#Just finished reading

[butahumbleguest]

Anyone got show/book recs featuring a cagey guy that mostly wears suits? Does a lot of planning and/or scheming? Crime preferred but not required

[princess-snow-wolf]

Super short description of The Sun and the Star

A Rouge and a Healer walk into Tartarus, and they were boyfriends.

[queer-reader-07]

god trans lit is life changing

[lover-praxis]

my toxic trait is that i’ll ignore content warnings on books and then have the audacity to be shocked when they contain the content warned about

[sillyengineerperson]

fuck.

i need to stop reading books that make me cry

[justfinishedreading]

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez

Set mostly in modern Buenos Aires, this is a collection of 12 gothic stories, disturbing and often horrific. They’re very short but poignant, focusing on the uglier qualities of human emotion; selfishness, greed, jealousy, apathy and so on, wrapped up in strange supernatural occurrences. I can admire them for the quality of the imagery conjured, but there is an ugliness to them that left me with an unpleasant feeling throughout. They’re like modern day fairytales for bitter adults who are disgusted with life. This blog is a little bit of a reading journal for me, and these reviews help me remember past books and what I felt about them, I was tempted to write up a brief description of each story to jog my memory in the future but in truth I don’t particularly want to revisit these tales.

P.S I love the cover. 

Review by Book Hamster

[snowflakesoliloquy]

She's not sorry by Mary Kubica

5 ⭐

Review below

This was a reread, I originally listened to the audiobook in 2024. At the end of the month, I decided to read the hardcover. I started the book January 29th and finished today February 1st.

I knocked down my currently reading from 7 down to 6 and now I'm almost halfway through The Name Drop.

January was a weird month and my reading choices reflect that. Got laid off from my job December 31st, then having a depressive episode, then getting unbelievably sick for a little over a week during the Tik Tok ban and then the unban which did affect me as I have so many great connections on that app. Then after the unban and me recovering I went into a manic episode. I realized I was having a manic episode and took steps to manage it. Then, I had therapy at the end of January and then that therapy helped me stick up for myself in a fight with my roommate that same day (he admitted I was right and apologized. Vindication!). And that was just January!

After I finished The Loudest Silence by Sydney Langford I couldn't decide if I wanted to read something fun and whimsical like Dallergut Dream Department Store or if I wanted something that's almost exactly an allegory for the current world like Rising: Birthright of scars and then when I thought I made a decision, I would try to read and I would end up easily distracted.

So I tried an audiobook; The Name Drop by Susan Lee and I was being way too harsh on what's a cute prince and the pauper retelling in modern New York.

So I borrowed a hardcover thriller from the library that I had listened to on audiobook last year and that was absolutely the right choice. After finishing this book, I almost immediately resumed the audiobook The Name Drop by Susan Lee and I'm actually enjoying the listen now. She's Not sorry really helped me reset on my reading journey.

I enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed listening to it last year. It was nice to look up the words I didn't understand in real time as I just glossed over them when I listened to the book. HarperCollins could have done better in editing as there were a few egregious typos and grammatical errors but not enough to hinder my enjoyment of the book and I fault the editor and publisher as it feels the author put a lot of care into the book. I debated knocking the rating down because of this but ultimately decided against it as I really enjoyed the book and the misprints weren't enough to deter me from enjoying the book.

What makes this book so great is something I can only share by spoiling it. If you like thrillers with multiple concurring plot threads then I'd say it's a pretty safe bet you'll like this book. If you have any interest in reading this book, I urge you to not read this review any further as this will be a spoiler filled review. You've been warned.

The events in the book are presented out of order and I didn't put the pieces together that it's out of order until halfway through the book. I don't think this book would have the same oomph without that narrative choice. Rereading it and vaguely remembering that, I still felt the gut punch at the reveal.

I really enjoy how every character is presented as flawed and how everyone has their own secrets and ulterior motives. And for most people in this book their motives are not murderous, but they're just sinister enough that everyone's intentions move the plot further.

I like how this book takes Meghan's fears in the first half of the book and you think she's just concerned for her own safety because there's a masked assailant on the loose and there's odd people showing up with odd connections to her ICU patient. I have really disliked most of the thrillers I've read lately but this is one I enjoyed last year and I enjoyed it again this year. Absolutely 5 stars. So glad I decided to revisit this book. I'm feeling really hopeful for my reading journey in February.

[starchaser1961]

Wesper! Sorry its blurry😭. By me!

inspired by the ship name Guns & Dynamite

[justanothadeadbloginthevoid]

Leafpool dying really did feel like a passing of the old guard

[thelifeofniy]

i quite literally couldn't put this novel down!

my mind was constantly going on forming then changing opinions about the characters and trying to make predictions about how the plot would unfold. the ambiguous ending especially kept my mind turning. truly not what i was expecting from the title, but now i understand its significance. this was totally a read within my true crime niche.

would read more from this author.

goodreads

[cursedauxiliary]

[clockworkbee]

I love reading parting scenes between characters just as much as v. e. schwab loves writing them. Loved it in Shades of Magic, loved it in Villains, and loved the pattern in This Savage Song.

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

What in God's holy name is wrong with these characters (awestruck)

[holographings]

someone on twitter said Imagine what s2 jayce would give to talk to s1 viktor just one more time. and someone had a time travel alternate dimension fic ready to go. and i read it. and now my face is being eaten by 3750 feral dogs i think

[justfinishedreading]

My Wondering Warrior Existence by Nagata Kabi

Warning: Spoilers Trigger Warning: Mention of Sexual Abuse

When I saw the cover I freaked out: she (maybe ‘they’, the author’s not quite clear on this yet) couldn’t possibly be getting married, last I’d heard Nagata Kabi had written about recovering from alcoholism and had yet to have her first proper romantic relationship.

Turns out at the start of the manga Nagata had gone to a friend’s wedding and felt overwhelming joy at the general happiness of the event, leading her to want to experience the joy of a wedding, but without an actual marriage. Cue a specialist fake-wedding photo shoot, where you can hire a wedding dress and get your picture taken as a bride. Now for all of us more “clued in” we might think how silly, it is not a wedding dress or a party that creates that real feeling of happiness, the genuine feeling of love emitting from a couple and the pride their family feels. And yet how many of us are seduced by the glamour and dream-like nature of a wedding, ignoring relationship issues in favour of an opportunity to wear a wedding dress and have that ONE special day?

Perhaps a fake bride photo shoot isn’t silly at all, perhaps it’s genius, it’s genius for those that can separate their desire to wear a beautiful gown from those that have the main intention of legally cementing a relationship. Power to those that can see through the consumerist crap about romance and understand that what they are really finding attractive is the dress, the flowers, the engagement ring, the special day, and so on. Not the marriage, the everyday mundane relationship stuff.

Unfortunately, the author isn’t quite there in the understanding of all of the above, she starts off by believing that the photo shoot will bring similar happiness to that of a wedding with genuine love between the couple, friends and family, but it does not, then throughout the book she discovers that real love does exist, she thought it was all a collective illusion. A lot of confusion basically.

Now speaking from personal experience I have often wondered whether true romantic love really exists, and whether it can exist long-term, having no real examples of happy long relationships in my family, so like the author, who also comes from a family with unhappy couples, I can understand the questioning of the existence of real love. However while I’ve come to the conclusion that it can exist and long-term too, love simply takes many form throughout a couple’s life, Nagata Kabi on the other hand is still stuck on understanding that first stage of love, that intense attraction love. To her all the words of love songs, and love stories were assumed to be artificial.

There are other things I can identify with, like Nagata Kabi when I first set up an online dating profile in my early 20s, my profile was perhaps “too honest” in presenting my negative qualities, not to the extent that Nagata Kabi has gone to, but over the years I have seen a lot of profiles like that, of people who are insecure and feel the need to highlight everything that they feel is bad right at the start. It’s a sort of self-defence strategy; before you confront me with my failings, I’m going to list them all, and if you initial accept them then that’s resolved. Things aren’t like that, what we think as our worst failings are not necessarily what others are going to think are our worst faults. Nagata is taking a step forward in setting up an online dating profile, but taking two steps back by writing an overly negative profile of herself which she believes will discourage anyone from reaching out to her.

That’s point one. Point two is her surprise that people, lots of people did reply to her profile. Why? Because some people just want to get laid and don’t care if they like the other person or not. Because some people don’t really read the profiles and instead just send generic messages to everyone they come across. Because some people will read an insecure person’s profile and not take the issues seriously, imagining that the person is simply insecure, and with their help this insecure person will cheer right up. And lastly because some people do relate to what’s in the profile and genuinely think meeting up is worth a try.

The first third of the manga is relatable to me on a personal level. The second third is very sad to read, the author discusses being molested by a stranger as a child, and the attitudes of those around her that made her feel responsible for being a victim, in particular teachers using the assault year after year as a warning to other children, bringing it up in classrooms and assemblies. This is only described in about 5 pages but says a lot about it in a very straightforward way.

After that section there’s a lot of over-thinking about the nature of romantic relationships and the hurdles stopping the author from pursuing a relationship: lack of faith in people, trying to figure out what’s her type when she’s never really gone out with anyone, trying to figure out her gender, her sexual orientation and so on. While it’s good to think about these things, and this book will help a lot of like-minded people, thinking will only take you so far with certain things. For example 4 books after My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness (published 2016, My Wandering Warrior Existence published 2020), the author is still not sure what her sexual orientation is, now of course everyone is figuring themselves out at different speeds, the author does not owe us an answer about her sexuality, but perhaps instead of more thinking it might be helpful for Nagata to meet different types of people, to interact with them, spend time with them, and through social experience help figure out what her type or types are.

I think a good, honest thing that the author has done is to dedicate a chapter to a letter a reader wrote to her, it explains attraction and love, and since these are concepts that the author herself is working to understand she’s decided to simply share what this reader wrote to her. A lot of what is explained of love and romantic relationships can seem like common sense to the majority of us, but I’m sure there are a lot of people, perhaps who are autistic, neurodivergent or lack experience, or are asexual or many other things that I don’t yet know about, that will really appreciate this book, the explanations, and identify with the author’s struggles.

The manga does end with a few points that even the most ‘with it’ person often fails to realize, such as you need to love yourself first before you’re able to love others, if you bully yourself you learn that behaviour and you may end up bullying other people, be it a partner or even children and friends.  

And then there’s the importance of children in a family, children bring joy to a family, as family members get older and grumpier, more disillusioned or tired with life, seeing children react with joy and wonder at all that is new to them can invigorate the mood of the family. As the author considers this and her guilt for not providing her parents with grandchildren I am grateful for her mother’s interjection: grandchildren don’t automatically fix everything. She gives an example of an acquaintance who doesn’t have a satisfying relationship with her grandson… and Nagata’s mother comments that a dog would be cuter than a grandchild. While that may seem shocking to some people, the thing to take away from that is that not every human is meant to be a parent, nor every parent makes a good grandparent.

The manga ends on a happy note, although to many it may seem like nothing much happened, and the revelations the author reached aren’t particularly special, and to me it did feel at the time like perhaps the book was written to stretch out the success of the previous books, but without much to say. It fares better on a second reading, for some of the reasons I’ve already discussed, it’s a good book and a comfort to those who find it difficult to understand love, relationships and attraction on a basic level, and it is a reminder to all of us that life is not lived out in the simple plot of a story, when an author writes something autobiographic we should not expect all issues to be neatly tied up, we should not expect for questions about the nature of love to automatically result in a marriage by the end of the book… or by the end of book 5.

Review by Book Hamster

[bluismie]

This is my love letter to the most beautiful ship I witnessed this year. Cheers to us Jayvik nation 💫