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shane_the_reading_rat's Reviews (1.21k)
yknow, at first when reading this book i figured my review would just be an “ethel cain song = this book” joke but as i kept reading i was just like “oh god its a lot more serious than that”.
this is honestly the most heartbreaking coming-of-age story i have ever read. shae and cam felt incredibly real as characters, and as shae spirals downwards you want to save her so badly but it’s impossible. its a rollercoaster ride that slowly begins to go downwards, then goes faster and faster as you reach the end.
the scene where shae is breaking into ben and cam’s house and cam and eva find her is going to haunt me forever genuinely .
this is honestly the most heartbreaking coming-of-age story i have ever read. shae and cam felt incredibly real as characters, and as shae spirals downwards you want to save her so badly but it’s impossible. its a rollercoaster ride that slowly begins to go downwards, then goes faster and faster as you reach the end.
this and flamer by mike curato have such different energies but somehow they are my two favorite books of 2024 so far
there are generally two types of books i will give 5 stars:
1: a book where its just a fun ride from beginning to end
2: a book that makes my brain whir around with thoughts about it
this is the latter.
it’s a story about the cleric Chih nearly being eaten by tigers, a story about a tiger-woman and a scholar falling in love, and a story about how stories are told (and change over time), somehow all at once.
something this book really made me think about was (and this may sound a little wild, but hear me out) the erasure of queer people from history over time. yes this book takes place in a queer-normative world, but it says a lot about our world too. Chih’s version of the story was good, yes, but had no trace of romance between the scholar and the tiger. it was what had been told to them, but it was a story mangled over time. scraps of it pieced together. whereas the tigers knew the true story (ik technically it could’ve been just a different version and neither were true, but i believe the tigers were correct), where the scholar and tiger fall in love and marry.
and at the ending,when the tiger women are chased off after attempting to attack Chih and their friend, it just made me think: how will the story of Chih meeting the tigers be twisted as the years go by in this world and more clerics tell more stories? will it be told that they attacked Chih immediately, or that the tigers listened to their story? yes, the tigers were dangerous, but will they be portrayed as evil in future stories?
anyway thats my love letter to the book about gay tigers🏳️🌈‼️🐯👩❤️💋👩
1: a book where its just a fun ride from beginning to end
2: a book that makes my brain whir around with thoughts about it
this is the latter.
it’s a story about the cleric Chih nearly being eaten by tigers, a story about a tiger-woman and a scholar falling in love, and a story about how stories are told (and change over time), somehow all at once.
something this book really made me think about was (and this may sound a little wild, but hear me out) the erasure of queer people from history over time. yes this book takes place in a queer-normative world, but it says a lot about our world too. Chih’s version of the story was good, yes, but had no trace of romance between the scholar and the tiger. it was what had been told to them, but it was a story mangled over time. scraps of it pieced together. whereas the tigers knew the true story (ik technically it could’ve been just a different version and neither were true, but i believe the tigers were correct), where the scholar and tiger fall in love and marry.
and at the ending,
anyway thats my love letter to the book about gay tigers🏳️🌈‼️🐯👩❤️💋👩
this majorly isn’t the story i was looking for, and i dont like the story that it is. marketing really failed on this one (its a dense literary fiction about an extremely messed up family/generational trauma saga, i’d expected a horror story about a girl accused of being a witch. the description and “horror” tag on here and goodreads are highly inaccurate)
i really liked this. it was pretty relatable to me (im ace and autistic just like the author lol) and im really glad to have generally grown up in a time when being ace is at least a little more widely understood than back when this book is set.
this may be nitpicky of me, but it annoys me when the perception of aromanticism as being essentially “someone who has zero interest in relationships doesn’t feel any attraction and will never ever want to be in a relationship” (for context, im aroace) is spread, and this book did that a few times. being aro is a lot more nuanced than that. in my case, i enjoy reading romance and am chill with relationships because i enjoy the companionship and it’s fun.
i just wish that being aromantic got the same nuanced treatment as when people talk about asexuality (such as the emphasis on the fact that asexuality is a spectrum and asexuals can still have sex). i wish that the author had not decided to try and explain aromaticism too, as they are not aro and i just feel like it would have been better if they had stuck with their own identities.
otherwise extremely good book!! i just have a lot of thoughts on the lack of nuance when people talk about aromanticism in general.
this may be nitpicky of me, but it annoys me when the perception of aromanticism as being essentially “someone who has zero interest in relationships doesn’t feel any attraction and will never ever want to be in a relationship” (for context, im aroace) is spread, and this book did that a few times. being aro is a lot more nuanced than that. in my case, i enjoy reading romance and am chill with relationships because i enjoy the companionship and it’s fun.
i just wish that being aromantic got the same nuanced treatment as when people talk about asexuality (such as the emphasis on the fact that asexuality is a spectrum and asexuals can still have sex). i wish that the author had not decided to try and explain aromaticism too, as they are not aro and i just feel like it would have been better if they had stuck with their own identities.
otherwise extremely good book!! i just have a lot of thoughts on the lack of nuance when people talk about aromanticism in general.
im so happy that middle grade books like this exist nowadays cause i can tell you this book would’ve rocked my world if i’d read it in middle school
challenging
informative
medium-paced
was really nice learning about a historical figure i had no idea existed previously
i didn’t like the dialogue though. 1: in many places where Claude was speaking to someone on-page, it read as though they were talking to the reader. 2: it was entirely in the first person (which felt uncomfortably personal given that ultimately this is a biography of a real person).
i didn’t like the dialogue though. 1: in many places where Claude was speaking to someone on-page, it read as though they were talking to the reader. 2: it was entirely in the first person (which felt uncomfortably personal given that ultimately this is a biography of a real person).
awesome graphic novel :0
unique art style (very zine-like), fun characters (+ a soundtrack!!) and basically addresses the fact that there can and will always be a few shitty people in a scene (without being doom-and-gloom about it)
unique art style (very zine-like), fun characters (+ a soundtrack!!) and basically addresses the fact that there can and will always be a few shitty people in a scene (without being doom-and-gloom about it)