Bailey
Yes I would agree that it is like The Magicians, which I also really disliked. Maybe the disillusioned adult Harry Potter genre is just not my thing? It feels dark in a contrived, something-to-prove way. But some cool/creative ideas for sure.
Mostly a perfectly fine suspense snack book, but way too much emphasis on normative ideas of attractiveness, in an extremely redundant and generally disappointing/boring way. Also the characterization of one person really relied on the “conventionally pretty mean girl” trope in a way that tried and failed to be self aware about it but ended up just reinforcing it. Probably wouldn't recommend if you can't handle the sexism.
Incredible and beautiful and now I have so many new imaginary places to think about. Very nuanced look at Circe's story and personal development. It was so gay but not explicitly, which is unfortunate. I couldn't help but compare to Song of Achilles which I loved so much, and the writing was just as beautiful, but in this context Circe was missing something, and I'm not sure what. Plot-related. But you should read it anyway and maybe you'll figure it out.
I loved this book, it was extremely charming. The writing was not great. Redundant and way too long. Vacillated between relatively normal writing and overly adventurous prose. Unwieldy and no coherent style. However, the author clearly tried really hard to incorporate lots of diverse identities and give them respect - neurotypicality, deafness, queerness, sort of race, etc. I was committed to the story from early on and did not want to stop reading. I'd recommend it for its unique story and captivation value, but not if lazy editing/inconsistent writing makes you too uncomfortable to deal.
This trilogy was super enjoyable, the third book felt different from the first two in that it was less about unraveling mysteries and more about action. Overall it did a good job of subtly jabbing at imperialism and colonialism, and the pacing and cadence made for an easy read.
I really loved this book and love HDM forever, the story was unique and captivating and insightful. Loses a star for some annoying sexist shit.
Brutal and crucial portrayal of American eugenics with extreme compassion and respect for its victims.
Absolutely necessary read to understand the need for reproductive justice in terms of both the right to abortion and the right to reproduce (in light of how race and class interact with these rights). I've worked at a sexual health clinic and on a psych ward before, and I am so glad to have read this book because it helped me understand how the healthcare system's roots in eugenics impact these practices today. At odds is the utopia's method for controlling reproduction; I really like theory about removing the importance of genes from our cultural understanding of things in order to take power from racism, but the utopia's control of how and when people can have babies struck me as in opposition to the novel's overall anti-eugenics stance. Maybe I'm missing something though.
Can't give a number rating because even though the book deals with gender in a way that is anti-essentialist, creative, and keenly aware of how gender has been used to oppress, Piercy is a TERF (at least as of 2017, and I can't find an apology or disavowal anywhere, please share if it's out there). Super f***ing disappointing.
Whew. I was expecting a standard thriller and this was decidedly NOT that. It was really devastating and I got way more emotionally invested in the characters than I expected to. I'd def recommend it because it's super compelling, just heavier/more heartbreaking than I'd have expected.
2.5ish. Interesting dive into a vortexy, relatable anxiety mind, good length and pacing and story arc.
Spoilers:
—-
—-
Fight club has been an all time fav of mine since high school and it's just really really really hard to match palahniuk at his own game without some serious extremely unique brilliance. Throw in get out and split and it felt like this book couldn't quite match what movies can do for this type of story. And the general vibe of a woman-dates-man-and-gaslights-herself-out-of-taking-seriously-all-red-flags-plus-twist, I'd just have liked something more out of the book. Or at least some more nods towards the book's ancestors if it decided to lean into full amalgam. Reading in a vaccuum though I bet would be really fun. I'm sure I'll watch the movie at some point.
Quick and entertaining, creative, fun, kinda scary. Felt like a Doctor Who Christmas Special x Stephen King in the Library Policeman era. I didn't love The Bone Clocks, and this book was some sort of companion to it, but this one was much less intense and serious and drawn out. You don't need to have read The Bone Clocks to enjoy it.
I don't know anything about physics beyond basic survival body knowledge, so this series was really fun to think about. There are so many concepts that were like a brain massage to learn and think about and try to incorporate into my understanding of the universe (which is part reality and part what I want to be involved). I liked the third book the best because it was the least laggy and the least sexist. This series felt like getting sucked into a story about aliens, then being dunk tanked into a mind blowing ground shifting epiphany about the physics of the world, then more compelling story, then someone else hits the dunk tank target, and on. This book had some really fun fantasy parts and it was cool to see this clearly extremely imaginative sci-fi writer stretch his equally brilliant fantasy/fairy tale muscles. I'd recommend the series if you're up for a time commitment and some minor perceptive reality crises.
Super nuanced and complex exploration of the dilemma of trying to subvert power from within its institutions (and lots of other things too). Felt important and brilliant and I cared about the characters. I have a problem where my mind automatically tunes out war things like it does with sports, even when they're important, so it took me a while to get through. But so good!
Farscape + firefly + a nerdcore, polyam, mildly annoying but lovable queer DND meetup?
This book was so beautiful and wrenching, I don't know how to rate it because how do you rate theory. But also there were some things that left me uneasy in an ethical way, and those are skewing my whole perception of the book.
This book reads much more like YA than like adult fiction. The stories are clever and creative but don't go into much depth.
Clever idea and well-written. Reads a bit like YA. The scope of the overall idea seems at-odds with the story itself; the plot is much smaller than it could have been given the size of the concept of time and space the book rides on.
So so great!! Sometimes when I have an issue I'm working out I think “how would Rachel Harrison translate this into a supernatural situation and then what would be her genius extremely topical and relatable intersectional feminist approach to addressing it” and then I just translate it back to reality and all my problems are solved.
Reads like an engaging thriller, feels like an upsetting but important thought experiment.