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emiliemartine

She/ Her ⚜️Gen X ⚜️Californian ⚜️Historical Fiction nerd ⚜️Artist

1593 points

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Cherry Blossom Festival 2026
Supporting* Women's Wrongs
Feminine Rage
True Crime Starter Pack Vol I
Fever Dreams & Strange Realities
Pride 2026
My Taste
The Overstory
The Poisonwood Bible
North Woods
Martyr!
A Tale for the Time Being
Reading...
Questions 27 & 28
10%
Know My Name: A Memoir
20%
Japanese Gothic
45%

emiliemartine commented on a post

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  • Japanese Gothic
    Thoughts from 51% end of chapter 15
    spoilers

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    Japanese Gothic

    Japanese Gothic

    Kylie Lee Baker

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    Know My Name: A Memoir

    Know My Name: A Memoir

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    Know My Name: A Memoir

    Know My Name: A Memoir

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  • We Used to Live Here
    emiliemartine
    Jul 01, 2026
    We Used to Live Here
    3.5
    Enjoyment: 3.5Quality: 3.5Characters: 3.5Plot: 3.5Audiobook: 4.0
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  • emiliemartine commented on SkywardStrange's review of We Used to Live Here

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  • We Used to Live Here
    SkywardStrange
    May 06, 2026
    We Used to Live Here
    3.0
    Enjoyment: 2.0Quality: 3.0Characters: 2.0Plot: 3.0
    🚪
    🤔
    👁️‍🗨️

    While this was interesting and definitely showcases Kliewer's potential, I have to admit that I'm glad it's over.

    We Used To Live Here starts off strong - an interesting premise, touches of weirdness that ramp up into a creepy aura, and extra ARG-style details that make me understand why it originally exploded on Reddit. Kliewer is good at making the family just a smidge off putting, making you scrutinize them, wondering what's real and what might just be a coincidence. Like Eve, you're always questioning what's real, which details are important.

    However, the book's origin as a serialized Reddit story hurts it greatly when it comes to pacing - there are long periods of exposition that drag and moments that could have been terrifying but blow past too quickly to have any impact. Many of the "docs" are infuriatingly tangential to the plot.

    At around the halfway point Kliewer seems to have gotten lost in worldbuilding and starts throwing out too many concepts, many of which have no real purpose within the narrative. We get tastes of the big picture, but we're so bogged down that it's hard to feel satisfied with the novel as a whole. It was almost like playing peekaboo - getting flashes and glimpses but never quite getting a cohesive whole. I found Eve's behavior maddening - she never seems to actually think about what's going on or what she should do next, instead lurching through the narrative on instinct.

    Overall, a promising but underwhelming debut. I have picked up Kliewer's new release, The Caretaker - I'm curious to see what he can do without the limitations and pitfalls of Reddit storytelling.

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  • emiliemartine completed their yearly reading goal of 36 books!

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    emiliemartine's 2026 Reading Challenge

    37 of 36 read
    Canon
    We Used to Live Here
    A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present
    What We Fed to the Manticore
    Dracula
    The Typing Lady: And Other Fictions
    The Lion Women of Tehran
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