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librarymouse's reviews
427 reviews
Ajax Penumbra 1969 by Robin Sloan
adventurous
funny
reflective
fast-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? It's complicated
5.0
This was a fantastic addition/prequel to Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore! I highly enjoyed the Easter eggs of the predecessors to and younger versions of the characters we come to live in the original book. This addition also provides insight into the relationship between Penumbra and Corvina, bearing witness to the weaknesses Corvina worked so hard to hide and the bravado he works so hard to maintain in the original novel. I'd be interested to know more about the eventual collapse of their friendship, but it was equally as interesting to see it form at the beginning. Part of me wonders if it's a subtextual commentary on internalized homophobia and/or the persuit of perfection in the face of all else, given Corvina's performance of self, but I see that might be a reach. Corvina is a complex character, and I enjoyed seeing more of him as a person before he became a looming figurehead. The scene in the tunnel under the bay is short but powerful. I listen to this as an audiobook and I need to go back through and listen again. Claude taps throughout the novel in a way that aligns with some Morse code letters, and I wouldn't put it past the author to add an extra message in an audiobook to help readers solve a puzzle, just like the Dragon Song Chronicles acting as a text within a text in Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore.
Nothing but the Rain by Naomi Salman
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Nothing but the Rain is a fantastic debut novella. Salman weaves a complex narrative in which the narrator is unreliable because her memory and the world itself are unreliable. The shifts in narration, especially the final shift show the progression of the narration from scattered journal keeping; to intentional, beat by beat record keeping; to an attempt to piece together lost memories; and finally to intentional, confessional reflection from an unidentified point in the future, creating a rich linguistic landscape for readers to explore.
I enjoy the continued mystery surrounding the origin of the water's contamination as the root of the town's isolation and confusion. In the author providing a valid and heartbreaking reason for the narrator's resistance to socializing, her character is given an empathetic depth of humanity in a very short amount of page space.
The final paragraph, solidifying the identity of who the narrator is writing to in the last section of the book while explaining the narrator's last act of necessary violence is so good!
The landscape and dangers are richly defined, offering strong visuals with concise and easily readable language.
I enjoy the continued mystery surrounding the origin of the water's contamination as the root of the town's isolation and confusion. In the author providing a valid and heartbreaking reason for the narrator's resistance to socializing, her character is given an empathetic depth of humanity in a very short amount of page space.
The final paragraph, solidifying the identity of who the narrator is writing to in the last section of the book while explaining the narrator's last act of necessary violence is so good!
The landscape and dangers are richly defined, offering strong visuals with concise and easily readable language.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Police brutality, Dementia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Kidnapping
Raised by a Serial Killer by April Balascio
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
I found myself at stops and starts with this book. April Balascio has a gift for drawing readers into the experiences she describes, and for having sympathy in her heart for people who have hurt her. What surprised me most about the memoir was how kind and receptive her father's victim's families were to her. Though, in retrospect, given that she turned him in, that should not have been that much of a surprise. The anticlimax of her escape of her father's house shows the banality of evil in people. As she puts it, her father never saw himself as a monster. I know in memoirs like this, we only get one side of the story, but the difference between the childhoods Balascio and her two brothers nearest in age had, vs that of her two youngest siblings does show in her younger sister's pushing back against Balascio's initial instinct to report what she suspected of her father to the authorities for fear of what it would do to their family. I'm glad she left her husband. How she described him in the book, he seemed like a terrible man. A different sort of terrible than her father, but still unkind and combative. Balascio is vulnerable throughout the book, sharing the impacts the abuse of her childhood had on the rest of her life. She shares how her father's presence and child rearing techniques lead to her own problematic habits as a parent, while still taking responsibility for her actions.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Blood
Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Incest
incest tagged for a memory Balascio recounts, in which her father gives her a hickey as a young teenager, to try to make Balascio's boyfriend at the time lash out at her and break up with her, so he can reinstate total control.
Hedgehogs in the Hall by Ben M. Baglio
adventurous
emotional
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
A pleasant reread of a childhood favorite. I like that not everything turns out perfectly in a book about wildlife. Outdated, racialized language is the reason for the -1 star.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Racial slurs
The Vela: The Complete Season 1 by Becky Chambers, Yoon Ha Lee, Rivers Solomon, S.L. Huang
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-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? Yes
5.0
This was a fantastic read! The sound design kept me listening and engaged at a much slower pace than I normally prefer to listen to audiobooks at. One of my favorite about this book, which is so masterfully done by these authors, is that none of the characters are good. Some are selfish, others do what they must to survive, some have a self-sacrificing martyred savior complex about violences that were initiated and/or perpetrated before they were born, and others are so good and optimistic that it circles back around to folly as a failure to see the truth of the humanity they're trying to save.
If you love a good complex narrative, space opera, buddy comedy, found family story, or anything in between, this is for you. This is a fantastic combination of post and pre apocalyptic fiction, spanning an entire star system with all the class consciousness and political commentary that entails.
If you love a good complex narrative, space opera, buddy comedy, found family story, or anything in between, this is for you. This is a fantastic combination of post and pre apocalyptic fiction, spanning an entire star system with all the class consciousness and political commentary that entails.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, War, Classism, Deportation
Minor: Sexual content
Racial slurs tagged for fictional slurs against a fictional people, but very reminiscent of white nationalism
When Dogs Dream by Jean Ekman Adams
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
5.0
😠They're so baby! Great book for kids and adults, bringing attention to the lives and dreams of stray dogs in the American Southwest.
Mushroom Rain by Laura K. Zimmermann
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Informative with beautiful illustrations! I want the illustrations as posters!
Loving, Ohio by Matthew Erman
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
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? It's complicated
5.0
This was a really well done, trippy Midwestern gothic centering on teens raised in and around a neo cult whose rhetoric may or may not be true, but whose methodology leaves blood and grief in its wake. For a quite short book, it took me a while to read, flipping back and forth between pages and seeking detail in the illustrations. This is a great exploration of the impact of high demand religion on families and the unique strangeness of the Midwest.
my only critique is what happened to her dog, who protected her, and to her cat? What happened when she left. She couldn't take them with her on the bus, but it didn't look like they were in the house after she left. Did she leave them behind? I hope she left them with Ana.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Transphobia
The City in Glass by Nghi Vo
adventurous
emotional
reflective
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
5.0
The City in Glass is a story of grief, extended in an order of magnitude when it is a whole city being grieved across centuries. Nghi Vo's mastery of language and ability to create sympathetic characters outside of the boundaries of good and evil allow for a deep exploration of what it means to miss not only people, but the place that was created by their presence and the essence of their having lived.
The slow progression of the relationship between Vitrine and her angel is wonderfully fleshed out. The detail in how the pieces of each other each keeps within themselves - Vitrine voluntarily and her angel as involuntary penance - slowly bring the two of them together, poisoning the angel into vulnerability as he learns to love what he destroyed and poisoning Vitrine into loving him.
The slow progression of the relationship between Vitrine and her angel is wonderfully fleshed out. The detail in how the pieces of each other each keeps within themselves - Vitrine voluntarily and her angel as involuntary penance - slowly bring the two of them together, poisoning the angel into vulnerability as he learns to love what he destroyed and poisoning Vitrine into loving him.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death, Suicide, Colonisation, Classism
Greetings from Utopia Park: Surviving a Transcendent Childhood by Claire Hoffman
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Greetings from Utopia Park is a unique autobiography when it comes to the genre of memoirs written by cult survivors. Hoffman's grappling with her conflicting feelings on the value she's found in transcendental meditation and the fraud and extortion of the community committed by the organization that taught her the method lends itself to a more in depth an nuanced understanding of her childhood experiences than other religions I've read about. The luster of childhood and the idea of belonging slowly falling away is something so many of us can relate to.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Medical content, Cultural appropriation
I don't think it counts a slur by common understanding, but the townies in Iowa come up with a name to hurl at the meditators as a cruelty. It's not racialized.