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oatmilktea's reviews
118 reviews

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

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

3.75

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

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

4.25

Exploring relationship dynamics, repressed trauma, and the ethics of trying to “fix” disabled people, Flowers for Algernon is a moving and profound modern classic of science fiction, although I wish Keyes had focused less on Charlie’s romantic and sexual relationships. 
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The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

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adventurous slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

It pains me to rate The Stone Sky this low. I really liked the first two books in the series, especially the first, and I wanted to like this one too. The Fifth Season was a fantastic setup. The Obelisk Gate expanded upon the themes of book one while also offering something new, but it already had too many confusing descriptions of orogeny and magic. Book three didn’t do much at all for me. I found it boring, and I had to push myself to pick it back up. If this had been a standalone, I’d have DNFd it about a third in, but I didn’t want to leave the trilogy unfinished.

The Stone Sky felt like endless exposition, bordering on info dumping, slowing down the pace and taking me out of the experience. I was indifferent towards characters that I previously liked. I no longer cared about the outcome. That’s why I’m rating this book so low in comparison to the first two volumes: I was bored more than anything and couldn’t engage with the story. As with the second book, I struggled to understand all the overly detailed descriptions of magic and ultimately gave up trying.

I still want to end on a positive note about this series as a whole: there’s fantastic representation, and it always feels organic and authentic, never forced. Queer and disabled characters, for example, simply exist; their identities and (dis)abilities are never used as a cheap plot point. I also like that there’s not one Big Bad Villain in this trilogy but many complicated characters; the Stillness is a corrupt world with many antagonists and no true heroes. I think I would still recommend the series to anyone who’s into dystopian sci-fi with a big-scope plot. Obviously, a lot of people loved this trilogy. It just wasn’t my cup of tea in the end. 
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

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

5.0

My Dark Vanessa is a work of genius. I was invested right from the start and it really was hard to put down, however, I had to take breaks because the subject matter is hard to take at times. This is a devastating book. I urge you to check the trigger warnings before you pick it up! 

This book is nuanced, dark, and painful. It illustrates how abuse shapes and breaks a person, tackling the issue of victimhood, consent, and coercion.

I think the author does a fantastic job at
establishing Vanessa as an unreliable narrator. For instance, while Vanessa belittles Taylor's story (because Strane “only" touched her knee), the first time Vanessa has this experience of losing herself, being outside herself and being nothing, is right after Strane does the exact same thing to her.
This cognitive bias runs through the book like a common thread and is frustrating to read about but just so well written.
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QualityLand by Marc-Uwe Kling

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dark funny reflective fast-paced

3.75

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Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune

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

2.75

Short review
Important issues are raised, and it is sometimes really sweet but ultimately reads like a moral education handbook. Repetitive, redundant, trite, and too on the nose.

Long review
Maybe this book is not for me. Or I didn't read it at the right time. What I found heartwarming in the first book more often than not annoyed me in the second. It reads almost like a moral education handbook: there is a lot of telling, as in characters constantly explaining things to others. Don’t get me wrong: important issues are being addressed, important questions raised, they’re just too on the nose. Speaking of too on the nose: “Janine Router/Rowter”? Really? It’s kind of ridiculous.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea almost taints the overwhelmingly positive impression I had of The House in the Cerulean Sea. Perhaps these books follow a formula that I liked once but did not need a second time around. That’s why I cannot say “if you loved the first book, you’re gonne love the second.”
 
Repetitive, redundant and trite are words that kept coming to mind while listening to this. It did not help that I didn’t like some of the voices the narrator of the audiobook used, especially Arthur’s. He sounded incredibly whiny the entire time, and I reckon I would have liked this book more if I had read a physical copy like I did with the first one.

Generally, I appreciate the positive queer representation. I appreciate the author’s wish to be an antithesis to JK Rowling. But he really shoves it into our faces.

One last point—or rather: rant—about trans/nonbinary representation: it exists, but the two nonbinary characters I’m thinking of are either only briefly mentioned or barely have any lines. With the found family setting, with an ensemble cast like this, it would have been SO EASY to actually include a trans and/or nonbinary kid who lives on Marsyas. Especially when there’s a new addition anyway! An unregistered one at that! This I don’t understand. It didn’t bother me in book one, because there wasn’t, as far as I remember, any mention of transphobia (or queerphobia in general for that matter) in this world. But in Somewhere Beyond the Sea, trans people are mentioned several times! Not only in the dedication and afterword (which I liked, don’t get me wrong), but also in the text. Arthur mentions the mistreatment of trans people during his testimony, and later the phrase “guys, gals, and nonbinary pals” pops up—in the narrative, mind, not in the dialogue—which I thought was incredibly cheesy. It would have been so much better to just include an important nonbinary character (why not David? Such a missed opportunity) instead of the empty and surface-level name-dropping. I realise I’m being nitpicky, because the author at least included me/us. However, if you dedicate your book “to trans people the world over” but fail to include an important trans character and make the meagre nonbinary representation feel like an afterthought, I think I’m rightfully nitpicking. I know, I know, the entire magical children/adults thing is an allegory for all kinds of marginalised people, including trans kids. I get that. But then why introduce queerphobia in the first place? Rant over.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.
Almost nothing drew me in, even though I'm a gamer who enjoys lit fic. After part one, I found I had no desire to keep reading at all. This one immediately goes back to the library.

1.75 ⭐
Monsters: What Do We Do With Great Art By Bad People? by Claire Dederer

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challenging hopeful informative reflective

4.0

As a fan of many of Neil Gaiman’s works, I came across this book at the right time. 

Dederer made many good points. I liked the visual of the stain, especially when she added the dynamic of parasocial relationships: 

“This dynamic makes the stain more destructive—the more closely we are tied to the artist, the more we draw our identity from them and their art, the more collapsed the distance between us and them, the more likely we are to lose some piece of ourselves when the stain starts to spread.” (56)
 
With that said, her line of argument towards the end concerning consumption under capitalism felt like an easy way out of the conundrum. I agree that there is no truly ethical consumption under capitalism but that doesn’t mean consumer choice doesn’t matter at all. With our choices, we set signals, whether we show the demand for, let’s say, sustainable products, or a certain cultural phenomenon. I believe that if our goal is to make an artist irrelevant, we have to make their art irrelevant too. My go-to-example is Harry Potter. As long as people go to HP theme parks and buy HP merch and talk about the new HBO production, JKR will stay relevant, and with her, her bigotry. 

(On that note, I’m glad Dederer mentions Rowling, but her “mask off” moment was in 2019, not 2021, and she has said much more hateful things than what Dederer quotes. Later though, when talking about Valerie Solanas, Dederer makes a fantastic point about radical feminism that applies to Rowling as well: “[Solanas] sacrifices a true vision of liberation on the altar of gender esentialism.”) 

All in all, this book offered wisdom and food for thought, and it helped me navigate the ambiguous waters of loving a “monster’s” art a little better than before. 
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Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

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

3.0

A good book is not necessarily a good read—Jane Eyre is one such book to me. 

It has been around so long it's practically impossible to avoid major spoilers. I knew of the big twist long before I picked up the book, and it took the tension out for me. I think I would have been more invested in the plot had I not known about the twist. 

Jane Eyre is well written but drags on too long for my taste. I can’t tell if we’re supposed to like Mr Rochester, but I certainly didn’t. At first he was the clear antagonist to me, but what with the latter part of the book, where St-[redacted]-John is introduced, I’m not so sure anymore. Rochester is condescending and patronising, he gaslights and physically threatens Jane. Oh, and let’s not forget about
keeping his mentally ill wife prisoner in the attic
! Rochester does have a point where
non-monogamy
is concerned, but I was glad about the dealbreaker, simply because I did not want Jane to marry Rochester. 

So it surprised me that I actually rooted for them in the end, because St John took the f***ing cake. He is even worse than Mr Rochester, and that’s saying something. He even got the last word! 

Awful men are one thing, because it can be fun to hate them. What made the book unenjoyable for me was the focus on Jane’s piety and religious zeal as well as the glorification of Christianity and Christian colonialism in general. And not only was
Bertha
mistreated, there were also quite a few racially ambiguous characters who were shown in a bad light. The bits of casual racism and antisemitism appear to be entirely Brontë’s. 

In the end, I am glad I read Jane Eyre, because I’m finally in the loop. There is a lot to unpack and criticise, which can be a good thing. But I cannot say I enjoyed it. 
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Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

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dark emotional sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

Running the risk of sounding like a generic newspaper quote on the blurb, but I truly mean it:

Poignantly brilliant. A gripping masterpiece of dark fantasy.

Pain, beauty, complexity, and nuance, neatly wrapped into a standalone—well written, balanced and perfectly paced.

I don't think I'll shut up about this any time soon. This book is perfection, except one tiny irrelevant detail (and I know I'm petty for this):
the car. I'll choose to forget about the car.
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