danaaliyalevinson's reviews
95 reviews

Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan

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

3.75

I liked it. I may have even liked it a lot. The characters are fun. The prose is sharp, witty, and buoyant. But I didn’t love it. I can’t get into it too much without spoilers, but I’ll say it’s a book with an ending that is a forgone conclusion (intentionally). And for me, books structured in this way really need to harness that forgone ending to transform their characters through the book’s inevitable conclusion. Otherwise, for me, there’s nothing to hold onto and no surprises in the narrative. For me, the characters largely stayed the same from start to finish. And the relationships were fun and dynamic for sure. But without some way in which the march toward the book’s ending fundamentally altered them or their relational dynamics, it was hard for me to attach to the story. However, again, the characters were wonderful and I think the author did a great job at getting us invested in them individually, just not in the story they were being challenged with, if that makes sense.
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The Long Answer by Anna Hogeland

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective 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

5.0

I read this book based on reviews I read despite a lack of interest based solely on the short summary.

I am so glad I did.

This book is ostensibly about two sisters navigating two very different pregnancies. However, one of them also brings us into the lives of other women she meets, almost taking us through a short story like structure. Without spoilers, there are also some fourth wall breaks that are deployed with such stunning restraint and precision that the emotional effect was devastating. And while the story is in simplistic terms a story about the act of trying to have children, really it’s a stunning and lyrical portrait of grief, forgiveness, the tenderness of family, and the bonds between women. And it manages to do it in a way that never feels treacly or manipulative. It’s so incredibly raw and real. I highly recommend this book.
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If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

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

2.5

Maybe Dark Academia just isn't my genre. Rarely do I read a beloved book and wind up a naysayer, but this is one of those cases. 7 acting students in a Shakespeare program find themselves at the center of their own Shakespearean tragedy when one of them is murdered. For me, some parts of it felt like a bit too much more than nods at "The Secret History". Additionally, the ending, which was predictable but I actually thought was smart in its Shakespearean riff, would have resonated much more deeply if the author had let the two main characters actually be a couple and really invested us in their love for each other in that Shakespearean star crossed lovers way, instead of the queerbaity nonsense that lasted for the entirety of the novel. Like…
imagine if James and Oliver were just actually a couple, we lose all the pages of the entirely extraneous romantic relationships with Wren and Meredith respectively, and instead we spent pages building a deep connection to and care for James and Oliver as a couple. Then if Richard was still abusive to Meredith, it would have made her the prime suspect in our minds and the ‘obvious’ murderer, and then having it end with the twist being that it was James… would’ve been shocking. And if we had spent time really caring for James and Oliver as a “Romeo & Juliet” like couple, Oliver taking the fall would have made so much more sense. And then if James had actually committed suicide rather than the completely ridiculous and not at all logical suicide fake out, it would’ve brought the whole story full circle and concluded it with a Shakespearean and “Romeo & Juliet” like flair.
I think that would’ve made for a much more dynamic story.
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Between a Wolf and a Dog by Georgia Blain

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

2.0

I found this one difficult to get through. Two estranged sisters are entreatied to bury the hatchet by their mother. I just found everything about it predictable. I knew exactly where the story was going within the first 50 pages and wasn't wrong. It also didn't feel fresh for me. It was a family drama but I felt like it never made the case for its existence in the canon of the genre. I enjoyed some of the characters. Some of the prose was nice. But that's about it for me on this one. It won a few awards, so it may be up others' alley, but it wasn't my cup of tea.
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Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

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

5.0

This is one of those books I've been like, ah I gotta read it, forever. And I finally did it. This book did not disappoint. Beautiful, brutal, intricate, this short novel packs a huge punch, exploring internalized homophobia, xenophobia, classism, and systemic disenfranchisement, all within a contained story of a doomed romance between two men from wildly different backgrounds over several weeks in Paris in the late 1950s. Baldwin is also in peak form here, with his signature incisive social commentary delivered through characters with deep complexity and humanity.
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Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

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

3.75

So, I love the first book. 
This one felt like a prolonged first act to a new phase of the story, not always in the best way. I also felt like some of the best characters were sidelined or not in it at all. 
That said, I appreciated the ending and how it clearly sets up a new phase. The palace intrigue is wonderful as always. And its commentary on savior complexes still really works here, maybe even better than the first book.
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Tin Man by Sarah Winman

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

4.5

This was pretty beautiful. The first half was a little meandering, but it really started to sing in its second half. This also felt like an AIDS crisis book done right, focused on the queer people whose lives were affected, and the interplay between the AIDS crisis and internalized homophobia and shame about queer sexuality. I am also partial to love stories that exist beyond labels, which definitely applied to this book. The two main characters, yes, were queer men, but one was never explicitly labeled, and all we as the audience had to know was that they loved each other. 
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Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.5

A lyrical and moving character study of a 2S Cree teenager in search of home. I liked this one a lot. It was razor sharp, confrontational, and emotional. It reminded me a lot of "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" in form. So if you loved that, you'll probably love this. As I said above though, it is very much a character study, so the plot is thin, sometimes a little too thin for my *personal* tastes. But the characters are beautifully drawn and compelling, and the prose is beautiful.
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The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad slow-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

5.0

I kept going back and forth on my rating for this one between a 4 and a 5. And to be honest, if I was rating only on the quality of the writing, both prose and structure, it probably deserves a 4. Still a very good book,  but there were parts that definitely didn't work or felt narratively clumsy, but truthfully, forest for the trees I found it deeply emotional, moving, and what did work was breathtaking and deeply deeply affecting for me. So this is sort of a “you know what, f**ck it, despite its flaws I loved it” 5 stars. A teenager and his mother both battle mental illness in the aftermath of the sudden death of their father/husband. The teenager, Benny, hears voices. And inanimate objects speak to him. And one of those is an omniscient voice called "The Book". And the narrative toggles back and forth between Benny's perspective and the perspective of the eponymous anthropomorphic book. And this device was used brilliantly to drive home the book's larger themes about the meaning that we give objects in our lives, especially when dealing with grief.
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The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty

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

3.0

I wanted to like this one. It won the National Book Award. And the first 100 pages I was like, this is genius. And then it was all downhill from there. It's about a group of people all living in the same housing project as they each play a part in a violent event. I thought it got lost in its own too clever by half structure, and then the characters wound up being so underdeveloped that I felt nothing as it hurtled toward the conclusion I saw coming from a mile away. Then there's also this thing I see with a lot of modern fiction writers where it feels like literary fiction by way of Wes Anderson. It's very en vogue. And sometimes it works. But here, I thought it was so wrapped up in its need to be quirky and idiosyncratic that I lost the heart.
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