twistingsnake's reviews
288 reviews

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.

This will definitely appeal to an audience but I am not that audience. I find stories about robot companions really depressing and conceptually horrific and I couldn’t get into this because I just felt so upset by the implications. I knew the book wanted me to feel that way but I wasn’t willing to put myself further into that. 

Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang

challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Adding this to list of things that make me never want to be a parent.

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 4 by Ryoko Kui

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This is is the first volume where I've noticed huge information gaps between it and the anime. There are a couple of sections in this one that I think definitely would have added some great context to the show. I really loved the tension and high stakes of it all. Even though I already knew what was going to happen, you really feel it all over again reading it! 

Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent by Dipo Faloyin

adventurous challenging emotional funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

Lyrically written and unflinching in its directness. Faloyin is not afraid of his own lack of neutrality on something that is entangled with his identity and history. This book challenged me and my way of thinking in many ways. After closing it I reflected on the fact that I'll never be able to look at the way Africa is depicted in media in the same way. It really deconstructs the West's pervasive attempt to make the continent look like a monochrome wasteland of poverty and despair. I'm glad I picked this one up. It'll definitely a radicalizing read. We need to stop letting museums get away with cultural genocide. 

Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir by D. J. Waldie

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

The hymn the choir sang was Pange Lingua, a hymn traditional for Good Friday. Among its many verses are some addressed to the cross itself.

Dulce lignum,
Dulces clavos,
Dulce pondus sustinet.

Sweet the wood,
Sweet the nails,
Sweet the weight you bear.

A love letter to the place you were born down to the very foundations of it. Waldie's memoir is a history of everything that makes up his body in a way that truly reflects on how much of what we are is based on where we lived and why we lived there. I tore out many sections of this for poetry, which is one of the highest compliments I can give to anything.

You'd Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

When ordinary people unplug themselves from the grid of inauthenticity and speak honestly, they almost become endearing.

In many ways You'd Look Better as a Ghost is a usual suspect of the "women disconnected from society express themselves through brutal killings" genre. It's a fun read, but not necessarily anything groundbreaking from its source. At least that's how I felt until we got to the halfway point of the book and I realized that it does something the genre is adverse too: highlighting the human experience of its protagonist while, very literally, letting her get away with murder.  In many ways, this is a book about grief. It's about seeing yourself in people you don't understand, or necessarily like because you've experienced the same terrible thing. 

Claire is not a good person and she knows this. She is surrounded by people who do see themselves a good people, but she knows better. It's the grief that humanizes her and, by association, the people around her. It doesn't save them all, of course. Claire is able to see the humanity in a person she's set on killing, but she still sees it. I feel like this genre is prone to making killers disconnected from all aspects of the human experience outside the desire for violence. Wallace has a different approach. Claire and the people she kills are two sides of the same coin, and they see themselves in her as much as she sees themselves in then. It's a fun read and if you enjoy reading about female serial killers doing the most, you'll enjoy it. There's just more to it than that though, and I really appreciated that layer. 

Spirit Faces: Truth about the Afterlife by Mark Macy

informative lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

3.0

I can't say I came out of this book believing in spirit photography, but Macy's curation of experiences around the afterlife and how our physical world impacts it was very interesting to me. I found a lot of my beliefs represented and explained, and there were some stand out portions that enriched my own worldview for sure. Again, the weakest part of the book was the spirit photography itself. I could be the result of a new generation who requires a wound to stick my fingers into for proof, but I just did not see the dead within the blurred photographs. I did think that the idea of Walt Disney being trapped between the physical and spiritual world because he was cryogenically frozen to be very, very funny though. I can adapt that into my belief system, easy. 

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 3 by Ryoko Kui

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I really loved the art in this volume in particular. I think this is the first volume where I preferred the manga to the show if not just because Kui has such a knack for drawing big monsters. There's so much thought and consideration put into the structure of her world. I loved all the dynamics between our main cast and the other characters. She really is a master of showing over telling. This series really is so special. 

Merciless Saviors by H.E. Edgmon

adventurous hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

As much as I loved the first book, I really struggled with this one. I feel like everything I forgave in the first was something I found tedious and annoying in the second. I fully understand why a pantheon of gods would spend their eternity trying to destroy our protagonist. Still, I was moved by the ending. As a queer person who struggles with dissociation and identity, there is something very real and raw about Edgmon's depiction of that experience. This is a clearly very personal piece and while I didn't like it very much as a whole, I can appreciate and respect that vulnerability. 

Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke

adventurous challenging informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

A knight does not protect the truth; he lives inside it and the truth protects him. 

A short but significant collection of small wisdoms.