vanmeers's reviews
490 reviews

 this was absolutely stunning and beautifully narrated!

magical girls beating up assholes and cutting them in half WHILE they’re also being gay af??? that’s perfection right there 

kinda need a vol 4 NOW 

magical girls that kill people viciously is honestly a whole vibe 

i didn’t totally vibe with this one but it still managed to keep my attention during its 120 page story of a woman taking care of her mum while also living/working in the red light district of tokyo. the complicated relationship between mother and daughter was perfectly captured and really gave depth to the struggles of grieving a dying parent. 

if you’re into literary fiction, grief fiction and stories of sex workers and their lives this might be just your thing!

/// ARC courtesy of edelweiss and transit books. 

i do NOT have what it takes to make it in hollywood if this is what you gotta do 🫡 

starlet is a short horror novella that grabs you by the throat and takes you along for the whole ride riiiight up till the end — and what an end it is. déjà seawright sure IS a star. 

it perfectly captures the insanity of the hollywood elite in a satirical and gory way making it not only an entertaining read, but also a gross one! so so gross. 

i’ll definitely be looking to read more by danger slater if this is the kind of vibe he brings to all his books! 

/// ARC courtesy of BookSirens. 

this was kinda fun but i absolutely could not tell the men apart at all??? but besides the same looking men, there was some funny moments and cute designs. did not expect a magical girl situation with a guy turning into one but why not lmao

// ARC courtesy of the publisher and Edelweiss

This was my very first SGJ and despite having three of his books already on my shelves completely unread, because I’m clearly a loser, I couldn’t not apply for an ARC of I Was a Teenager Slasher — it sounded way up my alley and too good to not read in advance!

It was honestly everything I wanted in a book called I Was a Teenager Slasher. I went into it basically unaware of what to expect, but I really loved the confessional storytelling of the main character, Tolly Driver, and how he became what he became. It is very much a homage to being a teenager growing up in a small town in the 80’s, as well as a nod to anyone who loves the horror — slasher — genre. There’s lots of slasher meta in it, that makes it a fun read for any horror lover that knows their shit.

Despite the absurdity of the story, SGJ somehow still manages to make it feel very grounded, very real, and I think that’s because of the characters. I loved them all. Slasher, victims and final girl included. It hits you right in your feelings and by the end of it, you can’t help but feel for Tolly despite everything.

I Was a Teenage Slasher is the perfect autumn read and I definitely wanna re-read it in the near future. I’m also even more excited to finally start the other books that I have by him!

/// Thanks to Titan Books and NetGalley for the ARC. 

This really didn’t live up to my expectations at all and it basically took me forever to get through the audiobook despite having the audio sped up by a lot — it was simply just too slow paced, had too many characters and focused too much on period sex for me to really immerse myself in the story? 

The whole idea of ‘what if there’s something more sinister going on at a conversion camp and the queer kids have to save themselves and ultimately humanity by fighting back’ is pretty decent and I really liked that in Chuck Tingle’s Camp Damascus. The way it was done with Cuckoo just didn’t do it for me. Which is a shame cos I LOVED Manhunt and I think Gretchen Felker-Martin is pretty great at writing messed up queer horror stories.

Cuckoo ultimately wasn’t for me but if you’re looking for a story that’s essentially a queer coming of age invasion of the body snatchers then it might be just your thing. Because it’s pretty damn gay in basically every single way — and it has some pretty sweet disturbing body horror moments too!

Izumi Suzuki is able to capture the seedy underbelly of the Japanese underground music scene of the 70s — complete with all the sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll that you can imagine in her, newly translated into English, novel Set My Heart on Fire.

This is my first time reading anything by Izumi Suzuki, in fact, I’d never heard about her until now. But I simply couldn’t resist reading Set My Heart on Fire with its promise of detailing the turbulent life of a woman in her 20s in the bar and club scenes of 1970s Tokyo. The idea of struggling through your youth, with iconic music as the background, while trying to fill the void with anything from drugs and alcohol, to sex with musicians? It sounded just up my alley. 

I’m not sure I loved this book, maybe I would’ve devoured it whole when I was in my own 20s more than I would now, but I was definitely unable to put it down. I’m not, as mentioned, familiar with Izumi Suzuki, so when I finished the book I took the liberty to read up on her — or as much as I could, there’s very little information available in english! — and it seems that Set My Heart on Fire is a sort of autofiction novel that is semi based on her own life? 

If that is the case, I do think it bumps the rating of it up a lot more for me. Seeing as it’s an exploration of her own youth, told in thirteen vignettes that stretches through her 20s and 30s. It makes it feel a lot more impactful in a way? A lot more raw and painful to read. Either way, whether autobiographical, autofiction or just plain fiction, Set My Heart on Fire is a story of a woman feeling lost in her youth and into adulthood. The feeling of losing out on life, when settling for less, and the wish to have it all back — to be young and dumb again, to not have made the mistakes you did because you didn’t think you could get better? But then again, to also not be caught in the past so you’re unable to live the future you could have.

Izumi Suzuki, despite this being written in the 80s and taking place in the 70s, still captures the worries and fears of any young person even today in 2024. The translator, Helen O’Horan, did an exceptional job bringing those feelings to life in English and it’s fantastic that the publisher is allowing for the rest of us to be able to read Suzuki’s works in English. I’m definitely curious to read her other work, which is more akin to science fiction, but which Verso has also made available in English! 

TL;DR this book captures all the emotions of being young and dumb, making mistakes, and sitting with those feelings when you’re older. Izumi Suzuki is such an interesting person, I can’t help but want to read more by her! 

/// Thank you to Verso Books for the ARC!