this woman has absolutely lost it and i loved every minute of being inside her head. as crazy as she seems, this book is deeply human more than anything and i really enjoyed that. we’re all probably a little more like her than we think.

”I know that hunger is in the mind and the body and the heart and the soul.” p193

With as personal as it felt to simply read this book, I cannot even fathom how intimate it must have felt for Roxane Gay to write it.

I was in awe as I read Hunger. Her writing is stunning. A word that comes to mind again and again is “simplicity.” Do not conflate simplicity with plainness; Gay’s prose is never plain, no, she wields simplicity, paints portraits with it. It is a tool by which she pulls the reader in to see the complete picture, to peel back layers, to sit in the experience.

Hunger is a must-read, I think. For anyone. It is vulnerable, honest, unapologetic, human and humanizing. Regardless of the reader’s experiences navigating the world in their own body, I think Gay’s memoir of her body is also an exposé of how our society views fatness so hatefully and dehumanizes people whose size exceeds social prescriptions. I am so glad to have read this, as I wrestle with my own body and relationship to it.

I had high hopes for this “dark, twisty modern fairytale,” but they unfortunately were not fulfilled. On paper this worked perfectly for me, but the execution was lacking. I honestly almost dnfed at the 25% mark but pushed through for the badge. Though I can’t tell I didn’t like it because of the audiobook narrator or because it was genuinely bad. In this case I think it’s a combination of both, but I’d defiantly recommend reading with your eyeballs for this one. What I liked The cover is gorges. Beyond that, the concept was really doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Three siblings disappeared and came back different from before, botanical horror and doors that led to nowhere, sign me up. The ending was the best written part, and I particularly liked the conclusion regarding Grey and the ambiguity of it. What I didn’t like I was not clicking with the writing style, and perhaps because of that the characters weren’t working for me. This is a book that is reliant on carrying about what happens to the characters, I quite frankly did not. So even though interesting things were happening, it was a slog to get through. Which wasn’t helped by the pacing, I felt like nothing happened in first half, and then suddenly things started happening very quickly. And well it didn’t go anywhere, there was a relationship that was absolutely horrid, for a number of reasons, including age gap, sibling stuff, and having just met. Would I recommend? In short, no. I don’t think it’s worth your time, and it’s also not particularly original. You can find better “dark, twisty modern fairytales,” elsewhere. However, my opinion seems to be the odd one out, so if you are going for the Botanical Horror badge or just want to, you might feel differently than I did. But defiantly try to get your hands on a physical or ebook copy if you do end up reading it. Overview Where House of Hollow could have been an amazing and atmospheric exploration of sisterhood and whimsical yet dark story of lost children, the poor quality and characters as well as some pacing issues really worked against it and left me feeling like I had wasted my time.

It isn’t too often that I finish a book and think, “Wow, that was actually bad,” but that’s exactly what I thought at the end of Squad.

The premise is nothing short of delicious; a dark queer supernatural teen drama is one of my guilty pleasures. But the execution of Squad sated nothing. It only left me hungrier than before.

The author opened so many thematic doors but stepped through none of them. Tokuda-Hall could have explored feminine rage and revenge, diet culture and eating disorders, internalized misogyny and toxic female relationships, racism, homophobia, r*pe culture, and morality/vigilantism. Instead, we see only shallow glimpses at these topics that are never developed or brought to fruition. There was no nuance in either storyline or character development. So many of these characters were just awful with no redemption. And the world building left a lot to be desired as well.

But at least I didn’t suffer long — it only took about an hour to get through Squad. I generally enjoyed the artwork, especially the werewolf scenes. This graphic novel is also featured in two quests here on PB, so it’s an easy (and quick) way to progress towards some badges. But I definitely would not recommend it on its own merit, and I think that says a lot.

‼️ CW: ED, comments about clothing size, attempted SA, violence (including murder), racism, homophobia/lesbophobia, complicated mother-daughter relationship

I’m reviewing this for the first time after a reread that solidified it as a favourite. The first time I read this, my focus went to the human relationships within these pages and Benny (the protagonist) and Annabelle’s (his mum’s) emotional journeys. During my second read, I could focus more on the themes of the book that I only engaged with superficially during my first read. The heart of this book is in its characters, but a lot of its messages are in the circumstances that surround them.

It was a lucky coincidence that I happened to be reading Mutual Aid by Pyotr Kropotkin at the same time as this. This book almost feels like a fictionalised version of the main arguments of Kropotkin’s work when it comes to human nature and the inadequacy of the state as a means to satisfy human needs (but The Book of Form and Emptiness goes much farther than Mutual Aid in its critique of our idea of progress—more on this in the next paragraph). Through the characters’ hardships, we see the care institutions of the state fail again and again. To give an example, the state is supposed to step in and help Benny and his mum deal with the hardest moment of their lives: the sudden death of Kenji, who was Benny’s dad and Annabelle’s husband. They don’t have a support network, they are alone in the world, and the state’s interventions only worsen their situation at every turn.

This book also questions our notion of progress: we equal modernity with positive development; advances in technology with quality of life improvements; the modern nation state with the peak of civilisation. Yet this novel disregards this framework and asks us: what does progress mean? Who gets to define it? Who benefits from it? What happens to people who get left behind? What are we progressing towards, and is it a worthy goal? Who do our institutions serve? And, at the end of the day, does the help we need come from our institutions, or from the people around us who care?

I also happened to reread Ending the Pursuit of Happiness by Barry Magrid earlier this year, another one of my favourites, which deals with Japanese zen philosophy and how it has been grossly misunderstood and co-opted by self-help rhetoric. What is zen? Zen is about, among many other things, accepting life as it is in all its perfection and wholeness, yet understanding at the same time that is is also ever-changing and can be influenced (and improved) by our actions. Yet zen is not about self-improvement: rather, it directly challenges the notion of self-improvement and tells us that we (and the world we live in) are already perfect as we are. The Book of Form and Emptiness also deals extensively with Japanese zen, weaving it into its narrative through the character of Aikon and her book Tidy Magic (a clear reference to Marie Kondo), but also through the story and the predicaments its characters find themselves in.

This book also deals with neurodivergence and the difficulties that existing as a neurodivergent person in modern society entails. It questions our notions of sanity and insanity. It’s also a critique of materialism and consumerism and the circumstances that lead us to engage in them. It also plays with form and typography in fun and interesting ways. It’s so difficult to convey in just a few words everything that this book is and how much all of the main characters’ stories mean to me and how deeply touched I am by them.

This is a book about grief, about life, about modern Western society, about zen, friendship, love, anger, frustration, community, art, sadness… It’s one of those books that I feel were written for me specifically, and I’m sure I will be returning to it again and again in the future.

Let me end this review with a couple of quotes:

“Our beautiful blue planet is intricately alive. (…) Immersed in the miniscule details of daily living, we believe our lives to be separate, and our selves to be separate, too. But this is a grave delusion. The truth is that everything depends on everything else. A flower depends on the sun and the soil and the rain and the bee that pollinates it. It cannot survive apart from these things, and without them, the flower would die. Humans are the same. We need the sun and the soil and the rain and the plants we eat. We need our mother and father and all our ancestors stretching back into the past. We are a continuation of them and we would not be alive without them. And all of us—flower and bee, you and me—are tiny parts of the living body of the planet.” (pp. 492-493)

”Dreams are important, right? That's what I tell Benny. I tell him that his father and I had lots of dreams, and some of them never amounted to much, but the sweetest dream of all came true, and his name is Benny.” (p.544)

I walked into this book expecting a parody, but what I actually read was a love letter to the romance genre and to romance readers. Though I’m not much of a romance reader anymore, my inner teenager feels so loved after finishing this. Female Fantasy still contains all of the ridiculousness of a romcom, but with striking self-awareness that makes leaning into the tropes of the genre sweet. This will not be the book for everyone (hell, it’s not even normally for me) from the wild scenarios the main characters find themselves in to the pop culture references to the fact that it’s a heterosexual couple, but for those whom it hits home, this will be a wonderful experience. I’m rating this highly for the teenage Gracie who had an inferiority complex about the types of books she was reading. Romance is a valuable genre even if it’s not for every reader and denigrating it neither makes you more intelligent nor morally superior—it just makes you an asshole. Love letters like this stand in the face of all that people say about the genre and proudly demonstrate that romance is so much more than it’s often imagined.

you weren't meant to be human is absolutely grotesque and disgusting (/pos). like the other books from ajw that i've read so far, the horror of this novel isn't necessarily the violent things inflicted upon people by the supernatural. rather, it is the horrifying ways in which people can exploit, abuse, and practically torture others.

unfortunately, though, this is my biggest gripe about this book. the premise of this book and the world we are dropped into is beyond interesting. in a world where we have mysterious alien-type creatures called hives, we barely actually get any deeper into what they are, how they operate, etc., and considering the centrality of the hives to the plot, i really thought that we would hear more about it and dig deeper into it, but i also do recognize that that wasn't the point of this book.

ajw's characterization of crane, the main character, is beautifully done. crane is complex and very flawed, but you cannot help but sympathize with him and his suffering. crane is trans and autistic, and these aspects of him are very well illustrated through his thoughts and behaviors. so well illustrated, in fact, that i thought the amount of times that these identities are explicitly named were a little unnecessary. the struggles that crane faces as a mentally ill, autistic, trans man are extremely evident throughout the text.

the gore and body horror in this is truly something special. reading the more bloody parts of it was like driving past a pile up on the highway—horrifying in a way you can't look away from. (please, please check trigger warnings/content warnings if you are easily grossed out!!!) i thought that the way that these moments of horror and gore were built up to were done phenomenally well, and though it was very gruesome and over-the-top in its depiction at times, i did not think it was ever out of place or Too Much, given the personalities of the characters, their backgrounds, and the setting of the plot. and i say this as someone that is usually easily grossed out by gore/body horror.

without any spoilers, i was quite happy with the way that the book ended. heartbreaking, bloody, and absolutely gross at times, but it was a very satisfying ending 🙂‍↕️

my favorite thing about this manga will have to be the artwork in it. the details are stunning and i LOVE how the gods are drawn in this, they’re so beautiful, and the artist definitely captures the ethereality that we would expect to see in a “god”

even for a first volume that’s trying to set the scene and do the legwork of world-building, i thought the pace was a little too quick, and the infodumping was a little too heavy. we’re two chapters in and getting the super dark flashback about the fmc and her friend, and i feel like some of that just came waaay too early 😭 there’s plenty of opportunity in later chapters that i feel may have been a better opportunity to explore this fully (especially because we do come back to it and get a second flashback lol)

the base premise in interesting (albeit, not entirely unique or unheard of), and i definitely do want to keep reading to see where it goes. i’m very curious as to how the plot will evolve, and i’m also very curious to learn more about the other characters and their backstories 🙂‍↕️

honorable mention: nyababa my beloved 🥹

Careless People is wild ride of a tell-all memoir! I did not have a favorable opinion on Facebook or Zuck before this book, but Careless People did highlight the banality of evil, how idealism alone is not the antidote for personal participation in wrongdoings, and how greedy goblins can accidentally(?) foment genocide.

The author's childhood survival of a shark attack was quite the opener and puts you on your toes immediately with horrible gore. From the first page, the author starts her case on her own innocence in the Facebook mess: as a young girl she was taught to shut up and accept pain and suffering, and that's why she shut up and accepted Facebook's reign of terror. Part of the reason I was so entertained by this book, beyond the eye-watering examples of corporate and individual malfeasance, is the careful way Wynn-Williams insulates herself from complicity.

Like any whistleblower tell all book, this is one person's side, and I could see how when Wynn-Williams is charitable or not to a player in this story, the same treatment could be applied to her. There are definitely moments of self-reflection throughout the memoir, wondering if she could have done something to prevent the horrible things that followed and explaining why she stayed at an objectively awful situation. I've been through my own toxic workplace (not to this extent thankfully!) and I could feel familiar beats to my own experience that make you feel trapped. Additionally, the casual sexual harassment and sexism in the corporate workplace is well known by this point, especially in these fratty tech companies, but the every day egregious incidents were still shocking to read about and I sympathized with Wynn-Williams. The lack of care for the people working away their lives to drive forward this silly website is astounding and so believable. I don't think the author reckoned, though, with her own part in this. And her epilogue on what she's working on now honestly made me laugh; she certainly has not taken to heart this Facebook ordeal and is blithely sauntering to her next tell all book about AI warfare.

The author did a good job narrating her own book, and I think it added to the entertainment of this memoir. Searching up the author, it seems in June 2026 she sued Meta for their intimidation tactics related to the publicization of this book. I am very interested to see how that unfolds and I am amused that the more Meta pushes on this book, the more attention this book gets.

Wynn-Williams covers some serious topics, including some graphic medical descriptions, difficult pregnancy and childbirth, genocidal violence and sexual assault in Myanmar, sexism, and sexual harassment. If you're interested in peering behind the curtain to see how good intentions (or lack of intention) lead to a monstrous global corporation like Facebook/Meta, you will enjoy this book.

This is very cute and easy to follow description of some of the body’s systems, presented in a very easy to understand format. Definitely a cute reminder guide/educational tool.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!