mariebrunelm's reviews
436 reviews

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No
This novella takes the shape of a long letter from the engineer in a crew of four sent on a mission to explore four planets. The reason for this letter is unclear at first but it is explained bit by bit and yes, it is heartbreaking, as all of Becky Chambers’ stories are. They break your heart to let the light seep in.
The narrative is quite limited in this novella so I won’t go into details, but it has everything that makes a perfect book - endearing characters who treat each other with the utmost respect, a queer cast, huge questions put into simple words, and so much heart. If you haven’t yet read a book by Becky Chambers, please rush. If you have, you know what I’m talking about.
Rep: bi MC, asexual SC, trans SC.
The Girl of Ink & Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-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? No
How do you fight off a reading slump ? I often pick a short, entertaining read and / or choose middle-grade or YA for intense readability.
I have loved both the middle-grade and adult books by Kiran Millwood Hargrave I’ve read in the past, so this was a safe bet and indeed I had an excellent time. This is a YA adventure following 13-year-old Isabella, living on an island with her dad, cat and hen. Their village is wrapped in mysteries since all birds but ravens flew and the forest has been declared forbidden to enter. The Governor responsible for this decision is a cruel man, but whoever defies him ends in prison or worse. Isabella is the only one who was willing to befriend his daughter Lupe, not guessing that this would lead her to betray the man’s orders. But terrible beasts lurk in the forest, and there are uncharted lands to explore.
This novel is very evocative and image-rich, which didn’t necessarily work for my aphantasia (I can’t picture images in my mind) but there was lots of adventure on the whole, with a fierce protagonist determined to do what’s right. It was a really lovely story that played on legends and stories, not without its darkness (if you’ve read Julia & the Shark you know) but well told. Not my favourite (Julia remains a huge favourite, and The Mercies after that), but well worth a try.
 
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Robustia by Betty Piccioli

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tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Lire ce livre en pleine attaque de covid ne m’a pas aidée à l’apprécier à sa juste valeur, donc mon avis va sûrement refléter cela.
Dans cette suite de Chromatopia, on change de décor pour découvrir la ville de Robustia, elle aussi fondée sur une division stricte entre ses habitants. Ici, c’est la valeur guerrière qui détermine la position politique des citoyen.ne.s, et elle est remise en jeu tous les ans, en particulier pour l’élite, à savoir les cinq membres de l’Electrum. Biann s’est entraînée toute sa jeune vie pour en faire partie et elle y a enfin gagné sa place, grâce à sa victoire contre Kalel. Cependant, la force des armes ne suffit pas à assurer sa légitimité, comme elle va vite le comprendre. Quant à son adversaire, c’est une haine farouche qui l’anime désormais et il est prêt à tout pour se venger. L’arrivée d’un habitant de Chromatopia en exil risque bien de rebattre les cartes.
Betty Piccioli livre ici un roman YA de fantasy politique. Une grande partie de l’intrigue se déroule au sein du conseil de Robustia, et met en scène les tractations quotidiennes qui s’y déroulent. Il y a donc moins d’action que dans Chromatopia, mais le rythme est soutenu. Je n’ai personnellement pas accroché au style de l’autrice, extrêmement factuel, mais il servait bien son propos. J’ai regretté la belle diversité d’identités LGBTQIA+ qui régnait à Chromatopia et qui est plus discrète ici (deux personnages gays dont un extrêmement détestable). En revanche, j’ai trouvé merveilleux de faire une place à un personnage souffrant d’endométriose, afin de banaliser la discussion autour de cette maladie, en particulier dans un roman à destination des ados.
Rep : PP souffrant d’endométriose, PP gay. 
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Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

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challenging emotional reflective slow-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
Are you sometimes so stubborn about what you want a book to be that you overlook what’s actually written on the cover or the back ?
Olivie Blake is an author I've wanted to read for a few years. I couldn't decide which of her books to start with until I heard about this one and some words ticked very specific boxes: PhD student character, Art, Time. I blissfully ignored the subtitle that said “a love story” and jumped in.
This novel really is a love story, can you believe it ? That being said, Blake has a very original approach to romance which did appeal to me although the genre usually doesn't. It’s a very playful novel, literary-speaking. I don’t want to give too much away, but the author plays with narration in a way I haven’t often seen and it felt very clever without being too high-brow, if that makes sense.
Rep: MC with bipolar disorder (not stated but described at length and stated in the acknowledgments), autistic-coded MC.
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salt slow by Julia Armfield

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Welcome to the wonderful feeling of falling in love with a short story collection.
Julia Armfield has a knack for writing intense, flawed female characters who are on the brink. Whether they are teenagers in that uncomfortable space between childhood and adulthood, or women going through a break-up or grief, most of them are teetering, and ready to embrace the mess that is their life. I loved that each story was very different from the others, but they had very tenuous, easy-to-miss links that tied this collection together. Most of them start off with a very strong concept that is given in the first lines of the story, and then explore the repercussions of that concept not on the grand scale of geopolitics (though the author easily could) but at the level of bodies. Be ready for both implied and full-on body horror depending on the stories, with a scrumptious taste for words and that delightful hesitation between speculative and realist.
My favourite story was The Great Awake, which was very timely (although a bit late) because I’ve just finished hosting a monthly writing workshop on the theme of sleep.
Rep: queer characters, mostly sapphic. One is on the asexual spectrum.
PS: I bought this book when I first went cat-sitting for a friend, so it is doubly special !
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Le vieil homme et son chat marchent à pas de velours by Nekomaki

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

What a pleasure to be reunited with Tama and Daikichi in this 6th volume of their cosy adventures ! This manga series is very gentle and heartwarming, with peaceful watercolour illustrations throughout and makes for the perfect pause in-between two heavier reads. We follow an old man and his cat on their small Japanese island, as they navigate the seasons and daily life. This series really captured my heart. 
Mes forêts by Hélène Dorion

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inspiring reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

 I found myself in a bookshop the other day, as you do, and was browsing the poetry section. I don’t read much poetry at all but I’m willing to discover authors beyond Mary Oliver and Rupi Kaur. The bookseller started chatting and recommended this woman poet from Quebec with such heart that I bought one of her collections on the spot.
Hélène Dorion’s poetry is very accessible, very evocative and rich in imagery. The collection opens with short poems around the experience one has in forests, and evolves toward longer pieces linking trees with the history of humanity and other large themes. I’m not a poetry critic, as you can see. I really loved the shorter poems and savoured every word. This short volume would be perfect as a gift to someone who would like to start reading poetry!
La Papeterie Tsubaki by Ito Ogawa

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informative lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Hatoko vient de reprendre la papeterie familiale et de s’y installer comme écrivain public. Animée par un désir de bien faire, elle croise sur son chemin des personnalités plus variées les uns que les autres, des amitiés bourgeonnantes et des commandes parfois difficiles à satisfaire.
Ce roman assez léger et délicat me faisait envie depuis longtemps, mais le souvenir du dernier livre de l’autrice était encore cuisant : j’ai été absolument traumatisée par Le Restaurant de l’Amour retrouvé, pour une raison entièrement personnelle, pas parce que le livre est traumatisant en lui-même. Ici, pas question de restaurant ou d’animaux de compagnie, donc j’étais sur mes gardes mais j’ai surmonté mon appréhension. Bien m’en a pris, car j’ai passé un moment tout à fait charmant au fil des saisons de la papeterie. J’y ai ressenti le calme et l’apaisement que me procure le manga Le Vieil Homme et son Chat. J’ai souvent du mal à apprécier les romans japonais à cause du détachement que je ressens envers le personnage (Haruki Murakami je te regarde, j’ai essayé plusieurs de ses romans mais n’en ai aimé aucun). Ici, tout était teinté par la subjectivité de la protagoniste et j’ai aimé sa sensibilité.
J’ai particulièrement savouré les descriptions du travail d’Hatoko lorsqu’elle calligraphie une lettre. Tout est méticuleusement peint par l’autrice pour le plus régal des amateurices de papeterie comme moi. Je vous recommande ce livre si vous avez besoin d’une pause et d’une bulle de sérénité.
 
Diluées by Karine Rennberg, Cordélia, Morgane Stankiewiez, J.M Corrèze, Théodore Koshka, Nadège Da Rocha, Morgan of Glencoe

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adventurous tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
Ce recueil de nouvelles érotiques est à peu près aussi loin de mes habitudes de lecture que l’on peut l’imaginer. On ne peut nier être exposé.e à la sexualité au quotidien à travers la fiction, les publicités, etc. Cela a toujours été une source de malaise pour moi jusqu’à ce que je comprenne que j’étais asexuelle. Depuis, j’ai un rapport beaucoup plus détaché à ce type de représentations, et ma curiosité face à la revendication queer du recueil a fait le reste.
Je trouve que l’existence même de ce livre est à célébrer. Il présente des perspectives très variées, tant au niveau des auteurices que des personnages, et reste loin de la vulgarité qui menace toute représentation de la sexualité. Une seule nouvelle m’a vraiment déplu, ce qui m’attriste car elle explore des perspectives stylistiques tout à fait intéressantes. J’ai à l’inverse été absolument ravie de voir que l’asexualité avait sa place et s’intégrait tout naturellement dans le sommaire de ce recueil. Sans citer toustes les auteurices, il me faut également mentionner le texte de Jeanne Mariem Corrèze, dont la seule présence justifie la lecture de cette anthologie tant elle déborde de poésie.
Avertissement : une nouvelle présente une relation de pouvoir déséquilibrée dans le couple.
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Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

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dark reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No
In this lengthy historical fiction paying homage to masters of the genre, two women on opposite sides of the social scale meet, deceive and are deceived.
I’m not a big reader of classics and / or historical fiction.I was attracted to this one, recommended by Jen Campbell, for its queer rep and atmospheric prose, and it delivered. I found in there the slow pace and quiet plot of classics, its exploration of character and setting, but without the usual sexism from the authors of the time. The outrageous treatment of women in the Victorian period is absolutely at the foreground of this novel, but it is very much denounced and fought against with the characters’ means (which aren’t much). Some twists and turns awakened my interest when it was lulled to sleep by the sheer length of the novel. On the whole it’s not a favourite but I can see why it’s bound to become one for lovers of classics and historical fiction.
Rep: lesbian characters.
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