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oatmilktea's reviews
118 reviews
The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The Other Valley felt like a 5-Star read from the get go. I was immediately sucked into the setting and the story, I felt for Odile, loved the writing and was invested in the characters and their relationships. The story is immersive, dark, mind-bending, and the latter third of the novel stuck out as an absolute page turner for me. The Other Valley is a new favourite, and not only will I reread it at some point—because I’m sure this is one of those novels that will make you appreciate the craft even more the second time around—but I’ll also read anything Howard puts out next. What a brilliant debut!
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-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
This is a delightful gem of a book, short and charmingly simple, but not at all trivial, on the contrary. I call it simple because it doesn't try to be bigger than it is. Perhaps also because of Mosscap's straightforwardness.
(Protect Mosscap at all cost.)
It's short, sweet, funny, to the point. I read it in a breeze and sat down to annotate it a day later. A Psalm For the Wild-Built offers life lessons that you kind of already carry within you, but are woken up as you follow Dex and Mosscap's conversations, as though you were right there listening in. It felt comforting and reassuring to travel alongside the relatable tea monk and their adorable companion. It's like I have just made two friends for a lifetime.
(Just one little thing I'd like to clarify: it/its is a perfectly fine set of pronouns for humans as well, if chosen voluntarily and not used by others in a deliberately dehumanising way!)
(Protect Mosscap at all cost.)
It's short, sweet, funny, to the point. I read it in a breeze and sat down to annotate it a day later. A Psalm For the Wild-Built offers life lessons that you kind of already carry within you, but are woken up as you follow Dex and Mosscap's conversations, as though you were right there listening in. It felt comforting and reassuring to travel alongside the relatable tea monk and their adorable companion. It's like I have just made two friends for a lifetime.
(Just one little thing I'd like to clarify: it/its is a perfectly fine set of pronouns for humans as well, if chosen voluntarily and not used by others in a deliberately dehumanising way!)
Foster by Claire Keegan
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
A beautiful, heartwarming thing.
'Many’s the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing.'
'Many’s the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing.'
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
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
4.0
The Stillness is a fantasy world marked by its seismic activity and everything that entails. Communities—comms—focus on efficiency and survival. Big cities only exist around the equator, where orogenes—very simply put: Earthbenders—protect the inhabitants and their beautiful architecture. The people of the Stillness bear names that indicate their role or purpose in this world, as well as their privilege, their social standing. The world of The Fifth Season is complex, gritty, and intriguing.
The Fifth Season explores the fates of individuals, power dynamics, and oppression in a dystopian-sci-fi-fantasy setting. It does not come pre-chewed. It demands your attention and patience, because there are many threads and breadcrumbs, but trust that it will all come together in the end. It’s the kind of book you immediately want to reread upon finishing it, to catch all the hints and clues.
If your copy has one and you find yourself a bit confused by the worldbuilding, you might want to take a look at the appendix early on. It would have been a great help to me had I read it sooner. There are no spoilers in the glossary, reading it is more like peeling the worldbuilding onion a little quicker.
Unfortunately, The Fifth Season features a pet peeve of mine: fantasy swear words. “Rust” instead of “f***”, so there are phrases like “rust this” or “rusting Earth”. I really don’t care for it. I’d rather they just use “f***”—and they do, rarely, so it can’t have been a publication issue. However, that doesn’t ruin the book, all things considered. It just annoyed me a little. That, and the pacing felt a little off to me at times, hence my rating. I still really really enojyed it though!
I definitely want to move on to the next book in the trilogy because I need to find out what happens next! To me, this book is a great setup for what I expect to be a fantastic series.
I definitely want to move on to the next book in the trilogy because I need to find out what happens next! To me, this book is a great setup for what I expect to be a fantastic series.
Radikale Zärtlichkeit – Warum Liebe politisch ist by Şeyda Kurt
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
Klug, charmant, intersektional, konstruktiv und wertvoll.