clairebartholomew549's reviews
675 reviews

The Edge of Water by Olufunke Grace Bankole

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emotional informative reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

I enjoyed this book a lot. We follow a mother, Esther, and daughter, Amina, in Nigeria as they deal with their patriarch's infidelity, abuse, cruelty, and indifference, and then as the daughter moves to New Orleans and has to face Hurricane Katrina. The cornerstone of this book is definitely Esther and Amina's relationship, and I felt deeply for both mother and daughter throughout this book. Bankole beautifully depicts a parent's desire for their child to have a better life than them, and also how painful it can be when your child actually leaves and goes after their dreams. The narrative moves seamlessly between Esther, Amina, and their Yoruba goddess; between Nigeria and New Orleans; and throughout time. I was moved by the book's exploration of what it means to belong to a place and to people, and this book was fast and impactful.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tin House for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

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The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

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emotional funny inspiring reflective 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? Yes

4.0

I've been hearing about this book forever, and I'm so glad I finally got to it. It's hard to describe it - it's a combination workplace comedy, love story, time travel adventure, and spy thriller - but it's great fun all the way through. The narrator tells us early on not to get too wrapped up in trying to figure out the logistics of the time travel situation, and that's helpful so you just go along for the ride. The characters are hilarious and full of pathos, and our main character is deeply flawed and yet deeply lovable. This book takes on colonialism, state-sponsored violence, believing you are part of the solution when instead you are integral to the problem itself, forcing your ideas of how people should be on them, what history really means, and if it's possible to actually make a difference. It does all things while being very funny, endearing, and compulsively readable. I loved this book!
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A Sea of Unspoken Things by Adrienne Young

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective fast-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? Yes

4.0

This is a taut, extremely well-paced, and emotional thriller and family drama that sucked me in right away. When her twin brother has died in what appears to be an accident, James comes back to her hometown after twenty years away to make peace with his death. But of course once she gets there, it doesn't really seem like an accident, and she decides to stay and try to figure it out.

I was surprised by how much I liked this book, since I'm not usually a huge fan of mysteries and thrillers. But I felt like this book had a ton of emotional depth, way more than I normally find in this genre (although to be fair, I don't read a lot of books in the genre, so I'm definitely not the best judge). James really wrestles with the reality of who her brother was and her own complicity in enabling his worst personality traits, and Young deftly explores how small towns protect their own, often to the detriment of outsiders and those who go against the grain, and how trauma follows you everywhere. The forest town of Six Rivers is impeccably atmospheric - it reminds me of Forks, IYKYK - and the mysteries unfold in a natural and, at least to me, mostly unpredictable way. James' grief is devastatingly articulated, and the cast of characters is compelling and nuanced. I really liked this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!
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The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

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dark emotional tense medium-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

3.0

This is an odd book that I'm not sure I liked, but I also immediately went to the Goodreads questions/discussion page because it definitely left me thinking, which I appreciate in a book. The writing style is at times infuriating and hard to follow - I'm not usually a fan of stream-of-consciousness, and the lack of punctuation at times genuinely made me angry - and some of the characters were almost cartoonishly evil. But this book also has deep exploration of family dynamics and the trap of expectations. I don't know how to feel about this one, so I'll just end this review here lol.

If you like an ending where things are wrapped up in a tidy bow or at least you know what happens, this is not the book for you. The last 30 pages of the book is peak difficult to follow, and there is zero resolution. I gleaned what happened from the Goodreads questions page (I truly adore that feature), and in hindsight it's a bit obvious with all the foreshadowing, but in a 600-plus page book that is hard to follow and incredibly meandering, it's hard to keep track of foreshadowing and I don't even want to.
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Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-mo

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funny reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book gave me a lot to think about and moved quickly and interestingly. It follows four families who move into government housing in South Korea, meant to be "communal living" and with the caveat that within 10 years of moving in you need to have three kids. The families all have different approaches to what "communal" means, and there are small and larger clashes as the families settle in.

This book addresses the ridiculous expectations put on mothers to do everything and be anything, the sexist frameworks imposed on and enabled by families, the insecurity and shame inherent in being a parent in our modern world, and how difficult it is to live closely with other people- all without being preachy or hitting you over the head. Byeong-Mo carefully teases out how seemingly mundane interactions and moments signify so much about our social dynamics and dictate whether we feel we belong in any given community, and how subtext is everything but acknowledging the subtle hints out loud is taboo. We get a window into most of the characters, which helps us understand all the thought processes that go into the weird moments between them, and the plot moves along quite fast. This review might make it seem like the book is staid and didactic, but it's not at all; it's brisk and interesting, but a lot happens under the surface. I really liked this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for a honest review!
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Loot by Tania James

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

3.0

 I've been wanting to read this book ever since it came out, and unfortunately, I found it pretty disappointing. There were parts of it that were really interesting and informative - Abbas' time in the Summer Palace crafting the tiger with Lucien captured my attention - and parts that felt more emotional and resonant - I loved the relationship between Jehanne and Abbas and how they grew together and individually. But overall, something about this book didn't mesh for me. Maybe it was trying to do much? I'm not sure, but it didn't hit all the way for me. 
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Homeseeking by Karissa Chen

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adventurous emotional informative inspiring sad 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

5.0

I am really closing out this year of reading with a bang - I have read so many amazing five-star books in the last couple months, and this was one of the best books I've read this year.

This is a sprawling story that alternates timelines and perspectives between Haiwen and Suchi, two teenagers in Shanghai in the 1940s whose lives are continuously ravaged and upended by civil war, dictatorships, and surveillance states. This novel covers truly staggering amounts of history and conflict, but Chen grounds us on every single page in Haiwen and/or Suchi's interior lives and struggles. 

At its core, this is a love story, both between Haiwen and Suchi and between each of them and their families. It is almost unbearably sad to imagine the sacrifices everyone at the time had to make for safety - the descriptions of how decades passed without family members being able to see each other, talk to each other, or even know if their loved ones are still alive are absolutely heart wrenching, and Chen writes so powerfully about what it means to be unable to return to the place you call home. Each character has to make traumatic and impossible decisions that haunt them forever, but they also figure out how to create lives they can be happy with despite the turmoil. From this review it might sound like this book is depressing and a hard read, and at times it's definitely incredibly sad, but my overall feeling when I was reading this book was hopefulness. Haiwen and Suchi are earnest and incredibly compassionate, and the way the narrative switches through time and between Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong, New York, and LA is really masterful and evocative. This one will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!
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The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't help finding it pretty silly. Not the magical realism - I went into this book knowing the synopsis and fully buying in to Florence being able to see ghosts - but I found the characters kind of one-dimensional, the dialogue a bit credulous, and the love story cheesy and overwrought. I also think the author could have done more with Florence's burgeoning realization that her past relationship had been emotionally abusive - it felt like there was a lot more to be mined there. Overall, this wasn't my fave, but I've enjoyed other stuff I've read by Ashley Poston so I'm not writing her off.
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We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 Oof, this book tore me open in the best way. This book is about Sigrid, a twenty-one- year-old who is disillusioned by her life and her family, and Margit, her "perfect" older sister who also feels quite detached from reality and doesn't know who she is. They had a difficult childhood where their parents were always fighting, and they reacted to it in different ways: Margit turned inward and made herself small to avoid conflict as much as possible, and Sigrid got confrontational and angry.

This book really, really resonated with me - I found myself crying a lot. Austin writes with such clarity and emotional honesty about how complicated relationships with siblings can be, especially when you grew up with the same parental trauma but it didn't bond you the way you would hope. I related so much to Sigrid and Margit's struggles to connect with each other, and their sense that they would do anything for each other but also had no idea how to talk to each other. I was so touched by Austin's descriptions of Sigrid's mental health struggles and Margit's attempts to understand her, and the way Austin wrestled with coming to terms with your family as they are and setting your own boundaries was really moving. I didn't expect to feel so much when I read this book, but it broke me open and I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for a honest review! 
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The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

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emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was really, really lovely. It follows a very fraught time - November 2019 to November 2020 - in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed and nationwide protests sprung, through the eyes of Tookie, an indigenous woman who was incarcerated earlier in her life and now works at a bookstore specializing in indigenous works. It's a moving story about what it means to be haunted by mistakes and the past, and how to hold onto hope and beauty in truly the most perilous times. Tookie is an incredibly endearing character, the side characters are so vivid, and I felt so full after reading this one.
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