howlinglibraries's Reviews (1.85k)

Do you ever have a reading experience with a book that constantly makes you think, "Hmm, I should DNF this," but then for whatever inexplicable reason, you keep going, and by the end you find yourself saying, "Yep, I should have DNFed that"? Because that's what happened to me here.

There are a lot of good topics here such as racism, colorism, life as a biracial individual and the unique struggles therein, family, grief, the impact of Hurricane Katrina, abuse, and more, but for me, a lot of that was overshadowed by how vehemently I hated August as a character and how intense the abuse and rape descriptions were.

August is sexist, overly possessive, jealous, and a spoiled brat. He uses women left and right to try to "get over" this woman he's met for all of an hour and decided he wants to spend the rest of his life with, and some of his comments about Iris are disgusting. It felt to me like, until maybe the 70% mark or later, he never could focus on anything he liked about Iris but her body. His dialogue made me cringe a dozen times and I couldn't get away from him fast enough.

The abuse in this book is some of the most graphic I've ever read, and it rarely lets up. Even when you think Iris is safe, bam!, another assault scene, right up to the ending. I'm not accusing the abuse rep of being exploitative here, and I won't dictate what any author's limits should be — I'll only say that this book should have come with MUCH stronger trigger warnings and I strongly wish that the rape scenes had been less descriptive.

I was incredibly excited to read anything at all by Kennedy Ryan after hearing so many friends and beloved authors rave about this series and Kennedy's other books, but with the way I feel about Long Shot right now, it'll be a minute before I reach for anything else by this author.

Umm... okay, look. Objectively, this was not great. I didn't enjoy the narrative voice very much, though I guess it made sense that Edward's thought processes worked the way they did, given the era he's from and the fact that he does next to no socializing with anyone substantially younger than him. Also, of course there are the issues with the mediocre-at-best, terrible-at-worst portrayal of the Quileute tribe, the annoyance of Bella's inhuman levels of clumsiness, list goes on.

That said, subjectively, this was a cheesy but incredibly fun time, had me in all my nostalgic feels, and added a lot of depth to Edward's character and motives. Also, if I wasn't in the literal worst reading slump of my life right now, I feel like I would have read this in one sitting, which says something for how easy to devour it was.

I dunno, man. I'm glad I borrowed it from the library because I don't feel a need to own a copy or give this author more of my money, but I'm also glad I read it. /shrug

The House didn't blow me away, but I don't not recommend it, either.

If you enjoyed stories where the haunted house is the villain, and if you like anything that feels vaguely reminiscent of the Amityville house stories, this one might be up your alley. It takes place during WWII and follows a group of soldiers who seek shelter in an old, abandoned house, only to find that it's bigger on the inside (but not nearly as lovable as the TARDIS) and full of illusions, violence, and death.

While I enjoyed the premise and some elements of the overall storyline, I struggled with the art (many characters look same-y to the point of making it difficult to keep track of who's who) and the lack of depth in general. The story felt like it needed more fleshing-out, but with a bit more work and depth, I actually think The House would have worked quite well as a longer graphic novel or even a standard novella or novel.

✨ Content warnings for:

Spoiler

violence, death, depictions of Nazi soldiers

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

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I've been missing Junji Ito's work lately, and damn, this did NOT disappoint! Lovesickness is easily one of my favorites of his works that I've read so far.

The primary portion of the manga follows a multi-chapter story of a boy who moves back to his childhood town, only to find his past is haunting him through the spirit of a beautiful boy, targeting young girls at crossroads and leading them to drastic ends. This story was unsettling, disturbing, and altogether really enjoyable, with an ending I didn't quite see coming. In typical Junji Ito fashion, shit gets weird on more than one occasion and there is some violence and gore that might not be for everyone.

The latter portion of the manga follows a separate storyline of a very bizarre set of orphaned siblings who like to play pranks and mentally torture the people in their lives, and while I didn't enjoy this story as much as I did the Lovesickness plot, it was still fun, weird, and highly entertaining.

If you're a Junji Ito fan, I highly recommend grabbing a copy of Lovesickness as soon as you can, because you're not going to want to miss this one! If you're new to the author's works or horror manga, this would be a solid introduction to his bibliography or the genre as a whole.

✨ Content warnings for:

Spoiler

graphic and frequent portrayals of suicide, violence, self-harm, and murder, including infanticide and a woman forcing her own miscarriage through trauma

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

I really love Catana's comics. They just never seem to get old, and In Love & Pajamas was no exception. This was yet another precious, hilarious, relatable collection of comics about relationships, with this one specially focusing on what it's like to be with your best friend and to be so comfortable with your significant other that nothing you do is "weird" anymore. Having been with my own spouse for so long and being so comfortable with them, I always feel like I see pieces of us in the goofy depictions of Catana and John, so needless to say, I really enjoyed this collection. ♥

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

If you're new to books on decluttering, New Order is a good place to start. It's a quick read, the author is witty and fun, and everything is made very accessible for people of all levels of commitment and time availability. That said, if you've read other books on decluttering, it doesn't offer anything new, in my opinion, unless the other books you read were all too strict or stuffy and you're just looking for a more approachable take.

Displacement is an absolutely stunning story of time travel in which a young biracial Japanese-American girl finds herself abruptly transporting back to the time her grandmother spent in US internment/incarceration camps. Kiku is a lovable narrator who's easy to sympathize with, and it's heart-breaking not only to watch her learn all of these tragic things she didn't know about her own grandmother, but also to watch her slowly come to terms with her own time in the internment camp, as she has no idea when or if she'll ever return to her own time. This is an incredibly sad, important story based on a painful truth that many in the US are far too content to forget these days, and I can't recommend this graphic novel highly enough.

✨ Representation: All prominent characters are Japanese or white/Japanese biracial; Kiku and a side character are both queer girls.

Trick 'r Treat is one of my all-time favorite films, so naturally, I had to pick up this graphic novel, and I'm so glad I did! It's set up like an anthology, like the film, and it tells different Sam-related tales throughout time. Much as you'd expect, the general theme follows individuals who have some pretty negative views of Halloween, for one reason or another, and they are given the chance to learn the error of their ways, or find their due comeuppance. I wish Sam himself had been on-page a little bit more, but also content with the way the stories were told, and found myself overall entertained by each story in the collection. I definitely recommend this for anyone who's a fan of the movie!

This was good! A super quick, engaging read that offered a somewhat predictable but still important and enjoyable look at discovering your family heritage isn't what you thought it was — and, more than that, learning that your parents are humans who make terrible mistakes sometimes, and finding how to move past that. I will say that everything felt a little flat overall, which is why this wasn't a 5-star read, but I'm feeling that way about a lot of novels in verse lately, so perhaps my tastes are just changing? *sigh*

Also, the love interest in this story is Tlingit (Native) and his character is inspired by the author's own Tlingit husband, which I just thought was sweet. That's a representation I've never seen in a story before and while I certainly can't speak for if it was accurate or well-done, I thought it was a nice addition, especially after learning who had inspired the character. ♥

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

This was really precious and sweet. I don't know if I've ever read a memoir in manga format before, and it's a storytelling style I would definitely enjoy more instances of! Hearing about the author's experience with transitioning was so insightful and lovely, especially because so much of the book involves information on what the queer/trans culture and life is like for a person living in Japan, and the obstacles she faced (especially regarding being able to "legally" transition so she could marry her husband!).