mmccombs's reviews
592 reviews

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

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adventurous medium-paced

3.0

This book was fine! It was a bit more YA than I anticipated, and therefore a bit predictable and overly resolved. I could see this being really fun for a middle-school reader! 
The Hearing Test by Eliza Barry Callahan

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reflective medium-paced

3.0

Really beautiful writing but otherwise a very one-note novel. I like stream of consciousness, meandery stories that are just kind of people experiencing life, but something about this felt a bit hollow. To be fair, this is a book about silence and absence and emptiness, so to a certain extent a hollow experience makes sense, but other than some poignant lines it was a listless reading experience. 
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Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes by Chantha Nguon

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dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Truly an astounding piece of non fiction! Using a through-line of food in a memoir is a fairly common one that I often find to be just fine, but Nguon makes this approach fully her own. I loved that each recipe was both just a recipe and also deeply connected to her story and each chapter. Including instructions or descriptions for how to cook the food as it related to that moment in her life made each recipe and mention of food more interconnected to her life. Food also made the connectedness between her mother and her daughter more salient, I loved that this was a story about what we pass down (both the good and the bad) and what we must hold onto in the face of so much adversity. I also just learned a lot about Cambodia, its history and its food, and this book compels me to learn more. This was great throughout but really took my breath away in the last chapter that brought it all together, I feel so lucky to have found Nguon’s story!
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Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

A multigenerational story that definitely belongs in the pantheon of great classics! I loved these characters and the natural flow of the story, where each turn and tragedy of these characters’ lives felt very lived in. The examination of culture and how it changed over time, of the racism towards Koreans and longstanding impact of colonialism, and of intergenerational conflicts and expectations for women were all wonderfully nuanced. 
I didn’t leave this book feeling as wowed as I anticipated, I think i found this either too short or too long. So many characters came and went, to the point where I never quite felt enough depth from most of them except for Sunja. In the end though, I’m glad I finally got around to this one, it was a great sweeping story that will stay with me for a long time!
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Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

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dark funny reflective fast-paced

4.5

A reread of one of my favorites in time for a bookclub did not disappoint! This book is just so fun, a beautiful mash of reality TV reflections, queer camp, and horror. I did notice on this second read that Renee especially lacks some depth that would have made this book a little more layered, but I still really think everything about this book works.
 I also found the reflections on “reality” and the digs at influencers/reality tv stars to be much more nuanced at second approach. Like, sure, these characters obsessively curate their images and that can be silly and toxic, but by the end this book takes a spin to show that not caring about “superficial” things doesn’t make you morally superior.
Like, the Lesbian Sasquatch Cult is out here MURDERING people I think taking selfies and doing brand deals is fine lol
. At first glance this book is just a gory romp of reality tv satire, but there’s really quite a bit of depth that a reread does some justice!
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

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emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

The writing was very well done and I really enjoyed learning more about Rastafari and the ways in which Sinclair navigated her family life. Making connections between the colonial past and present of Jamaica, the abusive control exacted by her father, and the long line of women who persevered and carried her was very well done. I did think it was fairly repetitive and slow, I most enjoyed the first few chapters and the last because that’s where she was able to round up and bring together her ideas. 
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A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams

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emotional funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

4.0

One of the swooniest, most magical romances I’ve ever read! Simply fantastical and outlandish, it is warm and sweet and funny because it never compromises on the magical part to its realism. I love the way Williams writes, there is something so breezy and effortless to her prose. While sometimes I was like “ugh cheesy!” it all worked to create a compelling, fun romance that also dipped into more serious themes. I loved these characters and their chemistry, the puns and pop-culture references were on the whole well executed, and the sense of place in Harlem (both historical and present) was so vivid. I loved Seven Days in June and loved this one too, I can’t wait for more romances (and hopefully some great movie adaptations, too!)
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The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

Deliciously dark and queer and monstrous, I really enjoyed the historical fiction + creature revenge plot mix. Short and sweet, I thought the writing was engaging, the characters well-written, and the time period compelling. Exploring queer and trans identities in Appalachia post WWI, where religious bigotry, eugenics, and modernization clash was something I’ve not explored before. I enjoyed Mandelo’s other novella and was pleased to enjoy this one just as much, great stories with even better senses of place and atmosphere. 
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Diavola by Jennifer Thorne

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dark funny tense fast-paced

5.0

When I picked up this book, I (for some reason) anticipated more of a gothic horror vibe, but this was truly straight HORROR at its best. Lots of bits that made me go “agh no!” out loud, a very atmospheric (and wonderfully Italian) setting, and a really interesting family dynamic all worked together to create a rich, creepy tapestry. I loved that Anna and her black sheep relationship to her family directly impacted and influenced the ghost story.
I loved that she got a bit snarky with the ghost, it became a relationship in its own right and made for some funny moments (which were definitely welcome when I was freaking out thinking about a ghost licking her foot). I also appreciated that she never reconciles with her terrible family and let the “rot” do its thing, truly awful people lol
All in all, I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this read, would definitely recommend for a scary summer read (maybe even on a family vacation just to keep it interesting!)
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The Winners by Fredrik Backman

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

So this book was basically exactly the same as the other two, so I should have loved it, but mostly I felt over it by the time I was only halfway through. It had the usual good writing, good characters, and bonkers domino effect of a plot, but this one felt especially over-the-top, repetitive, and long. Every bad thing that hadn’t already happened in the first two books happened in this one, and it wasn’t exactly compelling. When I finished Us Against You, I was like “ah ha! These towns have finally remembered the power of hockey and friendship!” And then this book was like, “hm, no, let’s make it much worse but in a way that doesn’t feel as natural as it did before!” There were quite a few bits where I was hit with a feeling of Deja-vu, where it seemed I was reading the same exact scene/inner character thought I had earlier in the book. I just couldn’t stay as interested and the drama was just too much, so for that reason the simpler, more down-to-earth (if still cheesy) character work I loved so much in the first two books felt a bit lost.
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