Reviews by starrysteph | The StoryGraph

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starrysteph

The Fortunes of Jaded Women

Carolyn Huynh

4.25

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The Fortunes of Jaded Women was a quick but powerful read.

We follow a large, complicated family of Vietnamese women who have been cursed for generations by a witch. Their ancestor Oanh left her marriage for true love – and so her descendants were cursed to never find love or happiness, and to only give birth to daughters.

Now skip ahead to present day, when current descendant Mai feels like her life is falling apart. She’s estranged from her two sisters and deeply worried about her three adult daughters. So she heads to her trusted psychic in Hawaii, who offers her an unusual prediction: this year, her family will witness a marriage, a funeral, and the birth of a son (!).

The story takes off at lightning speed from there. We alternate between a HUGE cast of characters from chapter to chapter, often hearing one side of the story and then the next. It was a little confusing to keep track at times, but the family tree at the front of the book was helpful. And as I got to know each character a little better, the threads became much clearer.

The storytelling is emotional and chaotic and raw – but also quite funny at times. These women are strong and STUBBORN.

The first half of the book focuses on the generation of mothers. All they want is to do better than their parents and to give their children happiness … but they don’t always know how. In the second portion of the book, we hear more from the daughters. They’re all desperately trying to distance themselves from their mothers in very different ways – but often unknowingly continue the cycles they hope to break.

Slowly but surely, the family is reunited. And all of this chaos culminates in one of the most jaw-droppingly awesome climaxes I’ve ever read. Everything comes together all at once, and I was cracking up at the delightful ridiculousness of it all.

This book covers SO much: navigating love in all of its stages, connecting with your roots and heritage in different ways, dealing with racism and harmful stereotypes, the complexity of mother-daughter relationships, generational trauma, the burden of being an eldest daughter, and so much more. It will make you laugh out loud and then punch you in the gut. It’s a celebration of Vietnamese women and of complicated families who may get into public food fights but ultimately will do anything for each other.

CW: death, grief, racism, toxic relationship, infidelity, body shaming, drug use, mental illness, misogyny, medical content, miscarriage, pregnancy, cultural appropriation, abandonment, colonization, classism

Content Warnings

The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen

Isaac Blum

3.5

challenging dark emotional funny sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

CW: antisemitism, mass shooting, murder, PTSD, gun violence, hate crime, death, blood, grief, injury, bullying, medical content, toxic friendship, police brutality, misogyny, homophobia

(I received a free review copy of this book.)

Content Warnings

Killers of a Certain Age

Deanna Raybourn

3.5

adventurous funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A ladies quartet of 60 year old assassins, ready to retire but pulled back in to save their skins against the very organization that trained them? It was as fun as anticipated.

We follow Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie. They were hand-plucked as young women to train as elite assassins for a society called the Museum. After forty years of dedicated killing, they’re sent on a luxury cruise to celebrate their retirement. But once they arrive, they realize they’re being targeted by one of their own. That organization they’ve been loyal to for so many years? They’ve now got to take them down.

Raybourn offers a playful sense of humor here. There’s lots of banter and sass and well-developed relationships between the ladies with lots of quippy fun. And I’m not someone who typically enjoys pop culture/modern references - but they worked well within the text and were genuinely funny. There’s big action scenes, but also fun slices of life moments; and also plenty of planning and prep work.

The timeline shifts between present day, and their training & first assignments as young women. Overall, it was refreshing to read a book from the perspective of an older narrator. And there were fun plot points centered around the fact that their age renders them more or less invisible – though to be clear, they aged themselves up a bit for their disguises. 60 isn’t elderly. :)

But building off of their invisibility as older women, over a series of flashbacks we witness the men who sent them on missions time and time again underestimate and undervalue them. And the women? They’re the ones who save their skins when things go wrong. Now those men - who hold grudges against the quartet because they” stole their thunder” - are the ones running the Museum, while the women are sent on their merry way.

This is a book about RAGE. Revenge is sometimes placed over justice, from the women’s initial recruitment to the final takedown.

The setup seems to point us towards viewing the ladies as heroic. They attempt to justify their assassinations time & time again - like, “oh, we’re killing BAD guys, people that are definitely going to harm others and get away with it because of their wealth and power!”. Lots of talk about killing Nazis and so on.

But of course … killing is still killing, and vigilante justice never has clear boundaries. I felt a bit of craving to just let them be villainous - I enjoy a villain story centered around murderers (think: Dexter or Hannibal). There was some pressure from the storytelling to view them as like, feminist baddies. But the truth is that they are … well, murderers. And they’re putting full faith in the Museum to find the worst of the worst to take down. They go through planning sessions fairly often, and they mentioned quite a bit that the Museum does research & there are many steps to confirm a hit. But this is the same entity that so easily put out a hit on them based on totally fake information! This is the major conflict of the book, and so it puts a pretty big shadow over their earlier kills. How many could have been political moves rather than “justified”?

Anyway, we wrap up neatly but with some hope. There’s a hint at a continuing story, but this works as a standalone.

Overall, it was a quick, fun read. I think it would work even better on screen!

CW: murder, gun violence, death, gore, misogyny, violence, blood, colonization, homophobia, grief, pregnancy, sexual content, torture, kidnapping, war

Content Warnings

Beasts of Ruin

Ayana Gray

4.5

adventurous dark emotional lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Beasts of Ruin was a remarkable continuation to what is becoming one of my favorite young adult fantasy series.

We’re dropped right into the action here. Koffi is trapped by Fedu, the cunning & powerful god of death. Ekon is alone for the first time in his life, desperate to reunite with Koffi and continue their mission. And we’re introduced to a new POV in this book as well - continuing the trend of a third, slightly separate storyline (I loved it and found all 3 equally engaging).

Though we don’t get much interaction between Koffi and Ekon here (they spend most of the book very far apart), their character development continues and we witness them mature. We also get lots of wonderful new supporting characters … and potential love interests. :) And some familial bonds were explored further as well, especially regarding Koffi’s lineage.

We get several new settings in Beasts of Ruin, each as unique and creative and vivid as the jungle and zoo from Beasts of Prey. The storytelling is exquisite and the chapters were short & sweet, often ending on cliffhangers that made me desperate to keep on reading. Gray continues to utilize real-life references and a wide variety of mythology (definitely check out the author’s note at the end).

It did have a little bit of middle-book-lag, but overall this was a delightful read and I simply can’t wait for the next book.

CW: death, murder, grief, animal cruelty, animal death, classism, kidnapping, mental illness, slavery/servitude, toxic relationship

Content Warnings

Urban Creatures

Sarah Gray

4.0

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Urban Creatures was an unsettling collection of short stories dealing with life & death & the space between.

I wouldn’t necessarily call these stories scary, but they are raw and uncomfortable and offer a chance to reflect. I really enjoyed Gray’s more experimental works and stylistic prose, as well as the two pieces at the end of the collection that dealt very directly with her own experience with terminal illness.

The first few stories felt a little detached & uneven. But as the collection progressed, the writing became deeper and more vulnerable and therefore eerier.

There’s a huge variety in style and length and topic here (a big plus for me). The narrators are never clear antagonists or protagonists - it’s all a bit murky and morally gray and I enjoyed sitting with that.

Gray has a unique voice and a lot to say. There are some concepts from this collection that will be sticking with me for a very long time.

CW: death, grief, murder, terminal illness, chronic illness, medical trauma, mental illness, child abuse, pedophilia, ableism, animal death, cancer, confinement, emotional abuse, fatphobia, miscarriage, pregnancy, stalking, suicidal thoughts, toxic relationship/friendship

(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

Content Warnings

All the Things We Don't Talk About

Amy Feltman

3.5

challenging emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

All the Things We Don’t Talk About was a thoughtful, modern coming-of-age story.

We follow Morgan, a nonbinary teen navigating their first romantic relationship, and Julian, their autistic father struggling to find the best way to support his child. Their balance is disrupted as Morgan’s estranged mother Zoe tumbles into their lives once again. And our fourth POV comes from Zoe’s partner Brigid, who has developed a long-distance friendship with Julian over the years.

So … it's complicated. Add in Zoe’s struggle with alcoholism (and Morgan’s deep desire for acceptance) and you can see that this family is teetering on the edge of huge conflict.

The topics are heavy and the characters are complex (even Zoe, who typically serves as the antagonist, has an honest POV & you get to peek deeper into her behavior). But the characters are treated with care, and there are so many tender moments that kept me reading.

I appreciated that the characters’ identities (Morgan’s gender identity & Julian’s neurodivergent identity) are not used as big plot points/major sources of turmoil. Instead, they are deeply woven into the characters’ POVs and lives and written with nuance. Julian’s ability to parent is never in question. Morgan’s pronouns are respected.

I really wanted more time with Julian - I would have loved more backstory into his journey as a single parent, raising Morgan and learning routines together and navigating life.

Sometimes the writing was a bit dry. It was generally very raw & felt authentic, but there were times when Feltman was building up to a conflict where the pacing felt off/the scenes dragged. I was also confused at times about the space between scenes.

Finally, I felt the ending was a bit too quick, and too much was left unresolved. Not that things have to be tied up in a neat little bow - but I wanted a bit more closure around certain plotlines. And I felt disappointed & saddened about some major decisions made by the characters.

Overall, this was a caring portrait of a complex family. It gave me room to reflect on some dynamics in my own life. It was powerful and tender and an engaging read.

CW: addiction, alcoholism, abandonment, car accident, mass/school shootings, medical content, drug use, animal cruelty, death, death of grandparent, classism, emotional abuse, grief, gun violence, injury, medical content, mental illness, transphobia, toxic relationship, pregnancy (mentioned), abortion (mentioned)

(I received a free review copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

Content Warnings

The Introvert's Way: Living a Quiet Life in a Noisy World

Sophia Dembling

2.0

hopeful slow-paced

The Introvert’s Way is an earnest cheer for introverts who struggle with confidence & acceptance. I’m just not sure we needed it.

“All our lives, we introverts have bought into the myth that extroversion is better and is the American way … Introversion is considered odd, distressing, even serial killer-ish.”

This book is a collection of blog posts. Because of this, the chapters were self-contained (I would have enjoyed many of them as solo pieces), but the throughline wasn’t clear & many chapters felt repetitive alongside others. It got to be a bit bland and boring.

And while some thoughts did resonate with me, it was mostly generalizations and didn’t feel truthful or strictly “accurate”. These were personal reflections and not based on scientific evidence. This was Sophia’s introverted way, and perhaps would have been better crafted as a memoir.

It’s ironic that she’s writing to break down stereotypes - but is perpetuating others. Not all introverts are quiet. Not all introverts enjoy being a “flâneur” and watching others in public spaces. Not all introverts are slow thinkers or decision makers.

“The theme of this book, what I hope you’ve taken away, is that introversion is simply another way of being from extroversion and that it is up to us to recognize it, accept it, and learn to live the way we feel most comfortable and complete.”

The Introvert’s Way was published 10 years ago in 2012. Perhaps it felt more necessary then. It’s the introvert’s guide to self-acceptance, but most people I know (myself included) are content to be introverts. And (at least in 2022) I don’t think that’s unusual. Maybe introverts are generally more accepted in American society today, or maybe I’ve just not been around folks who have cared.

However, if you feel isolated in your introversion, this book would feel very validating. And I enjoyed quite a few of the personal stories - pointing to things that I experienced but had never thought about in a deep way or as related to introverted qualities.

I likely would have enjoyed her blog! But overall, I did not feel it was a strong read.

Juniper & Thorn

Ava Reid

3.5

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Juniper & Thorn explores how trauma shapes us, how we desperately look for meaning & purpose in dark circumstances, and how you live with your past.

Specific content warnings at the end of this review: but this book is about trauma.

We follow Marlinchen, a fairytale-obsessed plain-faced third daughter. Her mother is gone and her wizard father is cursed to never feel satisfaction; he is controlling and cruel to his girls. Marlinchen and her sisters are witches; they treat clients with their various skills (though their father spends the rubles and is xenophobic - so VERY particular about the clientiele) and they are not permitted to leave their home.

One night, the three girls sneak out to see a ballet show: and Marlinchen falls head over heels for the lead dancer, Sevas. She now must balance her first secret with her deep desire and the trauma of her past. And to add to the stakes - there’s a monster on the loose, terrorizing the city.

There’s brilliance here - Reid skillfully integrates fairytale tropes with darkness and horror. There’s also deep vulnerability - Marlinchen is living with trauma and has shrunken into herself; there’s a major theme of dehumanization.

The pacing ebbed and flowed; there were moments I couldn’t put the book down but also scenes that were far too slow for my taste. I think a large issue here was some overdone repetition - like I get it, the rule of threes is important, the sisters are beautiful and Marlinchen is plain, Marlinchen is blushing 99% of the time. Some of it boiled down to intrusive thoughts and folkloric obsessiveness tied into Marlinchen’s trauma; that made sense to me. But others felt like Reid was shouting at the reader. Remember this?? Don’t forget this foreshadowing!! Let me hold your hand, reader!! It felt like an editing issue, alongside some slightly-cringey & overdone analogies.

I felt like we got to know Marlinchen quite well; the supporting characters were not always so fleshed out. Her sisters, for example, felt quite limited. And for a book that takes place largely in one location, the world-building was a bit vague & confusing. I’ve read The Wolf & the Woodsman and felt that gave me a significant leg-up in understanding some of the hierarchies.

Finally, I didn’t particularly enjoy the romance. For me, it felt very insta-lovey and lacked the depth and lyricality and complexity that Reid gave to the rest of the storyline. I wasn’t ever truly rooting for them as a pair.

I felt like Reid is continuing to strengthen their voice and explore the themes she most wants to write about. This writing feels vulnerable and powerful. There’s a lot I admired about this storytelling. I’m looking forward to reading whatever she puts out next.

CW: blood, body horror, death, murder, emotional abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse (child), cannibalism, antisemitism, xenophobia, gaslighting, racism, eating disorder, vomiting, self harm, suicidal thoughts, animal death, animal cruelty, incest, explicit sexual content

Content Warnings

The Past Is Red

Catherynne M. Valente

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was just … a delight to read.

“St. Oscar says SCRAM to all that. Just be trash together and love as long as you can and then stop when you can’t anymore and be trash separately.”

We follow Tetley, who lives far in the future when the remnants of the human race float around the ocean in small communities. Her home is Garbagetown, a floating pile of (very organized) trash that was once the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The humans of Garbagetown don’t reflect on the past with reverence. In fact, they call the last generation of land-living humans “Fuckwits”. They messed it all up!

Tetley has done something her community considers unforgivable. And so they are allowed to do whatever they’d like (except kill her), and she has to thank them for it. We get glimpses into her life before this incident (10 years old), living with the consequences (19 years old), and her slightly-more-futuristic circumstances (29 years old).

“Everyone says they only hate me because I annihilated hope and butchered our future, but I know better, and anyway, it's a lie. Some people are just born to be despised. The Loathing of Tetley began small and grew bigger and bigger, like the Thames, until it swallowed me whole.”

And yet she offers up relentless optimism (NOT naivety, but cheerfulness and resilience) and an incredibly well-executed narrative voice.

It’s so charming. It’s so thoughtful. It’s creative and a little morbid and somehow makes perfect sense. It’s bleak and it’s shining and I just adored it.

“Seems like someone should have thought of a rule that goes Do not Fuck Your Only Planet to Death Under Any Circumstances. Seems like that should have been Rule Number One.”

CW: cursing, violence, physical abuse, bullying, child abuse, torture, grief, death, drug use, fatphobia, hate crime, toxic relationship, blood, vomit, abandonment, injury, animal death, ableism, sexual content, rape (mentioned), chronic illness

Old Country

Harrison Query, Matt Query

1.5

dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Oof. This one was - painfully - a bummer.

We follow Harry & Sasha, a young couple who spontaneously purchase the rural house of their dreams and move in with their sweet golden retriever to live the country life. But their neighbors quickly warn them of a seasonal spirit - one with strict hauntings and stricter rules. If they don’t play along, their idyllic rustic lifestyle will turn deadly.

The plot of Old Country came from a viral Reddit thread (from /nosleep, which is a whole lot of fun if you’ve ever poked around in there). I vaguely remember reading the initial concept and enjoying the spookiness. But it simply doesn’t work expanded in this way, particularly because the writing is not very skilled.

The text was filled to the brim with random italicized words for emphasis. Here’s a particularly ridiculous passage: “It was a beautiful time of year, but there was something somber about it, maybe even a little bit depressing … It wasn’t depressing in a depressing way, though, it just brought a sense of foreboding, like the wind had a motherly, cautionary tone.”

It has a little bit of originality going for it. The hauntings are unique; it clearly worked as a handful of sentences. The dog was cute (best character, lol) and the setting was cool. But there’s no narrative skill here and no depth to the story.

There is just SO much filler. Random fluff to add pages, not thoughtful character-building.

The two voices are practically indistinguishable (same with just about every speaking character), often unnatural/stilted, and Sasha is just there to blandly echo the voice of her husband. When she was charmed by a random instance of animal abuse (he straight up CHUCKS an animal and injures it for startling her), lovingly refers to him as a toddler, and whines about his $3000+ monthly income from the government from his six years as a marine … it was pretty clear she was written by two men. Let me revise that: her DEFINING character trait was that she was written by two men.

Harry is just … so unlikable. His highlights include going up to the spirit forms and saying stuff like “this is MY LAND NOW >:)” and throwing around racist dialogue. Also, I don’t know any marines, but it seemed a little wacky to me that two former soldiers would eagerly start up a conversation about the men they killed - how many and how and why. Especially when one is a friendly older neighbor and they really don’t know each other.

And don’t even get me started on how the one indigenous character was described and how he spoke. Euuuughhh.

And the plot? Basically nothing happens. The book is divided up into four sections (one for each season), and each season has a particular haunting. So … over the course of a 350 page book, you read about four hauntings (a couple happen more than once, but still). The hauntings go by in a FLASH and the entire premise is wasted on a few pages. The rest of it is horseback riding and hunting and gardening and extremely repetitive dialogue.

The characters don’t make a single logical choice. For example, they need to have 5 lit candles in order to prevent 5 ghosts from entering their home overnight.. So they light … exactly 5 candles. WHAT?! I would have had 30 candles per room. No chances here.

There were also dropped plot points aplenty, and the internal supernatural logic simply did not add up.

And finally *spoiler alert for the poorly written ending*

, the two white people move in and somehow “solve” the spirit issue that generations of indigenous people couldn’t? Hmm. And after they get a speech about how they couldn’t make the spirit about their personal issues and that the whole world doesn’t revolve around them … the “solution” is to “deal with their shit”? Oh my god.

(Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this book. This is my - clearly VERY honest - review.)

CW: murder, violence, blood, injury, animal death, animal cruelty, racism, misogyny, sexism, gun violence, war, pregnancy, car accident

Content Warnings

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