postmodernblues's Reviews (465)

My Best Friend's Exorcism

Grady Hendrix

3.75

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I liked this more than I expected to. Went in expecting schlocky horror (affectionate) and got schlocky horror as an allegory for growing up. Plenty of 80s flair. Will definitely be picking up more from Hendrix.

Eileen

Ottessa Moshfegh

5.0

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Moshfegh never fucking misses

John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs

Ian Leslie

4.0

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

Yeah they were definitely in love.

Every Heart a Doorway

Seanan McGuire

4.25

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini

3.25

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Dawn

Octavia E. Butler

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Read this for one of my lit classes. Very interesting to discuss. Butler's the greatest to ever do it.

Guy who's twice as old as everyone else in the class lowkey came out as an anti-vaxxer during one of our discussions and conflated cherry-picking the genetic traits of an unborn fetus to vaccinating a live baby. So. There's that.

The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family

Mai Elliott

3.0

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

Circe

Madeline Miller

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I love the complexity Miller adds to Odysseus as a character. Miller has a wonderful ability to bring style and character to the figures of myths, thereby making the myths more interesting (for me).

Still Life Las Vegas

James Sie

4.0

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Finally the Vegas-set book I was hoping for (after reading three mediocre ones). I loved so many aspects of this. Pilgrimages to the Liberace museum? Artificiality and reality? Myth intruding upon the present? Great stuff. So glad I picked this up.

The Princess of Las Vegas

Chris Bohjalian

1.5

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Proof that I'll read anything set in Vegas, even if it sucks. Probably could have been a killer essay comparing Vegas with crypto culture. Unfortunately...

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