peeled_grape's Reviews (158)

Some of these lines are going to stick with me for a while: “I was meant for the library, not the classroom”; the idea that race is the child of racism, not the other way around, etc. 

Reference for: police brutality, racism

Framed around the school explosion, but it could've been written out and the book would've been fine. It feels like trauma porn. Author is a white woman who writes exclusively about Latinx/Latine people, which is icky. 

It’s unclear whether Oryx is real or if she’s one single person. Seems in some way a humanities vs. STEM commentary. Eugenicist sci-fi. Reminds me of that Jurassic Park quote: you always asked whether you could but not whether you should, or something. Atwood’s obsession with birds really comes through here. 

This would’ve blown my little non-binary mind as a kid. 

Reference for: trans fantasy, Latinx fantasy, MLM romance

Could not get over Rufus' dialogue. So bad.

Extremely meh but the ending will stick with me for a while. Took too long to get there, I think. 

Hated that Rufus only died because he got the Death-Cast call. (Same with the serial killers--their victims only die because they got the call??) The love story was actually believable. Mateo's death scene was so terrible. Also why the hell do they survive a bombing AND a shooting before dying?? What??

Reference for: queer lit, literary timers, one-day novel, contemporary romance, speculative fiction

Reference for: polyamory, matriarchy, high fantasy, surreal fantasy

Somehow every single character is terrible. Reference for: racism, appropriation, plagiarism, white woman nonsense

Reference for: allegory, Stalin/Russia, dictators, revolutions, satire

Reference for: pandemic lit, nomadic characters, apocalypse lit

Reference for: women’s exclusion in discussions of their own health, female homoeroticism, vampire as metaphor for queerness. Stoker stole so much from Carmilla lolll