Scan barcode
criticalgayze's reviews
196 reviews
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Did not finish book. Stopped at 12%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 12%.
I’m sorry. I just truly couldn’t bring myself to be interested in print or audio.
A Market of Dreams and Destiny by Trip Galey
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
First, I would like to apologize to Trip. I really should not have finished this book, so I did not feel compelled to review it; however, I did finish it, so I am reviewing it. My problem starts with the shelving of this book. I’m not sure if this is Trip’s fault, the publisher’s fault, or Barnes & Noble’s fault, but I found this book on the adult shelf, which is the whole reason I picked it up. I am always looking for the small smattering of gay romantasy available from major publishers. I quickly realized this was squarely a YA title, which I was okay with because I’m always looking for more books to put on my classroom shelf; however, there was just enough insinuation that I do not feel comfortable putting it on a shelf for 12 year olds. Then there is the writing itself, which just was not good. The writing is largely repetitive, the plot feels like it happens fast yet happens over a ridiculously large amount of time, and the book is full of happenings that are simultaneously too convenient and also at times too convoluted to understand.
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
This was a revisit for me of one that I have had living on my “permanent collections shelf” since I read it in 2017, and I can see why the me of then loved it. Gay is wryly funny as always, it is a deeply moving story she tells, and it hints at literary in a way that was giving the me becoming an adult reader his sea legs. While I do not want to take away from the deep and hard truths about her experience that Roxane Gay is telling, the me of today was not the right reader for this book. I am still moved by Gay’s experience and still enjoy her sense of humor. I like to think that, if I knew her personally, she would be a good mentor and friend. (I apologize to her if she ever reads this because that feels like the kind of statement she would not appreciate.) But I don’t think the quality of the writing is up to my standards now as a reader. It all feels a little too blog culture-era for me.
Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A Spell of Good Things by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
Did not finish book. Stopped at 48%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 48%.
Since it was not shortlisted, I am making the decision to DNF this one. It was just fine as a book, but I really struggled with the poor marketing work around discussing the book versus the actual focus of the book. I also found the prose to be more straightforward than what I'm in the mood for currently.
Blackouts by Justin Torres
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
As I said in my stories immediately upon finishing, THIS BOOK. This one pairs so well with Study for Obedience, which I just finished and loved from the Booker longlist, in the fact that you are completely unmoored from a meaningful sense of history all while history plays such a meaningful role in the story.
The history piece itself is so important. Being knowingly reductive, it is important to point out how so many of the straight authored “literary” books that center Queer narratives are “taboo” historical romances, AIDS stories, or modern tales of assault on Queer characters. Meanwhile, Queer authors of “literary” books are truly interrogating and repurposing history, see also The New Life and After Sappho. Being able to have honest historical conversations is incredibly novel.
To that end, the repurposing of history really sticks out here in a way that reminds me of last year’s FSG title Devil House and this year’s Biography of X. What is history? What is reality? What parts of reality is an author allowed to play with to create real “Truth?”
Just a brilliant read. Cannot recommend enough.
The history piece itself is so important. Being knowingly reductive, it is important to point out how so many of the straight authored “literary” books that center Queer narratives are “taboo” historical romances, AIDS stories, or modern tales of assault on Queer characters. Meanwhile, Queer authors of “literary” books are truly interrogating and repurposing history, see also The New Life and After Sappho. Being able to have honest historical conversations is incredibly novel.
To that end, the repurposing of history really sticks out here in a way that reminds me of last year’s FSG title Devil House and this year’s Biography of X. What is history? What is reality? What parts of reality is an author allowed to play with to create real “Truth?”
Just a brilliant read. Cannot recommend enough.
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Y’all, this might easily end up being my favorite book on the Booker list this year even though I’m still not exactly sure what happened in it.
When the book opens, and from what the synopsis of the book lays out, it feels like you are reading a work of historical fiction, in fact one of the comp titles that sprang most immediately to mind was Sarah Waters’s Booker shortlist title “The Little Stranger.” However, fairly quickly, references to modernity, including Microsoft Teams, begin to creep in.
The farther I got in, the more the most appropriate comparison titles really seemed to be Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Iain Reid’s Foe, books where the sort of off-kilter nature progress and grow throughout the book. This mistrust and disquiet develops into an almost Prynnian communal distrust of this out of place narrator, who is herself anachronistic to this town in many ways.
This is easily the most daring book from the list so far, which I think could bode either ill or well in the book’s favor, and I hope the Booker judges see what I do.
When the book opens, and from what the synopsis of the book lays out, it feels like you are reading a work of historical fiction, in fact one of the comp titles that sprang most immediately to mind was Sarah Waters’s Booker shortlist title “The Little Stranger.” However, fairly quickly, references to modernity, including Microsoft Teams, begin to creep in.
The farther I got in, the more the most appropriate comparison titles really seemed to be Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Iain Reid’s Foe, books where the sort of off-kilter nature progress and grow throughout the book. This mistrust and disquiet develops into an almost Prynnian communal distrust of this out of place narrator, who is herself anachronistic to this town in many ways.
This is easily the most daring book from the list so far, which I think could bode either ill or well in the book’s favor, and I hope the Booker judges see what I do.