magicalghoul's reviews
74 reviews

My favorite were the law & order vignettes and the opening story. I plan to start the author's other book today. 

Una prosa HERMOSA y personajes muy vívidos.

Sólo me hubiese gustado que durara más y que llegara a un desenlace más claro. Pero son preferencias personales. 

When it comes to anthologies you sort of expect a mixed bag with some great stories amid forgettable ones, but in this collection I found more of the latter than the former, which wasn't enough for me to be motivated enough to finish the rest. 

That being said I'll list the ones I did like and would recommend:

♢ Pip and Estella by Valerie Alexander

♢ Think Of Me by Lindsay King-Miller

Decided to read this book because of the hype and now that I finished, it absolutely deserves the praise it's been getting.

The character of Evelyn Hugo is so realistic that at times I thought myself being told an actual biography and wanting to look up the movies and events mentioned by her. The people in her life feel as real as her, with flaws and virtues that the narrative (or Evelyn) doesn't shy about. And I can't tell you how refreshing it is to read about a bisexual woman in love with a lesbian woman where both are portrayed as fully realistic people in a passionate, flawed, but ultimately full-of-love relationship. 

The framing device of the interview worked out in the end, and the foreshadowing was done well enough that when the reveal happened, it didn't feel like a plot twist and allowed to see the characters reacting and acting in accordance to it. 

Now, the audiobook: They used different voices for Evelyn, Monique and the news/tabloids excerpts. Their voice work is amazing, and it completely immerses you even more into Evelyn's life and Monique's inner thoughts. I'm glad I went straight to the audiobook because it sure enhanced the experience and I can't recommend it enough. 

Can't wait to see the screen adaptation. 

Was up to a good start but then it got meandering at times (there's some passages that could've been cut, I think) and while I looooved that Grace was by no means a likeable character, all her rambling started to get annoying after a while. So much so that I found myself struggling to finish, and probably would've skipped chapters if it wasn't for the fact that I was listening to the audiobook.  

The endgame... completely blindised me, and not in a good way.  It felt like it just came out of nowhere. I don't completely dislike where it left Grace and I even think there's a possibility for an open ending that favors her more, but it didn't feel fully integrated into the narrative. 

It's a good concept though and the bits I enjoyed I enjoyed a lot, but I don't think it's a book I'll revisit. 

(Warning for spoilers)

First I'll start with what I liked:

But sadly there were some issues that kept me from fully enjoying Iron Widow. 

The worldbuilding feels... flat at times. To the point that when the climax happens, I didn't get a sense of urgency about what was in stake. And the reveal/plot twist at the end... While kinda predictable, it wasn't foreshadowed enough to be justified. The prose doesn't help much in this matter either, but as I understand this is the first book of the author and the first of a series overall so maybe these details will be more polished later on. 

But the biggest issue to me is that for a book where the MC's motivation is avenging and protecting women there isn't much bonding between women or much pondering from the protagonist about sorority or the small ways in which women connect and help each other while brutally oppressed. Zetian is fighting for women, but we don't see much of her advocacy on a one-on-one level. 

We understand it's a heavily male dominated society where women have a lot of internalized misogyny but surely Zetian can't be the only feminist in the entire universe, and surely she didn't go her entire life without bonding with other women outside the ones in her family and thus giving her more reason to want to avenge the concubines and consorts. 

Concubines and consorts that, to make matters worse, remain as an anonymous, gullible mass— Except for the ones on Zetian's power level, and even then they remain mostly antagonistic towards her.

The male pilots and the pilot system overall doesn't care for the girls they sacrifice so it makes sense that they don't care for their names or faces, but the book (written from Zetian's perspective) not providing anything beyond the usual "There's a mecha battle going on and more girls are dying and that makes me mad" line for them and not caring to show some individual stories for these girls feels even more dehumanizing, even condescending. 

All these pitfalls make Zetian's rebellion feel like a one-woman fight instead of a communal one. At first I put it down as a flaw of Zetian's character but as the book went on I started to believe it's more up to poor development. Just, overall her feminism felt very.... entry level.

I REALLY hope I'm wrong for future books though, because it really threw me off a book I'd otherwise liked a lot. 

Checked this one out of curiosity but looking back it seems pretty in line with my last read, Jennette McCurdy's I'm glad my mom Died. Both are biographies and deal with growing up in a dysfunctional environment and finding your way out of it while dealing with grief and trying your best at self-actualization. 

In that regard, I'd recommend this book.

The prose is just beautiful at points but I wasn't expecting less from a ghostwriter that won a Pulitzer, from what I read. The literary references sprinkled through are wonderful, and the turn of phrases work so well with the most whimsical and stream of thought-ish passages of the book. 

Personally the military section was something of a slow read and I dragged my feet through it (I'm antimilitary) but I recognize how much the experiences and the people met there contributed to his understanding of trauma. I did appreciate the passages describing his work with veterans, though. 

In conclusion, you won't find much here if all you're looking for is an outright denouncement of the British monarchy or an acknowledgement of his privilege, but it's a good read on the topic of grief, trauma and breaking toxic cycles. 

I'm glad Jennette McCurdy is still creating, I'm glad she's well and I'm glad she's shared this with us.

In her (fantastic, I must say) writing she says that she wants to do something meaningful with her work, and I hope she's seeing all the conversations that her book are opening around abuse and specifically abusive motherhood and childhood exploitation in the acting industry.

This was a hard read at times with how much some parts resonated with me, but it was a needed one. Regardless, please take care of yourself and read the trigger warnings before diving in. 

Considering that the source material this companion book belongs too was partly inspired in creepypastas, I wasn't surprised by the anecdotical r/nosleep format it's presented in. 

It sure answers a couple of questions and even manages to take a dig at the current state of the "free press", but the real treat was the addition of the illustrations for the refiner's manual at the end since we only caught a glimpse of it in the series.