sandro_reads's reviews
102 reviews

The Possession, translated from French, is a short memoir by Annie Ernaux and brutally honest about the depths in which love and jealousy can take over one’s life. 

Oddly, it reminded me of My Husband by Maud Ventura, a work of fiction - also French, in the way that book dealt with love and obsession. Maybe they really do love differently in France?

After a heavy read, I decided to shift gears to a romance pick for my Genre Diversification Challenge. It is my first romance ever. And, my first 🌶️🌶️🌶️ M|M read.

Though much of the novel is repetitive with these two rival hockey players meeting up again and again for sex. It does the job even if, as a gay man, it doesn’t always ring true. The last 20% sees more heartfelt character development - enough to make me curious about its sequel. 

Beloved is a difficult read, not just in subject matter but also in the way it deliberately disorients the reader from the onset. I’m not too embarrassed to admit that, after about 50 pages in, I needed to watch a summery series on YouTube to get my bearings (thank you Course Hero). 

I’m glad I stuck with it because Morrison’s language is beautiful with the weight of her words capturing not only the brutalities of slavery but the visceral effects of shame and guilt. 

Yellowface begins as a biting satire of the Publishing industry, tokenism, cancel culture - where no one comes out looking good. Seriously, every character is so unlikable. 

But, as it goes on, the message gets heavy-handed and repetitive with the story falling apart in the last quarter. 

I am not a woman, nor a parent, but being of a certain age, I found myself instantly connecting with the games one’s brain will play as it struggles to adjust to the physical changes and realities of midlife.

I can see why All Fours is so polarizing. It’s absurd and explicit and grotesque. But, it’s also funny and insightful and touching. It makes you feel even if you don’t like all of its parts. 

Liz Moore created a beautiful world in The God Of The Woods that is filled with a wide cast of relatable characters and captures camp life perfectly.

Unlike a traditional thriller that hits you with twist after twist, the multiple POVs and timelines here serve to create a subtler tension that reeled me in and kept me interested throughout the nearly 500 pages.

Beyond a whodunit, it touches on classism and sexism in an honest way while bringing everything together in the end. 

Williams’ simple, clean prose is beautiful from the start but, for the first quarter of Stoner, I could not understand the Booktok hype. But then…

We are told from the onset that this is the tale of an unremarkable life and therein lies its strength. As it progresses, it’s a book about nothing - and everything - the little triumphs and tragedies that make up a life.

It’s also a love letter to literature and academia - near perfect but for Edith being so broadly painted, alternating between shrill and whore. 

This book hit hard. I would have been 14 in the summer of ‘86 when The Prettiest Star takes place, not yet sure what being gay even meant but acutely aware of the hysteria surrounding AIDS and the judgement that came with it.

In many ways, this story was a very real vision I had for my future back then - returning home to die being shunned by everyone around you. 

Powerful. Emotional. Infuriating - a reflection on how even today LGBTQIA+ are villainized and ostracized. 

PS thank God for grandmothers 

It’s rare that I feel a book should be considerably longer but The Body In Question had such promise that was left unfulfilled.

[Minor Spoilers] Broken into two parts, the first of which keeps both the murder trial and the affair between our narrator and a fellow juror at such a surface level, it was hard to get invested in either. While the second part felt cruelly rushed given the delicate subject matter. 

Part-thriller, part-sci-fi, My Murder was an unexpected surprise of a book and I would recommend going in with as little knowledge of its plot as possible.

Williams elevates this genre mash-up by dealing with the issue of what makes us us beautifully.  I do wish the ending hit a bit harder but a fun ride nonetheless.