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coolfoolmoon's reviews
313 reviews

Iola Leroy, Or Shadows Uplifted by Frances E.W. Harper

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

3.0

An interesting peak into the state of America / Black America a hundred years ago. I don't feel that the one drop rule has the same weight as it used to for obvious reasons that are partially predicted in the book. Harper couldn't account for the burgeoning Black bourgeoisie era that was on the horizon, which leads to a lack of recognition of the one drop rule today, but also not really. I mention that because the book doesn't have the same weight to me as someone who's viewing these characters as white people. They are described as pretty and beautiful, straight up with pale white skin and blue eyes and fair hair. The term for them is octoroons. At least two characters are told to just assimilate as it'll be easier and they wouldn't have to explain things, and I understand why they didn't but 160ish years removed from that era, it's just not relevant or a question anymore. Maybe in some areas. I also mention all this because it's harder for me to have sympathy for the troubles whites go through, and in this current era those people are white, because in that era they were so white they were told to assimilate! It seems like I'm erasing their stories but I honestly went into this book hoping for a story where a Black author let Black people shine and multiple pages / chapters are dedicated to showing and telling the audience that the darker skinned Black people were uneducated, ignorant, and come from heathen / pagan / non-Christian ancestry. These things are what give it a low rating for me. The writing is pretty smooth and beautiful even with it being older, which is usually hard for me to read, but the Black bourgeois era was probably finding its footing when this book was written and published. Many if those ideas still plague the community to this day.

Also it was weirdly anti-alcohol. Like in a preachy way. Clearly written before the Prohibition era. I'm a person who is very anti-alcohol myself and even I was like ew don't tell me what to do.
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American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

Maybe the real Psychos were the Americans we made along the way...

A book is bad when I have to question what purpose it served humanity. I am a person who fundamentally believes that all art can be made with no reason or goal in mind; art for art's sake; art because the person who made it felt something, felt they had to get it out, felt they had something to share with the world. I read this book because I wanted to watch the movie, yes I'm that kind of person, and I wish I could unread it. What purpose did this book serve to the greater good of humanity? Fuck the greater good, what contribution to humanity does this book give? It has no analysis, no deeper introspection into the era, the mindset of the people. There's no meat on the bone that is this book.

It has its moments and its beauty, for sure. I love the stream of consciousness and unreliable narration, I love the speaking to the audience, the break rom reality and seeing things in the perspective of a movie, sure. Those elements are great. But as a whole? I never question why art is made. There's art I like and art I don't like. It's easy for me to spot art I like, It's easy for me to spot art I don't like, and there are definitely things that lie in a middle grey area, but for all three of those things I almost never question why it was made. It's an inherently fascist idea to say art should have a purpose else it is a waste of time or attention but this is one of the few exceptions I've encountered. The movie better be good after the shit I just read.

And to be clear, I'm not just mad at the content of the book. It was very upsetting sure, but
about a quarter in is when you get to the first kill and it's mentioned nonchalant. So you read almost 100 pages and finally get to the part you came for.
Most of this book is a whole lot of nothing. It works, only because that's the style of this particular type of writing, but once the kills start to ramp up it's like Oh, you wasted my time, and now this is TOO intense. And I'm sure the whiplash was also purposeful, and I'm starting to get a little too nitpicky, but there are things that are more important / could have been more central to the plot that were not given any spotlight.

I tried to find it in my heart to give it a higher rating, I really did, but I can't lie to my future self who will reread this review and go "damn, the book was that bad?" Hi, future self. To answer your question: No. The book was much worse.
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Gone Wolf by Amber McBride

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dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense 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? Yes

3.5

I had very conflicting feelings about the first section of the book. It's a good way to teach kids about fascism and the horros of American history, and present day honestly, but many of the elements left me feeling sour toward it.

Then I read the next section. Things made a lot more sense.

Despite not liking it at first, this would've been the perfect book for me around this age. It would've warped my little brain, I would've been obsessed with it, I know it.
Some / many of the ideas and characters were irresponsible concepts to have children read about until you get to Black and you learn the story is actually coming from a 12 year old girl trying to make sense of the world. My opinion changed because this was the same stuff going on in my 8 to 12 year old mind. Outside of that context, my opinion on the book would've been bad / worse.


The writing is good and I didn't feel like it talked down to the target age range, more like it met them where they were, which I appreciate.
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Big Panda and Tiny Dragon by Insight Editions, James Norbury

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adventurous hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

3.75

I read this pretty quick as my last book of the year, but it's something closer to a page a day kind of book. Little lessons, bigger picture. Beautiful art.
La Oruga Muy Hambrienta/The Very Hungry Caterpillar: Bilingual Board Book by Eric Carle

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informative lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Instante clásico del barrio.
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One Hundred and One Famous Poems by Walter Scott, Alice Gary, Edward Lear, Alfred Tennyson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Phillips Brooks, Lord Byron, Francis William Bourdillon, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Sidney Lanier, William Ernest Henley, Thomas Hood, James Whitcomb Riley, Alexander Anderson, Henry Holcomb Bennett, John Milton, Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Herbert Carruth, Edward R. Sill, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Robert Burns, William Wordsworth, Ellen H. Gates, Francis Miles Finch, Joaquin Miller, Sam Walter Foss, Roy Jay Cook, Henry Van Dyke, Walt Whitman, John McCrae, Frank L. Stanton, Rudyard Kipling, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Burroughs, Thomas Gray, John James Ingalls, Edgar Allan Poe, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Edmund Vance Cooke, Alan Seeger, John Greenleaf Whittier, Emily Dickinson, James Russell Lowell, Maltbie Davenport Babcock, William Cullen Bryant, William Shakespeare, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Eugene Field, Leigh Hunt, Thomas Buchanan Read, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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adventurous challenging informative inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.25

First I must admit I didn't read all the poems. I found this book in a secondhand store with a note from someone written in 1961, given as a gift, and I thought it'd be nice to see what poems were considered famous a hundred years ago. As expected, maybe 90% of the poems are by men, and call me a man hating lesbian if you want but I just don't think men have anything interesting or note worthy to say. If the poem wasn't about war, it was about the sea, or death, or the love of their country. Not even the nature of the country, like love of fellow countrymen and patriotism. These things don't appeal to me but I don't like to DNF books so I stuck it through, skipping ones that were too long or I got the gidst of it by skimming. I recgonized a few of the poems, maybe 5 to 10 total, so that was interesting.
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Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I've never read a book where the characters are gay and it's not central to the plot and have that book be anything less than 4.5 stars. Gay for no reason! Gay people being people who also happen to be gay!

I'm clawing at reasons not to give this 5 stars. The best books leave me speechless in my reviews, and this is one of them despite the fact I do have a lil sum sum to say. There's something about it that left me hovering just under 5 stars. M's section alone is worth 5 stars for sure, but for the others I was like oh this book is a 4.25, 4.5, and then M blew it out the park. I love books that leave me with an empty lingering feeling in the pit of my stomach. What an excellent writer. Such beautiful descriptions. I left this book hungry and enjoyed my meal. As a person with an unhealthy, complicated relationship with food, know that's quite a task. And then the story? W O W . I love when families ❤️ There's truly layers to this. And it was so hard renting this from my li rary it doesn't seem to stay on the shelves, FOR GOOD REASON !!! I WILL be buying it.
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The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Very respectful of people with different minds. Very kind. Very well reseaeched into the intersections of people's lives and how their mental illnesses or impairities can / may be affected by outside factors. Very very, very real, living, loving book. 🥰 
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Home by Toni Morrison

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Very fast read. Would've been faster if I didn't have finals rn. Wonderful writing as always. I just couldn't resonate with this one.
I know the takeaway isn't "War is so bad it can briefly turn you into a pedophile" but that's all I keep thinking. :/
If not for that my rating may have been a little higher.

Side note unrelated to my review mostly just related to my observing of Toni Morrison's books, so many of her female characters are ambivalent or numb towards sex. I wonder why that is.
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You're Invited by Amanda Jayatissa

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

4.0

If "Now you ain't hear this from me..." was a book. If a telenovela was set in Sri Lanka. I'm sure they have a word for it. As always, rich people are evil. 
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