gxuosi's Reviews (390)

Beautiful Country

DID NOT FINISH: 38%

dnf at 38%. there's nothing inherently wrong with this book. it's just not hitting the way i need it to and it really isn't as introspective as i was hoping. mostly it was my failure to understand how key the "childhood" part of "beautiful country: a memoir of an undocumented childhood" was going to be as apparently this book never escapes her youth. even if it was told entirely through tableaus of her childhood, i would have liked more retrospection of the reality that child wang qian did not recognize in the moment and context on how these events culminate in who qian julie wang is now.

Only Human

Sylvain Neuvel

3.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

pretty unsatisfying end to a trilogy that was always going to be difficult to end. neuvel can write intricate and exciting scifi with nuanced characters who are flawed and complex… but he can’t write a political story without being so heavy handed it was like being stomped into concrete. this book spent early 60% of its length going through cycles of humanitarian platitudes with flat dialogue preceding it, only to be followed up with nationalist racism and death-mongering. i just wish neuvel could have made better use of the page count.

Content Warnings

Waking Gods

Sylvain Neuvel

5.0

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

there's gotta be something to be said for the indomitable human spirit and a repurposed beer keg, but maybe we need to factor in letting tools do what they were made to do.

Content Warnings

Sleeping Giants

Sylvain Neuvel

5.0

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

this was fucking incredible what the hellllll !! i also really enjoyed the entire book being told through interviews, diaries, documents/articles. my pacific rim obsession is gonna get so much worse.

Content Warnings

Down the Drain

Julia Fox

4.5

challenging dark reflective sad fast-paced

julia's life is quite literally unfathomable. the idea that she's alive today after all of this astounds me. and for her to be reduced to nothing more than trendsetter hardly encompasses who she is as a person and creative force. it's genuinely hard to believe all of this could be true and for her to be so well adjusted now; especially unbelievable that she remembers so many of these convos and dialogues with this much clarity after that many narcotics. i have no doubt that she's filled in the gaps with approximations and paraphrasing—none of which i hold against her. her story is fraught from the start with drugs, domestic violence, sexual exploitation, entrapment, manic depressive spirals, and death. i'd advise any reader to read acomprehensive trigger warning list before going into this one.

Content Warnings

The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd

DID NOT FINISH: 10%

dnf at 11%. i don’t have the time or patience to read a story by a white author about racism filtered through the victimized and racially prejudiced white child in the 60s as a collective of black women fulfill the magical-black-character trope in efforts to save her. especially when other reviews make it clear lily never actually unpacks her racial bias, continues to be fatphobic, and rosaleen’s story is sidelined by lily’s ignorance of it happening. i do not have it in me to suffer that.

A Lover's Discourse

Xiaolu Guo

3.0

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

girl you should have left him

Content Warnings

Home Is Not a Country

Safia Elhillo

5.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

i knew at 21% that this was a 5/5 and by 30% that this was going to be one of my top reads of 2025. i was a wreck from start to finish and binged it in one sitting, despite the fact that i cried so hard a few times that i couldn't see. the entire book being told in prose from the perspective of a young teen girl navigating her tumultuous life was a perfect parallel to my childhood favorite book "keeper of the night" by kimberly willis holt. which is why it comes as no suprise to me that i connected so quickly with the format and narrative. now this book means as much to me as holt's does. i can't possibly come up with any version of a review that does this book the justice it deserves beyond saying that "home is not a county" has become a lifelong favorite. thank you safia elhillo, for this book and for what this book has done for me.

Content Warnings

Lady Tan's Circle of Women

Lisa See

3.0

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

really just a morbid slice of life historical fiction book with a unique perspective on women's ailments and women physicians through late 1400s to mid 1500s in china. if you're squeamish, maybe avoid this one-especially if foot binding freaks you out. updated review addition: i can’t get over the asinine way things were translated to sound more “regal.”

Content Warnings

Nettle & Bone

T. Kingfisher

4.0

adventurous emotional lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

really just a fearful amount of longing and railing against the impossible

Content Warnings

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