skudiklier's reviews
602 reviews

The Freedom Clause by Hannah Sloane

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emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I really enjoyed this book. The premise was interesting to me, but I wasn't sure if I'd like it--I felt like it would be easy to keep things surface-level, light, not to get too real or complicated about it. I'm really glad though that this book definitely gets into things in the way I was hoping it would. 

It's super character-driven, in a great way. It makes you feel for the characters even if they make bad decisions, without excusing their behavior. I think this is super well-written and I'd love to read more from the author in the future. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the chance to read and review this ARC. 
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Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture by Virginia Sole-Smith

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challenging hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

If I could give this book more than five stars, I would. I think everyone should read it, but especially anyone who spends a lot of time around children, or may have kids one day. This book both explains and debunks a lot of myths around fatness and fatphobia, and also gives practical advice and tools for how to talk about and address these issues. When I was only a quarter of the way through this book, I knew I was going to ask my husband to read it, which I almost never do. It just feels like such a crucial starting place for any conversations around food, weight, and body image, especially with regard to issues we're definitely going to run into when raising kids. I'm so grateful for this book and couldn't recommend it enough. 
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Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky

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dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.75

I'm not a big horror person, but I like Mattie Lubchansky's work and comics so I definitely wanted to read this. It was wild and actually reading it a couple days before the whole submersible thing happened felt very weird in hindsight. I sped through this and read it all in one sitting, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the premise and/or Lubchansky's work. I'll read anything trans people write even if it's fucked up lmao.
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The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

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

4.5

It took me a bit to get into this, and tbh a lot of it felt so weirdly dissonant that it was hard for me to be super invested. But on the other hand, the romance was well-done and the ~tension~ was high with that. I ended up reading the second half of the book all in one day, so I must have been at least somewhat engaged.

I wasn't sure if I was going to read the next book in the series, but then I found out the author is autistic and the main character(s) of the second and third books are autistic as well. So now I want to if only for that reason--I haven't read a lot of romances with autistic MCs, so I'm excited!
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Persephone Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer

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dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

I love all of Trista Mateer's work, including the first two books in this series--but I think this one has to be my favorite of the three. I just couldn't stop reading it, and writing down my favorite lines, and yelling about it to my friends. It's just too good. I love the way Trista writes about girlhood, and rage, and generational trauma, and reclamation, and pain. It's incredible. I'd highly recommend this book. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the chance to read and review this ARC. 
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The Third Self: Poems about Creative Identity by Salem Paige

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inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

I love all of Salem's work, and this is no exception. I was surprised by this book because I was expecting their "usual" poetry, but it was a very specific type of their work. The poems in this book are focused on creativity and writing, and it's super interesting getting to see into Salem's "third self," even just a bit. This is a great book for writers, poets, and anyone interested in creativity's paradoxes and challenges.
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

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

4.5

This was the last of Jane Austen's major works for me to read, and it was super interesting! You could definitely tell it was her first novel, and it seems somewhat different from the others in a few ways. I liked it but there were sections I found odd/slower so it took me longer than expected to get through it. I wish I were reading it with someone else so I could react to it with them--I didn't know anything about it ahead of time so all of it was surprising to me.
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong

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informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

Idk. On the one hand, this book was fascinating and informative and well-written, and I went into it expecting to like it. On the other hand, the ableism (especially towards autistic people) and fatphobia was a big turn-off. I know some would argue that he was trying to be objective, but I think talking about autism and "obesity" as if they're inherently problems to be solved is not objective. If it had just been the sections focusing on those things it might not have colored my impression of the book so much, but he referenced those things so frequently throughout the book that I was always on guard to hear about some awful things parents had done to their autistic children. So while I think overall this book was good and I would want to recommend it, I just can't say I liked it or would encourage anyone to read it. It's a shame. 

And truly, to anyone wondering, that wasn't a *huge* part of the book. Just too much of a factor for me personally. If you're not worried about discussions of those things impacting your experience of reading the book, then I'd say go for it. There's a lot to learn and it's written in a very approachable way (which I'm saying as someone not from a science background at all). 
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DFTBA!: The Little Guide to Being Awesome by Alys Jones

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funny inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

5.0

10/10 alys is great and so is nerdfighteria
Hum by Jamaal May

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

4.5

I really liked this collection! I wasn't maybe quite as captivated with it as I could be, but I made a lot of notes of poems and lines that I loved, and found it inspiring. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the description! My favorite line was "Forgive. / I swear, the word has feathers."
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