notsobinaryart's reviews
149 reviews

I don’t usually read sci-fi, but I really enjoyed All Systems Red! It’s a really good introduction to sci-fi, in my opinion, as it is not super complex, have a ton of necessary world building, or have a massive cast of characters. Despite having “murder” in the series title, it is relatively cozy somehow? Maybe my perspective of cozy is really warped, but the themes aren’t as dark, you root for everyone around you, and there isn’t a ton of gore or other heavy triggers. 

 

There is sort of asexual representation in the main robot character, as well as debatably theoretical autism characteristics that a lot of robots have, but especially Murderbot as they don’t like making eye contact and a lot of other social norms. Queer normative world with polyamorous side characters as well!

Cute & sugary sweet sapphic novella! Read for the Trans Rights Readathon, and enjoyed this for a short lighthearted read to round out my 11 days of reading. Some editing and grammar issues did stick out to me while reading, and I don't think this story is going to particularly stick with me, but I'm glad I read it as a nice short palette cleanser. Recommend for someone looking for anyone looking for a short, trope-filled romance.

Content warning for toxic family that is recurring and can add a bit of stress to this otherwise sweet and lighthearted book.

I think I would appreciate this book a lot more if I was more familiar or nostalgic about Alice in Wonderland, but I was never especially interested in that particular story. I think people who already like Alice would get a lot more out of the parallels of the original story to the Indigenous (specifically, Anishinaabe) culture infused crossover. I liked learning more about these characters in Anishinaabe lore in this middle grade tale, and learning some new words alongside some I've learned from other books like Braiding Sweetgrass. I'd recommend this most to the target middle grade audience, especially lovers of the original tale or who can relate to the feelings of isolation our main character Aimée faces due to being Indigenous, nonbinary, and overall "different" to a harsh middle school crowd. 

One line I found hilarious was the Queen saying “Are you a little boy? A girl?” and Aimée replying “a gamer.” like mood sometimes you don’t want to explain your gender, let me just tell you about me instead.

I also found it really cool that we learn on the dedication page that the author’s earnings are going to support the Sanilac Petroglyphs for their protection and recognition. 

I really enjoyed this one! I usually breeze through graphic novels, but I took my time with this one, with both the beautiful story and illustrations. We never get an official label for one of our main characters, George, because of the fact that historically George would not have had the language we have now, but I imagine George is trans masc. I related a lot to elements George went through as an AFAB nonbinary person, and I loved how we can tell George is trans even when we aren't explicitly told George's gender identity. 

At times our other main character, Eleanor, can be a bit insufferable, what with her privilege as a cis white woman with money and status, but I appreciate this character arc for her at the same time. Because, realistically, a young woman in her position would be a bit insufferable, both as a nature of late teenagers messing up as part of their growth of coming into their own, and as she would be naturally very ignorant to people deemed socially "below" her as she believes. She grew up with wealth and privilege and expected to act a certain way, it's not surprising she had to grow past some of ignorant thoughts and behaviors. I appreciate, though, that the book doesn't seem to treat her words and actions as okay, but is acknowledged by her friends as wrong but they are willing to let her grow and change. Her actions do have consequences, but ultimately it is a hopeful romance where everything works out. I love when books, especially YA, show our next generations that redemption is possible, that one mistake doesn't have to be the end of your future, that making the world better is possible if we all keep trying. 

This book is so tender and sweet, with great growth of our young adults not just together but separate as well as they have time to explore by themselves what is important in life to them. Highly recommend to teenagers looking for queer representation, or for adults like myself searching for the representation they didn't get to see as a child.

Representation:

Thank you Forever Publishing and NetGalley for this eARC!

Kiss Me, Maybe is a cute romance, but even more a look into the experience of a newly out asexual finding her way through posting on social media and building community both online and in person. Angela has recently come to terms that she is on the asexual spectrum, and in this book she explores even more so where exactly she is along that spectrum, if she is even interested in sex, and how exactly this has shaped who she is as a person today.

I'll start off with what I loved. I came into this book excited for the sapphic romance with a librarian and a promise of a big scavenger hunt aided by social media. What instead I found was so much relatability to her experience growing up on the ace spectrum. The questioning from others on why you haven't done expected things, the questioning yourself if you're alone in your feelings, so many other universal queer experiences but also so specific to the ace community that I related to so much. 

The setting being in Texas is another thing I loved. I live in Oklahoma, and we hardly get books set in this part of the country, especially romance and especially especially a queer romance. I loved that there were landmarks like Six Flags that I've actually gone to. It's so important to remind people that queer people exist everywhere, including in heavily Republican-controlled states.

I think maybe because I related so much to the queer experiences in this book I had an even harder time distancing myself from unbelievable plot points or things that in real life would drive me mad if they happened to me.
 

Instead of being enamored by the will-they-won't-they, I was frustrated by all the mixed signals they were sending to each other. They both clearly expressed care, only for the other to then ruin the moment so many times that it got repetitive and frustrating for me as a reader.

I was also really excited for the theatrics of the scavenger hunt, but all of the planning and actual event took a back burner to everything else that it felt a bit more like an afterthought.

There were also some plot holes and inaccuracies throughout that may be edited out for the final run. One of these was when a character said they were getting too much carbon dioxide and not enough oxygen because they were surrounded by too many plants, which is the opposite effect plants have. Not story relevant, but a common enough science fact to leave me surprised that made it in. Another was when Angela threw her phone, broke it, said she then couldn't contact a character, but also texted other characters? If the phone was only partially working or if she was just using this as an excuse it wasn't clearly described and instead just seemed like a plot hole. The final one I'll mention was when the mural was washed away. What mural is painted with water soluble pigment? It also had been up for a long time at that point, and if it had been water soluble I would think rain would have taken it down by then.

I'd recommend this book if you are someone that loves angst, a will-they-won't-they story, or someone that can distance themselves enough from some ridiculous plot points and just enjoy the ride. I'd especially recommend this to lovers of sapphic romance, sex-favorable ace spectrum rep, family drama, friends to lovers trope, messy gays, and discussions on the complex role of social media in our lives. 

Is this book a bit melodramatic? Yes. Do I eat it all up, kicking my little feet in the joy and romance and tension of it all? Also yes!

I'm not a big historical romance kinda person, but this book might have changed things for me! Or, at the least, for Adriana Herrera historical romances.

The audiobook narrator, Nneka Okoye, is phenomenal her use of accents and clear emotion really transports me into the story. Sometimes I have an issue with romance audiobook narrators raising their voice for the woman roles or lowering their voice for the male roles when they have to narrate a gender that doesn't align with their own, but just switching the accents beautifully makes such a big difference in enjoyment. I wasn't so sure about reading a historical romance as they can be pretty dry for me, but the narrator and the story itself both insured this be anything but a boring read! I can't wait to read the rest of this series by audio as well.

a few quotes:

I binge read this in a day, only taking a few breaks to make lunch and other necessary tasks. Even if this wasn't my favorite book I've ever read, it was addictive and just what I needed in the moment. I obviously couldn't put it down!

While I enjoy K-pop and K-dramas, I'm certainly not a super fan, so there were some elements that were lost on me. I wish Google translate had been a bit more helpful at translating a few of the phrases, but once I was able to understand a bit more of the nuances of the terms and honorifics I was able to appreciate the story that much more. Knowing even a bit about the conditions of idols also helps going into this story, and it made me feel even more empathy for these young adults. I'd love to see this adapted to a limited run K-drama/comedy/romance series! I could imagine this on my screen so easily.

On to my critiques. Wish Upon a K-Star was mostly first person point of view of Hyeri, but for every 7 chapters or so of her point of view we get a third person omniscient point of view focusing on Minseok. It felt like a confusing compromise, clearly just enough to make the story make sense. I wish it was truly a dual POV story, as at times I had trouble rooting for Minseok when we get so little of his perspective and don't know where his head is truly at. It was a bit jarring switching from 1st to 3rd person and back, especially as infrequently enough as we did. I don't think it needed to be exactly equal chapters from the two of them, but even if we had closer to a 2 to 1 ratio I think I would've rooted for them even more when Minseok was proving to be solely a selfish jerk in certain moments.

There were a few moments that seemed possibly unrealistic to me, such as when the solution to members in your group getting in a scandal for being in a secret relationship is to... go on a fake dating reality show? The book addresses this is a silly concept, which helps that even the book at times doesn't take itself too seriously. Maybe I just don't understand the culture enough, but that seemed like a counterproductive solution to me. Either way, I do love me a celebrity fake dating trope and I'm able to excuse some confusing logic for a cute plot. I love when characters themselves don't know if something is real or for the camera, and having a limited point of view into Minseok's head made that confusion even more real for the reader. 

I wish "New Adult" had caught on for an age group as that truly is the perfect descriptor for this book. The characters are roughly 19 and 22, I believe, for most of the story, and the themes really fit that "coming to terms with adulthood" and making big life decisions that comes around that new adult age. At the same time, their crushes often come across very young, like him poking fun at her because he likes her. I'd recommend this to teens able to grasp more adult consequences as well as adults interested in celebrity culture, especially Korean celebrity culture. There is no NSFW content that would make this inappropriate for a younger audience as it is marketed towards a young adult audience.

Overall I had a lot of fun with this book! If you are willing to hold trust in the main male character until later and willing to look past awkward POV issues, I highly recommend this as a fun quick read. Even though this is an overall lighter read, please check the trigger warnings.

Rep:

Tropes:

content warnings, all moderate:

I often don't mind miscommunication trope in romance manga as it can be really cute to see clueless love in a visual genre. I was okay with a slower burn to get there, both guys being oblivious to their feelings until wayyyy too late. It's kinda adorable. But what really frustrated me was that when we finally do get a kiss in the very end we are blocked from seeing it! By a light pole! All the misdirections along the way to finally get the biggest misdirection in the end was a really big let down. I'd be curious to see why the artist/author did it this way. 

Additionally, we time jump right after the big confession between the couple. Again, all this build up just to lose the momentum and miss out on what should be one of the sweetest moments. I'm not sure if some of this is because of the book originally being released in shorter snippets online, but I feel like even that wouldn't explain some of this issue.

Overall cute, maybe book two shows them more as a couple together?

For some reason I thought this book was a YA book, but please know there is at least one scene that is very not-YA in nature. Specifics (spoiler):

there is sexual content with one of the love interests, specifically with a character going down on Lore.

I think this especially surprised me as the book had a lot of things that lean towards YA, like a (trope)

love triangle

and some of the behaviors of the characters. 

For some reason I've had a hard time staying interested in this book. Theoretically, I thought I'd like this. Fae, books, special secret magic, romance, it all sounded like things I'd be into.

Maybe I'm not into dark academia. Maybe the action was too slow. Maybe the characters weren't lovable enough. I'm unsure where the exact problem lies, but I know I didn't enjoy my time as much as I was hoping.

I first tried reading this physically but stopped for a few different reasons. On my second go around, I decided to try it via audiobook. The narrator's voice is beautiful, and I love both the main character's voice and the masculine voice she does. My problem lies in the fact that there isn't much variable beyond that, and in a book with a wide enough cast of characters it was hard to distinguish who Lore was talking to in any given moment. 

For some reason I also had a hard time staying engaged with the romance in the story. Usually in romantasy I really love the romance part of things, but for this book I kept wanting the plot to pick up and for more action to directly happen. Maybe if we had gotten more sweet moments instead of the lustier moments I would have been more sold. 

Spoilers ahead for the end of the book

I might give book two a chance (I didn't realize it was going to be a series, and especially end on a cliffhanger!) but I'll probably loan it from the library instead of buying it based on the beautiful cover & narrator's voice.

representation:

tropes: