thepaperwitch's reviews
507 reviews

Nosy Neighbors by Freya Sampson is a bit of a cozy pseudo-mystery with some depth. A diverse group of tenants in an old English historical housing complex learn that they are being evicted and they must figure out where they are going to go. One of the tenants wants to try to protest the eviction and protect the historic house, but is unable to get the group to move past their petty grievances and work together. When the tenant is found almost dead after he starts his protest, the older woman who lives across from his flat tries to figure out which tenant did it. 

This was an enjoyable, easy read that centers on character interaction, backstory, and development and ends with a nice, tidy wrap-up. Pick this up if you want a pick-me-up story.

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley is a great read. It is richly detailed with Native culture that invites you in to learn more about it and the people who still keep their traditions alive despite all the harm that has been done to their communities. It is insightful, relevant, and has a good mystery plot that blends together pretty well. There are a number of modern issues that affect Native communities that the author addresses, such as substance abuse, the exceptionally high rates of violence towards Native females, tribal laws, per cap money, blood quantum, distrust and weariness of police and Federal agents,  the destruction that the government has caused Native families and their struggle to be made whole and maintain their traditions. I thought these were well balanced with the overall story. 

I will say that towards the middle, I felt like it was a little slow and somewhat bogged down by Daunis' slightly repetitive internal monologue, but once it moved past that, I couldn't put it down. Daunis felt like a well built character with flaws, strengths, struggles, and triumphs. I think everyone should read this book.

Many of the other reviews have it spot on about the confusion this anthology offers. Why is this book called kink? It felt like most of the authors had some short story they were looking to publish and used this book to do it even though it had nothing to do with the topic or misrepresented it in bad ways. 

Motherhood meets Metamorphosis. Not going to lie, the child in this book is one of the reasons I do not want one, but that doesn't stop me from empathizing with the struggle of motherhood and all of the perfection, sacrifice, and sever devaluation that society places on mothers (including from other mothers). The mother in the book faces the question of where her identity lies now that she has a child and has been forced to (naturally) give up her career to take care of the child because her husband makes more money and she cannot "balance" her work and motherhood. In this spiral of questioning herself, she unintentionally ends up redefining who she is and how her motherhood looks. And this is Nightbitch. Feral, fierce, violent, and wild. What it really means to be a mother in all its blood and love.

I think this line oddly sums up the book's tone: 

I would have given it 4 starts, but somewhere heading towards the end, the writing stretched out and got really slow and repetitive. Side note: do NOT watch the movie trailer and think that it portrays the tone of this book. I don't know what's going on there. 

 A great graphic novel that helps show the struggles of mental health diagnoses and how cyclothymia (a mood disorder from the bipolar family) affects a person. In this case, the author herself. I thought it was well done and helped me understand things from the person's perspective. How it looks and feels to them and how it is perceived by others. I really liked the end where it offered people who love someone with bipolar ways to help them cope and manage with the person's ups and downs.

Pick this up if you are looking for a different way to try and understand this area of mental illness. 

 Funny, sweet, and sad. A lovely, relatable tribute to a member of the magical feline species.