notsobinaryart's Reviews (153)


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:
  • "what does kissing have to do with love?"
  • "love was for girls who had someone to depend on. for her, it was merely one more item on the long list she could not afford"
  • "Looks at the stars while I give you this”
    • context:
      Him to her while fingering her!! On the Eiffel Tower!!
  • "It’s easy to judge our morality or call us weak, but when the world is controlled by men that see us as dispensable, our survival depends on learning to discern between the battles we can win and which ones we can’t afford to lose”

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

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:
  • Korean main characters
  • Korean American author
  • Anxiety rep

Tropes:
  • fake dating
  • celebrity romance
  • opposites attract

content warnings, all moderate:
  • toxic celebrity fan culture
    purity culture
    double standards for women
    diet culture (moderate -- not super detailed, but mentioned enough with restrictive eating)
    violence (moderate, one scene)

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
lighthearted

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'm not sure how much I liked the plot twist. It didn't really seem to make sense with the rest of the character's behavior throughout the book. Maybe the twist was partially a lie and we'll find out in part two, but as it stands it doesn't really make sense why the twist wouldn't have happened sooner. It left me feeling icky about previous actions (IYKYK) earlier in the book and why that would have needed to happen.

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:
  • Black author & all Black main cast

tropes:
  • dark academia
  • love triangle
    nature magic

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous hopeful lighthearted
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes

Thank you to Macmillan, Feiwel & Friends, and NetGalley for the ARC copy!

Evil-ish tells the story of a young adult finding their way in the world through trying to fulfill their dream of becoming a villain. We meet our nonbinary main character in their sweet household, a juxtaposition to their angsty self who tries to distance themselves from anyone who gives a "good" vibe. If this were instead set in contemporary settings, I very much see them as a cross between a hipster and emo, wanting to stay away from the mainstream "good" people. Hawthorne has what they think is a foolproof plan of getting in with the "cool kids" of villains which, of course, immediately goes awry.
 
I really enjoyed the art style of Evil-ish. The colors, the different characters, the creative ways of showing dynamic scenes. The art was a big standout for the whole story.

I love the themes of what truly defines good versus "evil," and how far are you willing to go to both separate yourself from the mainstream while also staying a part of a community who may or may not align with your true values. Another big theme is that looks can be deceiving, which I always love in a visual media like graphic novels that can exaggerate personas and your assumptions thereof to the extreme. Other themes that are somewhat spoiler-y are the
importance of family, hurt people hurt people, building community, and continuing cycles of trauma.


While there are a lot of elements I loved in this story, I do think it could have gone even a little deeper, given even more time to all the different themes at play here. I would've loved a bit more time to see how everything resolved in the end, as well, but I loved the glimpse we did get to see at the end.

Overall I recommend for graphic novel lovers of the theme "Be Gay Do Crime," people who love to question morality and what truly is "evil," and fans of lovable characters finding themselves.
emotional hopeful informative reflective
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

First-Time Caller

B.K. Borison

DID NOT FINISH: 10%

Love the idea and its cute but not in the mood for it right now, going to try to read this again in the future!

Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity

Lee Mandelo

DID NOT FINISH: 15%

I received an ARC copy and I had trouble getting past the first 3 stories. 2 out of the 3 had major ethical issues that I had a hard time continuing the stories. 

In one, we see a sex therapist-like main character who has sex with clients who mainly have mental hurdles to climaxing. I like the normalizing of talking about sexual wellness and sex work, but the problem arose when the main character then dated their client, but tried to justify it by saying it was much more like dating your physical therapist than a psychological therapist, even when there is a lot of mental work that goes into their therapeutic relationship. As someone with a mental health therapist, I couldn’t get past the ethical issues posed to enjoy this story.

In another, we see a teen try to unwillingly “trans” the gender of transphobes in their life. I understand the purpose as a trans person is to show the hypocrisy of not allowing body autonomy, but as someone who is also disabled and often doesn’t get complete say in their medical treatment from backwards doctors, taking away bodily autonomy from anyone, even those I hate, makes me have a visceral reaction. I think this goes into my abolitionist thinking versus punitive thinking, but again I couldn’t get behind this story with the major ethics issues at the forefront.

Others may enjoy this book if you enjoy looking at what unethical decisions supporters by the main characters say about the world we live in and how we should change it. Other stories might be much better later on as well, but for now my arc copy has expired after being turned off of the book for too long.

Love is for all of us

Brad Peacock, James Crews

DID NOT FINISH: 26%

My copy of the ARC expired, interested to read more of this!