opened this book the world around me completely disappeared and I sank fully into Lavender House and the people in it. Each character was fighting their own internal battles and I felt for them all.
- I think avid mystery readers will probably figure out whodunnit, but even once I got it, I was still on the edge of my seat watching it all play out.
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content
- WILL DO MAGIC FOR SMALL CHANGE is a wildly imaginative and ambitious story within a story, braiding characters and plotlines from 1893 and 1987 together. It's something like a cross between Octavia E. Butler and Nalo Hopkinson, maybe with a dash of Nicky Drayden.
- I found myself more compelled by the 1800s story than the 1980s story, even though I thought Cinnamon was a great character. I think that historical plotline was just better paced for me. The modern plot often had 20 or so pages of conversation pinging between half a dozen characters while nothing much happened, and then a big pivotal moment would occur in a space of a sentence or two.
- I didn't realize until after I started reading it that this book is a companion to REDWOOD AND WILDFIRE, and while I could figure it out well enough, the characters were constantly referencing people and events from that book, so I wish I'd read it first.
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape, Sexual content
- To be honest, I could see where the plot was going pretty much the whole time, but Shepherd's writing was so cozy and the characters so real that it didn't matter if I figured it out before they did.
- This is the kind of book that I would love to see turned into a movie: the mechanics of the unreality elements would lend themselves so perfectly to the screen. So would the plot twists, tbh, but I won't give those away here!
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail
- I'll admit I was a bit uncertain when I heard OUR MISSING HEARTS was speculative fiction, but I should have known to trust Celeste Ng. I found myself taking extra walks and doing extra chores just to get more time with this audiobook. Lucy Liu is unsurprisingly a superb narrator.
- This book is a new entry in the canon of dystopias that are terrifying because they're only a step removed from our reality. In an author's note, Ng lists real life events and people she drew on, and the list is long.
- This book is also a love letter to libraries and librarians, painting them as both the last line of defense and the first line of offense when it comes to knowledge and the public good.
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail