sophiesometimesreads's reviews
271 reviews

The topic matter and the story itself hit me really hard. It's so devastating and infuriating that this happened to people not even a hundred years ago. I liked how it was written in narrative prose but the writing was a little clunky at times and I did wonder how much was real, written from verbal storytelling, and how much was filled in by the author. A very important read that I think is essential for all Australians, particulalry white Australians, despite any opinions one may have on the technical side of the book.

I had some mixed feelings about this book. The start intrigued me and I found some parts funny, but I think it lost a bit of momentum in the second half, and I wanted more from the ending. 

I think this would've been better written in first person, because I felt like we got a lot of Elizabeth's opinions and thoughts and, in my opinion, this works better in first person POV as it in third person makes it feel like the author is preaching the ideas that some characters may hold. This meant these thoughts sometimes felt a bit off in the context of this story, particulalry regarding religion (coming from someone who isn't religious at all) and some of the body image/fatshaming.

I also felt we didn't get enough nuance on a lot of topics in here. Sexism and the potential of women outside being housewives was covered a lot as it was the primary focus of the book, but we touched on things like pedophilia and sexual assault and didn't come back around to the true impact on the characters and within society. There was a lot of trauma for the characters in this too that wasn't explored as deeply as I would have liked, and ended up feeling like trauma just for the plot.

Like I said, I enjoyed the first half and I laughed at moments throughout the novel, particulalry in some moments where Elizabeth had no filter and said exactly what I was thinking. I could look past some of the unrealistic features of the story to enjoy it as it was happening, but it did feel a bit contemporary at times and the storyline is not always the most realistic. What this book did well, it really did well, but it fell down in some areas for me.

What did I just read?! This book out me through the ringer and I had SO MANY EMOTIONS. You KNOW a book is good and the stakes are high when I binged the last 170 pages in a day.

Like the first, this book isn't going to be for everyone. There's a lot of planning, a lot of political talk, and, particulalry in this book compared to the first, there's a lot of focus on the characters and the decisions they need to make. But, in saying this, this book was for me.

I loved the intricacy of the world and how Fonda Lee was so detailed in the dynamics and interactions between the characters and the countries, it felt so real and I loved learning all the details. The characters were so complex and I had so many emotions over them, both positive and negative. I loved how Fonda Lee had me angry over what the characters were doing one moment and then sobbing for them the next.

This book was a wild ride and I cannot wait to jump into Jade Legacy as soon as possible! 

This is my first foray into feminist non-fiction so I don't feel like I have the ability to rate this book on accuracy but I think it was a really educational read, being confrontational but important. It focused heavily on the US, which I did expect going into it, and I found that while some things didn't have much relevance to outside the US, there were some very good concepts and points made that are universally relevant. I think this is an important read for everyone, but particulalry white people, to ensure we are considering intersectionality in our feminism and constantly improving in our allyship.

I quite enjoyed the first two parts of this and was curious as to where it was going, but the third part and ending let me down. Some of the descriptions of scents were poetic and beautiful, but towards the end it got a little much at times. I felt like we didn't get enough character development, and I was confused about what to think about Fisher as a person by the end. The ending was so rushed, it felt like the book just ended in the middle of the conclusion. This book ended up just being okay for me, with some parts I enjoyed and some parts that I really didn't. I would consider giving this author another go, though, so a three star rating it is.

This book had some good moments and I loved seeing South Asian rep in a romance novel but it also felt a little surface level, and the relationship was insta-love. 

I liked the development in Niki and how she (mostly) grew out of her people pleasing ways and stopped comparing herself to her sister. The sister dynamics in this book were interesting and one of the best parts.

The characters themselves weren't overly fleshed out and deep, with the exception of Niki in the ways mentioned above. I feel like if we had gotten more about the characters and why they worked together, this would've hit harder for me. Instead, I didn't really see why the characters had fallen so hard for each other after only a week, so the insta-love didn't really work for me (though, to be honest, insta-love rarely does work for me). The way they were written, particularly Niki, as the book was written in first person POV, felt a little juvenile, and I wouldn't have picked that she was 29 years old if the book hadn't told us.

The resolution was also so quick, we didn't see them resolve any of the problems that caused the third act conflict/break-up. I wish we had had more than a 9-page chapter dedicated to this.

I would've loved more about Diwali, as we only spend about a quarter of the book on the holiday, and about Niki's time in Punjab with her family, instead of one paragraph about it. In saying this, I really liked what we did get of Diwali and the atmosphere it painted, as well as the description of the settings throughout India.

I think it was good of the author to bring up the not-so-good parts of India and it's culture, particularly caste and sexism, but I think to balance this out, it would've been good if we had had more focus on the positives and the things she enjoyed about being in India (apart from Sam). This could've come through by expanding on her time in Punjab with her family and actually showing us how she felt like she fit in there, instead of just mentioning it as a passing line.

Overall, this was a quick and easy read and I generally had a decent time with it, but I would've liked a little more depth to the characters, storyline and cultural setting. I would love to see more South Asian representation in romance like this, though!

I really enjoyed this!! I honestly just wanted it to be longer to flesh out the story and characters even more, though they didn't necessarily feel lacking in this context either. I just wanted more! This started slower and didn't seem too much like horror for the first half, but then it really ramped up in the second half. I liked the writing style and T Kingfisher really painted a gruesome and horrific picture with some of her descriptions through that second half, but even through the first I really enjoyed the creepy gothic vibes. I would definitely read more from this author and the second book in this duology.

I don't rate memoirs but, like the first one, I really enjoyed this! Lewis brought humour, emotion and vulnerability to this engaging retelling of his late teens to early 20s as he continued his trans journey. I liked the video game theme and how his older self still makes appearances and comments throughout.

I did not know the original story of the Ramayana going into this and my current knowledge (so far) only comes from what I learnt with this book, so I am rating this on face value and cannot give any opinion on how much justice this does the original myth. I am also not Hindu, so I cannot comment on the quality of this representation. I can see a bit of a mixed bag of opinions regarding the faithfulness to the original myth and it's depiction of Hinduism in the reviews, which the author seemed to have predicted in her Q&A and Author's Note at the back of the book, though noting the author herself is Hindu.

This is very much a character-driven story and follows the life of Kaikeyi from her childhood through to adulthood. I had moments where I was more connected to Kaikeyi and moments where I wasn't, but overall I enjoyed reading her story.

I wonder if maybe the pushing on the misogyny being Gods' word at the start of the start of the novel was a little heavy-handed and may not sit well some people, particularly those who practice the faith, and we could've had a bit more clarity on this not being the actual opinion of the gods than one line later on. However, as I said, I am not Hindu so cannot comment too deeply on this, it was just something I noted when reading.

Overall, I enjoyed this and I am motivated to read more into the story of Ramayana in the future to see how this compares and delve deeper into the world of Hindu mythology.