eloise_bradbooks's reviews
769 reviews

This book is about a chain-smoking, heavily tattooed queer nun, Sister Holiday, who tries to understand who set the school she teaches at on fire... Especially as more and more fires are appearing, and someone seems to be framing Sister Holiday... We also get to learn about who she was before becoming a nun, living a very queer and ver punk life.

Although some elements of this story are quite difficult to read about (please check trigger warnings), I did want to keep reading more about Sister Holiday and what was going on.

I'll admit I felt like I could have cared a bit more... There was a little something that felt distant, like i couldn't quite connect.
I'm not a huge fan of going back into the past to find out more about how people got to be who they are today. I'm always wanting to just get back to the present story, which is a shame because I actually feel like the backstory here, is actually much more interesting than the present one ... 

Things I really appreciated: 
- a bi autistic MC learning and growing
- an aroace MC learning to deal with grief and anger issues
- both of them, with others, coming together and becoming great friends
- girls and young kids into STEM and robotics !!
- queer parents !!!

Despite this, I didn't really fully get into this story. I didn't feel much urgency for anything, didn't come to care as much as i wanted to. I didn't dislike the characters, far from it, but i don't think I'll remember much of this tomorrow.

I still hope younger readers will read and find themselves in books like this one.

This was a great story about Cass, a fat lesbian addicted to online roleplaying, dealing with family issues and realising she really likes her online BFF even though she's just started dating her dream girl...
As all of those parts of her life clash and secrets pile up, Cass needs to figure out how to face her true feelings, while getting through the end of high school.

What I loved most in this story was the friendships, the online ones but also the ones away from keyboard. Cass is surrounded by people who make her feel loved and understood despite her making mistakes at times. 
Her relationship with her parents was also very touching, especially as I could see a huge part of myself in the way Cass views and whats nothing to do with a parent who has hurt her. Seeing her grow closer to her father felt also really nice. 

All in all, <b>it felt like it was the perfect balance of a realistic character who makes mistakes but handles them brillliantly by being honest (by the end), talking it through, apologising, and making things right.</b> At times it even felt impossible how "grown up" Cass felt (like telling her dad to ground her because she did one things wrong). 

It's one of those books I think I'll keep recommending for a while...

Bon, c'est toujours bien de voir des livres et des romans graphiques adaptés aux jeunes pour découvrir des maladies comme celle des enfants de la lune, et pour mettre en avant des associations qui les aident.
Mais à part ça, le scénario n'est vraiment pas top, les personnages n'ont aucune profondeur et leur évolution fait rouler les yeux ... 

(eng below) FR:  Une jolie BD sur une femme qui vient de perdre son sein, son job et son mari après un cancer et qui redécouvre la vie.
Les dessins sont très beaux, et le peu de parole rend ça plutôt poétique, nous fait ressentir les émotions d'autant plus. 

ENG: Nice graphic novel about a woman who lost her boob, her job and her man after suffering from cancer, and how she learns to enjoy life again. It was very pretty to read and very inspiring.

DNF 60%
This, I think, is a "it's not you, it's me" kind of DNF. I didn't enjoy reading it but others probably will.

Ultimately, it's about two boys discovering their sexuality and finding comfort in each other.

This is marketed as a YA but it's clearly for the older side of YA. The main characters are 17-18.
There are a lot of swear words, including some very homophobic insults, as well as explicit sexual content.
And the mix of the hypermasculine hypersexual content isn't what I enjoy reading (why why why didn't I DNF this earlier?)

In some ways, this book gave Aristotle and Dante vibes: two lonely boys in a very masculine world become friends and realise they care for each other in a very deep way. It takes place over a span of more than a year. It's a lot of introspection and reading their thoughts. One of them finding out they might not be as straight as they thought. Feeling like themselves only in the presence of the other one. 

But we're not getting a lot of the interactions. We're getting their introspection, their memory of something they once said to one another. There is A LOT of internal monologue, thoughts, how they feel about things that happened, but we don't get to experience the actual things that happened. 
The interactions we get are some young masculine boys dumb shit or sex ...

A bunch of loveable characters stuck in a muddy situation, making the best of it while falling in love around Christmas.
It was sweet, it was heartwarming, it was a very enjoyable read!

I don't know what it is about Quentin Zuttions books, but they always hit hard in the gut. 
They're generally quiet and simple but feel so reel and fill you with all the emotions possible.

It's always nice to read about queer people, especially queer women from an even more marginalised community (here, Armenian women in America). 
The audiobook narrator did a great job, the book was very enjoyable to listen to.
The issue here is that it's basically a romance novel but the romance gave me absolutely nothing. I get that the girls are attracted to each other but I don't feel that much more chemistry. They hurt each other (by dumb decisions) more than they bring each other joy and I just don't quite understand how I'm supposed to believe they end up happily ever after for ever...

I mean yeah, I came to care and feel many emotions about this dysfunctional family by the end of the story. But I was mostly bored throughout 90% of this book.