saint_eleanor's reviews
286 reviews

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

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dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

This was a really beautiful book it was so alien, I would definitely put it in the science fiction category even though we don't have much evidence for that. It's so disturbing due to the lack of details and those that are slowly revealed. I definitely wanted to know more about what was happening but I know that the point is to marinate in the unknown. 🙄 'I'm dying of a poisoned womb, I who have never known men' is craaaazy
also the idea that apathy can be a result of growing up in isolation, that the MC didn't fear death or killing

I also think the author did an amazing job forcing the reader to examine themselves, I kept catching  myself being like 'oh I hope they find civilization' and then realizing that they are civilization and what I really felt was I hope they find men. Like why doesn't a group of 50 women constitute "people" ??? I think it really exposes our biological biases, that  feeling 'last' (can't have offspring) is the same as feeling alone, but why?
Putty Pygmalion by Lonnie Garcia

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4.5

fantastic 
Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova

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challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

*sobbing*
bro this is part of my 'weird deformed boys that just want to live or be loved'  streak I've been on by accident (Frankenstein, the glutton, lapvona, obscene bird of night, perfume) and again just so good. 
This book is about the death of a child and his parents' inability to let him go, resulting in them transposing him onto someone completely different. Also about the apathy of nature and animalistic nature. Predators gotta eat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 
We have an entirely gay cast in this book, and a lot of different perspectives and personal details, the last part of this book reminded me a lot of the Armin Miewes case. 
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The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

I loved this so much, very cool retelling of Beowulf in a modern setting that centers on Grendel and his mother, a war vet, who live in a cave on the edge of a gated community where another young boy lives and him and Gren are friends but then this cop ('Ben Wolf') tries to kill gren's mom etc etc. Extremely interesting and so cool to have the contrast of like war flashbacks to this like Christmas whoville ass town. There is a race and class element as well and its also GAYYYYYYYY (woohoo!)
 
I definitely cried like the whole last fourth of the book. I feel like the ratings for this are not picking up what it's putting down. Also very well written and like the women on both sides are so fierce , there's also a collective 'we' perspective of all these mothers idk I really liked it. 'The girl w the candle in her chest' was so sick
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House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films by Kier-La Janisse

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emotional informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

This book is like my bible i think, my version of 'the body keeps score'. Never have I felt more seen lmaoo but jesus christ the stuff this author has been through omg. I didn't expect it to be autobiographical I thought it was a media analysis book (which it is) but then the author can relate every single horror movie back to some crazy shit from her own life. Super interesting read and really refreshing as someone whose brain works like that and validating.
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The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

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dark funny slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

ooo spookyyyyy
Lambda by David Musgrave

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challenging dark funny informative slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

I really loved this book a lot, it was super weird and definitely  hard to follow a couple times but I love this genre of specfic with like the alternate race and how we would treat real aliens, and I lost it at the part about Spongebob that was so clever and really placed me into the world. I also loved the Greenland shark details and everything, I was confused about the coup and like the underground lambda uprising or whatever. It feels very slice-of-life, very matter of fact writing on a really interesting moment in time. Definitely Literary SF 
When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was really good and exciting but I feel like the ending was a little bit of a flop. I really loved the story and the world-building/ scene-setting was really really good. I was definitely super engrossed. The plot  reminded me a bit of Jackal but I was definitely way more scared of the people in this book than any 'entity' or whatever. Definitely a good read. Also the prose in between chapters was amazing
The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones

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challenging fast-paced
idk what the hell was happening tbh
Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

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dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

I loved this a lot and honestly it was a really nice break from Graham's Indian Lake trilogy where you have to fight tooth and nail to understand what's happening in any given scene, the writing in this is way more straight up but still very poetic. I love the southern gothic style as well, it's so fun to read and it's so ruff n tumble. It's a werewolf book but it's more of a family drama and examination of class/race disparity in the united states. very very sad but very good.