woodslesbian's reviews
70 reviews

Nghi Vo has genuinely some of the most beautiful writing I've ever encountered, and I'm so glad to have finally read this novella! I usually tend towards longer fantasy, but I absolutely loved this shorter piece and feel that it made fantastic use of its length to be impactful. I loved Chih's careful categorization of the objects around them and the way this beautiful description led us into the story of Rabbit and the Empress in the past. Each woman's story is full of exactly the right details to create a powerful impression of the challenges she faces while also maintaining a perfect sense of atmosphere and mystery. The fact that Rabbit is recounting the past allows for hints at how things will play out at the end of a tale that's already been finished, creating  a strong sense of building tension throughout the work. Such a short book actually made me tear up more than once, the struggles of these two women and their companions within this fraught political atmosphere and beautiful world were absolutely so moving. The reveal at the end was absolutely perfect, too--I was expecting it by that point, but in a way that felt completely satisfying and inevitable for the story. 

I just loved this novella! I enjoyed that Vo trusts the reader to adapt to this fantasy world and figure things out as we go along, and overall keeps things pretty subtle. This was just such a powerful piece of writing, and I cannot wait to keep reading the rest of the novellas in this series!

This is a book I really expected to like, which makes being disappointed with it even worse. Sweeping, political fantasies with Sapphic characters and unique worldbuilding tends to be something I love, so I figured The Sun and the Void would be a hit. Instead, my feeling about it are really just "go girl, give us nothing," which is a bummer! I just didn't care about the characters, or the world, or the central conflict and had no investment in the plot until basically the very end, and even that was pretty lackluster. I felt like the text often time skipped past the most interesting stuff--the actual violence and the building of relationships and things like that, which made it really hard to care overall. 

I didn't even have any huge gripes or complaints with this one (which at least would've been more interesting). The prose was perfectly serviceable and nicely descriptive in some sections, and I feel like the plot and characters really could've been compelling. I did feel like the ending was the strongest section, with beautiful descriptions and some really good action that wraps up nicely. I did enjoy the incorporation of animal traits into the different fantasy races, and the sense of history within the world and the different political aspects. 

Overall, though, I just couldn't root for the characters the way I wanted to. Reina and Eva's conflicts could've been really compelling, but they would up feeling too similar and without a super clear sense of growth for either of them. In particular, both major romance subplots I just could not be bothered with, they all felt pretty rushed and like we hardly got to see the characters actually bond at all.

For Reina, it felt like she just instantly had a crush on Celeste, and then we just time skipped past almost every chance for them to actually interact, where we're supposed to buy Reina's full devotion to Celeste when it's just not convincing at all? And the same is true with Maoir, it felt like they went from being at odds to really caring about each other so fast, and while I would say that Reina was my favorite character in the book, I just couldn't get why Maoir liked her so much based on the actual interactions they had??? It just felt like a really clumsy love triangle that wasn't actually achieving anything thematically between two underdeveloped romances. Then, of course, the love triangle is resolved in a truly baffling way when Celeste pretends to reciprocate Reina's feelings for some reason, is fantasy racist to her out of nowhere, and then is revealed to be her cousin??? All at the very end--the cousin thing in particular really felt like a way to just resolve the love triangle without any actual sense of conflict or character growth for either of them, since obviously that's not going to happen. Eva's relationship with Javier was actually a little bit more developed, at least, but the downside of that is that I loathed Javier. This is definitely a personal bias, I just really, REALLY don't like broody sadboys and take a LOT of convincing to care about straight romance, and he's the picture of a broody sadboy. He's just a real asshole, super fantasy racist to Reina and manipulative of Eva, and him being cursed does NOT make me any more sympathetic towards him for either thing, I really wanted Eva to just kick his ass so he could stop being a major character, but alas.

Ultimately, I feel like this book aimed for a lot of complexity in its protagonists that it just didn't really achieve, with a very slow pace that somehow didn't really develop any interiority or conflict between the characters well. In many ways, it felt a bit more like YA fantasy than adult fantasy, when I definitely have a preference for the latter. It has so many things I like and a really interesting, in-depth setting and magic system, but it just fell so flat for me and I wasn't invested in the characters at all :^/. 

I’m coming back to this one! I just haven’t been listening to audiobooks at all -__-

I really enjoyed this read! I don't read a ton of nonfiction, especially not of this type, but it really drew me in. I found the prose to be beautiful and atmospheric, and the explorations of gender, body, and water were all fascinating to me. Lars did a fantastic job of drawing the reader in to their experiences, with every moment feeling so vivid and lived-in for me. I personally really liked the incorporation of historical and mythological tidbits throughout; while I can see these as getting a bit dense for some, I enjoyed learning about all of these past events and moments in history and connecting them to Lars' experiences. A very interesting look at gender and fish! 

Everyone go read this book without knowing anything about it I promise it's worth it!!!!

I went into this knowing that it was in space and after seeing it described as "not reading like YA," and I think that was the perfect amount of context to have for this one. Without spoilers, I started off the book going "well this is interesting, but I don't really care that much about Ambrose ogling this angsty guy, can we please get back to the mysterious stuff happening in this space ship?" and then at 45% my thoughts were just "OH SHIT. OHHHH SHIT!!!!" and remained so for basically the rest of the book--the author knows how to build tension and maintain it like nobody's business. I'm sorry for doubting you Mr. Schrefer!

In terms of feeling dissimilar to other YA, I would say that this is true in terms of contents and the way the book absolutely does not shy away from the full depths of space horror, rather than the actual writing style. The text itself is absolutely shaped by Ambrose being a 17-year old and that comes across strongly in the writing, but not in a bad way! The style feels more like it's just genuinely shaped by his age and his personality than like... trying to be overly-quippy or just sounding like every other YA book, you know? It did take me some time to get used to that, and to be sold on Ambrose's interactions with Kodiak, but again, by the end I was 100% on board and invested in these two characters and their journey. 

That's all I have to say about this one, but because I really do feel like going in with very little information is the move for this book, rather than me not having opinions on it! I keep having to pause when going about my day to sit and process the things that happened in here even like two weeks after finishing it, it absolutely packs a punch. Absolutely crazy stuff, very fun! And I'm super excited to read the sequel! 

Emily Carroll continues to make work that appeals to me personally SO much, full of completely stunning art. The use of color and paneling in this book is absolutely breathtaking, and I was enraptured from the first page to the last. Do I know what was going on at the end? Well, no. But that's one of my favorite parts of Carroll's works--I love the ambiguity and how it keeps me returning to this story over and over again, trying to puzzle it out!! Also obviously sapphic vampire stories are right up my alley, and the balance here between the horrific and erotic is perfectly achieved. While I think I enjoyed the character work and buildup of A Guest in the House more, this is an absolutely striking, vivid story that I highly recommend. 

This is the lesbian selkie book of my dreams, as a lesbian who LOVES selkies and has always been fascinated with the selkie wife folktale. While usually I'm very picky, the sapphic-selkie historical fantasy of this one, with its quaint, isolated setting, had me hooked, especially with the relatively slow build of the romance. Seriously, this book just worked for me--some of the reasons it didn't click for other reviewers I can absolutely understand, but personally I was just 100% along for the ride and had a great time! 

I loved the descriptive, isolated setting and the focus on the natural world, along with the descriptions of midwifery, daily life, and cheese making at this time, as a fan of relatively dense historical fiction. I found the descriptions to be vivid and beautiful all throughout and felt that they really created a strong atmosphere, both of warmth between Jean and Muirin and of dread with the way Muirin is isolated with her husband. The relationship really had me giggling and kicking my feet!!! It perhaps could've been developed a bit more, but I was personally convinced of the characters' bond and really enjoyed all of their interactions! I also loved Jean's connections with the people around her, especially her mentor and her brother-figure, which just made the town feel so lively. The sense of danger created by Tobias and his control over Muirin, on the other hand, was palpable and had me speed-reading through the latter half of the book. Others have mentioned feeling that the 'reveal' (it's on the back of the book) of Muirin being a selkie is held off for too long, but the dramatic irony of recognizing all the seal-like things Muirin does while Jean is baffled by them really worked for me! On that note, I loved the way the author explored some worldbuilding around the selkies, like the webbed fingers and growing faster than other children, that's the sort of detail I love. This was just a fun, romantic read for me about a premise that I've been desperate for!

I will say, the back of the book and the premise may set some readers up for a more serious tale and a different atmosphere than this book really contains. While I personally felt a lot of tension around Tobias and the way he is really clearly controlling his wife, this is a lighter book overall, which focuses more on warmth and connection rather than a more sinister, gothic atmosphere (as much as I adore the gothic). The same is true for the book's handling of homophobia; it's something the protagonist struggles with, but not thoroughly, and not in a way realistic to the actual time and place. I didn't mind this--as much as I love deep, historically-grounded examinations of sexuality and gender, sometimes I DO just want the lesbians to win! Especially as the book's primary focus was on the romance itself over the conflict I think. The same is true for the historical fiction. Again, it's more about making cheese and creating atmosphere than being super grounded in history and major events. All of this worked well for me, but any readers going into this book should expect a romance-first, lighter read over all.

I loved this book. I need to walk around and think about selkies for awhile now! 

I really enjoyed this book! I felt like it really delivered on being a grounded, well-paced YA fantasy romance, with a more detailed, less-quipy writing style than a lot of YA (which I liked). Maybe it's just because I haven't read a ton of sci-fi (yet), but I really enjoyed learning about the differences between the humans and the Automa, and how that played into each character. It was both especially fun to see these differences in things like Crier freaking Ayla out by not remembering to breathe or blink, but also the way Crier found the lack of shine in Ayla's eyes freaky--it felt like a good examination of their unique perspectives. I felt like the plot and the mystery were both very-well paced as well! I was genuinely invested in uncovering the mystery and got a sense of danger from the plots happening around the protagonists, and the main villain being very recognizable early on didn't detract from this for me, since the other elements of the mystery were strong. The book as a whole felt very grounded in this world and these characters, especially through the use of "historical documents" from the world itself that revealed useful context and felt very natural to the story. In terms of Ayla and Crier's relationship, I found the pacing to be pretty solid (maybe just in comparison to some other sapphic YA books I've been reading lately) and was certainly rooting for them, but I do also feel like there could've been a little bit more development between them to really strengthen this aspect. Still, this wasn't a huge issue for me, perhaps in part because I knew there would be more room for this development in the second book in the series. Overall, I really enjoyed this book as a lighter read, and am looking forward to reading the sequel! 

I say this as a compliment: this book made me feel ill! It made me feel really bad, and I think that means it's an incredibly effective work of horror, especially one that handles such dark themes as this. If you're interested in reading this book, I recommend not only checking trigger warnings but knowing that the subjects listed will be VERY present and visceral and unpleasant to read. This is not a book for everybody, and there were many parts of it that made me deeply uncomfortable, but I believe this was a very intentional choice on Rumfitt's part, and one that really works for both the horror and the social commentary. The main characters are deeply human and VERY flawed, and I think the text did a good job of examining how those flaws happened (and how people in general are drawn in to reactionary ideology) without excusing them. I think the horror elements didn't always land for me--overall this book was less overtly scary and, again, mostly just unpleasant and sickening. This was still effective horror in my view, but also it definitely could've had more tense moments. It's not especially subtle in its themes and messaging by any means, which wasn't a problem for me, but both the themes and the horror were not the most subtle. I'll probably read some of Alison Rumfitt's other works eventually, but I know I'll need to be very braced emotionally for them. 

Baru Cormorant is EVERYTHING to me!!! This book gave me everything I wanted and more, and I've been thinking about it for weeks. If you're like me and love complex political fantasy books about morally gray lesbians with tons of worldbuilding detail, this is a must-read.

To start with, Baru herself is an absolutely fantastic character with tons of depth. I found myself rooting for her basically immediately, drawn in by her curiosity and struggle to understand the rapidly changing world around her, and I kept on rooting for her all the way through, even as her curiosity got her in more and more of a mess. I love that she's so goal-oriented and calculating, but at the same time she makes mistakes and flounders and mopes. Even when she was making incredibly difficult decisions and really struggling, I felt like I understood her character clearly enough that those decisions still felt deeply understandable, especially given the way the text does such an effective job of showing how much Baru has lost in the colonization of her home. And speaking of Taranoki, the worldbuilding in The Traitor Baru Cormorant is incredibly rich and effective! I felt like I had a clear understanding of these different nations, their battle for power, and their complex inner workings. I also found the exploration of the "sanitation" systems, condemnation of certain sexualities, and especially the conditioning methods used to try and fix these issues to be so chilling and very rooted in real life patterns of thought surrounding eugenics and the like. Overall, it just felt like every little detail of the world both fit in and felt like a piece of a larger, more complex puzzle, creating a sense of a real, nuanced world even outside of the scope of what Baru experiences. 

Another big positive for me was the relationships between the characters overall! Again, I absolutely loved the political mind games and seeing Baru struggle with who to trust, which makes the moments where she does trust (or not) all the more impactful. Also, I'm so obsessed with Tain Hu it's unreal, she's SO cool and crafty!!!! The characters in general just all felt so vivid and well-written, and I was always invested whether I liked them or not--which made the cutthroat politics of this book all the more intense. The core conflict of this world, of the Masquerade's colonization efforts, was extremely interesting and well-handled too, especially through the way that so much of this colonization is through technology, infrastructure, and knowledge. The discussion of the way these things can have "positive" effects like lessening disease and how that makes them an even more effective tool of imperialism is so interesting, and I loved the way Baru herself struggles with these ideas even while being a savant at learning them.

While I personally love this book's emphasis on complex political webs and tax season details, I can see this being an aspect that other people don't enjoy as much. I felt like knowing about all the practical and logistical parts of war did a great job of setting up Baru's cleverness and the story's tension, and I just really enjoy getting bits of worldbuilding detail, but readers looking for all-out action may be disappointed. For me, though, I had a great time with both the economic details and the duels!

Overall, I can't believe I didn't read this book sooner, but I'm glad I read it now! It feels like it really encapsulates so much of what I love about fantasy, with political intrigue, deeply complex characters, and nuanced worldbuilding. Without spoilers, I've been thinking about the ending for weeks, it was so visceral and moving for me, and I can't wait to get my hands on the next in the series. HUGE win for fans of morally gray, driven lesbians in fiction.