michaelion's reviews
288 reviews

She of the Mountains by Vivek Shraya

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emotional hopeful informative 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

4.0

The edition I read was published pre the author coming out, and I think it's so interesting and beautiful how so many people, so many women have their first instance of self love being in connection to the other women they love. That's so sweet.

The art reminds me of the corporate art wave happening rn. Maybe she was the trendsetter! :o
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Our Shadows Have Claws: 15 Latin American Monster Stories by Amparo Ortiz, Yamile Saied Méndez

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dark informative mysterious 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

4.0

There was one story so amazing so beautiful I was like surely the author is a staple in the horror genre. Wrong. Not a single horror book out. Just middle grade. M Garcia Pena when I find you I’m giving you potential horror story plots! Or else! 
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The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

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funny inspiring sad 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

4.0

So very funny. iIhad a grand time with this council of queens. I only watched season 1 of Good Girls but the similarities, women who are underestimated! Don't ever underestimate a bad bitch!

If I had a nickel for every time I read a book by a Desi female author who’s also a lawyer I’d have THREE nickels. All this year! How weird is that! Desi women leave some talent for the rest of us!
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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

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challenging mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

i read this once in 2020 (fell asleep in the last hour of the audiobook but i retained the whole story, woke up the next day, relistened to the parts i missed), and watched the truffaut movie in one of my last film classes, but i have the book version and i thought i might as well give it the honest try now that i’m officially integrated into reading.

welp, i gave it 3 stars back when i didnt have a rating system, and 3 stars was too generous. i get what he was going for but there are so many questions and plot holes. WHY do they know how to read if books are illegal is the biggest one! WHO taught them and HOW and WHY. and honestly with that question alone I don’t even need to get into my other issues. the story isn’t good but white people have a very low bar for what they have made into classics. basically anything that happened in real life to people of color they fictionalized and went “isn't that terrible? wouldn’t that be terrible if that happened to us civilized people? and isn’t the prose fantastic? let’s make this a classic.” like there are absolutely better dystopian and censorship based books. let me stop the man’s already six feet under.
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Unlikeable Female Characters by Anna Bogutskaya

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informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

Nicki Minaj is misspelled twice in this. In two different ways! Please tell me someone else noticed that.

What an amazing and moving nonfiction book! What a perfect snapshot of women in media. Every chapter, nay, every page I was riveted and excited to read more. I added so many things to my watchlist, including things I knew about and didn't wanna watch until reading this! And to judge a book by its cover, its perfect!!!
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Loneliness & Company by Charlee Dyroff

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adventurous lighthearted 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? Yes

3.5

I love books that observe humans as if it wasn't written by a human. It's very cute. Poignant to write about AI and a distant / near future where people are so detached from others and don't have a concept of what loneliness is. I loved the mc, I wish I had no inhibitions like her. That being said there's something missing in this that couldn't be fixed, down to the concept as a whole but I’d be interested in whatever else Dyroff writes.
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Selected Poems by John Keats

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 56%.
There really were some lovely poems but then I got to those big bous and I'm like "What do you have to say that is THIS much?!" Would've been a 3.5 star. I thought Leigh Hunt was a girl but either way I hope they kissed he reeeaaallly loved that guy.
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Who Look at Me? by June Jordan

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emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

The paintings do a lot of heavy lifting.
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The Vegetarian by Han Kang

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

2.5

um girl what was that? i guess i kinda get it bc i too once wrote a meaningless story like this before. i too wish to be a flower / tree.
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Both of Me by Jonathan Friesen

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challenging slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I have a 5 point system to rate books with which makes it almost impossible to give something less than 1 star. Please note, my 1 star rating is extremely generous.

The book was so bad and yet the worst book I've ever read that I didn’t DNF. That's the only thing keeping it from getting anything lower. It’s so bad on so many different levels. If this is on your shelf or tbr do yourself a favor and burn it. If you’re the author reading this review, do the world a favor and never write again. I don't even care if it’s a grocery list. Put the pen, the pencil, the computer, the typewriter DOWN. The cover says Kirkus Reviews called his writing stunning. I was stunned. I’m shocked. They really just be publishing anything. If you're a writer worried about not getting a book deal, worry not. And the most offensive part, this man is a teacher! If you read this book and this man was your teacher, I’m so sorry you learned nothing in whatever class he “taught”. I’m so sorry in general. I hated every page, almost every word. There was nothing beautiful or poetic about it. Don’t ever let me meet this author. How embarassing (for him)!
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