Very interesting to read this as a vegan! Honestly the book isn't really about veganism at all. I think ultimately this was a book about bodily autonomy. Yeong-hye's body never really belongs to her and she tries to exert control in extreme ways. When that doesn't work, she tries to transcend that body. I liked that the author rarely tells the story from Yeong-he's perspective. The reader never gets to know her because no one knows her. She isn't permitted to have any interiority. She is just a problematic body. It's a very heavy read with a lot of sexual violence in it, but ultimately worth it if you don't mind sitting with such difficult themes.

A sad and disturbing book that is also a searing indictment of Japanese society. Earthlings has similar themes as Convenience Store Woman but Murata takes it to a much darker place. It's well written but I don't think I'll ever need to read it again.

Not too shabby. Medieval horror is a cool little subgenre (i know it's set in the 1600s and isn't technically the middle ages, but it's close enough) and this book is a competent example of it. The religious elements actually reminded me a bit of Christopher Buehlman's book Between Two Fires. I just wish that the ending had been more of an ending. The end of a quest shouldn't be more quest. It's narratively unsatisfying. I've seen some reviews describe the love story as insta-love but I didn't think so. I wasn't particularly moved by it, but it was well supported.

Woof. The writing was rough, the characters bland, and the ending unsatisfying. I think what annoyed me about this book was how derivative it felt. There are so many books about towns gripped by mass psychosis that do a better job with the subject matter. This book really just added nothing to that genre and honestly the best thing I can say about it is that it had a cool cover.

Reading this book during pride month was actually a really silly idea because this is a book about shame and loathing. James Baldwin is a beautiful writer and I think he really captured something real, but did I like what he captured? Not so much. I didn't like this book because it spends too much time wallowing in the darkness and that isn't the kind of queer media i'm interested in reading these days.

I didn't love this book. The book eater/mind eater thing was poorly explained and wasn't even all that relevant to the story. It was mostly a story about misogyny with the lightest possible supernatural bent. I disliked all the characters and it was a slog to get through despite the short page length.

Look, it's good. Maybe even better than the Butcher's Masquerade. However, i have to start docking points for the misogyny. I really really like this series, but there's a really disturbing thread of juvenile sexist jokes that run through it that is getting tiresome. The fact that the demons are called things like Slit, Gash, and Minge is pretty eye-roll inducing and then the whole thing with Samantha and the acid seriously made me consider DNFing the series. It just hasn't escaped my notice that the jokes involving female characters and NPCs are often sexualized in the way that the jokes involving male characters aren't. This deep into the series, my tolerance and patience for this is starting to wane.

It was good but didn't really capture my interest

The reporting on ag gag laws was good stuff but then the book stumbles into this anemic ending about bearing witness that provides the reader with zero calls to action. No information is provided on how to go vegan or on how to lobby their representatives. People have to do more than witness, they have to get organized!

Very solid Sherlock Holmes style mystery in an unusual fantasy setting. It had good worldbuilding and i'm intrigued to learn more about what the leviathans are. I really liked Din as a protagonist and found this book to be a great example of how to feature dyslexia in an interesting and meaningful way. My only small critique is that I didn't love the big reveal moment where Ana explains the entire mystery. It's a hallmark of the genre but I just prefer for those revelations to be sprinkled throughout a bit more.

Boring. Elise is very reminiscent of the protagonist in My Year of Rest and Relaxation (derogatory). I definitely wouldn't classify this as a horror novel. It's just 283 pages of the main character's self loathing and it was a blessed relief when it was over.

A weird little book about a sociopath trying to find her place in the world. It's also got a few critiques of how Japanese society is structured. I will say that i hated the translation. British translators cannot seem to avoid using British slang. I am 100% sure the characters aren't saying "taking the piss" in Japanese and the fact that this phrase appeared several times throughout made the translation feel clunky and obtrusive.

I've seen some reviews refer to the main character as being autistism coded and didn't get that at all. The anecdotes she tells about her childhood and the thoughts she has regarding her sister's child show a distinct lack of empathy that is clearly sociopathic. This isn't meant to be a story about a plucky autistic woman rebuking society's social conventions.

I found this book a bit hard to read as a queer person. It's pretty gutting and you spend a lot of time experiencing the main character's trauma and shame. Even the ending can't exactly be called happy because at no point are the characters able to live openly and free from violence. It was illegal to be gay in Nigeria in 2014 (even punishable by death in some cases) and that remains the case in 2026. So while it's well written, I'd actually tell queer readers to approach it with caution. it's heavy stuff.

Great title and pretty solid story. There aren't enough stories about eldritch gods told from the perspective of the cultists. Was Aoife a terrible character? Yes. But that's kind of the point. She sucks and lacks agency for most of the book which makes her the prime target for cult recruitment. While I enjoyed the book, it was a bit too long and the end just sort of meanders around for so long that I found myself not really interested in what became of the world.

If you loved the game Control then you'll like this book. very similar vibes.