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nerdinthelibrary's Reviews (926)
I love this movie more than most of my family members, and this was a really great companion to it. I'm a nerd who loves learning about behind the scene stuff and this book is full of that, as well as really cool concept art.
content warnings: anxiety, self-hatred, slurs (against monsters)
representation: fat main character with anxiety, korean side character, black side character
I only read this because my friend hated it and wanted my thoughts. As per usual, when she hates something, I hate it more.
The art style is cute and the first issue is okay, but that's literally all this comic has going for it. The rest of the graphic novel after issue one were so boring I just skimmed the last two. Every character is boring (like Suzan) or unlikable (like Brianna). The only two characters I genuinely liked were Kevin, because he's a cutie, and Madame Cron, who's the villain.
Let's talk about Madame Cron, because there are some really uncomfortable racist undertones in this graphic novel. For one, she's the only noticeably non-white character, she's portrayed as a snake (literally), and she's made out to be the villain. I say 'made out to be' because she's not really. Brianna is the one who came into Monster City and decided to go against its laws by serving its citizens human food, something which is outlawed, and then saying that the food she's serving is monster food. All Madame Cron is doing is trying to make sure that the laws in her city are upheld, but Brianna has an emotional speech when she's found out so it's all just fine. If you're interested in more detailed reviews on the topics, there's one here and here.
In conclusion, don't read this.
representation: fat main character with anxiety, korean side character, black side character
I only read this because my friend hated it and wanted my thoughts. As per usual, when she hates something, I hate it more.
The art style is cute and the first issue is okay, but that's literally all this comic has going for it. The rest of the graphic novel after issue one were so boring I just skimmed the last two. Every character is boring (like Suzan) or unlikable (like Brianna). The only two characters I genuinely liked were Kevin, because he's a cutie, and Madame Cron, who's the villain.
Let's talk about Madame Cron, because there are some really uncomfortable racist undertones in this graphic novel. For one, she's the only noticeably non-white character, she's portrayed as a snake (literally), and she's made out to be the villain. I say 'made out to be' because she's not really. Brianna is the one who came into Monster City and decided to go against its laws by serving its citizens human food, something which is outlawed, and then saying that the food she's serving is monster food. All Madame Cron is doing is trying to make sure that the laws in her city are upheld, but Brianna has an emotional speech when she's found out so it's all just fine. If you're interested in more detailed reviews on the topics, there's one here and here.
In conclusion, don't read this.
I'm gonna be real: I finished this book less than half an hour ago and already I've forgotten most of it, so this isn't going to be a proper review.
I was hyped for this book. It had good reviews, and it was about sapphic pirates and monster breeding. But it turned out to be a steaming pile of garbage. Here are a couple thoughts:
- The author has no idea how piracy works
- And judging by other reviews, no idea how marine biology works either
- The characters are boring and I've seen them all before
- Even with pirates, there's no attempt at grey morality. People are either good or bad
- The plot is really interesting but the writing makes it seem as boring as watching paint dry
- I don't think the Reckoner's were ever properly described because I had no idea what I was meant to be visualising the whole time
- The romance was dull and undeveloped
- The action scenes kind of didn't make sense, and when they did they were boring
Overall, this book was super boring and full of so much unrealised potential it makes me angry
I was hyped for this book. It had good reviews, and it was about sapphic pirates and monster breeding. But it turned out to be a steaming pile of garbage. Here are a couple thoughts:
- The author has no idea how piracy works
- And judging by other reviews, no idea how marine biology works either
- The characters are boring and I've seen them all before
- Even with pirates, there's no attempt at grey morality. People are either good or bad
- The plot is really interesting but the writing makes it seem as boring as watching paint dry
- I don't think the Reckoner's were ever properly described because I had no idea what I was meant to be visualising the whole time
- The romance was dull and undeveloped
- The action scenes kind of didn't make sense, and when they did they were boring
Overall, this book was super boring and full of so much unrealised potential it makes me angry
content warnings: gore, violence, death
I'm bumping this up to a four purely because of how insane that ending was. The best way to describe this comic (which is literally just a cash grab because the movie's coming out) is fuckin' wild. Things don't always make sense, but you don't really care because there's a bunch of weird Symbiote x Eddie stuff going on. Plus the gratuitous violence that makes up most Venom comics.
There's nothing too memorable about this one, but it was still really enjoyable and even though it looks like it's gonna be garbage, it did get me more pumped for the movie
I'm bumping this up to a four purely because of how insane that ending was. The best way to describe this comic (which is literally just a cash grab because the movie's coming out) is fuckin' wild. Things don't always make sense, but you don't really care because there's a bunch of weird Symbiote x Eddie stuff going on.
Spoiler
It ends with the symbiote saying it loves Eddie, like what the fuck.There's nothing too memorable about this one, but it was still really enjoyable and even though it looks like it's gonna be garbage, it did get me more pumped for the movie
This was an amazing collection!
Brazen is full of short biographies of incredible women throughout history, and one of the aspects I loved about it the most was that a lot of the women I had never heard of before. Or I had heard of them in passing for superficial reasons (looks or husbands) and never for what they actually did with their lives.
This collection doesn't focus on one type of woman, it focuses on all. Women from all over the world, in different time periods, with radically different lives and stories. There are stories about actresses, activists, lawyers, teachers, artists, queens, mothers, scientists, and many more. Personally, my favourite stories were about Christine Jorgensen, Sonita Alizadeh, Agnodice, Leymah Gbowee, Jesselyn Radack, and Mae Jemison.
If you're a fan of story collections about amazing women (as I am) I would definitely include this in your TBR.
Brazen is full of short biographies of incredible women throughout history, and one of the aspects I loved about it the most was that a lot of the women I had never heard of before. Or I had heard of them in passing for superficial reasons (looks or husbands) and never for what they actually did with their lives.
This collection doesn't focus on one type of woman, it focuses on all. Women from all over the world, in different time periods, with radically different lives and stories. There are stories about actresses, activists, lawyers, teachers, artists, queens, mothers, scientists, and many more. Personally, my favourite stories were about Christine Jorgensen, Sonita Alizadeh, Agnodice, Leymah Gbowee, Jesselyn Radack, and Mae Jemison.
If you're a fan of story collections about amazing women (as I am) I would definitely include this in your TBR.
*3.5
content warnings: homophobia, infidelity
representation: main f/f relationship, queer black main character, wlw black love interest, multiple side characters of colour
This was the cutest!! The art style and story were both so adorable, and literally every single time Hazel and Mari would kiss I could feel my heart seizing up because of all the cuteness.
That literally sums up my thoughts, so I'm going to add some things I thought were pretty cool:
- Showing women having stretchmarks after childbirth
- A woman referring to herself as queer
- Two elderly women getting married
- Mentions of an elderly woman owning a sex toy
- This graphic novel is literally a better version of The Shitbook and I fully support a film adaptation of this
All of y'all, go read this because it's real cute
content warnings: homophobia, infidelity
representation: main f/f relationship, queer black main character, wlw black love interest, multiple side characters of colour
This was the cutest!! The art style and story were both so adorable, and literally every single time Hazel and Mari would kiss I could feel my heart seizing up because of all the cuteness.
That literally sums up my thoughts, so I'm going to add some things I thought were pretty cool:
- Showing women having stretchmarks after childbirth
- A woman referring to herself as queer
- Two elderly women getting married
- Mentions of an elderly woman owning a sex toy
- This graphic novel is literally a better version of The Shitbook and I fully support a film adaptation of this
All of y'all, go read this because it's real cute
content warnings: animal abuse, rape, murder, alcoholism, slut-shaming, death, violence
representation: side lesbian character
This book had so much potential and never delivered on any of it. In fact, I don't think there's a single thing about this book that I genuinely enjoyed. Everything was just average at best.
This book switches between three POVs - Alex, the girl whose sister was raped and murdered, and knows how to murder herself; Jack, the boy who's infatuated with Alex; and Peekay, the preacher's daughter who becomes friends with Alex. All three POVs use first-person narration, and there is no effort to distinguish between them. There were several times that I would forget to read the header that said which character's chapter it was and it would take me a few pages to realise I was reading from a different characters perspective than I thought. Also, the chapters are super short - the longest one would clock in at around ten pages - and this only made the indistinguishable narration even worse.
This book takes place over the course of a year or so, and I kid you not when one of the characters referenced how long it's been I said aloud "what the fuck" because I legitimately thought it had only been a couple months, at most. This book doesn't suffer from bad pacing, but it does suffer from never letting you know how much time has passed.
The characters were never bad, necessarily, but they were all really bland. Jack especially was incredibly boring, but even Alex and Peekay could seem very ordinary. Honestly, even though her characterisation is all over the fucking place, my favourite character was probably Branley, to the point where at the end I was rooting for her and hoping she would ruin the lives of the other characters. Also, all the main romance was boring and I didn't give a shit.
This book's entire purpose is to discuss social issues but I honestly don't think it was done that well. There are long chunks of the book where it focuses on character's romances and there's no mentions of the books main themes (i.e. rape culture and murder), and then it's like the author felt like she had to make up for it later by having five conversations in quick succession all discuss rape culture in the exact same way.
Here's my final thought and what I hope you take away from this review: watch the MTV show Sweet/Vicious instead. It's one season, ten episodes, and it's about a sorority girl, Jules, who was raped and decides to become a vigilante who attacks rapists, and then a stoner, Ophelia, catches her and they team up. Great female friendships, so many rapists get murdered, and I'm still salty they cancelled it. It's also infinitely better than this book.
representation: side lesbian character
This book had so much potential and never delivered on any of it. In fact, I don't think there's a single thing about this book that I genuinely enjoyed. Everything was just average at best.
This book switches between three POVs - Alex, the girl whose sister was raped and murdered, and knows how to murder herself; Jack, the boy who's infatuated with Alex; and Peekay, the preacher's daughter who becomes friends with Alex. All three POVs use first-person narration, and there is no effort to distinguish between them. There were several times that I would forget to read the header that said which character's chapter it was and it would take me a few pages to realise I was reading from a different characters perspective than I thought. Also, the chapters are super short - the longest one would clock in at around ten pages - and this only made the indistinguishable narration even worse.
This book takes place over the course of a year or so, and I kid you not when one of the characters referenced how long it's been I said aloud "what the fuck" because I legitimately thought it had only been a couple months, at most. This book doesn't suffer from bad pacing, but it does suffer from never letting you know how much time has passed.
The characters were never bad, necessarily, but they were all really bland. Jack especially was incredibly boring, but even Alex and Peekay could seem very ordinary. Honestly, even though her characterisation is all over the fucking place, my favourite character was probably Branley, to the point where at the end I was rooting for her and hoping she would ruin the lives of the other characters. Also, all the main romance was boring and I didn't give a shit.
This book's entire purpose is to discuss social issues but I honestly don't think it was done that well. There are long chunks of the book where it focuses on character's romances and there's no mentions of the books main themes (i.e. rape culture and murder), and then it's like the author felt like she had to make up for it later by having five conversations in quick succession all discuss rape culture in the exact same way.
Here's my final thought and what I hope you take away from this review: watch the MTV show Sweet/Vicious instead. It's one season, ten episodes, and it's about a sorority girl, Jules, who was raped and decides to become a vigilante who attacks rapists, and then a stoner, Ophelia, catches her and they team up. Great female friendships, so many rapists get murdered, and I'm still salty they cancelled it. It's also infinitely better than this book.
content warnings: racism, self-loathing thoughts
representation: black main character, interracial main relationship, latino side character, black side characters, gay minor characters
While this definitely isn't the best romance I've ever read, it was still a really fun and quick read. This book is about two strangers, Alexa and Drew, who meet in an elevator and, Alexa agrees to pretend to be Drew's girlfriend (the greatest trope known to mankind) so he isn't alone at his exes wedding. Then they catch feels because of course.
The highlight of this book for me was the fake-dating at the wedding and while the rest of the book didn't necessarily decrease in quality, it couldn't live up to such a strong start. Being a cheesy romcom, it comes with all the cliches and basic writing, but as long as you know that going in it's fine.
I loved the fact that throughout the entire book Drew (a white man) was constantly getting his privilege checked, and he would then understand what he had done/said wrong and apologise. Also the side-plot of Alexa's program for at-risk youth and her trying to get it implemented in her city was really cool.
For the most part, I really liked the characters, Alexa and Carlos in particular (I'm so excited that he's the protagonist of the next book!!) were so much fun. But Drew was a dick, and it got to the point where I didn't really want Alexa to be with him because she was clearly so much better off without him.
I would still highly recommend this book to fans of romance (if you already don't like the genre, this isn't going to sway you), particularly new adult/adult romance.
representation: black main character, interracial main relationship, latino side character, black side characters, gay minor characters
While this definitely isn't the best romance I've ever read, it was still a really fun and quick read. This book is about two strangers, Alexa and Drew, who meet in an elevator and, Alexa agrees to pretend to be Drew's girlfriend (the greatest trope known to mankind) so he isn't alone at his exes wedding. Then they catch feels because of course.
The highlight of this book for me was the fake-dating at the wedding and while the rest of the book didn't necessarily decrease in quality, it couldn't live up to such a strong start. Being a cheesy romcom, it comes with all the cliches and basic writing, but as long as you know that going in it's fine.
I loved the fact that throughout the entire book Drew (a white man) was constantly getting his privilege checked, and he would then understand what he had done/said wrong and apologise. Also the side-plot of Alexa's program for at-risk youth and her trying to get it implemented in her city was really cool.
For the most part, I really liked the characters, Alexa and Carlos in particular (I'm so excited that he's the protagonist of the next book!!) were so much fun. But Drew was a dick, and it got to the point where I didn't really want Alexa to be with him because she was clearly so much better off without him.
I would still highly recommend this book to fans of romance (if you already don't like the genre, this isn't going to sway you), particularly new adult/adult romance.
content warnings: homophobic slurs, suicide, depression, student-teacher relationship, slut shaming
representation: fat sapphic asian-canadian main character, sapphic side character, gay side character, asian-canadian side characters
I don't know what I expected from this graphic novel. I didn't really know what it was about except that I was pretty sure it was queer, witchy and sad. Can confirm, it is all three of those things. In theory, this is the perfect graphic novel for me, but I didn't really enjoy the execution of it. Here are my thoughts in bullet point format because I don't really have much to say:
• The student-teacher relationship aspect immediately put me off, so there's that
• I wasn't a massive fan of the art style a lot of the time
• The story was okay, but the long passages of text really didn't work for me in graphic novel-format
• Even if the main character herself was only kind of generic and bland, all the characters around her were insufferable. All her female classmates are bitchy, a trope I am tired of seeing and I rolled my eyes so hard when the slut shaming started
• A lot of this felt really pretentious with all the philosophical passages and inner monologues
This graphic novels biggest fault though is that I wasn't interested until literally the last ten pages. A good way for me to describe it is pointless. This felt like a very pointless narrative full of teen angst in which the main character didn't grow and her romantic relationship was gross.
At least it was short and easy to read ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
representation: fat sapphic asian-canadian main character, sapphic side character, gay side character, asian-canadian side characters
I don't know what I expected from this graphic novel. I didn't really know what it was about except that I was pretty sure it was queer, witchy and sad. Can confirm, it is all three of those things. In theory, this is the perfect graphic novel for me, but I didn't really enjoy the execution of it. Here are my thoughts in bullet point format because I don't really have much to say:
• The student-teacher relationship aspect immediately put me off, so there's that
• I wasn't a massive fan of the art style a lot of the time
• The story was okay, but the long passages of text really didn't work for me in graphic novel-format
• Even if the main character herself was only kind of generic and bland, all the characters around her were insufferable. All her female classmates are bitchy, a trope I am tired of seeing and I rolled my eyes so hard when the slut shaming started
• A lot of this felt really pretentious with all the philosophical passages and inner monologues
This graphic novels biggest fault though is that I wasn't interested until literally the last ten pages. A good way for me to describe it is pointless. This felt like a very pointless narrative full of teen angst in which the main character didn't grow and her romantic relationship was gross.
At least it was short and easy to read ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
content warnings: homophobia, mentions of conversion therapy
representation: main bisexual half-jewish main character, gay mormon love interest, main m/m relationship, side gay/bi characters
I really enjoyed this! It is quite possibly the most stressful book I've ever read, especially in the last half, but it was a good kind of stress.
I always really enjoy reading stories with religion as a central focus, and this book has that in spades. It's about a boy called Tanner who moved to a town with a massive Mormon population a few years ago, forcing him to go back in the closet after previously being very open about his bisexuality. Then, in his final semester of high school, he meets a TA for one of his classes, Sebastian, who graduated the previous year and ~~feelings~~ happen, but unfortunately Sebastian also happens to be the Bishop's son.
One thing I loved about this books look at religion, and specifically the LDS, was that it looks at both sides. While it never budges on its stance that the traditional Mormon view on LGBTQ+ people is vile, it also acknowledges a lot of the good of religion through Sebastian's character. Sebastian is gay, and having grown up in the household and town that he did has made him not only be in denial about his sexuality but also a little scared of it. And while this is never treated as anything other than horrible by the book, it also looks at the good it has brought Sebastian. He's a deeply religious person who finds comfort in his beliefs and the book never tries to belittle that.
I'm not going to lie, the characters honestly did nothing for me, which is why this isn't a five star. While I enjoyed Tanner, Sebastian, Autumn and Tanner's entire family, and I did love the romance between Tanner and Sebastian, I can guarantee that in a month I won't be able to remember half their names. They weren't bad characters by any means. They worked for the story and I didn't dislike any of them, they were just left very little impact.
Even though I know the rest of their work is very different from this, I'm excited to read more from Christina Lauren.
representation: main bisexual half-jewish main character, gay mormon love interest, main m/m relationship, side gay/bi characters
I really enjoyed this! It is quite possibly the most stressful book I've ever read, especially in the last half, but it was a good kind of stress.
I always really enjoy reading stories with religion as a central focus, and this book has that in spades. It's about a boy called Tanner who moved to a town with a massive Mormon population a few years ago, forcing him to go back in the closet after previously being very open about his bisexuality. Then, in his final semester of high school, he meets a TA for one of his classes, Sebastian, who graduated the previous year and ~~feelings~~ happen, but unfortunately Sebastian also happens to be the Bishop's son.
One thing I loved about this books look at religion, and specifically the LDS, was that it looks at both sides. While it never budges on its stance that the traditional Mormon view on LGBTQ+ people is vile, it also acknowledges a lot of the good of religion through Sebastian's character. Sebastian is gay, and having grown up in the household and town that he did has made him not only be in denial about his sexuality but also a little scared of it. And while this is never treated as anything other than horrible by the book, it also looks at the good it has brought Sebastian. He's a deeply religious person who finds comfort in his beliefs and the book never tries to belittle that.
I'm not going to lie, the characters honestly did nothing for me, which is why this isn't a five star. While I enjoyed Tanner, Sebastian, Autumn and Tanner's entire family, and I did love the romance between Tanner and Sebastian, I can guarantee that in a month I won't be able to remember half their names. They weren't bad characters by any means. They worked for the story and I didn't dislike any of them, they were just left very little impact.
Even though I know the rest of their work is very different from this, I'm excited to read more from Christina Lauren.