Reviews by librarymouse | The StoryGraph

447 reviews by:

librarymouse

Into the Riverlands

Nghi Vo

5.0

adventurous funny mysterious 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: Complicated

I continue to adore these novellas. I wish there were more, and I'm eternally glad Nghi Vo is continuing to publish them. The prose is beautiful and I am a sucker for a continually evolving/changing story that doesn't necessarily need to be told linearly.

from poly elders who have adored each other long enough for their love to become that of legend, to non-romantic sworn bonds, to fast friendships, this novella shows the enormous breath of what is possible in relationships and love, beyond the narrow definitions often ascribed to marriage and friendship. Nghi Vo writes the most gorgeous fully realized characters.

Content Warnings

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

Hallie Rubenhold

4.5

challenging informative sad medium-paced

This is a sincere and well-researched account of the lives of the five women killed by Jack the ripper. Hallie Rubenhold ensures their legacies with her diligent research and her focus on the lives of the women, over their gruesome and mythologized deaths. In contextualizing the sexual climate of the Victorian era, Rubenhold offers a vivid image of the nuanced worlds these women lived in, often so different from the straight laced Victorian England canonized today.

Content Warnings

Trial by Journal

Kate Klise

5.0

adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I remember loving this book as a middle school student, and it holds up as an adult. The pun names, especially the narrator Lily Watson solving mysteries while writing to her 6th grade teacher S. Holmes, made the book an engaging read. I combed through the text for Easter eggs while the plot held my attention. I love a good epistolary novel, and the fun ephemera like the news paper columns, ads, and tickets make the book very engaging. Klise does a wonderful job showing a variety of perspectives throughout the narrative.

Content Warnings

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain

Nghi Vo

5.0

emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

God, this books is so good! The world building is vibrant without being overly didactic. The author let's readers learn as the narrator does, which makes the cleric the perfect conduit for the storytelling. The love in the story within a story was nuanced and beautiful. I want to read everything Nghi Vo has written.

Content Warnings

The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

Pierre Rigoulot, Chol-Hwan Kang

4.0

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

This book is an arresting and immersive look at the unrest and unstable circumstances in North Korea after the withdrawal of Soviet backing. Saturating the entirety of this memoir is the tangible, unsettling reality created in a world in which interpersonal trust is hard to come by and maintain, and individuality is discouraged. Chol-Hwan Kang makes an interesting case for the appeal of Christianity to North Korean refugees in the afterward, noting the gap left behind having been raised within the Kim dynasty's cult of personality, which requires a religious devotion from citizens. Related to that, he notes that he and other refugees craved the offer of unconditional love. The horrors experienced by the prisoners in the camps of North Korea are atrocities, hypocritical, as the author points out, to the party's rhetoric. The offer of a loving doctrine that appears to be embodied wholeheartedly by it's followers must have seemed intoxicating.

This book is a time capsule of North Korea in the 1990s and early 2000s. Looking back from the 2020s, the permeability of the border between North Korea and China, even though it was for a select few, is astounding.

Content Warnings

The Empress of Salt and Fortune

Nghi Vo

5.0

adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This book is incredibly well written and the story is simultaneously unique and familiar. The world building is vibrant and deftly done. The writing and story have a way of drawing readers in from the beginning. I look forward to reading as much written by Nghi Vo as I can.

Content Warnings

The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI's Original Mindhunter

John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker

4.0

challenging dark informative medium-paced

This was an interesting look into the work that's gone into linking the fields of criminal investigation and psychology/psychiatry. To have to pretend to empathize with murderers and violent criminals as a necessary part of one's job sounds incredibly draining. One of the hospitals mentioned in the section addressing the two killer nurses is familiar to me. It was unsettling, though I guess my reaction points out the idea a lot of us live under, which is that violent crimes happen to other people in other place. It can't happen to us, or near where we feel safe.

Content Warnings

Scoundrel

Sarah Weinman

3.75

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

This book was incredibly engaging in how it was written, but I didn't like the framing of Smith's jailhouse correspondence with the Sophie and the other women he had romantic interactions with. I understand the necessity of exploring the depth of his psyche and how he was able to portray himself in how that impacted or manipulated his public perception leading to his release, but the amount of space given to it in the book was unsettling. In some instancet, it felt as if it was attempting to make reader empathize with him and the women he manipulated, rather than framing him as the manipulator. This was a really interesting look into 20th century politics, and how greatly they differ in reference to the ability to form bonds surpassing political lines from politics and life the 21st century. It was also a very interesting look on hypocrisy.

Content Warnings

All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson

Mark Griffin

5.0

emotional funny informative medium-paced

I had read about the political and medical impacts of Rock Hudson's death earlier this year and wanted to know more about the man. This was a really thoughtfully written biography, bringing humanity not only to Rock Hudson, but to other big-name celebrities who are treated as icons rather than an individuals in history. Mark Griffin managed to entertain and inform and he's telling of Rock Hudson's life and death and the people who played major roles in both without commodifying them

Content Warnings

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex

Angela Chen

5.0

emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

Ace is a well-written and thoughtful exploration of asexuality beyond the label. The dedication "for everyone who has wanted to want more" almost made me cry before I'd even started on the contents of the book. It is the gratifying and heartbreaking possibility of being known and understood within a lifetime spent feeling broken. Prior to reading this, the possibility of struggling when aging and losing my own agency/physical ability alone had always been a scary thought I tried to suppress. Chen's exploration of alternative ways of being and of forming bonds, as well as alternative community structures begs further reflection on my own part, and also offers some comfort from those fears. Finding that the l language necessary to explore and define myself and issues I find myself up against exists is incredibly valuable and validating. I have identified as asexual for about 5 years, often feeling broken along theIway. I've learned so much from this book. I want everyone I love to read it.

Content Warnings

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