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ajwentz

A bookwyrm working on expanding her horizons. Writer of poetry and prose, not hip, cool, or with it, loves her cat.

255 points

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Level 3
My Taste
A Memory Called Empire
Sunshine
Good Bones
The Incandescent
What Moves the Dead
Reading...
The Castle of Otranto
0%
Traveling Light: Tales of the Magical Gates
0%
Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft (8th Edition)
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33w
Level 3

Level 3

250 points

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  • The River Has Roots
    ajwentz
    Aug 23, 2025
    The River Has Roots
    5.0
    Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 5.0
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  • Post from the Tender Is the Flesh forum

    53w
  • Tender Is the Flesh
    ajwentz
    Edited
    Thoughts from 100%

    I honestly have no idea how to rate this. Bazterrica’s novel about the ways in which we dehumanize one another was at times moving, at times static. There were things about it I enjoyed, while other aspects left me wanting.

    My reading journey through Tender Is the Flesh is almost identical to my experience of reading The Unworthy. I struggled to get through the first half and almost gave up, but once I’d powered through the halfway mark, I finished reading it in an afternoon. Part of that is the graphic depictions of violence—while I often enjoy reading body horror, I don’t tend to enjoy mutilation horror. But the center of my discontent is that the novel didn’t contain any movement until the second half of the story. The first half is almost entirely worldbuilding, with a single plot point and minimal character development. The story doesn’t really start until halfway through. I wish more of the development had been pulled forward and woven into the first half of the book. I do wonder how much of that dissatisfaction on my part stems from the fact that Tender is the Flesh comes from different narrative conventions than I am used to—I don’t know much about trends in Argentinian story structure.

    That said, parts of the novel were very compelling, and I think this novel provokes readers to ask what we owe one another as humans, and in what ways we affirm or deny the humanity of those around us.

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  • ajwentz commented on a post

    53w
  • Additional Haunted House Books

    I've been on an f-ed up houses reading kick, and there are so many great haunted houses out there! If you like this quest, I have some additional recommendations.

    Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey The Wonder State by Sara Flannery Murphy Rose/House by Arkady Martine The Secret Skin by Wendy Wagner

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  • Post from the The Husbands forum

    53w
  • The Husbands
    I will be reading this again
    spoilers

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    55w
  • The Husbands
    ajwentz
    Aug 08, 2025
    The Husbands
    5.0
    Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 5.0
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    55w
  • The Wedding Witch
    ajwentz
    Aug 06, 2025
    The Wedding Witch
    4.5
    Enjoyment: 4.5Quality: 4.5Characters: 5.0Plot: 3.0
    ❤️‍🔥
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    55w
  • The Secret Skin
    ajwentz
    Aug 03, 2025
    The Secret Skin
    5.0
    Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 5.0
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  • ajwentz TBR'd a book

    55w
    Flesh

    Flesh

    David Szalay

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    ajwentz TBR'd a book

    55w
    Seascraper

    Seascraper

    Benjamin Wood

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