okay, i read the first volume, which is more than i did in high school, and i think it's time to admit: that's enoughokay, i read the first volume, which is more than i did in high school, and i think it's time to admit: that's enough...more
- mc compared eyes of his crush to eyes of his mom - mc's friend pulled his pants and underwear down in public, specii got thru 21% of this and so far:
- mc compared eyes of his crush to eyes of his mom - mc's friend pulled his pants and underwear down in public, specifically in front of mc's crush's house - mc admitted to his friend and friend's gf that he never kissed anyone, so the girl kissed him without saying a word about it - and then made the friend kiss him too, which the mc also didn't see coming - it wasn't just a peck, they friench kissed
on top of that, the writing is dry and repetitive, and uninviting in every possible way; the mc seems like a pretentious asshole frankly; someone called a dick a 'snake one caries around'; there's homophobia of the 90s'...
there's a pandemic going on, i do not have time for this ...more
rep: lesbian mc & li, trans side character, gay side character
arc provided by the publisher.
this is all metaphor & no substance. poets writing novrep: lesbian mc & li, trans side character, gay side character
arc provided by the publisher.
this is all metaphor & no substance. poets writing novels don't always succeed and unfortunately this is one of those times. we glide through the pages full of pretty words & we're told a lot of things about the characters and the plot, but there is absolutely nothing underneath it. there is no way to connect to anyone in this book, because none of them are actual people with personalities, just props needed to tell the story.
with that in mind, i don't think i could stomach reading about gay youth being tortured at a conversion camp. we all know how difficult a subject it is & it deserves more care than this book offers.
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I'm devastated by the fact that I won't be able to finish thisI received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I'm devastated by the fact that I won't be able to finish this book & that's for a number of reasons:
1) There's ownvoices sapphic rep here and as a lesbian reader, I'm always interested in that. 2) The cover itself sold me on the book, not gonna lie, it's absolutely gorgeous & I'm in love. 3) The writing is so! good! I only managed about 5% of the book, sure, but what I have read was amazing. The narrative is in first person which usually is a turn off for me, but here it works perfectly. I already adore Hetty and it's been just a few moments.
So what's up? Why am I dropping this book instead of marveling in the great prose till the end?
Well, you see... I was aware that Wilder Girls was described from the very start as body horror, but somehow I thought "hey, that's nothing!". Somehow I thought I can handle it, while I can't even look at my own arm when I'm donating blood at the hospital.
Turns out, I really can't!!!!
It seems like a genuinely good book! I'm just a weak baby and I'm so, so sorry about that. I wish it wasn't so. ...more
there are embarrassing characters and then there is noah. there's cringe worthy writing and then there is..... this. whatever it is. god not even skimthere are embarrassing characters and then there is noah. there's cringe worthy writing and then there is..... this. whatever it is. god not even skim-reading helps..... life is just too short my guys...more
i managed to get thru one (1) chapter of this & i really don't care what kind of journey this story will end up being bc in the first chapter our mc ai managed to get thru one (1) chapter of this & i really don't care what kind of journey this story will end up being bc in the first chapter our mc and narrator already said: 1) that he has a disease NOT depression 2) that he WOULD change into a straight person if only he could 3) that having ur heart broken in high school is WORSE than being an orphan and suffering life-long abuse from ur caretakers
there's a lot to unpack here guys in this one single chapter and life is rly just too short...more
@ bryn greenwood fucking turn on ur location u piece of shit i just WANNA FIGHT U TO THE DEATH
what the everloving FUCK is wrong w every single person @ bryn greenwood fucking turn on ur location u piece of shit i just WANNA FIGHT U TO THE DEATH
what the everloving FUCK is wrong w every single person who read this """"love story"""" btwn an EIGHT YEARS OLD CHILD and an adult and liked it????? how gross can u fucking be jesus christ im gonna puke
anyway quotes from this absolute garbage if u wanna argue with me lmao
Three months spending every day in the same room with child molesters and rapists. The whole thing gave me a creeping dread of myself, but I didn't have to lie in the exit interview. Do you still have sexual fantasies about young girls? they asked. No. I never had. I thought about Wavy a hundred times a day, but Wavy was Wavy, not some young girl.
"If Wavy showed up tomorrow, I'd do it all over again. I loved her the first time I saw her and I still do." "Love at first sight, huh? How old was she?" "Eight."
Wavy was almost as small as she'd been at thirteen. She was all long legs and narrow in the hips. Her tits were perfect, but not even big enough to fill my mouth, let alone my hands. She hadn't hardly grown at all. Did it make me a pervert that I still thought she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen? Did it make me less of a pervert that twenty and thirteen looked the same on her?
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Oh boy. This is not a book for everyone. It clearly wasn't forI received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Oh boy. This is not a book for everyone. It clearly wasn't for me. And I don't mean because of the story - that's actually really cool - but because of the writing. We get this weird, old-fashion omniscent narration (think that's were our story begins & I will tel you now about our protagonist) & it's the kind you have to like in order to enjoy and be able to read a whole book written like that. I don't. For me, reading this was like listening to a drunk, male relative at a boring family gathering, who doesn't make any sense & doesn't know what he's talking about himself but who really loves the sound of his own voice. So, my worst nightmare basically.
I'm really sorry about this since I was actually so excited about this book. I mean, a Jewish retelling of "Pride and Prejudice" with a trans leading guy! A dream coming true! And yet... I know forcing myself to read something that makes me roll my eyes every 3 seconds will only end with me hating the story alltogether......more
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
God, this is such a it's not you, it's me book for me & no oneI received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
God, this is such a it's not you, it's me book for me & no one is more disappointed than me... Have you read the synopsis? A groundhog day kinda plot with extra paranormal elements AND a murder mystery! I was so excited for this one!!
And yet, I barely got through 1/4 of the book & not even the promise of getting some answers at the end is enough to make me finish it. The writing just killed it for me. Now, like I said, I'm sure there will be countless readers who won't find this a flaw at all. But. We get a first person point of view here and on top of that - present tense. That's a combo I can personally only deal with in the very best fics. This is not one of those. It's not even very best. It's mediocre and boring and the writing choices did nothing to help it. It's so very, very clear from like the first page, that this book is written by a guy & that the main character is a guy & its only saving grace is that the words "well, actually" aren't in the text anywhere. (Yet.)
I wanted to love The Seven Death of Evelyn Hardcastle so much but I just don't have the patience for it......more
I received a galley from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I decided not to finish Space Mac not because of bad writinI received a galley from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I decided not to finish Space Mac not because of bad writing (I’d say it’s simply mediocre) but because the gay rep - the reason I wanted to pick it up in the first place - was questionable at best.
So basically the story is as follows: our protagonist is a sex worker & thanks to some mysterious pin he finds at a client’s place, he gets send to space. Now, that sounds great, right? I thought so too. But then we properly meet Mac and it turns out all he thinks about is either how hot he is or that he wants to have sex. Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with having a healthy sex drive but when I’m made to read about that on literally every second page? Something just isn’t right. Smells a lot like reducing gay men to just sex (or, in even simpler terms, fetishization)...
You may think I’m just a prude lesbian so let’s take a look at some quotes, shall we. Those are literally from the first half of the same chapter, barely a few pages apart. And for context, please remember that Mac is in SPACE surrounded by ALIENS with only a very vague plan on how he can possibly come back to Earth.
“I’m not religious. I fuck everything with a pulse—and I get paid for it—I drink; I used to smoke. I don’t pray, and I curse like a sailor. But all this—” He waved a hand at the stars. “—makes me think there might be something else out there after all. A god, I mean, looking down on Earth. I think I’ll pretty much believe anything now.”
He busied himself with trying on his clothes and then styling his hair and preening himself. When he grew bored with that, he picked up his gun and admired it. It was made of a sleek, black metal, and Mac realised it looked more like a sex toy than a gun. Will I ever have sex again? He’d have to find himself a sexy alien, and it’d have to be kovan if he wanted it to look human. He didn’t fancy Lenara or Ral’s species much. He thought about Teevar.
Maybe there are fans of writing like this out there but it’s just really not for me, thanks. ...more
i received an arc from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
i was excited abt this book bc the blurb promised that 1) theri received an arc from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
i was excited abt this book bc the blurb promised that 1) there's a fake marriage trope & 2) victor is gender fluid. (i see now that this part isn't in the blurb anymore? which... interesting)
it didn't deliver on any of the fronts. i mean, there is the fake marriage thing yeah, but it's not enough to make u want to suffer through this.
there was so much info-dumping in just the first chapter i never would have even imagined it possible. the writing is awkward and basically feels like the author's first work which it clearly isn't. everything is fake and over the top, and just not able to convey any emotions at all. and then u have the way the author writes gay men...
so the book literally starts w one of the main characters describing the other as a "wet dream" & if that isn't bad enough for u, it goes on to talk abt sex for like 3/4 of the first chapter alone. obviously all gay people want to do is sleep w each other. thanks. there was some awkward lip biting while ogling the other man, lowkey foot fetish & generally just so much embarrassing rubbish! i'm just glad i dropped this book before the first sex scene because i rly don't think i could handle it...
as for victor being gender fluid - honestly, the main selling point for me - all we got was that he wears make up sometimes? and is like, not overly masculine? whoever was advertising this book, really didn't do their job very well.
so anyway. as a book w lgbt rep, this is a joke to me. as a sports romance, it's just very much mediocre....more
i received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
oh boy, i've been waiting for this book for like 5 months!! i wi received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
oh boy, i've been waiting for this book for like 5 months!! i was so excited!! i mean, come on, it doesn't get better than gay pirates. it can get worse, tho.
if u've ever read even one sapphic book abt pirates - especially if it was published a few years ago - u know this very particular feel they have. it's kind of hard to describe in a single word but it pretty much boils down to choppy, rushed writing, making sure everything is properly gritty & bloody and putting in sex scenes straight from a harlequin. the unbinding of mary reade gives off that exact vibe from the very first page.
so i was wary of this right from the start. unfortunately. but then we finally meet anne bonny!! if we can call her that... listen, the anne we see here? she runs around the ship in a dress with laces, claps her hands & laughs when she's excited abt something, specifically asks for romantic stories bc she apparently loves hearing them, drapes herself all over jack for the whole crew to see... i know black sails isn't exactly the holy bible of characterization of real ppl but at the same time - this anne is literally the polar opposite of what we saw on the show. it's so hard to take seriously the image of anne this book is trying to conjure, i rly had to give up on it. (maybe it would be easier if the writing was Great but it's barely mediocre)
and one last thing bc it's so absurd i can't not talk abt it. the narrative is in the present & in flashbacks and we get a chapter of each intertwined for the whole book. now the thing is, they rly used a whole different font for the flashbacks... i guess in case we forgot what it is we're reading? thanks for that vote of confidence. ...more
I received a galley from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
** I'm still grossed out a year later wow.
I saw the cover thI received a galley from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
** I'm still grossed out a year later wow.
I saw the cover that makes the guys look like manga characters & I ignored that sign. I should have known better. But I wanted to give this book a benefit of a doubt because there were so many positive reviews! So many people loved the romance! So I thought "hey, maybe that cover will make sense in the end". It doesn’t. It only gets worse from there.
It gets so bad I actually stopped reading at 65% because I just couldn’t take it anymore.
I probably would be able to overlook all the other flaws I found in this one, if it wasn’t for its biggest issue - the fetishisation of Japanese culture. The main point of this book, the thing that it couldn’t exist without at all, are indeed the references to Japanese culture. It’s everywhere: in the setting, in the way the characters interact, in the plotlines. It’s rooted in the book so deeply, it would fall apart without it.
So this is a story about students at a made-up college but the catch is - it’s a college founded by a Japanese culture "admirers". The town’s name is fictional - Takaketo - and don’t quote me on this but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t actually mean anything. It just vaguely sounds Japanese. There are hidden shrines on campus! The uni publishes a manga that our main character draws! (A manga drawn by an American, in America… So not actually a manga at all.) Both Xander & Skylar (the main characters) love manga and anime and have some interest in Japanese culture, but it’s extremely superficial.
And another kicker: there are no Japanese characters! The only one was a late husband of Xander’s landlady and she, an American, is the one "teaching" about the culture she so clearly knows everything about.
Listen, I say this from a perspective of a white woman who is interested in Japan, took classes on some aspects of its culture and history at uni, studied Japanese for a few years - and even from where I’m standing, this is just gross. They pick and choose from the culture as it pleases them. Xander & Skylar randomly speak Japanese in times of distress or as some kind of romantic gesture, but keep in mind: only Xander ever took any Japanese lessons. And they don’t have whole conversation in another language, no, they just tuck in a word or two at the end of their very English sentences. Or just use Japanese to say "I’m sorry" because what? It’s more meaningful that way? They also think of their relationship in terms of anime a lot, which is just honestly weird. It’s straight up fetishisation and even as someone with very little ties to Japan, it made me uncomfortable.
Listen, you wanna write a book appreciating Japanese culture? Make your main characters Japanese, set the whole thing in Japan, find literally any reason other than "it’s kinda cute". But making your character say things like "Arakawa-sensei"? Not the way. God, even if this was a Japanese book, sensei would be translated into English! Another country’s culture is not a prop to make your story more interesting! There are teens on the internet, first discovering anime, who behave this way & I can excuse them, based on their age, but an adult, a published author? A big fat no from me.
There’s also the fact of asexuality being one of the most important themes of the book. One of our main characters is a gray ace and the book is pretty much his journey to become comfortable with himself. It ticked me the wrong way a lot of the time, but personally I’m nowhere on the spectrum, so I’d rather not give opinions. There are a few reviews by actual members of the community so check those out instead!
What I will say though is that Xander hears this voice in his head. A voice that tells him how to handle Skylar, how to act around him and it’s always the opposite of what his desires and instinct tell him. Still, his friend Zelda actually calls this voice an instinct. What I would call it is some fucked up "ace superpower". Because of course Xander can’t be anything less than the knight in shining armor, accepting Skylar as he is, demanding nothing & basically being a gift from heaven. The only one on earth.
You worry that both main characters are white? Don’t fret! There is a chronically ill Latina who is in maybe 3 scenes & a poor Black guy who chose this uni because he saw Obama speak at campus. Two whole poc that are basically just names and a lousy story. Now doesn’t that make you feel better about the representation!
Onto the less important stuff!! If this was a fic, I wouldn’t have read more than a few paragraphs. You know how with fics you just know when the writing isn’t right for you? Well this was a case of that, but I kept thinking it’s a book so slightly different rules apply, maybe it will get better over time. It didn’t. The writing is just… not very good. All the descriptions are way too detailed - like, come on! I really don’t need to know he washed his bowl after eating instant ramen! - and they’re not written interestingly enough, aren’t funny or charming, or surprising enough that you can overlook this.
And it doesn’t get better with dialogues. If anything, it only get worse. Honestly, it feels like the author has never actually met a young person. They all speak in whole speeches and use words and phrases like "congruent" or "vastly different", or "wet dream". I mean. Seriously? They don’t act like 21-year-olds either. For the love of god, one of them admits he can’t look up manga translations online without getting a virus. And has a phone with a stylus! That he actually uses! Which brings me right to my next point.
Are you sure this book is set in 2017? Because there are references to the last presidential elections & we can’t draw any other conclusion. But then we have a smartphone with a stylus. And another character’s flip phone? Like where would he even get one?! Xander is also apparently named after Buffy’s Xander but he’s 21 years old and Buffy started airing in March of 1997 so unless this is set in the future… They also mention DeviantART which I’m pretty sure no one has used since like 2007 but okay. How hard is it to make some proper research?
This book is praised as a romance and yeah, those parts of the story are pretty okay-ish. The two main characters are well developed and I would actually really like them in a different book. One that isn’t gross and doesn’t make me wanna punch people....more
im mostly trying to repress this garbage book tbh but i read some good, ownvoices reviews by romanians recently highlighting all the ways in which "reim mostly trying to repress this garbage book tbh but i read some good, ownvoices reviews by romanians recently highlighting all the ways in which "rep" in this is fucked up so im gonna link those: here & here & here (sadly this one got deleted, i can only assume due to peer pressure...)
and as a side note, that's the review that helped me realise it's not worth it to try & finish the book...more
listen, i tried. i had high hopes. but i rly can't take any more of those awkward stiff unnatural dialogues & the angst being shoved down my throat wlisten, i tried. i had high hopes. but i rly can't take any more of those awkward stiff unnatural dialogues & the angst being shoved down my throat w/o making me care abt the characters first...more
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