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shane_the_reading_rat's Reviews (1.21k)
•i really wish this book had been co-written by a wildlife biologist or an ecologist, cause it felt a bit too memoir/pop-science to me
•barely talked about deer in mythology :/ also deer in places other than america !! this could’ve easily talked about the perception of deer in places other than america and europe (europe in this book apparently being that one paragraph about german hunting traditions for deer lmao).
•book gave so so so much time to people who kill deer (such as hunters and deer cullers) but pretty much none to people who oppose that? an entire chapter is dedicated to deer breeding and a ranch where you can hunt deer and i was thinking the entire time “you are being too nice to the lady who runs this ranch. WHY ARE YOU NOT EVEN DISCUSSING THE ETHICS OF INBREEDING ANIMALS TO EXAGGERATE FEATURES, THATS A HORRIFIC ETHICAL DILEMMA”.
•speaking of chapters there was just something about this book that kept me feeling bored (despite the fact that animals have been a major special interest of mine for my entire life, reasonably i should NOT be feeling bored at a book about deer). i think it was how each chapter would jump to a topic that didn’t feel properly connected to the last. also how this author just nonstop platformed hunters/deer cullers/deer breeders while not ever talking about reasonable opposition to those things? like im not even super anti-hunting i dont really care as long as you’re doing it as humanely as possible and for the right reasons, but wowie this book sure has one opinion and sticks with it
•barely talked about deer in mythology :/ also deer in places other than america !! this could’ve easily talked about the perception of deer in places other than america and europe (europe in this book apparently being that one paragraph about german hunting traditions for deer lmao).
•book gave so so so much time to people who kill deer (such as hunters and deer cullers) but pretty much none to people who oppose that? an entire chapter is dedicated to deer breeding and a ranch where you can hunt deer and i was thinking the entire time “you are being too nice to the lady who runs this ranch. WHY ARE YOU NOT EVEN DISCUSSING THE ETHICS OF INBREEDING ANIMALS TO EXAGGERATE FEATURES, THATS A HORRIFIC ETHICAL DILEMMA”.
•speaking of chapters there was just something about this book that kept me feeling bored (despite the fact that animals have been a major special interest of mine for my entire life, reasonably i should NOT be feeling bored at a book about deer). i think it was how each chapter would jump to a topic that didn’t feel properly connected to the last. also how this author just nonstop platformed hunters/deer cullers/deer breeders while not ever talking about reasonable opposition to those things? like im not even super anti-hunting i dont really care as long as you’re doing it as humanely as possible and for the right reasons, but wowie this book sure has one opinion and sticks with it
🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈thanking god for this book but replace god with chuck tingle🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
thought this was super cool :) binding and binders is a complicated topic for me due to the fact that i have had a shoulders/back injury in the past and still consistently deal with pain from it, so i really liked the discussions of “not everyone can bind for 8 hours” and showing all the varieties of binders and even things like trans tape :D
in some ways i think i’d expected from this book the sort of instagram crap i’d find as a 14-year-old that was just about the jankiest, most secretive ways of binding. and im glad it wasn’t like that
in some ways i think i’d expected from this book the sort of instagram crap i’d find as a 14-year-old that was just about the jankiest, most secretive ways of binding. and im glad it wasn’t like that
in setting this book is one of the coolest fantasies i’ve ever read. in everything else, it ranges from mid to bad.
•the society in this book is matriarchal, and i was excited about this. but it offers essentially zero commentary on the meaning of that or the fact that many traditional fantasy books are patriarchal societies. in this it’s essentially just the reverse of what women in medieval fantasies face (examples i can think of are that in Dragonfruit, the prince must find a princess to marry as he cannot rule the kingdom, and when a man marries a woman all his belongings become hers). there is no discussion of queer people or trans people related to this (or anywhere in the book).
•the word “female” where “woman” would be perfectly suitable is used multiple times, which to me is a red flag. including a mention that Hanalei “has a deep voice for a female”.
•a prince of a kingdom is killed and this has no repercussions?? there’s just basically no mention of it again.
•there is rampant child labor on the island Raka (which Hanalei was in for 6 years). seemingly no one is trying to stop this? they just acknowledge it’s bad but the royals are doing nothing and it’s not discussed further. the Raka ambassador’s brother sees the scars on Hanalei’s hands from the child labor and is basically like “you’re braver than me lol” but says absolutely nothing about, yknow, TRYING TO STOP THE RAMPANT CHILD LABOR ON HIS OWN ISLAND????
•there is just,,, so much animal brutality for no real purpose or reason in this novel. the seadragons aren’t really used for much interesting, they are pretty much either killed or used to get dragonfruit (their eggs). no one is like “hey, should we try and find alternative sources for the materials we get from these dragons?” no theyre just like “lets keep killing”.
•sadly it’s not just the dragons. a dude cursed to turn everything he touches into nutmeg trees, turns his perfectly sweet dog into a nutmeg tree. not as an accident or anything, as a demonstration of his curse. one of the characters thinks, “huh that’s bad”, but nothing more comes of it.
•FETU, SAMS BAT COMPANION, IS STRAIGHT UP COOKED INTO A SOUP AND HE AND HANALEI HAVE TO EAT IT??? honestly it’s just a horrible move to kill off the companion animal with zero fanfare and for no true purpose .
•the society in this book is matriarchal, and i was excited about this. but it offers essentially zero commentary on the meaning of that or the fact that many traditional fantasy books are patriarchal societies. in this it’s essentially just the reverse of what women in medieval fantasies face (examples i can think of are that in Dragonfruit, the prince must find a princess to marry as he cannot rule the kingdom, and when a man marries a woman all his belongings become hers). there is no discussion of queer people or trans people related to this (or anywhere in the book).
•the word “female” where “woman” would be perfectly suitable is used multiple times, which to me is a red flag. including a mention that Hanalei “has a deep voice for a female”.
•a prince of a kingdom is killed and this has no repercussions?? there’s just basically no mention of it again.
•there is rampant child labor on the island Raka (which Hanalei was in for 6 years). seemingly no one is trying to stop this? they just acknowledge it’s bad but the royals are doing nothing and it’s not discussed further. the Raka ambassador’s brother sees the scars on Hanalei’s hands from the child labor and is basically like “you’re braver than me lol” but says absolutely nothing about, yknow, TRYING TO STOP THE RAMPANT CHILD LABOR ON HIS OWN ISLAND????
•there is just,,, so much animal brutality for no real purpose or reason in this novel. the seadragons aren’t really used for much interesting, they are pretty much either killed or used to get dragonfruit (their eggs). no one is like “hey, should we try and find alternative sources for the materials we get from these dragons?” no theyre just like “lets keep killing”.
•sadly it’s not just the dragons. a dude cursed to turn everything he touches into nutmeg trees, turns his perfectly sweet dog into a nutmeg tree. not as an accident or anything, as a demonstration of his curse. one of the characters thinks, “huh that’s bad”, but nothing more comes of it.
•
2024 is my year of loving coming-of-age stories about trans people and i am okay with that
jesus i hate the direction this went lol
this is probably the last time i read from delilah s. dawson
1: i disliked The Violence when reading it and looking back i dislike it even more
2: both dawson books ive read have had graphic descriptions of killing animals?? i do not vibe with that in my horror thanks (in The Violence thedescription of the mom stomping the dog to death genuinely fucking haunts me i hate it so much)
and ik “well its horror of course it gets weird/really gross” listen. horror is one of my favorite genres. i can still absolutely despise this book for the direction it went
this is probably the last time i read from delilah s. dawson
1: i disliked The Violence when reading it and looking back i dislike it even more
2: both dawson books ive read have had graphic descriptions of killing animals?? i do not vibe with that in my horror thanks (in The Violence the
and ik “well its horror of course it gets weird/really gross” listen. horror is one of my favorite genres. i can still absolutely despise this book for the direction it went
it’s been nearly a year since i read Ravensong, and i am just not invested enough in this world anymore for the sequel
this hit incredibly hard. the way i related so deeply to Xiomara’s perspective on religion and how she vs. Twin were socialized and treated because of gender,,,, unbeatable. thank you elizabeth acevedo
there are two wolves inside you. one is Joined at the Joints by Marissa Eller. the other is The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. please let Joined at the Joints win this book (wolf???) is incredible
(no offense to john green i loved tfios when i was 14)
(no offense to john green i loved tfios when i was 14)
look i know a short story collection is not its editor and all that, but as a trans guy, this editor having started spouting bioessentialism on twitter after getting slight critique is turning my stomach and really kicking the dysphoria part of my brain and im not dealing with that just to read some short stories.
(for context, there are no trans women authors in this collection and only one story with a trans girl mc. when a review on goodreads pointed this out, g. haron davis went on a twitter rant where they essentially said trans women are male and all trans afab people are women-lite. gross, ew, im not dealing with that behavior especially from someone who is also trans jesus fucking christ. fuck bioessentialism all my homies hate bioessentialism)
if a collection of stories about magical trans people says “magic is for everyone” on the front, then yknow maybe you should include trans women in your collection. just a thought
(for context, there are no trans women authors in this collection and only one story with a trans girl mc. when a review on goodreads pointed this out, g. haron davis went on a twitter rant where they essentially said trans women are male and all trans afab people are women-lite. gross, ew, im not dealing with that behavior especially from someone who is also trans jesus fucking christ. fuck bioessentialism all my homies hate bioessentialism)
if a collection of stories about magical trans people says “magic is for everyone” on the front, then yknow maybe you should include trans women in your collection. just a thought