mothumn's Reviews (377)

Thank you Random House Canada for the gifted copy in return for my honest review!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Adult is a quietly mesmerizing debut about Natalie, who is moving away from her small hometown in Northern Ontario to go to University in Toronto. It perfectly captured the insecurity and self-doubt that many people feel as teens that is only deepened as you try to navigate new adulthood. Reading this book felt like looking in a mirror because not only did I relate to so many of Natalie’s struggles with things like making friends and inability to speak how she really felt rather than putting on this easy going, more acceptable mask of who she was, and her self doubt and overthinking in her head, but I also grew up in a small town in (not as northern) Ontario. Because of her lack of confidence and self-doubt that is shown in her thoughts and interactions, it’s no surprise when she falls into a relationship with an older woman who seems to have so much control of her own life and provides an almost maternal figure to Natalie. This relationship is the crux of the book, and reading about through Natalie’s point of view is really interesting, she has so much admiration for the woman, Nora, and she doesn’t seem to have any flaws because of this. However, Natalie is only eighteen and Nora’s age is a question that’s never asked (mid 30s?). The Adult is a quiet, queer coming of age story with beautiful prose and a character that I think many people will see themselves in. This ones for the sad girls, the lonely girls, the girls that are still trying to figure out who they are and what they’re doing with their life, the “to make up for the fact that it’s me” girls, the Sally Rooney girls, the girls that wanted to be a Sally Rooney girl but thought her protagonist were too annoying, the girls who give and give and give and ask for nothing in return because they don’t want to be seen as asking too much or taking up to much space, the girls who overthink every little interaction before it happens and miss out on the chance to actually say what they were gonna say. This book is for you. (girls being a gender neutral term)

🪶 nineteen claws and a black bird by agustina bazterrica

from the author of the viral cannibal dystopian novel ‘tender is the flesh’. comes a weird and witty short story collection perfect for fans of ottessa moshfegh, boy parts by eliza clark, and bliss montage by ling ma.

i enjoyed this collection. i admired that agustina bazterrica was able to write clever stories in a genuinely very short format, some of the stories that i enjoyed the most only being 2-3 pages long. while i did enjoy some of the stories quite a bit more, there were some hits and misses in this, the misses still were good. my favourites in the collection were: roberto, earth, elena-marie sandoz, and the solitary ones.

i would definitely recommend checking this out especially if you enjoy weird and sometimes dark short stories. its out this june!!

*I strongly recommend checking out the cws for this because some of the stories touch on some pretty dark subjects

havent had this much fun with a book in a long time but tamsyn muir you are not seeing heaven for that ending 

I CANT DO THIS ANYMORE how many times will i dnf this book its not good

surprisingly romantic

Thank you to Tor Books for the gifted copy in return for my honest review!

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

In the same vein of TJ Klune’s other more recent novels; The House in the Cerulean Sea, and Under the Whispering Door, In the Lives of Puppets is a very heartwarming, cozy fantasy story with loveable characters and some great queer representation. It differentiates itself from the two aforementioned books by following a more traditional quest storyline, in a loose retelling of Pinnochio. Now I’ll be honest, I’m not the most familiar with the story of Pinnochio, I’ve seen the original Disney version technically about 15 years ago but that’s the extent of my knowledge (and I barely remember that). So I can’t judge this book on how good of a retelling it is, so my review is solely based on how it stands as its own work. 

In the Lives of Puppets follows Victor ‘Vic’, the son of an inventor named Gio who live in treehouses in the forest with two robots, the loveable yet sadistic Nurse Ratched and the adorable vacuum Rambo. One day while exploring the forest and foraging through the old junk piles they find a new robot in need of repairs named Hap, and their lives are then drastically changed for good. It is a very enjoyable, and as I said before, heartwarming story that I think will be enjoyed by TJ Klune fans and new readers alike. The characters are charming, the romance is sweet, the adventure is fun, and the book altogether will pull on your heartstrings (no pun intended).

In the Lives of Puppets definitely has much higher stakes than the previous two books (these are the only two books of his that I’ve yet to read and also his most popular which is why I am constantly comparing), however I found it surprisingly much slower to read than the others. It was only about 40% through that the actual plot, the quest, began, while I did actually enjoy the low stakes opening of the book, I just thought it went on way longer than it should have. Once the quest did begin, I actually found a lot of it to be very repetitive. Though it was following the Pinnochio story, I wish it had chosen to add some new ideas to it to make it more exciting because the story began to drag a bit for me. It wasn’t until the ending that I felt my attention being completely drawn again. The story became more intriguing by adding more stakes and I found myself not able to put the book down because I needed to find out what was going to happen next.

When it comes to its characters, I really loved them, they were charming and sweet and full of personality and I’m sure anyone else who has read In the Lives of Puppets would agree. Rambo is definitely my favourite, if you’ve seen Adventure Time the character is almost comparable to BMO (who I absolutely love). I do have one thing however, though it is a bit of a spoiler so if you don’t want to know skip this paragraph, although I do think going in this book you will likely guess that this is to come. Okay skip now, the human/robot romance, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I guess Hap is humanistic, but it just felt very weird to me. Maybe it was just me but every time Victor started describing him (in a way that was clear he had a bit of a crush) it was so strange to me, describing his flat wooden chest and stuff. Also, Hap has basically no memories of anything from before he met Vic so while he was actually very old and Vic was an adult it just was uncomfortable. Like I could get on board with a human/ghost relationship in Under the Whispering Door but I don’t know about this one it might be a step too far for me because at least the ghost was also once a human and not even that long ago lol, but if you’ve read this one please let me know what you thought!!

Overall, I enjoyed it for what it was, a heartwarming adventure story, and I think most readers will too, but it didn’t particularly stand out to me and had its issues, it was just a bit disappointing as a big fan of his other books. I’d still give it 4 stars though and definitely recommend checking it out.

Into The Light 
by Mark Oshiro

YA, contemporary, thriller

Thank you Tor Teen for the arc copy in return for my honest review.

Into the Light follows Manny, a homeless queer teen who has spent his entire life in and out of foster homes and group homes. His whole life he has only ever had one thing that stuck with him, his sister Elena, until a year earlier when they were separated and now Manny is on a mission to find his sister. Throughout the book you slowly unravel the mystery of how they were separated and where she might be now, if she is even alive.

For a YA book, it did not shy away from difficult topics, Into the Light explores teen homelessness, the flawed foster and adoption systems, racism, homophobia, religious trauma, how religion is often used to manipulate the vulnerable, among just a few. These issues affect young people but I rarely or never read them in YA and I felt that the author did a good job of touching on them.

I liked the book, I thought it did a good job of exploring the themes and slowly revealing the mystery. Until the last 100 or so pages however, the twist felt like it came out of nowhere, changing the genre of the book completely, and was in my opinion kind of confusing as to what actually happened. There was practically no build up prior to the twist or foreshadowing. Aside from the ending though, I thought it was a good YA book with a bit of a mystery side plot but ultimately was a queer coming of age that I think a lot of young adult readers would really benefit from reading. 

Also! I want to bring up another thing, it does kind of spoil a relationship, but there’s a scene where two of the characters get together, both of whom are minors so I don’t know, but reading it just felt kind of uncomfortable. It’s very brief but it didn’t feel necessary and for a YA book, it could have just cut to black. It’s a normal thing for teens to be getting together but in my opinion it just didn’t need to be described in a book. It just felt weird but I don’t know, it’s up to your decision I guess.