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marywahlmeierbracciano's reviews
825 reviews
Halfway to Somewhere by Jose Pimienta
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.75
Halfway to Somewhere is a snapshot of seventh-grader Ave’s experience moving from Mexicali (just south of the man-made border) to Lawrence, KS as their family divides amid their parents’ divorce. They’re frustrated about moving, about their parents’ ideas about gender, about their struggle to learn English and make new friends, and they start taking long walks (and runs) to get to know their new home, recalling their last family trip—a desert hike—in Mexico. Ave must learn how to connect with others in a new place while retaining their own cultural identity in this lovely story, which represents our town in beautiful detail.
Content Warnings
Minor: Transphobia, Xenophobia, and Colonisation
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
So many contradictions exist within this infamous novel—I’m not quite sure what to think of it. It would certainly be a racy choice for a book club. Murakami’s writing is beautiful, and the story is incredibly misogynist. I enjoyed the literary devices and evocative scenery, but the amount (and often, the context) of sex seemed gratuitous. I found myself wondering if I should ever again read a book written by a man, while also harboring curiosity about the rest of Murakami’s bibliography. Nevertheless, it is a melancholy coming-of-age story about figuring out how to live and love amid a world of loss.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual content
Moderate: Mental illness, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Suicide and Medical content
Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Live vicariously through political advisor-turned-nature writer Chloe Dalton as she recounts her beautiful story of an extended close encounter with a European hare, also analysing their unique qualities and many unfair reputations. COVID lockdowns forced Dalton to retreat from London to her countryside home, where she took in a leveret which had been chased by a dog. Acknowledging her mistakes along the way, she took every precaution to allow it to retain its wildness. Reader, she succeeded, and her time with the hare, whom she did not name, raised important questions and transformed her way of living—towards stillness, simplicity, and coexistence with nature. I found it inspiring.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Blood and Pandemic/Epidemic
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Set on a subantarctic island with a haunting past, rapidly becoming inhospitable in the present, Wild Dark Shore is a masterfully plotted novel with stunning imagery and strong environmentalist themes. Its cast of characters—a widower, his three children, and the woman who washes ashore—are all incredibly complex and lovable, and every one of them is hiding something. This is a story about impossible choices and the healing of connection; it’s tense, sexy, visceral, heartbreaking, and unputdownable—my favorite Charlotte McConaghy yet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Excrement, and Alcohol
The Otherwhere Post by Emily J. Taylor
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I loved The Otherwhere Post! It’s set in a universe with parallel worlds inspired by historical Scotland. When the doors to other worlds closed during a fatal disaster caused by Maeve’s father, it became impossible to travel between them, forming a backlog of letters with nowhere to go. Years later, orphaned Maeve never stays in one place for long—everyone curses her father’s name—but when she receives a years-old anonymous letter claiming his innocence, she must find out who it’s from. At the Otherwhere Post, she meets a boy who can help her, though he has just as many secrets as her own. This lush story is full of danger, intrigue, and romance—I’m going to be dreaming about it for a while.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, and Vomit
Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Born out of the author’s constantly being confused with the feminist-turned-conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf, Doppelganger examines the concept of doubles and mirroring in art and in life, with special focus on disinformation and the MAGA movement. Klein illustrates how ideas throughout history have been co-opted by opposing factions to create warped mirror images, sometimes involving political diagonalism. An essential read for understanding the current American political climate, which also provides insight on Nazi Germany and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Content Warnings
Minor: Hate crime, Rape, Violence, and War
The Rest of You by Maame Blue
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Born into a powerful Ghanaian family she knows next to nothing about, now thirty-year-old Whitney has grown up in London under her grandmother’s care. As she physically unpacks the trauma of her clients as a massage therapist, she finds herself wondering about her own past. Historical flashbacks are alternated with Whitney’s modern world, which is narrated in the second person. This book explores the things we don’t tell each other—even those closest to us—and discusses intergenerational trauma in a way that I found not to be overwhelming as a highly sensitive reader. I especially appreciated the representation of one realizing an experience had been sexual violence long after it happened.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Racism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy
Minor: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Medical content, and Grief
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Assembly by Natasha Brown
challenging
tense
fast-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
This haunting book is sure to get you out of a reading slump. Calculated and spare, it follows an accomplished Black British woman in finance as she navigates workplace misogynoir, a medical diagnosis, and her relationship with her boyfriend—a white man of old money. In sharp, evocative fragments, she contemplates the part she plays in the system that disenfranchises people like her but even more so interrogates the complicity of her boyfriend’s family.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Misogyny
Minor: Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical content
Heaven and Hell by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.5
In rural Iceland, a young man loses his best and only friend while cod fishing in the polar sea. They both loved poetry, had memorized verses to recite over long journeys. Now the boy feels lost and struggles to find the will to live. With exquisite language, allegory, and an intense sense of place, the comparison to Cormac McCarthy is entirely appropriate.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Child death, Self harm, Vomit, and Death of parent