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nerdinthelibrary's Reviews (926)
Review also found on my blog.
content warnings: homophobia, sexism
representation: lesbian protagonist, questioning protagonist, f/f main relationship, lesbian main and side characters, side gay man of colour
I wasn’t necessarily expecting to like this, but I was still holding out a little hope. Alas, here we are.
This book follows Katie, who has recently broken up with her fiance and doesn’t really know what to do with her life, and at the start of the book meets the gorgeous Cassidy. Cassidy is a confident lesbian who has a reputation as a player among her friend group, but meeting Katie might change that.
If that sounds like a cheesy romcom, then you’re assumption is right, but that’s not a bad thing! I was so excited for a cheesy sapphic romcom, but this ended up feeling like a teen romcom in all the wrong ways.
Let’s start there: these characters don’t feel like adults. They drink, swear and have sex, but when it comes to emotions and the decisions they make, they remind me of sixteen year olds. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the characters seemed like a compiled list of tropes as opposed to real people, which in turn meant that the romance was extremely lacking.
Being a romance, there needs to be a conflict. I’m usually not too hard on bad conflicts in romance’s because I understand that it’s just a brief thing needed to keep the plot going, and if I like the characters and the relationship enough then I’ll just look past it. But the conflict in this book felt so contrived, and then only lasted for a chapter! It’s literally resolved within twenty pages!
Overall, the writing is nothing special, and the book didn’t get interesting until 90 pages in (keeping in mind this book is under 300 pages). This book also came across very cis white lesbian with the biphobic comments made (namely that Katie can only be straight or a lesbian), the weird discussions of femininity and masculinity, and every character being white except for Cassidy’s tailor (who shows up for one scene and is just an exotic gay stereotype).
I did appreciate how sex-positive this book is and how it shows Katie going to websites and shops run by queer women to discover more about the culture as opposed to just watching lesbian porn, but that really was the main redeeming factor. The only other decent things were how well-written the sex scenes were, and even they were fade to black!
I wouldn’t recommend picking this up. If you’re looking for a cute lesbian romcom then read Everything Leads to You, or really anything other than this.
content warnings: homophobia, sexism
representation: lesbian protagonist, questioning protagonist, f/f main relationship, lesbian main and side characters, side gay man of colour
I wasn’t necessarily expecting to like this, but I was still holding out a little hope. Alas, here we are.
This book follows Katie, who has recently broken up with her fiance and doesn’t really know what to do with her life, and at the start of the book meets the gorgeous Cassidy. Cassidy is a confident lesbian who has a reputation as a player among her friend group, but meeting Katie might change that.
If that sounds like a cheesy romcom, then you’re assumption is right, but that’s not a bad thing! I was so excited for a cheesy sapphic romcom, but this ended up feeling like a teen romcom in all the wrong ways.
Let’s start there: these characters don’t feel like adults. They drink, swear and have sex, but when it comes to emotions and the decisions they make, they remind me of sixteen year olds. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the characters seemed like a compiled list of tropes as opposed to real people, which in turn meant that the romance was extremely lacking.
Being a romance, there needs to be a conflict. I’m usually not too hard on bad conflicts in romance’s because I understand that it’s just a brief thing needed to keep the plot going, and if I like the characters and the relationship enough then I’ll just look past it. But the conflict in this book felt so contrived, and then only lasted for a chapter! It’s literally resolved within twenty pages!
Overall, the writing is nothing special, and the book didn’t get interesting until 90 pages in (keeping in mind this book is under 300 pages). This book also came across very cis white lesbian with the biphobic comments made (namely that Katie can only be straight or a lesbian), the weird discussions of femininity and masculinity, and every character being white except for Cassidy’s tailor (who shows up for one scene and is just an exotic gay stereotype).
I did appreciate how sex-positive this book is and how it shows Katie going to websites and shops run by queer women to discover more about the culture as opposed to just watching lesbian porn, but that really was the main redeeming factor. The only other decent things were how well-written the sex scenes were, and even they were fade to black!
I wouldn’t recommend picking this up. If you’re looking for a cute lesbian romcom then read Everything Leads to You, or really anything other than this.
DNF @ 12%
I had an ebook out from the library and it expired. I love myself enough to not borrow it again to read the rest, so here's just a few thoughts from the parts of the book that I did read. If you want more thoughts about the whole book, I would recommend FullofLit's review.
- This reads like a wattpad fic in the sense that there are so many unnecessary descriptions, especially when it comes to the protagonist getting ready in the morning. The first chapter is especially egregious.
- For a book where the main character starts partying and drinking almost immediately, it sure does love to shame every character for partying and drinking.
- There was a very confusing part where Tess doesn't want to go to a party while her roommate is trying to get her to go and what ends up convincing her is her laptop not turning on. The book acts like this means she can't watch a movie or do homework when she could just,, charge it.
- The slutshaming is almost constant in this and it gets very annoying after a while.
- We're really meant to root for a relationship where she says "you bring out the worst in me"?? mkay.
- TW for an attempted rape scene that's only there so Hardin can heroically save Tess.
- There's also so much cheating so fast.
- I burst out laughing when she says "As I put my fork into my mouth, the metal reminds me of Hardin's lip ring." Like, what the actual fuck.
- This protagonist is so fucking pretentious. There's a part where she's talking about how great her boyfriend is (the one she cheated on) and she goes "... the feelings only grew when I got to know him and learned he was an old soul like me." They met when they were kids btw.
- Man, I love me some unnecessary ableism (context: Hardin asks if she has OCD and she goes "ofc not, i'm not crazy")
That's it. Don't read this guys, not unless you have a day with nothing to do.
I had an ebook out from the library and it expired. I love myself enough to not borrow it again to read the rest, so here's just a few thoughts from the parts of the book that I did read. If you want more thoughts about the whole book, I would recommend FullofLit's review.
- This reads like a wattpad fic in the sense that there are so many unnecessary descriptions, especially when it comes to the protagonist getting ready in the morning. The first chapter is especially egregious.
- For a book where the main character starts partying and drinking almost immediately, it sure does love to shame every character for partying and drinking.
- There was a very confusing part where Tess doesn't want to go to a party while her roommate is trying to get her to go and what ends up convincing her is her laptop not turning on. The book acts like this means she can't watch a movie or do homework when she could just,, charge it.
- The slutshaming is almost constant in this and it gets very annoying after a while.
- We're really meant to root for a relationship where she says "you bring out the worst in me"?? mkay.
- TW for an attempted rape scene that's only there so Hardin can heroically save Tess.
- There's also so much cheating so fast.
- I burst out laughing when she says "As I put my fork into my mouth, the metal reminds me of Hardin's lip ring." Like, what the actual fuck.
- This protagonist is so fucking pretentious. There's a part where she's talking about how great her boyfriend is (the one she cheated on) and she goes "... the feelings only grew when I got to know him and learned he was an old soul like me." They met when they were kids btw.
- Man, I love me some unnecessary ableism (context: Hardin asks if she has OCD and she goes "ofc not, i'm not crazy")
That's it. Don't read this guys, not unless you have a day with nothing to do.
Review also posted to my blog.
Feminist Lit Feb: an #ownvoices book about an experience other than your own
representation: fat queer latina protagonist, black queer main character, non-binary queer latinx main character, queer latinx main characters, open interracial queer polyamorous relationships
“The way they talk about it, they just knew and decided to right then and there to only have sex with each other ever again. Sounds fucking crazy to me. But Earth-ways were weird like that, I guess.”
My favourite thing that media can do with sci-fi is use it to examine the ways in which society would change in a different environment and time. And Open Earth has this in spades. This short graphic novel follows Rigo, a young woman who, unlike her parents, grew up in space. Her generation has very different ideas on relationships and she is in open polyamorous relationships with several of her friends.
I loved how this book explored monogamy and polyamory, especially because it did so in such a casual way. Rigo’s parents are non-judgemental but don’t understand their daughters’ distaste of monogamy, whereas she and her friends feel the complete opposite.
The main cast of characters is also, to my knowledge, completely latinx. Their families are from California where the national language became Spanglish, and I loved that little world building addition.
The sex scenes were also so good. They were sexy, fun and well-drawn. I loved that Rigo is a fat woman and Eva Cabrera never forgets that when drawing her; she’s not just curvy, she has thick thighs and a belly, and I loved seeing that. Also, super small detail: she has underarm hair, which was really cool.
If you’re looking for a fun, quick graphic novel that explores polyamorous relationships and has well-drawn sex scenes, then I would definitely recommend this. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on other things that this creative team does.
Feminist Lit Feb: an #ownvoices book about an experience other than your own
representation: fat queer latina protagonist, black queer main character, non-binary queer latinx main character, queer latinx main characters, open interracial queer polyamorous relationships
“The way they talk about it, they just knew and decided to right then and there to only have sex with each other ever again. Sounds fucking crazy to me. But Earth-ways were weird like that, I guess.”
My favourite thing that media can do with sci-fi is use it to examine the ways in which society would change in a different environment and time. And Open Earth has this in spades. This short graphic novel follows Rigo, a young woman who, unlike her parents, grew up in space. Her generation has very different ideas on relationships and she is in open polyamorous relationships with several of her friends.
I loved how this book explored monogamy and polyamory, especially because it did so in such a casual way. Rigo’s parents are non-judgemental but don’t understand their daughters’ distaste of monogamy, whereas she and her friends feel the complete opposite.
The main cast of characters is also, to my knowledge, completely latinx. Their families are from California where the national language became Spanglish, and I loved that little world building addition.
The sex scenes were also so good. They were sexy, fun and well-drawn. I loved that Rigo is a fat woman and Eva Cabrera never forgets that when drawing her; she’s not just curvy, she has thick thighs and a belly, and I loved seeing that. Also, super small detail: she has underarm hair, which was really cool.
If you’re looking for a fun, quick graphic novel that explores polyamorous relationships and has well-drawn sex scenes, then I would definitely recommend this. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on other things that this creative team does.
Feminist Lit Feb: an #ownvoices book about an experience other than your own
content warnings: violence, death, homophobia, bullying, purposeful misgendering
representation: lesbian protagonist, sapphic black main characters, interracial f/f main relationship, mute non-binary main character, sapphic latina main characters, side interracial f/f relationship, side latina character, side black characters, side and minor characters of colour, minor f/f relationship
“I like ALL of you, Grace. Even the parts I don’t get yet. I’m not dating the 12% of you that I understand, I’m dating 100% of you. Including all your secrets that I don’t know.”
Yeah, I reckon I’m done with Tillie Walden, at least for a while. I read her graphic memoir Spinning last year and thought the art was fine and the story was good, but that the pacing and writing was all over the place. Despite that disappointment, I was still looking forward to this one because it’s such a different story.
This graphic novel has two timelines: the first is of Mia joining a space restoration crew, and the second is of Mia five years earlier at school falling in love. I didn’t prefer either storyline, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. Both were very bland in my opinion.
Part of this blandness came from how undeveloped I felt the characters were. All of them were lacking sufficient personality traits beyond “reckless”, “confident”, “shy”, etc. None of them had any likes or dislikes, or seemed like they had any more life than a cardboard cutout would have. This meant that the relationships (romantic, platonic and familial) all felt equally bland and undeveloped.
One very strong positive this book had was the art. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Walden’s art in Spinning, but I think it really worked for this story. I also loved the colouring, especially the way that the two different timelines were distinctly coloured differently without it ever feeling jarring when it would quickly cut between them. As a matter of fact, I think Walden is a fantastic artist who struggles with plot and writing. I would love to read something were she’s the artist and someone else is writing.
The biggest thing with the writing that really bogged down the book for me was the world. There is so much clunky exposition in this. It’s not constant, which was good, but anytime anything needs to be explained to you it’s through a character speaking for a long time and it didn’t work for me. Towards the end when I was seriously considering DNFing I just started skimming the exposition.
The poor exposition meant that the world felt extremely undeveloped. This is a sci-fi book in which majority of the plot takes place in space, and yet it never felt like it. Very few things were given sufficient explanation, and when it was it was through long passages of boring text.
This is an incredibly well-loved book that I don’t understand the hype around at all. Tillie Walden is a talented artist with some good ideas and diversity, but who has a track record of poor execution.
content warnings: violence, death, homophobia, bullying, purposeful misgendering
representation: lesbian protagonist, sapphic black main characters, interracial f/f main relationship, mute non-binary main character, sapphic latina main characters, side interracial f/f relationship, side latina character, side black characters, side and minor characters of colour, minor f/f relationship
“I like ALL of you, Grace. Even the parts I don’t get yet. I’m not dating the 12% of you that I understand, I’m dating 100% of you. Including all your secrets that I don’t know.”
Yeah, I reckon I’m done with Tillie Walden, at least for a while. I read her graphic memoir Spinning last year and thought the art was fine and the story was good, but that the pacing and writing was all over the place. Despite that disappointment, I was still looking forward to this one because it’s such a different story.
This graphic novel has two timelines: the first is of Mia joining a space restoration crew, and the second is of Mia five years earlier at school falling in love. I didn’t prefer either storyline, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. Both were very bland in my opinion.
Part of this blandness came from how undeveloped I felt the characters were. All of them were lacking sufficient personality traits beyond “reckless”, “confident”, “shy”, etc. None of them had any likes or dislikes, or seemed like they had any more life than a cardboard cutout would have. This meant that the relationships (romantic, platonic and familial) all felt equally bland and undeveloped.
One very strong positive this book had was the art. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Walden’s art in Spinning, but I think it really worked for this story. I also loved the colouring, especially the way that the two different timelines were distinctly coloured differently without it ever feeling jarring when it would quickly cut between them. As a matter of fact, I think Walden is a fantastic artist who struggles with plot and writing. I would love to read something were she’s the artist and someone else is writing.
The biggest thing with the writing that really bogged down the book for me was the world. There is so much clunky exposition in this. It’s not constant, which was good, but anytime anything needs to be explained to you it’s through a character speaking for a long time and it didn’t work for me. Towards the end when I was seriously considering DNFing I just started skimming the exposition.
The poor exposition meant that the world felt extremely undeveloped. This is a sci-fi book in which majority of the plot takes place in space, and yet it never felt like it. Very few things were given sufficient explanation, and when it was it was through long passages of boring text.
This is an incredibly well-loved book that I don’t understand the hype around at all. Tillie Walden is a talented artist with some good ideas and diversity, but who has a track record of poor execution.
Review also posted to my blog.
1) To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before ★★★
ContemporaryAThon: the most recent contemporary you acquired, a book with blurple on the cover, a diverse contemporary, a contemporary you meant to read in 2018 but never got to
Feminist Lit Feb: an #ownvoices book about an experience other than your own
content warnings: loss of a parent, bullying, slut shaming, racism, infidelity
representation: biracial (korean-white) protagonist and main characters, interracial main relationship, gay side character
“Things feel like they'll be forever, but they aren't. Love can go away, or people can, without even meaning to. Nothing is guaranteed.”
This trilogy continues to be a fairly inoffensive, fun time that I’m happy I read. I will say, though, similarly to the last book, this book still falls short to the movie. The very start of this book is more-or-less the very end of the movie and it’s just so much better in my opinion, so maybe my enjoyment was slightly tainted by how much better I think the movie is??
Anyway, on the whole, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first book, despite giving it the same rating. This book felt somewhat redundant as the whole purpose of it is seemingly to force another love triangle, this time with Lara Jean liking Peter and John Ambrose McClaren. For the record, I am 100% team John Ambrose, which is going to cause some issues when it comes to the movie adaptation because I actually like movie!Peter.
Honestly, the romance aspect of this series is just kind of meh for me. I think Peter’s a massive douche 95% of the time who doesn’t deserve Lara Jean, Josh is just kind of there, and John Ambrose was clearly the correct choice. The area where this series really shines is the family dynamics.
I found Margot a lot more likable in this book, probably because she’s not in it as much and when she is there she’s actively helping Lara Jean as opposed to acting condescending. Kitty is significantly cuter and continues to remind me of my younger sister, and her trying to set up their dad with the lady across the street was adorable.
I also continue to love the small touches that Jenny Han adds in terms of Lara Jean being half-Korean. It’s just little things, like mentioning certain foods they eat, clothes they wear, traditions they uphold. Lara Jean also starts volunteering at a nursing home in this book and she mentions the casual racism that even some of the nicer residents have, whether that’s assuming certain stereotypes are true or using outdated terms to refer to Korean people.
To be honest, I actually really enjoy everything about these books except for the romance. I like the non-love interest characters, the dynamics between characters who aren’t in relationships, the descriptions of baking are wonderful, everything is really good. But this is first and foremost a romance series which is why this is going to remain a 3-star series.
1) To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before ★★★
ContemporaryAThon: the most recent contemporary you acquired, a book with blurple on the cover, a diverse contemporary, a contemporary you meant to read in 2018 but never got to
Feminist Lit Feb: an #ownvoices book about an experience other than your own
content warnings: loss of a parent, bullying, slut shaming, racism, infidelity
representation: biracial (korean-white) protagonist and main characters, interracial main relationship, gay side character
“Things feel like they'll be forever, but they aren't. Love can go away, or people can, without even meaning to. Nothing is guaranteed.”
This trilogy continues to be a fairly inoffensive, fun time that I’m happy I read. I will say, though, similarly to the last book, this book still falls short to the movie. The very start of this book is more-or-less the very end of the movie and it’s just so much better in my opinion, so maybe my enjoyment was slightly tainted by how much better I think the movie is??
Anyway, on the whole, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first book, despite giving it the same rating. This book felt somewhat redundant as the whole purpose of it is seemingly to force another love triangle, this time with Lara Jean liking Peter and John Ambrose McClaren. For the record, I am 100% team John Ambrose, which is going to cause some issues when it comes to the movie adaptation because I actually like movie!Peter.
Honestly, the romance aspect of this series is just kind of meh for me. I think Peter’s a massive douche 95% of the time who doesn’t deserve Lara Jean, Josh is just kind of there, and John Ambrose was clearly the correct choice. The area where this series really shines is the family dynamics.
I found Margot a lot more likable in this book, probably because she’s not in it as much and when she is there she’s actively helping Lara Jean as opposed to acting condescending. Kitty is significantly cuter and continues to remind me of my younger sister, and her trying to set up their dad with the lady across the street was adorable.
I also continue to love the small touches that Jenny Han adds in terms of Lara Jean being half-Korean. It’s just little things, like mentioning certain foods they eat, clothes they wear, traditions they uphold. Lara Jean also starts volunteering at a nursing home in this book and she mentions the casual racism that even some of the nicer residents have, whether that’s assuming certain stereotypes are true or using outdated terms to refer to Korean people.
To be honest, I actually really enjoy everything about these books except for the romance. I like the non-love interest characters, the dynamics between characters who aren’t in relationships, the descriptions of baking are wonderful, everything is really good. But this is first and foremost a romance series which is why this is going to remain a 3-star series.
Review also posted to my blog.
3.5
SapphicAThon: a book where the main character is a person of colour, a book with a cover you love
Feminist Lit February: an #ownvoices book about an experience other than your own, a book by a female/non-binary/genderfluid black author
content warnings: aphobia, racism, microaggressions, mentions of violence
representation: black biromantic/asexual protagonist, japanese main character, filipino main character, side characters of colour, sapphic side character
“Through it all, being demeaned and feeling disheartened and dispirited, Alice was expected to be nice. To overlook the microaggressions when they continuously rained down on her and find solidarity wherever she could. She was expected to endure in silence.”
Before I even get into my thoughts on the book, please just look at the cover. Look at it for a very long time because it is maybe my favourite cover ever made.
Now, onto what you actually came here for. This book follows Alice, a college student who at the start of the novel is broken up with because she never wanted to have sex with her girlfriend. Alice knows that she’s asexual but has only told her two best friends, and decides that she should stop the whole dating thing for a while. But then the extremely cute Takumi starts working at the library she works at.
This is a very plotless book; it’s about Alice’s personal journey with her asexuality, her feelings towards Takumi, her changing relationship with her best friends, and her reluctance to follow in her family’s footsteps and get a law degree. Luckily, I loved Alice as a main character. She’s extremely bubbly and loves all things cute, whether that’s objects, animals or people. I also really loved Takumi (until the very end that is, but I’ll get more into that later) and their dynamic was so much fun. Takumi initially makes Alice question whether she is asexual or if she falls somewhere else on the spectrum, but she ultimately comes to the conclusion that even if she has a crush on him she is still asexual. A lot of the book is made up of these two interacting and I loved almost every interaction they had.
The side characters I unfortunately had more issues with. The main ones are: Feenie and Ryan (Alice’s best friends/roommates who are in love), Alice’s parents and siblings (all who are much older than you would expect from a nineteen year-old protagonist), and the counselor Alice goes to see. On the whole, none of them were bad. I loved seeing Alice going to a counselor and the positive therapy rep the book had, and it also emphasising that you don’t need a mental illness or for something to be going horribly wrong to seek help.
Alice’s family were fine and I like that Alice mentions how having siblings decades older than her and parents who are in their seventies has affected her, as well as how the expectations that she will also get a degree in law makes her feel. They were rarely physically present in the story because Alice doesn’t live at home, but they talk on the phone fairly regularly and were always a constant presence.
Feenie and Ryan I had… more issues with. For most of the book I loved them; they were fun side characters and I liked their relationship with Alice. But when they were experiencing conflict I really started to not care for them, especially Feenie. Spoilers for the end of the book! Basically, the three of them have a ‘Family Night’ regularly and on one such night Feenie and Ryan want to go to a party so Alice tags along, planning on having a sort of Family Night at the party. But then Alice goes to get drinks and when she returns they’re not there. She asks someone nearby where they are and they say that the two have gone upstairs. Alice is upset by this and ends up ditching the party to hang out with Takumi. Feenie and Ryan, but mostly Feenie, are really upset by this, not seeming to understand how rude and exclusive they were being by abandoning Alice at this party. Then, when everything is resolved, Alice ends up being the one apologising because she ditched them and she’s been abandoning them for Takumi. Feenie literally refuses to apologise. This drove me mental because it’s seen as the ‘proper resolution’ to the conflict but I just could not get over how insensitive Feenie was being about the whole situation, and the fact that Alice was the one who took most of the blame.
Moving on, let’s chat quickly about the writing style. One of the biggest criticisms of this book that I’ve seen is that brackets are used fairly regularly, at least once every few pages. This, on the whole, didn’t bother me. There were times when I thought they were unnecessary, but all in all I thought they were used well as a way to display the almost-subconscious thoughts Alice was having about certain situations.
Now, when talking about the rep, I am not black, biromantic or asexual. But I am pansexual and aromantic, so some of the things Alice goes through definitely hit home. I loved seeing Alice having to deal with microaggressions, and also Takumi talking about the ones he’s faced and how, even though they both POC, they were initially worried that the other one would do dickish things out of ignorance.
Overall, I thought that the asexual rep was done really well. Again, I am not asexual, but almost all of the shit that gets flung at asexuals gets flung at aromantics too, so I do have some experience in that. I liked seeing Alice’s initial reluctance to even use the word asexual, and how terrified she was of telling people because of the reactions she had gotten. All of Alice’s internal stuff, in fact, I really loved. What I didn’t love as much was Takumi’s reaction at the end. I didn’t start hating him by any means, but after Alice had said that she liked him his reaction was… not great. It wasn’t outright aphobic, but some of his comments made me deeply uncomfortable as he tries to wrap his mind around how Alice can be attracted to him but not sexually. This discomfort is not factoring into my rating of the book, though, because I am aware that this is an extremely personal thing, and ultimately the character isn’t aphobic in any way.
SapphicAThon continues to go really well! I’m three-for-three now which is probably the best track record I’ve ever had for a readathon. Please also remember that my giving it a 3.5 does not mean I hated it. In fact, if not for the whole Feenie situation, this would have probably been a 4. So I would still wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who finds the premise interesting.
3.5
SapphicAThon: a book where the main character is a person of colour, a book with a cover you love
Feminist Lit February: an #ownvoices book about an experience other than your own, a book by a female/non-binary/genderfluid black author
content warnings: aphobia, racism, microaggressions, mentions of violence
representation: black biromantic/asexual protagonist, japanese main character, filipino main character, side characters of colour, sapphic side character
“Through it all, being demeaned and feeling disheartened and dispirited, Alice was expected to be nice. To overlook the microaggressions when they continuously rained down on her and find solidarity wherever she could. She was expected to endure in silence.”
Before I even get into my thoughts on the book, please just look at the cover. Look at it for a very long time because it is maybe my favourite cover ever made.
Now, onto what you actually came here for. This book follows Alice, a college student who at the start of the novel is broken up with because she never wanted to have sex with her girlfriend. Alice knows that she’s asexual but has only told her two best friends, and decides that she should stop the whole dating thing for a while. But then the extremely cute Takumi starts working at the library she works at.
This is a very plotless book; it’s about Alice’s personal journey with her asexuality, her feelings towards Takumi, her changing relationship with her best friends, and her reluctance to follow in her family’s footsteps and get a law degree. Luckily, I loved Alice as a main character. She’s extremely bubbly and loves all things cute, whether that’s objects, animals or people. I also really loved Takumi (until the very end that is, but I’ll get more into that later) and their dynamic was so much fun. Takumi initially makes Alice question whether she is asexual or if she falls somewhere else on the spectrum, but she ultimately comes to the conclusion that even if she has a crush on him she is still asexual. A lot of the book is made up of these two interacting and I loved almost every interaction they had.
The side characters I unfortunately had more issues with. The main ones are: Feenie and Ryan (Alice’s best friends/roommates who are in love), Alice’s parents and siblings (all who are much older than you would expect from a nineteen year-old protagonist), and the counselor Alice goes to see. On the whole, none of them were bad. I loved seeing Alice going to a counselor and the positive therapy rep the book had, and it also emphasising that you don’t need a mental illness or for something to be going horribly wrong to seek help.
Alice’s family were fine and I like that Alice mentions how having siblings decades older than her and parents who are in their seventies has affected her, as well as how the expectations that she will also get a degree in law makes her feel. They were rarely physically present in the story because Alice doesn’t live at home, but they talk on the phone fairly regularly and were always a constant presence.
Feenie and Ryan I had… more issues with. For most of the book I loved them; they were fun side characters and I liked their relationship with Alice. But when they were experiencing conflict I really started to not care for them, especially Feenie. Spoilers for the end of the book! Basically, the three of them have a ‘Family Night’ regularly and on one such night Feenie and Ryan want to go to a party so Alice tags along, planning on having a sort of Family Night at the party. But then Alice goes to get drinks and when she returns they’re not there. She asks someone nearby where they are and they say that the two have gone upstairs. Alice is upset by this and ends up ditching the party to hang out with Takumi. Feenie and Ryan, but mostly Feenie, are really upset by this, not seeming to understand how rude and exclusive they were being by abandoning Alice at this party. Then, when everything is resolved, Alice ends up being the one apologising because she ditched them and she’s been abandoning them for Takumi. Feenie literally refuses to apologise. This drove me mental because it’s seen as the ‘proper resolution’ to the conflict but I just could not get over how insensitive Feenie was being about the whole situation, and the fact that Alice was the one who took most of the blame.
Moving on, let’s chat quickly about the writing style. One of the biggest criticisms of this book that I’ve seen is that brackets are used fairly regularly, at least once every few pages. This, on the whole, didn’t bother me. There were times when I thought they were unnecessary, but all in all I thought they were used well as a way to display the almost-subconscious thoughts Alice was having about certain situations.
Now, when talking about the rep, I am not black, biromantic or asexual. But I am pansexual and aromantic, so some of the things Alice goes through definitely hit home. I loved seeing Alice having to deal with microaggressions, and also Takumi talking about the ones he’s faced and how, even though they both POC, they were initially worried that the other one would do dickish things out of ignorance.
Overall, I thought that the asexual rep was done really well. Again, I am not asexual, but almost all of the shit that gets flung at asexuals gets flung at aromantics too, so I do have some experience in that. I liked seeing Alice’s initial reluctance to even use the word asexual, and how terrified she was of telling people because of the reactions she had gotten. All of Alice’s internal stuff, in fact, I really loved. What I didn’t love as much was Takumi’s reaction at the end. I didn’t start hating him by any means, but after Alice had said that she liked him his reaction was… not great. It wasn’t outright aphobic, but some of his comments made me deeply uncomfortable as he tries to wrap his mind around how Alice can be attracted to him but not sexually. This discomfort is not factoring into my rating of the book, though, because I am aware that this is an extremely personal thing, and ultimately the character isn’t aphobic in any way.
SapphicAThon continues to go really well! I’m three-for-three now which is probably the best track record I’ve ever had for a readathon. Please also remember that my giving it a 3.5 does not mean I hated it. In fact, if not for the whole Feenie situation, this would have probably been a 4. So I would still wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who finds the premise interesting.
Review also posted to my blog.
content warnings: violence, murder, gore, torture
representation: main m/m relationship, mlm protagonist and main character
‘“What’s so difficult to type, Finny? I was a dick so let me make up for it by sucking yours. Call me.”
Sue looks up from her book long enough to make a face. “You didn’t just say that.”
“What, too blunt? Fine. Roses are red, violets are blue, I owe you big time, will a BJ now do?”’
This is a very mixed bag of a book that I have many conflicted feelings about, so let’s get into it. This takes place at a college made up entirely of magical beings, with one exception; our protagonist, Finn, who is just a human with the ability to tap into the power of the ley lines. His power is incredibly unstable and volatile, though, and he fears he may not graduate. This isn’t helped by his dick roommate Roark, a faerie prince, who Finn has always butted heads with. But when court tensions begin to rapidly rise, Finn may have to learn to trust the Prince of Air and Darkness.
Plot-wise, this book did nothing for me. None of it’s too bad, but it is fairly generic court rivalry and intrigue, with a few interesting developments later on as you find out more from Finn and Roark’s past. The world is interesting enough, but definitely has the potential to be expanded on a lot more in future instalments, and I quite enjoyed the little tastes of the courts we got in this book.
But, honestly, there was one major stand-out in this book: the romance.
It’s incredibly rushed, to unbelievable degrees towards the end, but it’s also easily the highlight of the book. The sexual tension between these two is incredible and literally anytime they interacted I was enthralled. It’s tropey as hell, but I can almost guarantee that if you love the main romance in Carry On, then you’ll probably love the romance in this because it has very similar vibes. Except there’s also sex in this one, so there’s that (pretty well-written sex, if I do say so myself).
As I was approaching the end I was going “this is okay but I don’t think I’ll continue”. Then the end happened and now I’m super invested and want to continue, even if the next book has a different protagonist.
If you’re looking for a quick, borderline guilty pleasure book about faeries, I would recommend checking this one out when it comes out in a few weeks.
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
content warnings: violence, murder, gore, torture
representation: main m/m relationship, mlm protagonist and main character
‘“What’s so difficult to type, Finny? I was a dick so let me make up for it by sucking yours. Call me.”
Sue looks up from her book long enough to make a face. “You didn’t just say that.”
“What, too blunt? Fine. Roses are red, violets are blue, I owe you big time, will a BJ now do?”’
This is a very mixed bag of a book that I have many conflicted feelings about, so let’s get into it. This takes place at a college made up entirely of magical beings, with one exception; our protagonist, Finn, who is just a human with the ability to tap into the power of the ley lines. His power is incredibly unstable and volatile, though, and he fears he may not graduate. This isn’t helped by his dick roommate Roark, a faerie prince, who Finn has always butted heads with. But when court tensions begin to rapidly rise, Finn may have to learn to trust the Prince of Air and Darkness.
Plot-wise, this book did nothing for me. None of it’s too bad, but it is fairly generic court rivalry and intrigue, with a few interesting developments later on as you find out more from Finn and Roark’s past. The world is interesting enough, but definitely has the potential to be expanded on a lot more in future instalments, and I quite enjoyed the little tastes of the courts we got in this book.
But, honestly, there was one major stand-out in this book: the romance.
It’s incredibly rushed, to unbelievable degrees towards the end, but it’s also easily the highlight of the book. The sexual tension between these two is incredible and literally anytime they interacted I was enthralled. It’s tropey as hell, but I can almost guarantee that if you love the main romance in Carry On, then you’ll probably love the romance in this because it has very similar vibes. Except there’s also sex in this one, so there’s that (pretty well-written sex, if I do say so myself).
As I was approaching the end I was going “this is okay but I don’t think I’ll continue”. Then the end happened and now I’m super invested and want to continue, even if the next book has a different protagonist.
If you’re looking for a quick, borderline guilty pleasure book about faeries, I would recommend checking this one out when it comes out in a few weeks.
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
content warnings: fatphobia
representation: black sapphic main character, fat sapphic main character, interracial main f/f relationship
Do you want to read the fluffiest thing you've ever read in your entire life and feel warm and fuzzy?? Then this is the book/webcomic for you!
This is a fantasy graphic novel wherein the heroic princess Amira saves a fellow princess, Sadie, from her tower and they have adventures. It is 53 pages of middle grade sapphic fantasy adorableness and I really liked it!
Honestly, the only reason why this isn't more highly rated is that, despite how cute and fun this was, it also felt super underdeveloped in terms of... everything. Characters, world, plot, relationships, the whole shebang. But, as a whole, the lack of that didn't ruin the book for me, I just know that I probably would have liked it more if there was more.
A bit short for me, but I would still highly recommend this if you're looking for a quick, easy, sweet read.
representation: black sapphic main character, fat sapphic main character, interracial main f/f relationship
Do you want to read the fluffiest thing you've ever read in your entire life and feel warm and fuzzy?? Then this is the book/webcomic for you!
This is a fantasy graphic novel wherein the heroic princess Amira saves a fellow princess, Sadie, from her tower and they have adventures. It is 53 pages of middle grade sapphic fantasy adorableness and I really liked it!
Honestly, the only reason why this isn't more highly rated is that, despite how cute and fun this was, it also felt super underdeveloped in terms of... everything. Characters, world, plot, relationships, the whole shebang. But, as a whole, the lack of that didn't ruin the book for me, I just know that I probably would have liked it more if there was more.
A bit short for me, but I would still highly recommend this if you're looking for a quick, easy, sweet read.
content warnings: violence, murder, gore, non-graphic self-harm, child neglect
representation: gay main character, black main and side characters, interracial main relationship, mlm side character, m/m main relationship
“Her tragedy, if she had one, was to be as normal and average as any child ever born.”
I think it's time to accept that Holly Black might just not be an author who works for me. I read The Cruel Prince last year and gave that a 2.5/5, but I still had hope that I would enjoy this one because, after reading the descriptions for all of Holly Black's books, this is the one that appealed to me the most. Suffice to say, I was disappointed.
This is a stand-alone urban(?) fantasy book about Hazel and Ben, siblings very close in age who live in Fairfold, a town that is known to have fae living nearby. The town is quite the tourist attraction due to it having a faerie boy in a glass coffin in the woods who has been there as long as anybody can remember. As children, Hazel and Ben both became infatuated with the boy, and now, as teenagers, the boy has woken up.
Despite, as a whole, never really hating the reading experience of this, I can't even really talk about what I did and didn't like the way that I did with The Cruel Prince because this entire book just felt very meh to me.
This is an unfortunate case of concept being far better than execution. The general plot is already interesting, but the smaller plot elements that come into play later are even more fascinating. I think the biggest thing that tanked this book for me is that everything felt very undeveloped.
While I didn't hate any of the characters and none of them actively annoyed me, they all just felt very... there, if that makes sense. None of them seemed to have any interests aside from a random name-drop (with the exception of Ben's skill with music, but that wasn't even an organic interest). Their personalities also felt very cardboard-cutout to me, Hazel in particular.
And with undeveloped characters tends to come undeveloped relationships. Ben and Hazel's relationship felt very organic, but they were the only ones. Ben and Jack are best friends but that more seemed like a plot convenience so Jack and Hazel had a way to know each other before the events of the book; Leonie is supposedly Hazel's best friend but she shows up, I kid you not, a total of two times in extremely short scenes throughout the entirety of the book. The romances were even worse. Both had absolutely no development and I felt no chemistry whatsoever between either couple.
The writing was also... not great. The book is riddled with info-dumps, from Hazel spending an entire chapter reflecting on something from her childhood to different faerie characters giving long stories about their history that conveniently factor into the plot. Aside from info dumps, there's also a lot of telling and not showing, especially when it came to characters' emotions, which is a massive pet peeve of mine.
There are also multiple POVs in this book, which would be fine if that had have happened sometime before a third of the way through the book. I'm not joking; the book was in Hazel's perspective for over a hundred pages before it changed to someone else (Jack's or Ben's, I don't remember). Not only that, but the POV changes felt so inorganic; the only reason we got Jack POV was for more info dumps and the only reason we got Ben's was to attempt to build up his and Severin's relationship.
When I started this review, I actually had this at a 2.5/5, but as I've been writing this I've realised that there wasn't really anything about this that I liked. I don't understand the hype around Holly Black, because the two books of hers that I've read are two of her most popular and they were both incredibly underwhelming.
Edit bc I forgot something: I also wish that more had been done with the fact that Hazel and Ben's parents were extremely neglectful. The book definitely knew that they weren't good parents (mostly in the moment when Jack says “You talk about your childhood like it was just wild, bohemian fun, but I remember how much it wasn't fun for you”), but at the same time it more felt like they were neglectful because it was convenient to the plot and no other reason.
representation: gay main character, black main and side characters, interracial main relationship, mlm side character, m/m main relationship
“Her tragedy, if she had one, was to be as normal and average as any child ever born.”
I think it's time to accept that Holly Black might just not be an author who works for me. I read The Cruel Prince last year and gave that a 2.5/5, but I still had hope that I would enjoy this one because, after reading the descriptions for all of Holly Black's books, this is the one that appealed to me the most. Suffice to say, I was disappointed.
This is a stand-alone urban(?) fantasy book about Hazel and Ben, siblings very close in age who live in Fairfold, a town that is known to have fae living nearby. The town is quite the tourist attraction due to it having a faerie boy in a glass coffin in the woods who has been there as long as anybody can remember. As children, Hazel and Ben both became infatuated with the boy, and now, as teenagers, the boy has woken up.
Despite, as a whole, never really hating the reading experience of this, I can't even really talk about what I did and didn't like the way that I did with The Cruel Prince because this entire book just felt very meh to me.
This is an unfortunate case of concept being far better than execution. The general plot is already interesting, but the smaller plot elements that come into play later are even more fascinating.
Spoiler
In particular, that of Hazel being the Alderking's knight when she's asleep. I would have much rather read that book tbh.While I didn't hate any of the characters and none of them actively annoyed me, they all just felt very... there, if that makes sense. None of them seemed to have any interests aside from a random name-drop (with the exception of Ben's skill with music, but that wasn't even an organic interest). Their personalities also felt very cardboard-cutout to me, Hazel in particular.
And with undeveloped characters tends to come undeveloped relationships. Ben and Hazel's relationship felt very organic, but they were the only ones. Ben and Jack are best friends but that more seemed like a plot convenience so Jack and Hazel had a way to know each other before the events of the book; Leonie is supposedly Hazel's best friend but she shows up, I kid you not, a total of two times in extremely short scenes throughout the entirety of the book. The romances were even worse. Both had absolutely no development and I felt no chemistry whatsoever between either couple.
The writing was also... not great. The book is riddled with info-dumps, from Hazel spending an entire chapter reflecting on something from her childhood to different faerie characters giving long stories about their history that conveniently factor into the plot. Aside from info dumps, there's also a lot of telling and not showing, especially when it came to characters' emotions, which is a massive pet peeve of mine.
There are also multiple POVs in this book, which would be fine if that had have happened sometime before a third of the way through the book. I'm not joking; the book was in Hazel's perspective for over a hundred pages before it changed to someone else (Jack's or Ben's, I don't remember). Not only that, but the POV changes felt so inorganic; the only reason we got Jack POV was for more info dumps and the only reason we got Ben's was to attempt to build up his and Severin's relationship.
When I started this review, I actually had this at a 2.5/5, but as I've been writing this I've realised that there wasn't really anything about this that I liked. I don't understand the hype around Holly Black, because the two books of hers that I've read are two of her most popular and they were both incredibly underwhelming.
Edit bc I forgot something: I also wish that more had been done with the fact that Hazel and Ben's parents were extremely neglectful. The book definitely knew that they weren't good parents (mostly in the moment when Jack says “You talk about your childhood like it was just wild, bohemian fun, but I remember how much it wasn't fun for you”), but at the same time it more felt like they were neglectful because it was convenient to the plot and no other reason.