ashurredly's reviews
453 reviews

This was fine, but not something I have strong feelings about either good or bad.

The language is very beautiful & the story itself is satisfying. It's a bit slow, although I think that's a strength of the writing but not something I always love as a reader.

This was both very good and EXTREMELY UNSATISFYING. Aaagh.

I enjoyed this a lot - Gomez talks about revisiting Octavia Butler's work as she was writing this novel & I can definitely see the affinity. In some ways, I think this novel is sort of like Butler's Wild Seed would have been if Doro didn't exist. Gilda wants love, wants connection, wants future.

Getting to the chapter on 2020 was jarring and then 2050 was even more so. The imagination of apocalypse written from 1991 contrasted with the reality of the apocalypse in actual 2020 was strange and something I still need to sit with.

This book had me charmed from the first sentence. Will definitely reread.

I don't read much new YA these days - I'm well out of the target age range. But I love fairytale retellings and a retelling of Cinderella with a gay protagonist written by a Black woman wasn't a book I could pass up. Sophia's story isn't one I need now - though I'm glad I read it - but I'm giving it five stars because it would have resonated very strongly with me as a younger reader. Parts, even, still hold true - Sophia thinks at one point that the love of her parents isn't enough and while I have mostly settled my own parent issues, that bit still hit a note.

I've loved Arthurian stories since I was a smol, and am so glad to have stumbled across this book. It's gorgeously written and a great take on memory and love.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. You have to take it with a shaker of salt - Doris even admits that at the end of the book. But I can't be mad at someone who made her living stealing from rich white people and whatever else, I think her love for her mom and her fierce love for independence is real and admirable.