eloise_bradbooks's Reviews (801)

DNF 30%
I thought this was about companionship, finding love and comfort in people who get you .
And maybe that's what it will eventually become. But right now it's mostly been smut and I just didn't open this book for mostly smut without much else.

Une histoire très intéressante, vraiment bien racontée. La représentation du traumatisme de la guerre est très jolie.
Je comprends que l'homophobie, la transphobie et ma misogynie soient representatives de l'époque mais finalement ce sont l'horreur des personnages qui m'a le plus dégoûtée.
C'est dommage que même les personnages principaux (ou personnes, puisque c'est inspiré d'une histoire vraie), ceux qu'on suit et pour lesquels on devrait avoir de la compassion, soient si méchants entre eux et le reste des personnes, qu'ils soient exécrables.

Parfois, une bonne histoire peut rattraper des dessins qu'on n'aime pas. Mais ici, ce n'était pas suffisant.
Certes, l'art est subjectif mais c'était vraiment très difficile de lire cette BD avec ce trait que je n'ai pas du tout apprécié.
L'histoire aurait pu être intéressante mais finalement elle reste sous développée et remplie de plages qui n'ont pas d'intérêt, on ne s'attache à rien.

This book focuses on Spencer, a trans boy who just moved to a new school after being bullied in his last one. This year he wants a fresh start and he gets just that: great friends, a place on the soccer team, he might even be falling for his teammate.
But when his position on the team gets compromised and Spencer starts getting close to Justice, he might just have to come out as trans, and change the system for the better.

This was a great story of acceptance and fighting for your rights.
It felt great to see that, despite struggles, Spence was so well surrounded by people who loved and accepted him, and that, compared to so many other stories we read about, he managed to get most of what he wanted. By fighting for it, and paving the way for others.
I also really appreciate the focus on Spencer's family, especially his mum and his little brother whom he helps with his autism. They all love each other so much while being realistically imperfect.

The only thing that disappointed me was how Spencer treated Justice, his christian teammate whose family is so homophobic that he isn't ready to be out yet and has to deal with constant homophobia.
It almost felt like Spencer has been lucky enough to be surrounded with great people that he almost abandonned the one person he cared so much about while he needed him the most...
Yes, ultimately things get sorted out, but I would have prefered a little more understanding from Spencer, who seems to be such a great guy otherwise.

3.5 ~ Just like every Casey McQuiston book, I Kissed Shara Wheeler is THE book of the moment.
Just like every Casey McQuiston book, this one is a fun, fast paced, very enjoyable read.
But just like every Casey McQuiston book, I Kissed Shara Wheeler just misses that spark for me. That special touch that makes it *really* special, or touching or memorable.
I guess this time I just didn't quite care about Shara Wheeler's story, didn't get behind her character and actions. And since that's mostly all that our main character Chloe cared about, I couldn't quite get behind her either. And since those two people are the essence of this story, there wasn't much else to hang on to.
I did really appreciate the aide characters though.

3.5/5 ~ The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, on paper, has everything I could have asked for: a non-binary MC with autism on the acespectrum, very supportive queer friends and an incredible black aroace dad who deserves the world. All of them dragged into a mystery with a touch of paranormal elements.
But other than those really nice loveable characters, I didn't really feel much...
I didn't feel invested in the mystery plot, I wasn't even invested in the romance. Luckily, the audiobook was really well done and I didn't feel too bored.
I'm not even sure why, but all i'll remember about this book is that Sam has a great dad. That's it.

Very much enjoyed it.
Sapphic Bronx girls play a game to find out what happened to all the missing people in their neighbourhood, and end up being caught in a frightful an underground game of monsters.

It was nice to learn about Korean culture, especially k-drama culture.
I also appreciate how this story partly deals with being queer in (South)Korea, how the people aren't as accepting as in other parts of the world like the USA.
Other than that though, i didn't really click with the characters or the storyline.
I could have easily told you everything that would happen from reading the blurb. There's nothing particularly surprising, the writing is fast paced and easy but tbh it also feels a little TOO easy. The audiobook narrator is okay.
It all seems just okay without standing out.

2.5 ~ I'm quite torn with this one...
On one hand, I'm happy to see a book cover a realistic cast of imperfect characters and relationships. In YA books so far, especially books about queer black people, we've rarely read about characters this "real" in the sense that they're young, figuring things out, and making a lot of mistakes along the way, sometimes being particularly toxic.

There is all kinds of rep from the trans white guy, to the black gay MC who questions polyamory (though underdeveloped), a black gay love interest absolutely in love with the MC but not ready to be out (loved seeing how you can love someone while knowing the relationship you have can't work), a group of friends who can be loveable at times while remaining homophobic on certain issues (not touched on enough), an interesting and pretty realistic father/son conflict where the dad tries his best for his son but his son only sees the negativity that comes from it...

The issue with this is that it can become a great point of frustration for readers who are clearly reading hurtful things and seeing relationships being or becoming quite bad and hurtful themselves. It is difficult to care for the characters, to get behind the relationships, when it's clear that they're not right and that characters are doing hurtful things and they aren't being addressed enough.
And it's frustrating when the main relationship that you get more and more invested in is the one which stops, and another relationship which felt underdeveloped, rushed, "I love you after spending a few hours with you" type of rushed, is the one who gets a happy turnout.
As readers we can't grab onto that and care for their happy get-together...

I think that these issues, which could be overlooked to some extent, were accentuated by the writing style.
The phrases are very short, very matter-of-fact, chapters end very quickly and abruptly. It feels like there is so much to cover that there is little time to spend on anything.

There were so many great ideas and important topics, and yet we didn't really get to delve deep into any of them.

And I'm a little disappointed because The Black Flamingo was one of my favourite books of 2020. I loved the writing style for that story, I loved hearing Dean Atta read it himself. It was extremely poetic.
But this story, told this way, just didn't quite work for me.

C'est toujours intéressant de voir un témoignage autour de l'autisme. C'est toujours intéressant de voir différentes histoires, différentes pratiques, comment le vécu peut changer de perosnne en personne, de famille en famille.
Cette fois ci c'est un père qui raconte comment il a "éduqué" son fils autiste en faisant tout sauf écouter les professionnels, prendre tout le monde de haut, objectifier toutes les femmes qu'il croise (en objet sexuel), notamment celles qui travaillent avec son fils, et raconter comment il fut le meilleur parent au monde parce qu'il a fait les choses comme il voulait et pas comme les professionnels lui recommandaient de faire.
Super personnage...