woodslesbian's reviews
70 reviews

For my general, non-spoilery criticism, frankly what comes to mind first is just the style of Winterset Hollow. It felt, honestly, very pretentious. I understand that this was a purposeful choice shaped by the text's engagement with other written works and the admiration the characters have for other books, but, to me, the very formal word choice and overall sort of flowery style absolutely took away from the horror of a book. It's inherently hard for me to find a scene scary, or at the very least tense, when words like "chum" or phrases like "cowardly conundrum" are thrown in there, and the whole thing's basically written like that. It just didn't feel serious enough. Furthermore, the novel uses a LOT of very long sentences and didn't really intersperse enough shorter sentences to create a good sense of tension in my opinion. For whatever else Winterset Hollow wanted to achieve, I expect a horror book to at least try and scare me, and this stylistic choice not only stopped it from doing so but sometimes even felt silly.

I will also say that the text tries at mystery, and that I just wasn't very drawn into the story and its mysteries. This might've totally been because I wasn't enjoying it overall, but I just wasn't all that invested. Also, and I know this because I made a note of it in my reading journal, I absolutely guessed one of the major twists on page 46. Yes, I want an author to leave me hints about the mystery so I can start piecing it together, slowly but I shouldn't be able to get it that early. I don't even think I'm very good at solving mysteries, either. 

In terms of character, I enjoyed the main trio but wasn't overly invested in them. I definitely liked Mark and Caroline a bit more than Eamon, though, which makes it a bit harder to root for him as a protagonist. Also, every human character who wasn't those three felt extremely shallow. I understand wanting to use those characters to represent different sorts of like, idealization of literature or things along those lines, but it makes for a boring fight for survival when I couldn't care less about them.

Okay, now for my absolutely biggest problem with this book and the main reason for such a low rating, which obviously includes spoilers:

While I had my suspicions throughout, there's absolutely no doubt by the final quarter that Durham is paralleling the displacement and killing of the animals of Winterset Hollow with the real-life genocide of indigenous people in America. This is clear in the way that the coming of Addington and his people is described (I believe Finn literally comments on never having seen a white man before), there's a bit on page 248 where Finn describes a younger animal coming to his father as "a young brave," and the Barley Day Feast is clearly meant to be a representation of Thanksgiving, and particularly the way that it's lied about today.

Now, it's clear that Durham is absolutely condemning this colonization and representing it as a great tragedy. In particular, it's pretty clear that he's intentionally criticizing the way the myth of Thanksgiving has been retold as a nice, happy story rather than the beginnings of horrible atrocities enacted by colonizing Europeans. He's absolutely trying to criticize these things! I just don't think he succeeds. To be clear, I am a white American and therefore my perspective on this is limited (I am also assuming that Durham himself is not Indigenous, my views on this would absolutely change if I found out otherwise).

Personally, I think representing indigenous people through talking animals is always going to be A Choice. No matter how likeable and sympathetic the animals of winterset hollow are, it feels a little bit weird and dehumanizing to make this choice, no matter how it's handled. And as for that handling... A large part of Winterset Hollow's horror derives from the human characters desperately trying to survive attacks from these talking animals. They are the characters that our main characters must evade and fight, who we're meant to be scared by, even though they're meant to be relatively sympathetic. Again, I think Durham does a good job of characterizing the animals--they were absolutely some of the most interesting characters and the ones I personally enjoyed the most--but that doesn't erase the fact that they are largely just the antagonists in one way or another. Also, y'know, they all die at the end! That's a pretty significant factor here, along with the fact that our white protagonist survives, having bested them. Furthermore, it feels like the suffering that the animals endure, particularly in scenes like those where the stuffed remains of all their families are revealed to be in Addington's attic, are sometimes used for sheer horror and shock value, which would be fine if they weren't very clearly being used as an allegory for indigenous people. As it is, these moments go from gruesome-in-a-fun-way to just disrespectful. I also just feel like this (presumably) white man using the real tragedy of colonization as a backstory for his horror book is not a great move, and at worst feels exploitative. This is ironic, considering the way Durham is obviously trying to make a point about the warping of the Thanksgiving story and how narratives can be a tool of oppression! 
 
Again, I think a huge part of this poor handling stems from Durham's attempts to make the pretty clear-cut commentary that colonization was extremely cruel and that Thanksgiving has been horribly misrepresented as a tool for oppressive systems not mixing well with the horror aspects of the novel. Once that comparison is established, the horror elements just make things feel messy and thoughtless at absolute best, and both callous and racially charged at worst. Like, death is the only solution for the animals of winterset hollow that Durham presents here--so what does that say about the very real, very alive indigenous people continuing to face the repercussions of colonization today? 

Overall, I could've put up with a bit of pretentious word choice or somewhat a weak sense of actual horror, but the undeniable connection to real-life colonization, rather than enriching my reading of the text, opening my eyes to a new perspective, or driving home the inhumanity of the rewriting of history, instead just ruined this book for me. I think Durham's intent was absolutely to condemn colonization and the idealization of the "pilgrims" and all that, I don't think his intentions were bad, but I doubt in the first place if this was a story that was his to tell and to exploit horror from. Like I said, I just don't think it's handled well enough to actually work, and instead makes a lot of the horror elements feel... gross. Ultimately, by not quite committing to either, it fails as both horror and allegory. 

          Overall, I really enjoyed The Davenports! I found the focal characters to be very compelling, enjoyed their journeys with romance and self-discovery, and was immediately drawn into the rich and vibrant world of 1910 Chicago. It had all the elements of a period romance that I really enjoy, with an added layer of depth through the detailed and natural portrayals of Olivia, Helen, Ruby, and Amy-Rose and their variety of struggles. In particular, I found Olivia's arc to be extremely compelling, and found it was complimented very well with her budding romance. I also appreciated the focus on sibling and familial relationships. This was simply both a very fun and entertaining read, and the discussions of the ways that the Davenport family, and the entire black community of Chicago, is deeply impacted by the history of slavery, its ongoing ramifications, and the threat of Jim Crow laws were deeply moving and added a layer of realism and compassion that period romances sometimes lack. I was rooting for each of the main women right from the get-go, and I found each of their perspectives to have a unique voice and a layered, deeply believable young woman. I also especially enjoyed the focus on sibling relationships and bonds! The setting was also very well-described, from the lavish balls to the natural beauty to the hustle and bustle of the city. 

I think one aspect of this book that did not necessarily 100% work for me were some aspects of the pacing. While I feel like the four different perspectives and storylines were actually balanced pretty well throughout, the final quarter or so of The Davenports got away from me a bit. Up to that point, although growing issues are certainly present and there's tension in what the girls are going to do and how things are going to work out, it felt like the final quarter was packed with a very high level of drama and action all at once that felt a bit unexpected. That was really the only place where it felt like the multiple storylines did not all flow together well and have their own space; it just felt like a bit too much at once in some ways. Still, this was a very minor issue, and I enjoyed the endings that these four young women had and all the ways they grew! It was satisfying overall, just a little overwhelming. 
        

This book is so good. With my expert opinion as a lonely lesbian: read this manga. It's both absolutely heart-wrenching and really captures Nagata's struggles with mental health and self-worth, but still manages to be hilarious at points. She really just captures the isolating nature of this experience, the way it can be at odds with parents' expectations, and the awkwardness of trying to explore oneself with so much candidness and humor. I deeply felt like every single page of this manga. There's also a panel where

  she compares her reactions to erotic content of men vs women, where her little avatar simply thinks "he sure is naked," which is such a concise and accurate way of describing that. "He sure is naked" is an emotion and I've felt it.

Overall, I was just so invested in this story, really understanding and rooting for Nagata every step of the way, and despite the dark content, the humor and hope of the story made it a deeply enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to reading the other manga in these series once I can get my hands on them! 

For the non-spoiler section of my review: I absolutely loved this book. I felt like this novel explored each of its subjects, from Grace as a character and all her struggles and growth, to her interactions with her family and friends, to her romance with Yuki, with utmost care and appreciation. Each topic felt like it really got the attention it deserved and was completely real and believable to me. At the same time, not only was the content explored well, but the style of this novel is absolutely mesmerizing. I was instantly drawn into this rich, tactile descriptions full of color, sound, and smell that were just an absolute delight to read. Capturing such a strong sensory aspect through the page is very impressive, and it really helped to draw me into the book! I felt like I could clearly picture just about every single scene and this little world. 

Of course, beyond just this beautiful prose, Honey Girl thrives on a fantastic cast of characters. As protagonist, Grace is given incredible depth and nuance, where all of her achievements and challenges feel so deeply realistic, and I was rooting for her 100% of the way and could understand when she didn't necessarily make the right choice, because those choices felt so grounded within her character. But just about every character just leaps off the page! They all felt like real people I could meet walking down the street or people I know, and I really got the sense of them all being people with their own lives and struggles outside of Grace, which added to the realism of this novel for me. I also loved the inclusion of both science and art within the text, through Grace's passion for astronomy and Yuki's inclusion of myth and monster in her podcast. I felt like the text really captured the love of the characters and the joy of these parts of life! Overall, Honey Girl was a deeply enjoyable experience for me.

For the more spoilery stuff:

I was deeply moved by Grace's struggles with her future and mental health. Through the careful, nuanced development of her stress and anger over all the years of hard work she's put in not being appreciated, the confrontations she has with her father over that future, and just the building, crushing pressure of her future, the development of her feelings and struggle all feels so real. There isn't really any way for me to say how I felt about her emotional struggles but to emphasize how deeply real they felt. The scenes throughout the ending of the book of her reconnecting with both her parents in different ways and finally seeking therapy really made me cry. I also really appreciated seeing such a candid, realistic portrayal of therapy, where she has to try a few different therapists before finding one that suits her, and the text actually shows the way Grace's thoughts and processing changes over her time in therapy to help her cope better. It also really felt like an ongoing process, where there's no single easy solution, but instead a lifetime of steps and processes that can slowly help. I just really enjoyed this portrayal and was really moved for Grace. The ending felt like a beautiful, hopeful conclusion for her story where she's genuinely more ready for this relationship and is moving forward on a path that she wants, rather than what's "best". I just love her relationship with Yuki so much and was so glad to see them both communicating and together at the end!!! It was a very satisfying end to a story that I absolutely loved.

I felt like this was a deeply heartfelt, interesting story following Ryo's experiences with expressing himself as a closeted trans man. I was immediately drawn into the characters, story, and Ryo's struggle, and enjoyed every minute of reading this manga. Overall, I felt that this was a really nice examination of a trans character and the societal pressure he faces. I also look forward to reading the other installments in this series, because I instantly loved the characters. Even though I'm not personally someone who knows a ton about fashion/graphic design/graffiti specifically, I felt that this manga captured the joy of creativity and art, and how freeing it can be to express oneself for art. I also enjoyed the bonding between characters who are all, in their own way, not quite fitting in. Again, I'm really looking forward to reading more of this series, I really enjoyed this volume! 

I enjoyed If You Could See the Sun immensely. I was instantly drawn to Alice as a character and found her endearing and relatable, and that really shines through in the strength of her voice in the writing itself. I enjoyed her habit of making pro and con lists, that was such an effective way to capture her way of thinking, and her feelings--especially her nervousness and determination--just jumped right off the page. In addition, it was really impactful to read a character who places so much value on her grades and see this drive handled in such a realistic, compassionate way with full consideration for the economic factors that lead to her putting so much pressure on herself. As a college sophomore who recently walked out of a test I wasn't prepared for and immediately cried about it, the moment

where Alice realizes she forgot to study for a test and panicked was just so palpable, it really tugged at my heart and just felt so realistic.

I also loved Alice's drive, the determination and simple logic she uses to approach every problem that comes her way--even when the problems become increasingly intense and eventually illegal. Even when she decided to literally help with a kidnapping, the compassion with which she is written and the way that Liang really draws the reader into her feelings and situation made this, while not necessarily the best choice, extremely understandable.

I also really enjoyed her romance with Henry! It felt like it developed very naturally within the plot without eclipsing Alice's other struggles and the plot overall, and I thought that their rival dynamic was super fun to read. It's especially funny to understand as an audience that Henry views this relationship very differently than Alice at the start of the book (he has a picture of them together on his desk!!!) and see her be at first a little oblivious of this and then watch as her own feelings for him change and develop. I also thought that Henry is handled well in terms of establishing that no, being rich didn't magically stop him from having any problems in his life whatsoever, but at the same time the book handles the fact that he will still never have to struggle and worry about some of the things Alice must. She's able to learn this about him without it diminishing her very real struggles with income and the sheer differences in their lives.

That's another thing I really appreciated--the genuine and compassionate portrayal of Alice's lower-income family and the way this shapes her whole life. It feels fully incorporated into every aspect of the text, from Alice's worries about her parents' wellbeing to her feeling out of place in fancy shopping districts to keeping her from making friends with her rich classmates who might expect her to match their spending to even just her not having the latest phone. This all felt very naturally incorporated, and again makes her motivation throughout the book SO strong and very reasonable, especially with how hard she's worked academically. I also really loved that, although Alice did mess up in again aiding in a kidnapping (even if she then helps stop it), the text fully places the emphasis on the circumstances that push Alice to this. I also LOVED that Alice uses her clever thinking (and a bit of blackmail) to keep away from the worst consequences of being sued and everything, where she turns back the school's extreme reputation back on them. It feels more nuanced (and frankly more fun) to not just have her take the "moral high road" or whatever and come clean completely, especially when the school and, y'know, the actual people behind the kidnapping are much more at fault than she is. Even if Alice has to move to another school, that ending meeting scene was SO satisfying to read, watching as her plan came together and she managed to turn the power of this elite school over to her side, it was just a blast.

Overall this was such a great book! I read almost all of it in one day and the ending absolutely made me cry (especially Alice's interactions with her parents, those were ROUGH but so realistic and impactful!!!), and the ending felt like a great conclusion to such a moving story. The writing was well-done, with a clear voice and great pacing to keep me wrapped up in the story the whole way through.

I likely won't go into detail because it'll get me all riled up, but I had very high hopes for this book as it contains many things I usually love (revenge, polyamory, a women-focused narrative, giant fighting robots) but it just absolutely disappointed me. Zhao struggles a LOT with "show, don't tell" especially when it comes to the book's feminist themes. It felt like this book placed absolutely zero trust in me as a reader and felt the need to constantly point out "hey! this is sexist! the world in which girls are constantly sacrificed so boys can power up big robots is, you guessed it, sexist!" When the concepts fully conveyed that already. In addition, the feminism the book itself presents feels completely lacking nuance and under-developed, with basically all of the female characters Zhetian meets being like, catty bitches who only care about men at best or backstabbers at worst. Our main character, Zhetian, constantly decries the situation of women and how they're exploited en mass--which is fair and true of this world!--but she feels like the one and only important, nuanced woman in the whole book, with little thought given to other perspectives or experiences. As a powerful woman, she feels like an exception, not the rule. Not to mention that some of her opinions, ones that aren't particularly challenged, come across as almost victim-blaming for women who don't stand up to every instance of abuse, even if I'm sure that wasn't Zhao's intention. 

Still, I did enjoy the ending of this book at least; I felt like the tension was built up nicely and the final events did feel genuinely cool. Zhao has potential as a writer and I think their concepts are interesting, but I really felt like Iron Widow needed a bit more thought put into it overall. 

Spoiler Free review first: I enjoyed this book! I thought it was really nice to see a lighthearted high school story with such a diverse cast of characters, such believable relationships, and of course Ophelia discovering her attraction to girls. It's pretty simply and light as a read, maybe better for younger high school readers, but just so compassionate and a book I'm really glad those younger readers have today. Ophelia is a wonderful, real, and delightful character!

Spoilers below:

I enjoyed Ophelia After All quite a bit! It was really nice to see a work that focused on sexuality and Ophelia's identity as half-Cuban while also treating those things as just part of daily life and which has a diverse group of friends overall. In general, I found the main friend group very believable and likable, each character with their own issues but their own charms that all felt very real. In particular, I really enjoyed Ophelia acknowledging that her and Lindsay were never that close and would probably stop being friends after High School, that felt very realistic to me and was a very nice touch. I also enjoyed that, while the book focuses a lot on her figuring out her sexuality and grappling with how it might mean she defies others' expectations for her, it's never in isolation; her friends and the important people in her life were always significant and dealing with their own struggles.

I also really enjoyed the direction the romance took! I loved Talia as a character and found her just as cool as Ophelia does, and I actually really liked that it turns out she's dating Zaq and her and Ophelia don't end up together; it again added another layer of realism and felt more accurate to how messily actual high school relationships (romantic or not) can go. It also highlights the importance of Ophelia accepting herself and feeling confident over finding a relationship. In general, her rose-tinted (pun intended) perspective on all of her interactions with Talia due to her crush were super believable from both sides.

Another aspect of this book I really enjoyed was all of the emphasis placed on both gardening and literary analysis. I might be biased due to my own love of both those things, but I felt like they were written about in such a true way and just shone through in Ophelia's character.

I do think this book is a lighter read for sure and most ideal for younger high schoolers and such, but those are not negative things! I think getting to read this book when I was younger would've been absolutely thrilling and affirming, and I'm glad people that age have this book now. Overall, it didn't necessarily grab me by the collar and shake me around or anything, but I think it's wonderful to see a nice, light-hearted and extremely compassionate book like this.

I read this book awhile ago now, but I thought it was delightful! It was mostly short and sweet, and I found the magic system and relationships within compelling. I think more books should have cool magic grandmas, honestly. I also liked the inclusion of a nonbinary character and how that was handled, especially as a nonbinary person myself. I also thought the cool magic mystery was fun, even if the villain wasn't particularly surprising, and I found the emotional beats and growth of the main characters compelling and sweet. I just loved how magic was written into this graphic novel, and I think the art really captured it super well. Just a fun little magic story!

This book would've been so good except for

the step-sibling incest things in its entirety

. Like. I'm genuinely super frustrated because Choo sets up an incredibly compelling, fantastical mystery here! The setting may be unfamiliar to me in both time and place, but she describes it enough to give great context and to great a very rich atmosphere, I find her use of superstitions like those surrounding numbers to be both fascinating and effective, and I was (mostly) rooting for the Ren and Ji Lin. All these things are good, and I find her style very compelling as well!!! These things are what barely drag this book up to 1.5 stars, because the thing I hated so much about this book really ruined it for me. Next paragraph is full spoilers.
 

Why did the romance plotline have to be between Ji Lin and her step-brother. Like. It's not even like their parents married when they were adults so they weren't raised as siblings (which I still think is weird, but way less bad), but no, they were raised as siblings from the time they were ten, and it's pretty clear that Ji Lin thinks of Shin as her brother for the first portion of the book--and she still refers to him as such until pretty far on. That's so gross!!!! It's really weird to have her see him as a brother and refer to him as her brother and stuff and then have a romance between them, especially because of how upset their mother is by the whole thing, because she has raised them as siblings. This sucks. I know they're not blood related, the book makes that very clear, but if you live with someone AS YOUR BROTHER from childhood on, that's a familial connection. Shin could've just been a very close childhood friend, or someone she met later on, or literally just her brother that she DIDN'T have a gross romantic thing going on with, there were plenty of ways to avoid this. If Choo wanted to go for a star-crossed lovers angle, surely there were ways of doing this much better than making them basically siblings, like bringing class or their parent's wishes moreso into it. Despite all the things I mentioned that I really did enjoy about this book, reading the "romantic" interactions between Ji Lin and Shin made it really hard for me to continue (thus why there's such a gap in my reading log for this one). It's just super uncomfortable, especially when it's clearly meant to be the opposite. Tbh, I kept hoping Shin would just die so I wouldn't have to keep reading this weird tension. That sounds mean, but this relationship was genuinely so uncomfortable that it's the truth.

The ending also just feels a little abrupt with everyone heading to Singapore, as well as Ji Lin not having any direct path towards medicine like she wanted so badly (but the possibility of marrying her step-brother instead, whoop-de-doo /s) is a little frustrating to me. I guess she's able to sit in on Shin's lectures and stuff, but I think it would've been more satisfying if her arc focused more on her figuring out how to get what she wanted out of life and be some kind of doctor or nurse instead of the latter half of the novel being her mostly being pursued by Shin, at least character-wise.

 

Anyways. Thought the supernatural elements of this book were so cool and interesting, loved Ren and his mentorship with Dr. McFarlane so so much, hated the romance subplot enough to ruin the whole thing basically.