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cassia

I will always be guided by my values šŸ“šā™„ļøšŸ³ļøā€āš§ļø (28 | she/her | naarm/melbourne)

3234 points

0% overlap
Cherry Blossom Festival 2026
Found Family in Fantasy
Fictional(?) Dystopian Societies
My Taste
Stone Butch Blues
A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, #2)
Brotherless Night
Station Eleven
The Lathe of Heaven
Reading...
A Parade of Horribles
87%
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
34%
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
41%
Demon Copperhead
8%
The Language of the Night: Essays on Writing, Science Fiction, and Fantasy
70%

cassia wrote a review...

6h
  • Arboreality
    cassia
    Aug 13, 2026
    Arboreality
    4.5
    Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 4.5Characters: 4.5Plot: 4.0
    🪾
    šŸŽ»
    🌿

    Arboreality is such a wonderful read with surprising depth given its length. It's a series of short stories tied together at the end - a format that works really well with getting that payoff, but also left some holes in my opinion.

    This book is about catastrophe, humanity, resilience, and community. It uses its fantastic scientific premise - an imagining of the limits of botany - to explore how we find meaning in minutia, as each of the characters in turn prioritises what's important to them to try to keep things good for generations to come.

    These characters were excellent - I found myself wishing that the entire book was about each of the short stories. This did end up proving to be a double-edged sword - it often felt like I just got connected to a character, only for them to be gone.

    Loved this book!

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  • cassia made progress on...

    7h
    The Language of the Night: Essays on Writing, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

    The Language of the Night: Essays on Writing, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

    Ursula K. Le Guin

    70%
    1
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    cassia commented on a post

    8h
  • Arboreality
    Thoughts from 54% - The Violin
    spoilers

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    4
    comments 3
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  • Post from the Arboreality forum

    8h
  • Arboreality
    Thoughts from 54% - The Violin
    spoilers

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    comments 3
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  • cassia commented on a post

    8h
  • Arboreality
    LemonLime
    Edited
    Thoughts from 54% (page 60)

    I’m trying to frame this Novella as a story of the trees because I can’t seem to connect to any of the characters (and honestly have trouble holding them all in my mind as separate people. I think I’m blending them because they’re all essentially in the same emotional state).

    I can tell it’s good writing. I know it won awards. It’s clearly short. Yet, it’s not touching my feelings or feeling like beautiful writing to my personal taste.

    2
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  • cassia made progress on...

    11h
    The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

    The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

    Walter Benjamin

    41%
    1
    0
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    cassia made progress on...

    11h
    Arboreality

    Arboreality

    Rebecca Campbell

    100%
    1
    0
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    cassia commented on a post

    1d
  • Last Night at the Telegraph Club
    Thoughts from 25%
    spoilers

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    14
    comments 3
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  • cassia made progress on...

    1d
    Last Night at the Telegraph Club

    Last Night at the Telegraph Club

    Malinda Lo

    34%
    1
    0
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    cassia made progress on...

    2d
    A Parade of Horribles

    A Parade of Horribles

    Matt Dinniman

    87%
    0
    0
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    cassia wrote a review...

    3d
  • This Inevitable Ruin
    cassia
    Aug 10, 2026
    This Inevitable Ruin
    4.5
    Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 4.5Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.5
    šŸ’„
    šŸ
    šŸ•¶ļø

    I've reviewed so many of these in such a short time that they're kind of blending together but this is best one of the series so far imo. The pacing is good, the twists are fun, the characters shine and they make you care. I cried like 6 times reading this somehow, in between my fun fast-paced seat-of-your-pants wild ride. Loving this series.

    1
    comments 0
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  • cassia made progress on...

    4d
    The Language of the Night: Essays on Writing, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

    The Language of the Night: Essays on Writing, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

    Ursula K. Le Guin

    39%
    0
    0
    Reply

    cassia commented on cassia's review of Ghost Cities

    4d
  • Ghost Cities
    cassia
    Oct 15, 2025
    Ghost Cities
    5.0
    Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 5.0
    āœļø
    šŸ“ø
    šŸ‘Š

    I was debating over whether or not to give this 5 stars - the first half of the book is incredible, but I felt it maybe left part 2 with a lot of heavy lifting to do to wrap things up.

    For a magical realism book, it's SO funny. This is a book that's about art and creation and culture. I loved the interwoven narratives, though I think some people will find the "ancient" timeline hard to follow.

    There is an element in the romance here that could feel a bit unearned - but I also think that's kind of the point. A major theme in this book is how culture assigns us roles to play, and our main characters need to play theirs. The love interest is also based on the author's wife, which is very sweet.

    Anyway where I'm getting with this is: the satire is on point, the characters were vivid, the prose was excellent - I just loved this book. There's so much care for art, history, and culture. I think some people will struggle with it, but I need more people to read it to discuss it with!

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