ryinwonderland's Reviews (892)

Be careful what you wish for, you might just wake up in an alternate reality. 

First they were dead, then something happened and they were back and no one remembered that they had been dead. There are gods and demons and deals and rules and a really cool band. 

I’ll write a real review later but first, notes: Hollywood writer of queer horror, told to bury his gays, refuses, is hunted down by his own villains - literally. Also AI is evil. Queer rep, ace rep, queer joy, fuck Hollywood and AI and the media in general. Also Chris Oak is a character which is fucking hilarious, well done, Chuck Tingle. 

After their sons are brutally murdered, the two fathers-in-law - a white, racist, homophobic man and a black homophobic man, both ex-cons - team up to find and destroy whoever killed their boys. Their bloody journey also becomes a journey of redemption and growth as they start taking the steps to allyship and anticacism while seeking vengeance for their gay sons. 

Ji-Won is tired of being fetishized for being Korean. She’s tired of gross men taking advantage of her, of her mother, of women in general. She’s angry at her father for abandoning his family. She’s worried for her younger sister. She’s wary of her new friend, Geoffrey, and she’s suspicious of her mother’s new boyfriend, George. She’s also recently developed a taste and a hunger for eyeballs. Specifically blue eyes. 
This book is dark and badass and cathartic and personally I’m a fan of the way Ji-Won handles the racist, misogynistic men around her. 👀

Proud to be raising two antiracist kids in my home as I work on my own antiracism. I love the way Dr. Kendi writes. 

Edit to add: I just found out that apparently the author is a TERF, so I just knocked a couple of points off of this review mostly to remind myself. What a shame. Good book, bad author.

A story of love, a story of race, a story of America, a story of Nigeria, a story of Blackness, a story of heartbreak, a story of tenacity, a story of self discovery. Beautifully written and carefully crafted, a peek into the lives of two complex and flawed and fascinating people as they find each other, drift apart, and come back together over several years and across continents. 

Black excellence, Black fairy tales, Black folklore, this book is magnificent. 

A collection of weird, dark short stories. The vibes are immaculate. Great if you want just a taste of the darkness, just a hint of horror. 

Notes for later review: Light-skinned Black twins, Desiree and Stella, grow up in a tiny racist town in Louisiana. Stella discovers she can pass as a white woman and disappears, living out that life. Desiree also leaves, but comes back with a daughter with “blue-black” skin. We follow the separate lives of Desiree, Stella, Jude, and Kennedy, mothers and daughters, as they navigate the world over the course of a few decades. (Also: Jude’s boyfriend is a trans man and we follow part of his journey to gender affirming surgery through Jude’s perspective).

An emotional book that examines family and race and heartbreak and the way people settle, even if they thought they were chasing their dreams. A story of motherhood. A story of relationships. A story of love. A story of heartache.