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baielleebooks's reviews
59 reviews
Liarmouth by John Waters
Did not finish book. Stopped at 40%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 40%.
Such a normie DNF'ing the Duke of Debauchery himself! Found it funny and unique but the faultline for me lied in remaining invested and following the crazed storylines.
She's Always Hungry by Eliza Clark
dark
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Inventive, provocative and darkly funny in parts. In its best stories, Eliza Clark's originality and creativity courses through, presenting narrative voices I've never encountered in another novel or collection. Clark's bringing to life of characters acting upon their hungers and proverbially (and sometimes quite literally) claiming the night make the collection as a whole vital and exciting.
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Some stories shone more than others for me; I preferred the tense or satirical prose deployed in particular titles over the more cerebral or science-fiction themes presented in others. Nevertheless, as a collection overall, She's Always Hungry is encompassing of a fresh, contemporary voice in Clark, whose stories, rather deliciously, bristle against the boundaries of normative order.
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My favourite stories were The Problem Solver, Nightstalkers and Company Man.
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Some stories shone more than others for me; I preferred the tense or satirical prose deployed in particular titles over the more cerebral or science-fiction themes presented in others. Nevertheless, as a collection overall, She's Always Hungry is encompassing of a fresh, contemporary voice in Clark, whose stories, rather deliciously, bristle against the boundaries of normative order.
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My favourite stories were The Problem Solver, Nightstalkers and Company Man.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Eating disorder and Toxic relationship
Minor: Drug use, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Cannibalism
A Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories by Mariana Enríquez
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Mariana Enriquez is glorious. Glorious in her ability to create horrifying, bone-chilling worlds contained in collections of sharp short stories. As a reader, I always felt dropped straight into the action, magnetized to many of the narratives and left each story both impressed and haunted. There were a couple of stories that even made me leave my light on one night. And the book is designed beautifully with literary quotes, dedications and a couple of arresting horror illustrations.
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My favourite stories were My Sad Dead, Face of Disgrace, Night Birds, Different Colors Made of Tears and Black Eyes.
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My favourite stories were My Sad Dead, Face of Disgrace, Night Birds, Different Colors Made of Tears and Black Eyes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Suicide, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Really magnificent at the sentence level; lyrical, moving and referential. A sonorous love story coloured with vital renderings of trauma, masculinity, and tenderness, and a poignant exploration of what it means at the soul level to inhabit a Black body in a world made hostile and prejudiced.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Police brutality
Moderate: Death, Violence, and Grief
Minor: Alcohol
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Ottessa Moshfegh's resounding literary talents patterns the prose in Eileen. Her descriptions of total dreariness and dilapidation, and her framing of the introspections of a pained, pitying yet manipulative narrator, made for a strong reading experience.
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There were elements of the plot that I felt would have benefitted from some finessing (exploring the deeper motivations of Rebecca’s actions, changing what is experienced as the slight runoff of tension when Mrs Polk confesses etc.) Truthfully, I wasn't quite struck with the same electric urgency I had reading Lapvona and My Year of Rest and Relaxation.
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All's to say that Eileen is still a novel that excited me and evidenced the power of literature to tour the minds of protagonists, who for all their unlikeability, are deeply interesting and carry cultural weight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Rape
Moderate: Eating disorder, Excrement, Vomit, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death, Fatphobia, and Suicidal thoughts
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
dark
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Wolfed this down with pleasure, a perverse kind of pleasure. Can money buy you happiness? My Year of Rest and Relaxation could be viewed as Moshfegh's fierce, ironic riposte to that question.
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Passage after passage of punchy prose flowed in quick succession as I rapidly leafed through the novel.
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The savagery of the narrator's put downs of Reva are bleakly funny, and one sympathises with Reva's plight to fit in, especially with the elitist snobbishness levelled against her by the narrator. Dr Tuttle in her conspiracy-theorist-psycho apothecary treatments and diatribes were wild and entertaining. The writing that framed the narrator's past was heartbreaking and her present was dizzying yet compulsively readable.
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The novel had great thematic terrain in its coverage of rage, grief, beauty, capitalism and America, apathy and more. All of which culminate in a story that is anti-heroic in its honing in on the matters of an imperfect and embittered human heart that beats on in a cruel world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Mental illness
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, and Vomit
No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
Did not finish book. Stopped at 45%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 45%.
Sadly surprised that I didn't vibe with this collection! The short stories contained strong emotional themes; longing to be in someone else's present, the faraway fantasy lands we create in times of loneliness etc. But, mostly, the stories themselves didn't hold much meat on the bone for me. The Man on the Stairs and This Person were the two I did enjoy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Animal death, Mental illness, and Sexual content
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
4.75
Journalism with ironclad strength. Catch and Kill is vigorous in its dissection of sexual abuse committed by powerful perpetrators through structural, interpersonal, legal and cultural lenses. Farrow writes with utter principle, and survivors' stories are relayed with real care and conveys their immense courage. I must also say that he manages to pepper in funny lines about people's apprearances, some with a unique observationalist POV, and others with just a little necessary drop of shade!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Self harm, Blood, and Stalking
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Claire Dederer has a captivating critical voice, flying in the face of that loathsome kind of clinical, self-purportedly detached style of cultural appraisal. Emotion and the structural dynamics of what constitutes one's fandom and moral dilemmas as an art-lover are discussed with great zest and insight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, and Rape
Moderate: Alcoholism and Sexism
Minor: Abandonment
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A masterfully paced novel that builds and builds and builds, with its plot and characters constantly feeling milliseconds away from total annihilation or a dawning rebirth.