Literary.leveret
Avery She/her - 26 - Bookstore Employee I like a little bit of everything, but mostly horror Reading is, and has *always* been political
3559 points
Post from the On Sundays, She Picked Flowers forum
Literary.leveret commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum
personally, i picked mostly childhood favourites because they felt like a safe choice!
how did you guys pick? are they the books that emotionally scarred you the most? the ones you find most relatable? or just your absolute favourite, nothing deeper ✨
i’d love to know!
76Literary.leveret commented on a post
I read her newer book, Cultish, first, and mostly enjoyed it despite the sometimes overly conversational style, but this book so far is reading like a 2010s Buzzfeed listicle on steroids. There’s a fine line between writing in plain language to be accessible and dumbing things down completely, and I fear this is leaning toward the latter. Like the below quote:
”…the Duke of Normandy (aka William the Conqueror, aka a terrifying little man with a long gray beard and a fabulous bejeweled crown) invades England, murders a bunch of people, and brings along with him an early form of French.”
It’s especially grating because it’s talking down to me in a way that feels very “I’m just a girl,” like those women-aimed newsletters that offer to “translate” current events, as if women cant wrap their brains around something if it isn’t framed like a reality tv show. I’ll keep pushing through because the material seems interesting; I know that this is the tone of her podcast too which does lean very “I’m not a regular linguistics podcast, I’m a cool linguistics podcast” so I probably should’ve seen it coming. She narrates the audiobook too, which amplifies this podcast vibe.
10Literary.leveret commented on crybabybea's review of Automatic Noodle
Yeah, this didn't work for me. It's strong when it leans into its cozy vibe, but the author inserts a lot of political critique that didn't land for me.
I liked that Newitz created a found family vibe, and how the noodle shop essentially became a safe space for marginalized people to come together and find community. There were some evocative themes here, especially compelling were the exploration of gender identity and the healing of post-war trauma via communal love and support.
With that being said, I'm not a fan of books that use robots as main characters to create heavy-handed symbols of marginalized people. The robots here are less robot and more human archetypes. The parts of interest, such as the robots exploring creative expression through the freedom of their bodies, weren't pushed far enough for a sci-fi novella. Exploring these themes in sci-fi is so expansive because you can break boundaries and create answers to existential questions, and this book didn't do that.
The robots could have been replaced with humans and the book wouldn't have changed much. While they were likeable enough, I couldn't get over the sour taste of feeling like they were cheap replacements of real marginalized people. "See these robots? Now imagine if they were (insert identity here). Now do you feel empathy?"
For me, all the elements came together in a really weird way that came across as heavily neolib and kind of tone deaf. The book's setting is in a near future America, where California has seceded from the United States after a civil war. At times it wasn't clear whether Newitz was poking satirical fun at the ridiculousness of Silicon Valley techno-capitalism, or positioning California as some sort of mecca of human rights and independence.
The book has a lot of sympathy for immigrants, which is wonderful, but paired with the vibe of celebrating California's "freedom" was a strange choice, considering Californian -- and American -- liberalism's love for ICE, militarized police, mass incarceration, and mass deportation. It often falls back on surface-level liberal messaging. For example, when the robots learn their recipe for biang biang noodles from a real Chinese woman's shop, and then the chef robot says "we can't call our noodles authentic because we aren't actually Chinese and it's not our culture". It reads like classic cultural appropriation for profit while using cheap symbolic messaging to preemptively assuage guilt.
While I think the use of AI and crypto is realistic (America is on its way there now, yay!), the timing of this book's release unfortunately makes the book come across as pro-tech oligarchy. It's not the realism that's the issue, it's the fact that these ideas aren't interrogated, which makes them feel unintentionally sympathetic to a status quo that many readers are actively fighting against.
In a time where corporations are allowed to rely on harmful AI replacement rather than being pressured to focus on labor rights, the question of "should AI be allowed to own businesses and get paid" falls rather flat. While I understand that's not exactly what the book is going for, considering the AI are basically stand-ins for immigrants, queer people, and disabled people, that's how it comes across.
This techno-capitalist future assumes dignity and personhood are valued through wage labor, a pattern in cozy SFF I already find shallow. Here, paired with metaphorical marginalized robots and an unexamined hypercapitalist backdrop, it felt especially tone deaf.
I wouldn't normally expect or demand political critique from a cozy novella, but Newitz set the standard that this was cozy with a side of political commentary, and I found the commentary bit especially lacking.
I received an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.
11Literary.leveret commented on lizzyy's update
Literary.leveret commented on lizzyy's update
Literary.leveret commented on Literary.leveret's update
Literary.leveret started reading...
A Head Full of Ghosts
Paul Tremblay
0Literary.leveret commented on a post
Good morning/afternoon/evening, y'all and Happy New Year! I hope you all have been enjoying your holidays and reading lots of good books. It's officially 2026 and I'm here to touch base with y'all about the quest and what to look forward to. ✌🏽
January: First winter readalong with Pet by Akwaeke Emezi will be at halfway point + new books will be added to the quest February: Winter readalong will end at the end of the month & we will start spring readalong voting March: Spring readalong will begin April: Spring readalong will be at halfway point + new books will be added to the quest May: Spring readalong will end at the end of the month & we still start summer readalong voting June: Summer readalong will begin July: Summer readalong will be at halfway point + new books will be added to the quest August: Summer readalong will end at the end of the month & we will start fall readalong voting September: Fall readalong will begin October: Fall readalong will be at halfway point + new books will be added to the quest November: Fall readalong will end at the end of the month & we will start winter readalong voting December: Winter readalong starts
As a quick reminder please add book recommendations here. It helps me keep track of recommendations and you can upvote books that you want to see added. I do want to re-iterate that not every book will be added (it's quite literally impossible since there's a 100 book cap) and that I will not reply to every suggestion. It doesn't mean I didn't see it, I just don't always have the social bandwidth to respond. Please do not take it personal: I promise I love and value all of you! However, as a small update: I don't think I'll be adding multiple books from one author. There are enough queer horror books out there that we don't need to double up on authors so I'm sorry to everyone who wanted every AJW book added -- he's popular enough that he's in multiple quests at this point and I need to make some space for lesser known authors.
5 New Books Added! The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones -- An indigenous MC with sapphic rep, first published as an audiobook. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado -- A nonfiction memoir by a bisexual latina author. Hello Sunshine by Keezy Young -- A graphic novel with achillean rep, a transfem character, a lesbian character, and a MC who has mental illness. Spread Me by Sarah Gailey -- A novella full of queer characters and an acespec MC. The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes -- A horror/fantasy book with achillean rep. ^These are currently getting added to the representation masterlist. This could take a couple of days.
Anyways!! If you're new here please feel free to introduce yourself here and get to know others who have similar interests.
Anyone have any fun goals for the New Year or anything else they want to share/talk about? Quest related or not! I personally just got off a 6-day, 8.5 hour a day work week and have the next two days off. I'll be reading and playing a lot of Hades 2.
12Literary.leveret commented on a post
hi my loves! i realllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly want to get into horror more this year, bc it is a way to explore (my) queerness in a way i havent truly gone deep into before. i am a huge scaredy cat though so... anyone have any recs from this quest or elsewhere to ease me into it?
thinking of some things below that might help, but lmk if i can clarify more:
no's-ish -i am mainly scared of body horror or too much gore -idk if this counts but i do love stranger things, and the queer elements of it -i can do comics and graphic novels (bc i prefer these to ease me into any genre) if they're more lighthearted (??help??? maybe this genre isnt for me lol), i guess bc seeing scary things is worse than reading them for me? -i can do low to medium levels of psychological vibes -i don't think i can deal with sad/unjust endings or like if someone is left alone at the end of the world lol that would break me -maybe not future sci fi stuff but idk?? i like people surviving/hea in dystopia but also the end of the world kinda scares me so i dunno -i hate when animals get hurt, esp when they are hurt by humans so maybe not that??
yeses -cryptids are cool to me! -something that might help me heal from ptsd, help me accept my differences, see myself in weird (weird is ofc good) characters -i wish i knew more about what i like so would love some guidance there on what my options even are!
i have a feeling this is such a stretch but maybe even advice on how to ease in or how you got acclimated to/fell in love with queer horror would be awesome!
edit: thank you all SOOOO MUCH you're all so amazing wow. i feel so at home and appreciate your recs so much :) i'll start off w ya horror and stay active in forums following along on your quest readalongs! so excited and thankful you all helped me find ways i could engage with this genre safely
edit for those who find this later with the same question-ish in mind, i compiled all the recs below into a shelf linked here but if you all think it'd function better as a list lmk i can do that!)
89Literary.leveret commented on a post
not me having to look up what a bitch pointer is 😭😭😭 i’m gonna have to get used to the language of this era edit: wait the context clues were right there 😭😭😭
12Literary.leveret commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum
Hello everyone!
I've branched out into translated fiction and horror this past year and I love it, and would love to read more of it. Any recommendations?? What are your all time favorites?
Some of my favorites so far are: Our Share of Night by Mariana Enrique Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama The End of August by Yu Miri
11Literary.leveret commented on a post
Does anyone know any other fiction books with similar nature descriptions? As a zoology student I loved the descriptions by the author and it makes so much sense she’s a zoologist 🙂↕️ if you have any recommendations I’d love to know!
11Literary.leveret is interested in reading...
Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
Jason Hickel
0Literary.leveret commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum
Hiiii Happy New Year’s Eve! It’s time for Who’s Who Wednesday where every Wednesday we introduce ourselves and make new friends. This is part 12. I think
If you participated any of the times before, you don’t have to introduce yourself again but you can share some different facts about you, an opinion you have, or how your week is going.
If you’re new, introduce yourself!
I’ll go first.
My name is JadeLovesBooks.
My New Year’s resolution is to graduate school and move back home, to California I also want to read a variety of genres in the new year including more nonfiction and sci fi (I already read a ton of different genres but sci fi is my least favorite) Another goal of mine is better time management. I make my own schedule and I tend to be very lenient on myself.
241Literary.leveret is interested in reading...
Life Cycle of a Moth
Rowe Irvin
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