claudyne's reviews
1229 reviews

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for allowing me to read this work prior to its publication date. Set dying COVID lockdown, “Dream Count” is centered around four women grappling with lost love, regrets, sexuality, abuse and identity. It reads like four short stories, but the narrative is woven together seamlessly. “Dream Count” focuses on the many identities women carry, and the expectations that accompany them. 
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The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight

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emotional hopeful slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Penelope crossed the pond to find herself and figure out why her parents broke up. It has a sweet and satisfying conclusion. The novel is a bit of a slow burn, but has friendship, love, and love, which all good coming of age novels should have. 
Private Rites by Julia Armfield

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dark sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

In a not so distant future, it almost never stops raining. Set in England, three sisters are forced to confront their mothers’ abandonment, their father’s cruelty, wealth, their queer identities and the effects of climate change. 
This felt like a slow burn, but feels exactly how current events do. It is as though we are nearing oblivion, but still going to work every day. 
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Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Ebby gets the urge to examine her life when her fiancé leaves her right before their wedding. Blaming her trauma for his apprehensions, Ebby is forced to reconcile her brother’s murder, the loss of a family heirloom, and live with her grief. 
Though I didn’t know enjoyed this novel as much as I enjoyed Wilkerson’s “Black Cake”, I thought this book was timely, and moving. It has great characters and a satisfying ending. 
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Death in the Downline by Maria Abrams

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dark funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Drew was a journalist with a rich boyfriend and a cool place in NYC...until she got fired, her boyfriend dumped her and she wound up back in her sleepy NJ town. The town has been ravaged by drug abuse and unemployment, so opportunities are few. That is, until she runs into her childhood friend and joins a cosmetics company called LuminUS. Things get ugly when one of the “consultants” is murdered.
The story is told from multiple narratives at once with a lot of humor and sensitivity for people who fall for these scams. The book also mentioned that lack of diversity in MLMs and the desire for a homogenous look.
I listened, I laughed and I thought long and hard about MLMs.
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Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

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adventurous emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This novel has everything! From living with disability, tense family dynamics, disappointment, failure, success and authenticity, Okorafor made a novel that touches on all of the human experience through the lens of science fiction. This is one of the best books I’ll read this year! 
Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan

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dark funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Cecile is a teen living with her widower father in Paris. They decide to summer in a villa just outside of the city limits when her father’s love life alters their family dynamic. Because Cecile fears the change an addition to her family could bring, she makes the decisions to interfere in her father’s new relationship. The results are tragic and very screwed up. I hated this trajectory of the plot. It’s obviously well written and only a good book can evoke such emotion, but I’m very ticked off. 
The Life of Herod the Great by Zora Neale Hurston

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reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This manuscript was saved from a fire after Zora Neale Hurston’s death. It tells an alternate story of King Herod as a prosperous king with difficult family dynamics as he tries to live up to his father’s expectations. It’s a refreshing take on an infamous biblical character, written in Hurston’s lively prose. 
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

It's the Summer of 1970 and a 15 year old girl is pregnant. Her boyfriend asks her how she could do this to him, her father can barely look at her, she's sent a way from home and forced to live in a home with other teen mothers until she delivers. Stripped of her name, she is known as "Fern" for her time in the home. There, she meets the homeowner with secrets of her own, tending to her "garden" (she gives all of her charges floral names during their stay). Bored, and swollen, Fern comes across a mysterious book given to her by a kind librarian. Fern learns how powerful the book is, and learns her own power as well. 

Hendrix addresses that homes for "Wayward Girls" were unnecessary after Roe v Wade passed, and it is interesting to read this book at this time in history, pondering the possibility that we may go back to a time when pregnancy is hidden and seen as shameful when it does not take place in heteronormative marriages. The story does have horrific moments, but none more unforgettable and horrific than being treated terribly during one of the most vulnerable times in your life. This novel made me laugh, cry and think- which is exactly what 5 star fiction should do. 
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We lived on the horizon by Erika Swyler

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adventurous dark reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

After humans utterly destroyed the planet, the city of Bulwark arises. Bulwark is governed by founders or “Saints” who live in homes with extensive memories and body martyrs who are born with debts that they seek to pay off by donating parts of their body to Saints. The story centers around Saint Enita Malovis, her lover/friend Anita and Nix. Nix is there home, family and apprentice. Enita made her life’s work building body parts for others, and her life is thrown into upheaval when a body martyr with a damaged leg ends up in her home. 

This book was described as “body horror”, but it seemed like a common sci-fi novel to me as it expressed love and humanity in a dystopian setting. “We Lived on the Horizon” calls the reader to question what it means to have a body, be in love and be of service to others.