Reviews by librarymouse | The StoryGraph

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librarymouse

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

4.0

emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

I was 43% of the way into the book before the murder promised to be the central focus of the book took place. After readings the author's note and understanding his desire to introduce all the players bed the murder, I understood the point of it. It also somew at mimicked the slower pace of life in Savannah, as opposed to a place like New York, where the author hails from. There's some exploration of bigotry and biases in tradition and among the players in the book that lack self awareness and the murder isn't really the most important part of the story being told. It's what times the players together, at a lot of points, but it seems to be one wild and weird Savannah thing in a sea of wild and weird Savannah things. Chablis is referred to with the correct pronouns for the entirety of her time on the page and after reading this, I want to know more about the planning for Savannah's squares. So many crimes were committed by the people in this book.

Content Warnings

Ghosts of the Orphanage: A Story of Mysterious Deaths, a Conspiracy of Silence, and a Search for Justice

Christine Kenneally

4.75

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

I had known that the Catholic church was far-reaching and thorough in its efforts to hide the startling volume of violence committed by its clergy, but I hadn't realized how universal violence at the hands of clergy had been for children raised in church-run institutions in the 19th and 20th centuries. Like most people, I have become aware of the atrocities committed by the church in Native American residential schools, but I think I hadn't quite considered the possibility that the church would allow such horrible acts to be perpetuated against the white children in their care, to the extent that they were. The continued lack of accountability taken by the Catholic church, while not unexpected, is surprising in how the legal and justice systems continue to allow the violence perpetuated by Catholic clergy to avoid punishment. I hope to see further change in the coming years, and to be completely honest, I hope to see a major loss of power for the Catholic church. It's chokehold on history is an atrocity that needs to be rectified.
The care Christine Kenneally takes in telling these stories is admirable. She does not gloss over the gore and horror of what the former orphanage residents endured, but makes sure to avoid sensationalizing by rooting their stories within reminders that the atrocities happened to real people who are still suffering with the consequences, decades later.

Content Warnings

Things We Lost in the Fire

Mariana Enríquez

2.5

challenging dark sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This was more engaging than the last of Mariana Enriquez's books that I read, but the removal of womens' agency explored, especially in the last piece, even as done through an attempt to radically assert that agency, was more unsettling than I expect. I also was not a fan of the trope of using disabilities or injuries to define people as monstrous.

Content Warnings

Cheese Sex Death: A Bible for the Cheese Obsessed

Erika Kubick

3.0

funny informative lighthearted medium-paced

This is an interesting read. It was somewhat repetitive, though it probably wouldn't feel like that if I hadn't read it all the way through in two goes. I think this book would do really well if consumed in the way one consumes a cookbook. I was expecting the sex portion of this book to focus more on microbial reproduction than on creating corollaries between human eroticism and the action of consuming dairy, but I think that's on me more than anything. I don't think I'm the target audience for this book. There were a few moments during which I had to pause the audiobook, and I distinctly remember saying the phrase "absolutely the fuck not" at one point, in reference to an inuendo about cheese. It also made me laugh. Particularly when the author describes herself as a slut for cheese, amongst others things. The biblical language was a bit heavy handed, and added to the repetitive feel at times. This is a fun, and raw way to share a passion. I intend to pair my cheeses based off the advice given in the book. Do with this information what you will.

Content Warnings

Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs

Juli Berwald

4.75

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

This was a fast, informative, and enjoyable read. I initial picked up this book for a reading challenge, having enjoyed Juli Berwald's other book Spineless, and wanting to see if I could get to understand my own OCD diagnosis better through understanding that of her daughter. While that isn't what I got out of this book, I still greatly enjoyed it. Framing coral health to the health of the planet, as mental health is to the health of the body, especially in how both have been consistently ignored until they reach near catastrophic extents clarified quite a lot about the coral reefs and what they do for the planet, that I had not been aware of before. That frame made the more scientifically dense sections easy to understand.

Content Warnings

The Golden Compass

Philip Pullman

4.5

adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I adored this book the first time I read it in 2021, scrambling my way through the entire series at breakneck speed. The detail and the world building of this universe is such an immersive experience, it continues to be engaging as I re-read it for school. Reading this in 2023, in association with Paradise Lost and The Chronicles of Narinia, there is so much more depth to the storytelling, beyond the calling out of church-sanctioned abuses and the cognitive dissonances around the concept of heresy. The novel's lack of a centralized paragon of evil complicates the messages of Paradise Lost in unique and interesting ways. Mrs. Coulter and Lord Azriel act as physical manifestations of Milton's Satan's pride, ambition, and cunning, but Lyra's lying, and the willingness of herself and her companions to do what is necessary in their quest creates a gray area between good and evil as paradigms.
I love the characters of the witches, especially in how they (to an extent) are similar to Milton's angels.

It's very easy to get immersed in this world.

Content Warnings

The Only One Left

Riley Sager

4.75

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is an absolutely buck wild novel. It was very consumable and understandable in the moment, but once I tried to explain it to someone else, the twists take on such a startling depth of absurdity.

from what feels almost like a Gothic ghost story, to multiple cases of mistaken identity, to a house falling off a cliff, and the same man being guilty of the two deaths for which his daughter and the women she works as caregiver for are blamed, to a woman faking near full body paralysis and traum tic mutism for four decades, this novel is a rollercoaster from start to finish. I was not expecting the ending, though I did enjoy it. The image of Kit's father and Lenora holding hands in the foyer of the house where they both caused so much harm, as it collapsed into the sea, was unexpectedly vivid, poignant, and kind of funny.

Content Warnings

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - Bonus Epilogue

Sangu Mandanna

5.0

funny lighthearted mysterious

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

Cute, so cute! I love these characters, and this little extra glimpse into their lives was wonderful. I look forward to the next full length novel (please let there be another one!)

Mammoths at the Gates

Nghi Vo

5.0

adventurous emotional relaxing medium-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

Like all the rest in this series, Mammoths at the Gates is an incredible story told in iterations. This story was more nuanced in how the story was shared and retold over again, in that it was told through the events of the book, rather than the events of the book being the telling of stories.

I enjoyed the nuance of Myriad Virtues' story - both the ones she shares and the glimpse readers are given of her life. The reciprocal devotion between her and her cleric creates a whole new mode of shared existence between them. Similarly, I enjoyed the exploration of the nuance of a person's life, questioning the hero-worship and the avoidance of speaking ill of the dead, when there is always at least one bad act in a person's life to be addressed.

This book was a cozy, engaging read, and it prompted questions on how the dead are memorialized and remembered, and how the living are able to grieve.

Content Warnings

Still Life with Bones

Alexa Hagerty

4.5

challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

Prior to reading this book, I had no idea that the American-backed genocide of Mayans in Guatemala, nor the Nazi-affiliated disappearings in Argentina ever happened. In this book, Alexa Hagerty does a beautiful and poignant job exploring the atrocities and her experience exhuming the mass graves left in their wake at a human level. She breaks down the walls built up in many western minds between the body and the person they were; the stories they still have left to tell, exploring how that mental block helps and hinders in archeological and anthropological study. The respect and interest Hagerty pays to working to understand things unknown to and outside the boundaries of consideration of much of western study, like that of Maya cosmovision, shows there dedication to both her work and the people she has come to care for - both living and dead.

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