Scan barcode
curiouslykatt's reviews
1086 reviews
Men Have Called Her Crazy by Anna Marie Tendler
dark
fast-paced
1.5
“Given what Anna describes as negative experiences with men she seems to have to some extent demonized men in general.”
Doctor I’d have to agree and as a woman who supports women’s rights and women’s wrongs, this is an absolute no for me.
We know the men have menned, that’s a fact of life. It happens every hour of every day in every crevice of life. But there’s a difference between being able to acknowledge trying to navigate a men’s world as anything other than a man is often really hard, versus blanket blaming men for bad decisions likely linked to the fact you spent your teen years and young adulthood raw dogging life, trying to manage mental illness with no therapy or pharmaceutical assistance.
AMT willingly checked herself into a psychiatric hospital in 2021, her marriage was ending, she was self harming, and her eating disorder was destroying her body. Men Have Called Her Crazy is AMT’s story of her time in the hospital as well as her “breakthrough” moments of when all the men in her past have wronged her and lead her to the breaking point of 2021. There’s a level of phoniness I couldn’t get past. AMT openly admits throughout this memoir that she was not emotionally or financially stable enough to exist independently from the men she time and time again went after (or fell for) and ending up allowing them to support her because she was unwilling or unable to do it herself.
You will not find one ounce of accountability in this “breakthrough” memoir, it was trying to be Girl Interrupted and loudly feminist, while ultimately being a manic pixie girl nightmare and a collection of juvenile tumblr posts with some editorial polishing.
Her Orc Blacksmiths by Zoe Ashwood
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
4.0
“Houses are always changing. Coats of paint. Rows of laminate. Rolls of carpet. They cover up a home’s stories and secrets, rendering them silent until someone comes along to reveal them.”
What a perfect choice for the ‘ber month reads. Creepy houses, haunted houses, ghosts roaming the halls. All some of my absolute favourite horror elements.
Maggie Holt is retuning to a house she thought she’d never see again. The house she lived in briefly as a child, the same house her family fled from in terror after only being inside for a few weeks. It’s also the house that to a degree ruined her life and defined who she is. Her father wrote of their experiences in the house of horrors and Maggie has had to carry that baggage with her for her whole life.
Sager layers Maggie’s current stay at the house with chapters from her father’s book, and I’m an absolute sucker for multi time line stories with differing POVs. Characters from Maggie’s past are still kicking around town and curious to see what she is up to by taking up residence in the hallowed halls.
This one kept me guessing right until the end, I will admit it to probably went a half twist too far but it was still a fun read and had me questions which ghosts are real.
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
“Fear of the dark. Until I came here, I thought that was for children; that you grew out of it. But it never really goes away. It’s always there underneath. The oldest fear of all.”
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver came highly recommended to me as a great isolation horror. If you know me and my reading, I love isolation horror because when you think you’re alone, you’re not. I also love the psychological aspect of isolation horror where your mind starts to play tricks and paranoia can quickly spiral.
Told over a series of journal entries we join Jack and crew to an expedition to the Arctic. The men remind me of the real life 1967 Denali climbing crew, brawny and moderately brainy in their own rights, but ultimately not equipped for the task at hand. Given that this is a horror story, well they weren’t ready for the trek.
Paver before this one book wrote more YA content and this was her first attempt at adult fiction and frankly it shows she’s specializes in YA. I wasn’t overly impressed with this one and it felt like a whole lot of nothing. I spent the vast majority of the time being really worried about the dogs.
This would be a good intro horror for people who aren’t ready for full terror stories and for readers who appreciate epistolary novels for that additional personal level feeling of found footage. Paver does deliver solid atmospheric elements, but as someone who lives in a region of the world where we can get to minus 40 degrees and it’s dark for two thirds of the day, it felt like a regular winter Wednesday.
A Sign of Affection, Omnibus 1 (Vol. 1-3) by suu Morishita
funny
lighthearted
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? No
4.5
By far the sweetest, most wholesome manga I’ve read in awhile. I refuse to accept anyone can read this without kicking their feet, giggling and just having the warm fuzzy feelings.
Yuki and Itsuomi are both college kids, she’s deaf and he’s a multi-lingual world traveller. They meet by chance when they’re on the metro, a tourist asks Yuki for directions and she can’t communicate with the tourist. Itsuomi to the rescue to translate and get the tourist the directions he needs. Itsuomi is keen to learn new languages and about other ways of life, so naturally he is drawn to Yuki and wants to learn Japanese sign language and more importantly learn about her.
Not only does Itsuomi want to learn sign language to be able to communicate with Yuki, he also doesn’t infantilize her for being deaf and needing him to swoop in control her life.
This manga is over the top sweet and does have some slow moments (hey, it’s real life material some days are dull) but overall a very cute opening set and I can’t wait to read the next in the series. A lovely slice of life read when you just want everyone to be happy and in love.
Einstein in Kafkaland by Ken Krimstein
informative
medium-paced
4.0
“Einstein, you have to choose. Are you going to live in his universe? Or yours?”
Time is a funny thing isn’t it? Some things feel so long ago while actually being very recent, relatively speaking.
I mean I can do the math, and rationally speaking I can conceptualize that two geniuses (in their own rights) existed in the same space and time. But on the other hand I am unable to grasp that two geniuses lived parallel lives.
Prague. 1911-1912. Einstein and Kafka are living their lives and both trying to answer the most profound questions both searching for new ideas. New truths. Einstein using this time to flesh out his theory of general relativity. Kafka using his time to write his first piece “the Judgment” and carving out what it means to be human.
There are points in this the science gets too dizzying for me, but there’s a beauty. While I may not be able to grasp all of Einstein’s ideas, he was challenging the prevailing theories that have stood for thousands of years. He was having to accept a reality he was not familiar with, and would ultimately change his world. Once you know the new, you may be the same person from a DNA perspective, but in terms of cognition, the old you ceases to exist. You are and you aren’t all at the same time.
Ultimately a worthwhile graphic novel you can finish in one sitting. There’s wit thrown in and you get to meet some side characters including Einstein’s wife and his intellectual nemesis Max Abraham, all in accompanying watercolour fluid imagery.