E.E. Ottoman-typical cozy + affirming queer vibes, and vividly described food. Rating would be slightly higher, if the typos and grammar errors weren’t so frequent it became distracting. 

I might lower this to 3.5 stars, but we’ll see. While I’m with the other reviewers on how Marin’s emotions felt distant, that wasn’t a huge issue for me because I thought the book felt like roughly 230 pages of depression-related disassociation anyhow, and the simple prose captured her heartbreak. This is probably the closest to literary fiction that YA is gonna get?

I can see why this is so highly recommended. I haven’t read such a visceral, miserable depiction of grief in my life before. The story is meandering, but the gradual unraveling of Marin’s memories and the realism of her spiraling (also, I eat up YA books with easier writing styles) kept me turning the pages until I lost track of the numbers. The flashbacks felt like actual memories put onto a page, the bittersweetness in the homely visuals were tangible. However, I didn’t find the characters as complex as some of the reviews were saying they were. I would’ve liked to see them developed more, especially some of the interesting side characters Marin would dwell on. (Also, while the ending was still sweet in a way, it felt too much like Ana was pressuring Marin lol. Wasn’t a fan of the dialogue in that scene.) 

Also, two (maybe three?) of the jokes were in poor taste. (One used the e slur, another joked about living off-grid and living in a teepee.) The consistent references to classics and lofty metaphors already make “We Are Okay” seem a little annoying and pretentious at times, that just exacerbated it. 

I’m still coping with the loss of my father, so a lot of this felt relatable to me. Maybe that’s why I still thought of this positively, for the most part. Most of all, though, I am so grateful I was able to finish this before the end of the month. God is real because I can finally rest knowing that “Alien Abduction For Beginners” won’t be my last read of the year.

Extra star added because I did enjoy Bridget Bordeaux’s narration as Trish, while I wasn’t the biggest fan of her masculine voices, I did like how she voiced her character’s confusion. (Honestly, her POV chapters, in both narration and writing, were the highlights of this novella.) To be honest, she’s kind of the only reason I picked this up, I have “A Sky Of Emerald Stars” on my audio TBR (she voices Sadie’s POV!) but wanted to hear what she narrated like beforehand and this was the most bizarre choice I saw on her catalogue.

Not a big fan of this. I saw someone in the reviews be all shocked about the alien cum

but the only abnormal thing it does is stain skin like a permanent marker. Nothing special there, it’s just a little silly.

The POVs of the aliens were more painful to read than amusing, especially with the theatrical, often tonally inappropriate narration done for them. I’m also bummed we didn’t get more of Trish’s POV, not just for the preferences listed in the first paragraph, but also because I felt it objectified her more. (The aliens’ lack of knowledge about women, while probably laughed at by the narrative, makes a lot of their conversations about Trish and sex feel robotic and locker room-adjacent. It was a little uncomfortable, to say the least.) Xil’s surface-level feminism also made me roll my eyes, it took a little too long for that to be made fun of.

The writing style was also very janky, from a human POV being in very little of the novel. Straightforward, but not in a clinical way? It was just awkward? I know that was intentional, I still think it took away practically all the appeal of the sex scenes.  

Other critiques: 

But I will say that the author sounded nice in her note at the end. It crushed me a bit to leave such a low rating, but I genuinely can’t find anything redeemable. My mistake, perhaps, for venturing too far out of my comfort zone. 

Finished this 14 minutes before my loan expired💪 I’ll give myself an extra day to decide on a rating. For now, I’ll just say that, regardless of what my overall rating turns out to be, this was intriguing from beginning to end, and the author clearly loves the original Frankenstein story. Sometimes this made for some awkward spoon-feeding of the themes, but Tsai understands it on a fundamental level for sure and that extends to their characters.

I thought the POV switches were subpar? All three POVs more or less have the same writing style, and if it weren’t for the changes in personality reflected in their thoughts then I wouldn’t know who’s talking without a chapter name. Perhaps Ash’s writing can be excused, though, because dia’s “POV” is essentially a recollection of the story dia told an unreliable narrator? It didn’t feel like that interchangeability was intentional, though. I do think that Ash’s genuine thought process was shown and the storytelling plot device was just used as the reason to include it. (I’m assuming so, based on how the narrative treats dia.)

The writing also isn’t subtle, sometimes (often?) to the point of repetition. Particularly in Z’s chapters, where the first half is establishing her motivations for creating Ash. I’d be able to garner the message of a character’s parallels from a sentence or a paragraph, but a chapter later it would be reiterated, and I kind of hate that it seemed like the readerbase wasn’t trusted to pick up the inner workings of the characters? (This especially annoyed me when Plum started drawing comparisons to Z and Ash. She would constantly stress whenever she’d find more of herself in either of them and… I knew that already, lmao???) However, I thought that style of writing worked best towards the end of Plum’s POV, as she struggled through her pregnancy. To me, it worked in capturing the patterns she noticed in her life, and that led to her current (toxic) situation with Z. In those moments where she’s kind of dissecting the dysfunction of her life, it’s probably more important to be on-the-nose if she’s having a couple of breakthroughs (which she was).

On the topic of the writing style: yes, it does still try to emulate Shelley’s writing despite the difference in time period. (Both in the events of the story, and when it was written.) Sometime moments I thought it was an interesting homage, others I thought it made the dialogue stilted, but that was particularly in Z’s chapters— there were… occasional 19th-century formalities at different points in her chapters? I understand the creative choice behind how her POV was structured, though, I just didn’t personally vibe with it. I’m also still trying to wrap my head around what I think of Ash as a representation of the monster, because while I feel the ableism around dia needs to be addressed, Z isn’t meant to be a good person and her opinions are frequently disagreed with. (I do acknowledge that some of the horror about dia, though, comes from dia’s origins and not just dia being disfigured/disabled.)

The ending was so abrupt?! Why did we skip right to the epilogue! So much must’ve had to happen off-page, wtf!

But, I really loved the queer representation! Plum, Z and even Ash categorize themselves in queer terms from their heritage rather than western terminology, and while specifically Plum and Z lived the struggles (and felt the expectations) of women, they weren’t strictly defined by that gender. (I can’t help but wonder if some of Plum’s uneasiness about her body towards the end was a bit of gender dysphoria?) I can’t speak in-depth on the Asian representation, but it was interesting seeing the parallel biracial narratives, and the points of contention that came not just from having a white parent that needed to unlearn their racism, but also from navigating the scientific world as female-presenting people.

I have mixed feelings about the execution of “Unwieldy Creatures”, but I came here from JesseOnYoutube’s recommendation, and I can see why they adored it so much. I’m a little surprised it isn’t talked about more often, to be honest?! It’s a very creative interpretation of Frankenstein, and as far as sci-fi goes, has the most scientific-sounding explanations for all the shit that unfolds. (There were several pages of further reading I didn’t have time to copy down, as much research went into writing this as the average fanfic.) (That is a compliment btw. I saw someone look into what space tasted like just so they could write a monsterfucking fic)

Not quite sure what to rate this because I’m not used to rating comic collections like this, but I will say that it was comforting. I’m not a trans woman—I’m transmasc and nonbinary— but I enjoyed reading about Julia navigating her womanhood and learning to recognize herself. I’m currently at that dreadful back-and-forth stage Julia alluded to, where I feel out of place in my body, but the idea of medically transitioning scares me. Her struggles with dysphoria, especially, really hit. 

All but one of her comics were very short (three panels each, to be exact), but they were all very honest. It was interesting seeing how her issues shifted (especially those around being perceived), the more she started to pass. 

Also, I loved the art style! It was expressive and sometimes cute. Gave me a burst of artistic inspiration.

too emotionally unwell to write a review. (Was it seeing me and a friend I’ve fallen terribly in love with in Mags and Nessa? Was it seeing the offerings Mags made to the monster and the state she was in, when I didn’t know the trigger warnings and have been exceptionally depressed? Both? The world may never know.) For a YA graphic novel, it relied more heavily on visual storytelling and it definitely made the emotions feel more personal. I especially loved the author’s use of multimedia and color. 

Mags and Nessa’s romance was very sweet. It was wrecking me to see them take so long to leave behind the toxic relationships they would caution the other against, though. certified teenagers moment.

Not much else to say except for that I would need to give this a reread in order to analyze the narrative’s inclusion of generational trauma, and how color in the panels is used as an indicator of Mags’s development. (On that last note! Holy shit, those last 20 pages. Gorgeous.) I thought by the length this would take me forever to finish, but I blew through it in two sessions.

Overall, hot and fun, if a little standard. A lot of my enjoyment definitely came from the narration, though. Also, it was my first time hearing Brooke Hayden’s narration, and I really loved the energy she brought to Kristina! She definitely noticed the humor in a premise as absurd as this one, but she also did her best to bring some softness to the (few) genuine moments scattered throughout (not that I could take it seriously, but that’s the writing’s fault HAHA). Unfortunately, her other narration credits seem to be for romances I don’t have any interest in reading, but I might listen to them just for her. 

I won’t lie, Farnaz’s chapters sounded like they were recorded in a closet. (It was oddly refreshing, though, bc I’ve never heard that in a Vico Ortiz audiobook before??😆usually they record in a booth, I believe) Kristina’s didn’t have the same issue though, so that just created another reason for their two voices to clash. I don’t think it was a major issue, though, except for that mediocre audio quality and consistently low, husky narration isn’t the best mix lol?? (i did have to turn up my volume through my earbuds.)

I wasn’t a fan of the instalove, there isn’t a way to make a one night stand into a convincing romance IMO. I can see the vision—Kristina’s arc was very obvious!— but it was also hindered by how short this was. Some of the dialogue was a little awkward, and I didn’t entirely vibe with the dirty talk but that might’ve been because of my gender dysphoria? (There were a decent number of lines that made me cringe.😞)

uh happy holidays everyone

You know when you go onto Ao3, don’t add any filters to your search, and two pages of results in you end up on the side of the site where it’s demented, gorey, and there’s a couple “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat” fics, but nothing illegal yet? This is basically what reading this feels like. Though, everything about this—the dedication to misrepresenting every single mental disorder and illness depicted, the occasional fashion mentions, and the overt edginess(homophobic and ableist slurs included, lol)—make it a relic of its 2013 publication.

Do not ask me to list the pros and cons of the writing. The only pro I can really think of is that the writing style was sometimes engaging.

(The logistics of anything in this book fall on their face if you think too much, but I didn’t really care about that. There is no world where I would read mafia sports fiction where the main sport isn’t even real, and expect a story that makes sense. My main issue was with how unpleasant it was to read)

I put this in the “books that made me cry” shelf because reading this book ruined my mood twice. (Okay. One of those times was just external circumstances adding up, though, and the thought of reading the last 30 pages was enough to make me break.) I’ve heard the second book is better, though, so I might still read it. I will try to not be on the cusp of a breakdown this time.

Trigger warnings, for anyone who needs them: Ableism (in the narrative and from other characters), child abuse, physical and emotional abuse, murder, sexual assault (on-page, drugging involved), rape (implied) + rape jokes, homophobic slurs, a found family so dysfunctional I forgot that was one of the tropes.

Ok, I’m gonna be cursing excessively because I was very disappointed by this. Sorry to my Booksta friends that enjoyed it. 

Settling on a 2.0, but I disliked reading this so much I might just lower it later out of spite (or have my Goodreads review as a “rounded up” rating idk). Can’t tell if I was disappointed because the frontal lobe developed more and  I’m just not as much a fan of Aiden Thomas’s humor, or because the plot had to drastically change because of the lack of the Trials (plus so many of the characters I had fun with last book were imprisoned). 

I’m aware a trademark of the YA genre is keeping things juvenile, but honestly every theme was hammered in, and every arc (ESPECIALLY XIO’S REDEMPTION, EVEN THOUGH HE WAS AN UNCONVINCING VILLAIN) was rushed as fuck. Even the politics felt half-baked? Anyhow; I feel like the only thing that was handled well was Chupacabra kicking Teo, Niya, and Aurelio’s ass the first time they fought because… yeah, there was NO way their power level (and lack of training on Teo’s part) could compare. 

The ending was so fucking sad and the author only partially realizes it??? I have my gripes with Xio but my heart still broke in two for them especially. And the implications of how the other semidioses are going to live now were only partially addressed in the epilogue. I feel like there would be a LOTTT more grief from a bunch of teenagers coping with that 🤨

Xio’s pronouns were handled so awkwardly. I was so stoked to have nonbinary he/they representation, but they introduced their pronouns at the most awkward times just so the author could make jokes about other characters talking back to them while gendering them correctly. I’m sure a couple of people will find that funny but I just cringed so bad I put my book down for a couple minutes.

Back to Xio: their POV took a while to grow on me. Their time spent trying to kiss up to the Obsidians was fucking excruciating to read. His motivations for doing so are already obvious, and yet their facade, struggle for validation and obvious lying to themself is analyzed on-page by the narrative. 

(Do not even get me started on their attempts at being properly evil and smug.)

Maybe me connecting all Xio’s dots in record time (despite reading TST over a year ago) comes from me very quickly catching parallels to a character from a show I used to watch and analyze the fuck out of, though…

The dialogue was awful. The tone stays funny despite the high stakes, but it makes almost every character interaction feel like a terrible Marvel movie. I am surprised there wasn’t a “he’s right behind me, isn’t he” moment. (We did get a “you’re the plan guy!” moment, though. WITH A CALLBACK TO IT, TOO. Two strikes.) Even Niya was starting to get on my nerves, which is… something, because I was already used to her having corny dialogue, courtesy of her being a herbo. 

As of now, though, I have this above 1 star, so I’ll be listing my reasons for why, despite me writing several paragraphs of scathing criticism.

I can see a younger teenage audience really enjoying this, particularly those that grew up with the likes of kids/teen cartoons like She-Ra, but I personally found it too juvenile. Though, maybe this storytelling style would work best in visual form. I’m not totally opposed to the idea of a TV adaptation. (Maybe that’s because there’d have to be a lack of an internal monologue?)