Radgryd

Auf der Suche nach Anfängerliteratur zu BDSM traf ich immer wieder auf diesen Titel und entschloß mich schließlich das Buch zu kaufen. Ich versprach mir einen tieferen Einblick in die SM Welt, weitere Informationen zur Dynamik zwischen Top und Bottom (besonders in einer Beziehung) und auch Anregungen für Grundpraktiken.

Im Rückblick ist das Buch eher etwas für Leute, die sich wirklich mit der Materie zum allerersten Mal auseinandersetzen. Zwischenzeitlich hatte ich das Gefühl, es richtet sich in erster Linie an Menschen die anfangs Probleme damit haben ihre Neigungen zuzugeben und mit ihnen leben zu können; oder vielleicht aktiven SMlern, die Freude an Statistiken und Rückblicken haben.

Auch wenn die Informationen zur Geschichte und Psychologie sehr interessant waren, wurde ich den Gedanken nicht los, dass der rote Faden dieses Buches in Richtung, “Es ist okay, pervers zu sein.” ging. Da meine Herangehensweise an das Thema aber völlig anders aussieht und ich nie die Problematik in Kink & Fetish gesehen habe - es ist mein Privatleben, meine Sexualität, die außer meinem Partner kaum Jemanden etwas angeht -, fühlten sich etliche Seiten eher zäh beim Lesen an.

Gerade die vielen Einblicke ins Leben von verschiedensten Personen wären auch sehr viel interessanter gewesen, wenn die Schreibweise nicht geklungen hätte, als wäre die gesamte Konversationen aufgenommen und dann unbearbeitet aufgeschrieben worden. Die Zitate sind durch eine Vielzahl an Wiederholungen und Gedankenpausen aufwendig zu lesen: Manchmal sogar bekommt man das Gefühl innerhalb von zwei Seiten dreimal den gleichen Satz gelesen zu haben, da sich die Erläuterungen vor- oder rückgreifend auf die Erzählungen beziehen und den gleichen Inhalt haben. Gerade da ich verschiedene Meinungen und Erfahrungen ziemlich faszinierend finde, fällt mir dazu nur ein Wort ein: Schade.

Einige Teile des Buches die sich auf das Internet beziehen fühlten sich schon veraltet an - aber das ist nachzuvollziehen, da das Buch vor über 15 Jahren herausgebracht wurde und das WWW sich innerhalb der letzten zwei Jahrzehnte immens verändert und vergrößert hat.

Ich fand persönlich auch, dass manches Kapitel über die Diskriminierung der BDSMler etwas übertrieben klang; gerade wenn Kink in Vergleich mit LGBT gestellt wurde. Sexualpraktiken an sich befinden sich für mich auf einer anderen Ebene als sexuelle Orientierung. Was genau Mensch im Bett macht, geht kaum Jemanden außer Partner/in(nen) etwas an: Außer man möchte es Freunden und Familie erzählen.

Das Buch kommt als Zusammenfassung und für Neugierige sehr gelegen, hat aber eher mehr mit Geschichte und Aufklärung zu tun als mit wirklichen Praktiken, Spielen oder Sessions. Trotzdem ich etwas anderes erwartet habe, war das Buch unterhaltsam und informativ. Man sollte nur nicht zu viel erwarten.

I was pretty excited for this book and really wanted to like it. There was a lot of positive promotion for it going on within the Tomb Raider community that raised my expectations and increased my enthusiasm for it. Though, I am also aware it's Daryl Baxter's very first book.

Even though I liked the content of the book a fair bit, I cannot give it a better rating because the editing is absolutely horrendous. Since most of the book is made up of interviews with different people most of the work would have been the editing process. I don't know who chose to ship it like this, but considering how expensive the book is it's just terrible.

There are countless typos, many repititions where entire paragraphs are copy-pasted, mentions of specific things he goes back and forth on and it's a whole pattern. It doesn't just happen once or twice by accident, it happens repeatedly, which really put me off my reading experience.

The conducted interviews are not edited at all, they read like they're simply recorded and written down and I'm convinced that's exactly what happened - including grammar mistakes, sentence structure and filler words. It's super clunky to read and takes away from what's actually being said.

At the start of the book I was satisfied enough by the graphical content that added a bit of background information but it's nothing I hadn't seen before and nothing you couldn't find online if you looked it up. When you get to the part about Tomb Raider 2 it's literally just screenshots of ingame scenes, cutscenes or FMVs. Most screenshots are way too dark to even make out and if you know your basic way around editing graphics you could have fixed that issue within a minute. The last 40 pages are filled with 3 screenshots per page, making it feel like he ran out of content and was forcing it to be longer than it actually is.

Another big no-no was that it was sometimes really hard to understand who was talking. Some of the bits of interviews have the interviewee's names written in front of it, some other parts don't and most of the time the mentioned names are first names only. I would have appreciated it if he had simply added the full name every time. I want to know exactly who is talking and remember their name, not go back to chapter 1 and reread the list every time. This way it was extremely confusing when you get to the parts that have the name mentioned once in the first paragraph, then every time they're talking all you get is a block quote to remind you someone is talking. Who? No idea, because in between there were 3 other people talking but in different formatting.

All in all this was a pretty disappointing experience for me. It would have been way better as a web article, maybe even multiple web articles over a span of time. I don't know why the editing is so bad, if he ran out of time or similar. But he should have taken the time, because from my point of view that was most of the work to be done.

I would only recommend this book to people that want some juicy little details by the makers of TR 1 / TR 2. The content of the interviews is completely fine and while I did hear about some of the info given before there were also bits and pieces I hadn't heard of before.
If you can, borrow the book or make use of subscription services online to read it because it's simply not worth the price it's sold for. Sorry.

Unfortunately this seemed like a downgrade compared to the first two League comics. I wasn't digging the art style at all and the story felt rather boring to me up until the last 2 out of 6 issues. If you read the Ashe and Lux comics and enjoyed them, don't expect too much from this one or rather skip it. The only ones to get a kick out of this might be people that are into Zed, Shen, Kayn, Jhin or Akali. But even then, the story is quite bland.

I thought this book was rather meh. The beginning of the book opens up the discussion about gender-nonconforming people quite well, but when we get to the part where they start listing questions and statements the book loses me. Although I get the frustration as a queer person, I wish the conversation would have been had in a different way. To constantly be on the defense is simply exhausting. The questions could have instead been incorporated in a convincing and well-researched text.

3-stars for all the info given. As some people have mentioned before, if you're already well-versed in the topic you really won't learn anything new.
The audiobook didn't really provide any sources or direct quotes, but I'm hoping and guessing the paperback did.

Well, that was quite unsettling and I'm not even quite sure about what I listened to. I really liked the introduction, it wasn't badly written at all either but somehow it was.. too much and too little at the same time. I craved more of a resolution towards the end even though I was very much aware of what the author was trying to do. This is my first book of his so.. I had no expectations.

For me personally it's too confusing and too convoluted to really recommend to anyone, but I can't deny the story was intriguing. It could've been shorter though.

Pretty intruiging so far.

Okay ... I want more.

I enjoyed the story and the writing style, even if 1st person narrators aren't my favourite. Loved the blinks of queer love but some parts of the book left me confused.

Two intelligent women that continously plan and manipulate, only for them to make two big mistakes to drive the story forward. It seemed less believable to me this way.I didn't really vibe with the end of the story either, the main character letting her sister marry into *the blood* of her former murderous lady.The twisted love the two of them shared left me wanting more, to be frank. And I didn't dig either that her male best friend had to come to her rescue in the end either. Just doesn't sit well with me knowing this story's queer love was basically the basis. Hm.

Art is great, but the plot was way too weak.

This is cute, but nothing more than that. Probably the dullest biography I've read so far.
I'm not sure if it's because of how it's written, which parts of her life she chose to talk about or simply because her past isn't that interesting. If you write a book about your life and talk about your teeth (and the same tooth, really) twice in it, I'm not sure if you have a lot to talk about. Or if you really want to talk about any of it.

The most interesting parts of it were about her trauma-ridden childhood and her struggling and coming to terms with the fact that her mother's behaviour was extremely violate, and that her father didn't quite do enough for her. Due to her chaotic early years she seems to have become a very controlled person, a workaholic and in a way, a perfectionist.

I listened to this as an audiobook and Julianna's voice is very soothing and I enjoy listening to her. I did listen to it on 1.4x pace though, and it was still easily understandable, so I'd say listening to it on 1x might drag on.

I liked the majority of the book, it kept me entertained and curious, but the ending kinda.. ruined it for me. I'm still going to read the second one, but I was pretty disappointed with the writing in the last half. It went from cringe in a good way to cringe in a bad way all the way at the end.

I enjoyed this book a lot, even though you can tell by the first few pages that it was written for children. It made me smile a lot – sometimes because its descriptions were very adorable, and sometimes because the jokes in it were too funny not to smile at. With this book, you'll be seeing the world through the eyes of dogs; and you will find out about what they think of us humans.

It's also very much impossible to ignore the blatant sexism in this book, which was definitely made less obvious by the Disney movies.

But it's pretty much everything I expected – a more detailed and thought-through version of the Disney film. I just didn't expect it to be so adorable.

“I want to feel something other than pain.” Summarizes the book quite well.

Way too much queer suffering, narration is exhausting (probably also due to this being YA), story drags on and the end feels rushed. What I can say is that the story is ‘cute', the young characters aren't necessarily dislikable, there's humour in it and little jokes, but there's not enough that distracts from the gloominess of the entire story. There's worse stories I've read, but the fact that I thought halfway through ‘When will this end?' is one of the main reasons I cannot give this book a 3.

It's like someone took all anti-gay tropes and shoved it into one story. Oh, and on top of that, some racism-sprinkles as well.

I would've liked the following TWs or mentioned themes before I went into this, to be very honest. I might have made the choice not to read it instead: Forced outing, abusive mother/household, homophobia (repeatedly, story driven by), religious bigotry, casual racism, assault (due to, again, homophobia), suicide and self-harm, internalized homophobia, bullying [...]

I absolutely hated Yami's mum, and it makes zero sense that she acted completely differently at the end. It's a process. As well as, you've treated your daughter like shit for so long, it's suddenly all forgiven? PLEASE. Ridiculous. Same goes for Yami's dad but y'know, the other way around. Makes very little sense to me.

I DNF'd this at 16% because I literally did not care about anything that happened. I already thought the ending of the first book was extremely weak and didn't make much sense with the rest of the book, but there were so many things that made even less sense at the start of this book. The writing annoyed me, especially the repetitive way of how Mortania is mentioned within Alyce's head. I swear if I have to listen to that one more time. I think the only thing that really kept me going was the narrator's voice, she's great at what does.

The fact that this book has a huge time jump of 100 years in which Alyce supposedly portrays no characteristics of her past self, the great dark mistress, ruling and killing and murdering and judging and then when we get to the story she starts feeling guilty on and off. What?! Make it make sense.

I loved this book for several reasons. At the start of the book I sure didn't think I would end up giving it 5 stars, but it turned out to be such a sweet, endearing little story that I couldn't stop listening to it!

One of the most refreshing details of this book taking place in the real world is that homophobia doesn't even get a single mention. It's completely normal that these girls are into each other and the book holds onto that. I've read quite a few queer YA novels the past years that make it one of the biggest plot points in their books and I'm just not there for it anymore. Our lives are not just suffering or bending under the pressure of society. This book gave queer romance a chance, a space to unfold, room for the characters to grow and have their own emotional journeys without the all encompassing negativtiy from the outside. This story is not a prison for their characters but a landscape to explore.

I also ended up loving both of the main characters and I am sure both the way it was written from their two perspectives WITHOUT repeating scenes and the voices by Natalie Naudus and Valentina Ortiz added to it. They both learned and grew and it was just lovely to witness. I was rooting for them the entire way! I do have to say that this book is predictable; positively, charmingly predictable. It didn't bother me because I just wanted them to succeed and be happy.

I wanted to give the book 4.something stars but the fact that I wanted to keep listening and then when it was all over and I still wanted to know what was gonna happen next convinced me to give it 5 instead. Because it deserves it. It's a great queer YA novel and its messages should be treasured.

Halfway through I thought to myself, “This would've been better in physical form.” Not because the content is bad or something doesn't work for me, but it's one of the books I would've gone through to highlight some paragraphs to really take them in and remind myself, as well as looking up full quotes that are referenced.

I still enjoyed the book, but if I choose to read another one of his books, I will buy them as a paperback.

I also felt a lot of what I listened to was like.. “Well, duh.” But it was still nice to hear and, there are indeed some suggestions within the book to get things going.

This cute short story made me feel things. It is very real and touched me in ways I didn't expect. The art style isn't my favourite but I got used to it pretty quickly and its definitely beautiful in its own way.

I really thought I was going to like this book, but I simply didn't. There are so many issues with it, starting with a few and getting worse and worse.
To begin with, it's so easy to guess how the book ends after Linus is introduced in the first few chapters. A simple character that always follows the rules ... what else could happen other than him changing and/or having an ‘epiphany' about the fact that rules and laws aren't everything? Argh.
The first thing, and probably my biggest issue is with how creepy the book came across in several situations. I thought it was weird that one of the main characters literally shared a private room with one of the children but ignored it because I was waiting for the actual reasoning behind it or an explanation, which never happened. In general, very little gets resolved in this book.The second time I got creeper vibes was when Linus was talking to Sal about him showing his room, telling him that he, "Doesn't need to do anything he doesn't want to do." In connection to that I should probably mention that the book is a collection of superficial sayings, 'inspirational' life quotes, hipster tropes and so on. At times I felt I was scrolling through a tumblr blog from 10 years ago reading through this book. All the adults know better and seem to be preaching shit to each other and the children every chapter. It felt awkward and was way overdone.Another situation that felt off and completely out of place for me was Linus and Arthur talking about 'hearing sounds from one of the children's rooms', referencing masturbation. I'm far from prude, but this felt invasive, unnescessary and downright creepy, again. I literally grimaced during that passage.Since we're already talking about Linus and Arthur ... to me, there was nothing. Absolutely no chemistry. The book feeds you little mentions of Linus finding Arthur attractive, beautiful, him liking the sound of his voice or how he moves and does things, but it had absolutely no effect on me. Especially since it comes out of nowhere. He's barely interacted with him and those thoughts suddenly pop up. He barely knows this guy and is absolutely smitten. Again, it felt superficial and pretty silly.Before I move onto the other characters, big fucking TW for fatphobia. Linus' weight is mentioned again and again in negative ways. The way he looks at himself, the way society perceives him. That he's not sporty, that he's not thin, that he doesn't fit into clothes, that he shouldn't have too much to eat or sweets and the like. It is mentioned so many times that after a while you're just waiting for it to come back up. I couldn't help but roll my eyes, but this content could absolutely be dangerous to children or especially young teens struggling with their perception of themselves; which you know, is a thing for basically every teen at some point. The short mention of Talia saying that there's nothing wrong with being round doesn't protect you from the criticism, Klune. Especially since she's a gnome. Linus weight comes up again and again after, the way it's written is pretty disgusting at that point.The character of Helen, the town's major, came out of the blue for me and was WAY too supportive, quickly. It made absolutely zero sense, especially with how prejudiced the town as a whole was towards magical beings. With a soft major like that, I doubt people would've voted her into office. I doubt that a simple interaction with Talia would've had that huge of an impact for her to be not only supportive, but protective of children and beings she barely knows. No explanation to why the towns people were so negatively prejudiced either. No connection to the former orphanage's "master" either. What the heck.Talking about magical beings, this is probably the first and only fantasy book I've read and disliked. Maybe because the fact that they're magical has very little impact on the story, since it's so flat. That might even be the point of the book, that you could project it onto (other) minorites in general ... but if you're trying to sell it to me, don't call it fantasy and magical when there's very little of it. The reasoning for 2 instead of 1 star is the fact that I did like a few of the characters and how they were described. The children are likable in general. Zoe, Phee and Chauncey are precious. Even though I liked both Zoe and Helen I thought the ending of the story and them two getting involved felt again, out of place, out of nowhere. Just don't include it if you don't have time for the buildup. It feels empty (and tokenizing) to include relationships that way. The ending of the book felt rushed, diminishing all the issues raised within the book, especially with DICOMY. We also never find out about any of the schools or the futures of the (registred) magical beings that were part of the system in the past.
The writing style is simplistic and super repetitive; the characters regurgitate the same stuff over and over again. It's easy to follow and obviously geared towards Young Teens or even younger children, and I get where the ‘simple, wholesome' description in a lot of people's reviews comes from. Because it is indeed simple. ‘Wholesome' is very subjective. To me the book, the writing and the content was weak, downright annoying and uncomfortable.

I don't think I've ever conciously DNF'd something before, so this will be my very first DNF ever.

It probably isn't even as bad as it sounds, but it IS extremely boring and that is the reason I am not wasting another minute on it ... not even as an audiobook.
It's basically a lazy re-telling of the OG sagas so if you already know your way around them this will be very dull for you. The book switches between scenes and characters (gods and lesser) every chapter without making anything sound even remotely interesting.

Medusa is NOT the main character of this, not at all. If you're searching for a story with her, rather than touching her story here and there this is also not the place to find it.