readingpicnic's Reviews (500)

I received a free digital ARC of this book from the publisher.
I would say that this book is horror in the same way that The Haunting of Hill House is horror in that it is mainly psychological and deals a lot with trauma. A lot of the story's horror comes from the main character experiencing paranoia and anxiety due to being gaslit by an emotionally and physically abusive partner for years to the point that they feel that they’re crazy, struggling with mental illness and s*icidal thoughts, being chronically ill, losing touch with most of their friends, having no familial support, and almost becoming houseless. There was also horror in the sense that Alex is a queer and trans person of color surrounded by white people who wish them ill-will and harm in the village that they move nearby to, which was especially disturbing with the men who would follow them on the road and taunt them. I appreciated the portrayal of the main character’s struggle with their gender and how confusing it all is–from my understanding, the main character identified as nonbinary at one point and got top surgery before socially detransitioning after being invalidated by their abusive ex who said he would only view them as a girl. Towards the end of the story, as the main character is enveloped into a small trans group of friends and gets a transmasc love interest, they slowly start to become comfortable enough to identify as trans again and come back out of the closet. I loved how the pronouns switched throughout the story as the main character tried to figure themself out, and I thought it was extremely well done. 

I also thought that the main character’s anxiety was portrayed so well, and I have so many of the same overthinking anxious thoughts as them, which was nice to see represented. Overall, I loved Alex’s character, and they felt so real to me. Their humor was great, their thought processes and actions made sense to me, and I overall loved reading from their point of view. They reminded me a little bit of Mae from the game Night in the Woods with how they think and talk, which I enjoyed. I genuinely cared for Alex as a character and wanted the best for them-I was invested!

I do think that I got a little confused as to what was happening at certain points in the story, such as when Alex goes up the elevator, and the whole storm scene in general, but I also feel like that was the intention since the main character was so disoriented during that scene? I was also often confused about why Amara would get upset with Alex, especially for wanting them to pull over to let the truck driven by racist white men pass when they were in danger. I wish there had been some resolution to the dog killer subplot since that felt unresolved. It also felt like the story was building up to Amara not being who they said they were for a while with Alex’s suspicions of him and nobody having heard of him, but I’m glad that he ended up being someone that cared for Alex when they had no other support. I kind of wish more of the story took place in the creepy mansion they were housesitting because there was so much setting detailed there and so much anticipation built up with the security cameras in the creepy basement, the voice system to activate the lights, the shadow of a person at the door of the mansion in the security cameras, the security codes for everything, and the elevator they weren’t allowed to use, but very little of the plot actually happened there, which makes sense because it was so inaccessible, which is its own kind of horror for a disabled person. I did like the ending with Alex getting a mobility device that works for them, as well as living with their old friend group of queer and trans people because I think that they deserved and needed to have that support system.

I think the art was beautiful, and I do love a graphic memoir. I wasn’t quite as interested in the religious Christian stories, aside from the last one with the god and devil. I’m not sure I entirely understood the shadows in the story, but I found the generational aspect of them intriguing. I thought the explorations of neurodivergence were good as well, especially the loneliness and ostracization experienced by neurodivergent people.

I was hooked by the first page! Such weird and captivating writing that I finished it in one day. Such a heartbreaking story about the isolation of motherhood coupled with having a disabled child that her husband wants to “fix” (autism speaks vibes). I love how she never gave up on her owl daughter and that she understood that there was nothing to fix about her daughter; that the world needs to be fixed to be a more accessible and accepting place for Chouette. I loved the queerness of this book as well, in all its many layers. Overall, a stellar book. This is like The Fifth Child if the mom hadn’t been ableist also. 

Femcel Greg Heffley. This was so different from the show, especially that ending! Omg! I do love a genuinely surprising and upsetting ending though.

Kincaid’s writing is sooo incredible. This is a continuance of my weird girlhood fixation, and Annie John is definitely a strange little girl whom I adored the perspective of. No critiques, I devoured this. 

I appreciated the author’s honesty throughout this book about consuming art made by people who’ve done horrible things, as well as digging into her guilt and complacency in doing so. The question of whether it’s morally good or bad or something in between to consume music, video games, and books is something I often think about myself, so I appreciated getting other perspectives on this issue where there’s not exactly a right answer. I think that some of her examples of celebrities that she named chapters after weren’t really explored as much as they could have been, while others were explored too much, like her practically explaining the whole plot of Lolita for some reason. The Lolita chapter also didn’t feel particularly relevant because it’s purely speculation about whether the author did anything bad or shared traits with the main character he wrote, so I didn’t find this chapter as strong or compelling. I also thought it was a bit weird to paint one of the woman celebrities as a monster just for giving up her baby for adoption…
I didn’t really expect an answer to the question of whether it’s okay to still consume these forms of media because it’s such an individual choice, so I wasn’t upset that she didn’t make a declaration either way. I was really interested in the chapter about Wagner and how harmful it is to say that people were “a product of their time” and that “everyone had those harmful beliefs back then” because it takes pressure off those people and excuses their behavior as being normal in the past. I hear people use this argument all the time, and I almost started to believe them, but I agree with the author in holding people of the past accountable too because there were people who held more progressive beliefs back then, and they chose to not be one of them. Although the book was a bit repetitive at times, I enjoyed the author’s writing and was pretty engaged throughout. I’m definitely going to keep thinking on this subject and be critical of whose content I’m reading/watching/listening to, as well as who I make exceptions for and why.

The men in this book are AWFUL and reminded me so much of every terrible man I've ever known, but I guess that's the point. I thought this was a good portrayal of grappling with misogyny and overcoming internalized homophobia and comphet (at least my reading of it). I didn't love the timeskip towards the end because the book is already so short, so I was a little annoyed. I also feel like the main character wasn't very consistent with how she acts and thinks, such as when she was stalking a guy and said that it was her divine fate to be with him; that kind of brazen, delusional thinking isn't really present towards the end of the book. Overall, this was enjoyable and well written, so I'm excited to discuss it with my book club :)

I loooved the writing in this book. Lots of gender theory, complicated mother/child relationship, wild trans childhood, alcoholism/addiction, and reflections on forgiveness in this book. I thought it was quite spectacular, and it’s definitely one of my new favorite memoirs.

I thought the idea of the book was very creative, and I loved the illustrations, but I feel like the story was a bit of a mess. It felt like so many horror elements were mashed together into this one store that didn't necessarily make sense together. When the main character got kidnapped a second time by the prisoners and locked up again, I didn't really care anymore what happened because it started to feel repetitive. I also couldn't picture a lot of the scenes that were happening at the end with the rats and water, and I got pretty confused about what was actually happening. So many parts of the story felt predictable and cliche, and I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters. The cliffhanger ending was also really annoying to me. I feel like there was an opportunity to make more of a commentary on the PIC, but alas. This kind of reminded me of a short story I read called The Ball Room about a haunted children's play area. 

I was gifted an ARC of this book by the publisher on NetGalley.

First off, the body horror was excellent as always with T. Kingfisher, especially in the nightmare sequences where flesh and faces fell apart with such ease. So gross, but so captivatingly vivid, especially with the horses and the spirit haunting them. There was quite a bit of lore and backstory for Easton and their time as a soldier, which helped build their character and give context for how they react to certain situations. 

I found the first half of the story fairly slow and wasn’t a big fan of the main character breaking the fourth wall to speak to me, as well as some of the humor just not being for me personally. However, I felt similarly during the first novel, so I should have remembered to expect these things. I feel that the story wasn’t as fleshed out as What Moves the Dead and that in comparison to that story, it felt like nothing happened. To me, it felt like the only things of consequence that happened plot-wise was that a few characters got sick, had sleep paralysis, and then recovered. Although there were reappearances of characters who were in the first novel, they felt kind of flat and inconsequential to the story, especially Miss Potter, who seemed to have a lackluster and domestic role compared to how dynamic, independent, and important she was in the first book. It also frustrated me that Easton was so skeptical of anything happening in the novel being due to paranormal causes after everything that happened in the first book, which other characters did bring up, but I think it took way too long for Easton to come around to believing in the supernatural or their townspeople’s beliefs. Overall, I was a little disappointed reading this sequel, and I wish it had more substance to it. If the series continues, I hope that more happens in the next book because I did really enjoy the fungal/body horror and relationships explored in the first book.