The writing is purposefully unclear at points and purposefully so but perhaps it gets a little too muddled. Nevertheless, Chong brings a beautifully forlorn tone to the time travel genre.

really struggled with how much trauma is dumped in here but at least Yanagihara writes beautifully

Definitely not Ozeki's best but still her trademark frankness and balance of bitter and sweet is too good to resist

I couldn't stop myself from devouring this book as fast I can, even though I knew I would get no resolution from each heart wrenching chapter. Yanagihara perfectly captures the slow damnation that the passive and quiet and lonely are borne on despite their internal yearning. It's absolutely devastating in the best way possible. 800 pages fly by.

Ruth Ozeki is one the greatest of all goddamn time !

Definitely not super well versed in the history of Sri Lanka but this was a beautiful take on love (queer and not) and violence, disguised in a colorful ride through the afterlife

Worthy of its accolades. Tokarczuk has such a smooth way with words. I could read her bumble on as long as she wants to.

A perfect reflection on the current multiverse trend

I will never EVER get over Harth's death

Godin is repetitious but in a way, familiar to all peoples with disabilities, that stems from needing to assert themselves time and time again, so I can't fault them necessarily. It's a beautiful exploration of blindness overall.

At times I'm frustrated with how achingly slow French moves the plot along but her winding way of story telling somehows makes the reveal ache in a way that is hard to forget. The Searcher is the same.

The only crime procedural I've been able to finish. A beautiful mix of the mundane details and the grand thinkings of religion

An infinite well

I usually avoid queer books because I often feel disappointed and isolated by how little they reflect queerness as I experience it BUT this book captured every gory detail I didn't think to ever share: every pain, every kink, every hope.

I hover between finding Ishiguro's lack of world building more or less engaging but I love the simplicity and empathy of his science fiction. It's something that sci-fi, especially that which addresses topics like he does, often lacks in favor of doom and gloom.

Lee's steady, unflinching, soothing narration of this otherwise typical post-apocalyptic absorbs the reader in its fascinatingly calm yet violent world. A great read especially for the present where complacency, protest, disease, class division shape our persons.

Somethings missing from this book.

Meijer's writing has a high risk high reward attitude that pays off 80% of the time. I give it an extra oomf for its undeniably unique character.

This is science fiction of the heart.

Ogawa has a clear simple voice that conveys the terrible stillness that is growing within the narrator. The plot is frustrating and for the same reason haunting: it lacks the bravado of similar dystopian plots, rather the characters and the town they live in slowly but surely drift away, borne away by an unceasing tide.

Absolutely did not see the twist coming: that built really deliciously. But it kinda fell flat after the reveal. Still really good writing but not enough plot to motivate it.

I read this too quickly and will definitely need to go back to this over and over with time. It's like peerng into a cauldron of someone's thoughts. bits and fragments that resonate but are very dense at times. Though I haven't had cancer, it speaks a lot to similar pains for people with any disability.

it could be cool to read a bee's perspective but kinda felt like facts were just thrown at me. didn't really ever get invested in the narrator enough to care what was going on even though it seemed like a lot was happening

Good writing, good concept but it stops just shy of really tying the two plot lines together. slightly unsatisfying. I think it'd be better as two separate books.

First, I'm so grateful that Reese got to live a life with love, with Jude. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop after they revealed he was a trans but he survived and better yet he was happy. Never felt more relief and hope. The same goes for all the protagonists. As scarred as they were and as troubled as their paths were, Bennett gave them resolution, a way to lift the burden of the past without brushing aside the weight it held over them.

slightly disappointing ending but definitely a smooth read and perfect for a little mystery

if there was a way to capture the feeling of standing waist deep in a frozen River or the taste of the air alone in the Forest in the early morning, Robin Wall Kimmerer has found it. She affirms every subconscious impulse that feels a genuine comfort when out on the Grass, in the Ocean, among the Trees. I'm in love with her writing.

Tears straight through you. The inevitability of it all weighs heavily from the very beginning and it only builds and builds.

Re-reading this one and its just as painful as the first time. Palmer takes the time travel trope and twists it into a fascinating little mechanism to reflect the ways in which we mean so little and so much in each others lives, especially when technology replaces so much of our human interaction. Will make you want to run outside and do something human and base in the best way possible.

The story begins with the almost too familiar trope of the missing girls but, as Phillips lays out the characters one by one, the complacent rage one feels at first boils. Disappearing Earth is not about a singular instance of violence but about the webs of responsibility and expectation and tradition that leave women helpless. Phillips exposes the subtle ways defeat seeps into every aspect of women's lives, a violence that goes unrecognised.

As someone who struggled with suicide, I hold this book very close to my heart.

Richard Powers distills generations, lifetimes into 12 some pages then closes the chapter and moves on. There is something terrifying about it, like leaning over the edge of a cliff and seeing the ground so far below. Life feels overwhelmingly fragile but it isn't instilled with the hubris of humanity, just a genuine recognition of our smallness. The Overstory gave me clarity and, though it leans pessimistic, I felt absolved after reading.

This book is aptly named because it is indeed about girls being, for the most part, silent. While I appreciate the intent to make a more inclusive story, Briseis' story was flat and relied on trauma porn rather than actual characterization. Especially because the plot is well-known, it was hard to want to finish the book. And, unfortunately, I think Achilles became the most interesting character once again.

Reading this book feels a lot like when you're falling asleep listening to your grandparent tell you a story that their grandparents told them. The plot of the Bird King is relatively bare but the writing is dotted with moments of both profound grief and love. Never read a book so soothing and heartwrenching at the same time.

maybe purposefully anticlimactic but the journey to the end was absolutely captivating. It's long but I couldn't not know how it resolved itself. It was less the thriller mystery I thought it was going to be and more of a character study. The focus of the book isn't the crime.

finished in one night.
slightly unsatisfying plot twist and maybe unnecessarily cruel to its female characters but still very good