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kamilla

bookworm and illustrator Im a bit of a genera hopper but Im especially found of fantasy and scifi

1502 points

0% overlap
Fantasy and Sci-Fi with a Side of Romance
LGBTQ+ Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Operation Epic Scope
My Taste
The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan, #1)
A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)
Anima Rising
The Sword of Kaigen
The Tusks of Extinction
Reading...
Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch, #2)The Everlasting

Post from the Pagebound Club forum

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  • kamilla
    Edited
    Bookish hot takes

    I recently finished the memory police and a good portion of the comments were very positive but I got a little annoyed at how familiar some of the less positive comments felt. They were all about how slow or confusing the book was, and I mention this here and not the forum because I’ve also seen it with a ton of other books recently (handmaidens tale, the house of sprits, ten thousand doors of January, the vanishing birds and the book eaters among others).

    So hot take 1, a slow book does not necessarily mean a bad book because pacing is dependent on the kind of story the author wants to tell. When the point is to show the passage of time or build up an atmosphere it’s actually better.

    Hot take 2, soft world building is often better than hard world building because you don’t have to know everything about everything in order to understand the plot or sympathize with the characters. In fact confusion in small doses can be good because it forces you to learn.

    Idk if I’m alone here? Just had get that out.

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  • kamilla finished a book

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    Raging Clouds

    Raging Clouds

    Yudori Yudori

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    kamilla made progress on...

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    Raging Clouds

    Raging Clouds

    Yudori Yudori

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    kamilla commented on a post

    1d
  • The Memory Police
    Thoughts from 88% (page 242)

    When will something happennn? I enjoy the vibes and all but till now all of the book just felt like an introduction to something that doesn’t happen

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  • kamilla commented on a post

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  • The Memory Police
    Thoughts from 80% (page 220)
    spoilers

    View spoiler

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  • kamilla made progress on...

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    The Memory Police

    The Memory Police

    Yōko Ogawa

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    kamilla completed their yearly reading goal of 30 books!

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    kamilla's 2025 Reading Challenge

    31 of 30 read
    The Parlour Wife
    The Memory Police
    There Is No Antimemetics Division
    The Killing Moon (Dreamblood, #1)
    The Daughters' War (Blacktongue, #0)
    Babylonia: A Novel
    The Only Good Indians
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    kamilla started reading...

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    Raging Clouds

    Raging Clouds

    Yudori Yudori

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    kamilla finished reading and wrote a review...

    2d
  • The Parlour Wife
    kamilla
    Dec 27, 2025
    3.5
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    I have mixed feelings on this one. The writing wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be and the themes felt pretty ya (not bad but not what I was looking for).* That said I’m happy I read it. I knew nothing about the historical period before this so I learned a lot, and I was surprised at how much of what I learned felt pretty familiar.

    *I suspect the thing that separates this from ya is a couple senses show sex so keep that in mind when recommending

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  • Post from the The Parlour Wife forum

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  • The Parlour Wife
    Patterns of colonialism and independence

    So I’m American and as I’ve been reading this I a started to notice a lot of similarities between my country’s history and the history covered in the story.

    The book mostly takes place in 1940s Largos, Nigeria which is under British colonial rule until their independence in 1960. There are obvious differences in culture, time period and the treatment of racial injustice but I’m noticing a lot of similar complaints to the American colonies in the decades before our independence in the 1770s. In both cases there’s a war being fought or just concluded that was supposedly to protect the colonists that causes the British to impose new taxes and artificially caped prices without government representation. All of which leads to people struggling, smuggling, protests and eventually escalation and independence.

    I find it a so interesting that despite how much changes between the time periods and cultures in question the pattern of colonialism and what motivates people to fight back is still similar.

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  • kamilla commented on a post

    2d
  • The Memory Police
    Thoughts from 35% (page 96)

    I don't know how slow the story will be, but I don't really see the point of including the excerpts of the narrator's novel as part of the book. Generally I'm a little confused as to where this story is going as it is a little slow, hopefully things will pick up once i get to 50%?

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  • kamilla commented on a post

    2d
  • The Memory Police
    Thoughts from 34% (page 93)

    Love the writing so far, it feels so otherworldly by being so vague about the location of the setting. On the other hand everything that's happening feels weirdly realistic. It's also so perceptive of how oppressive police states function.

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  • kamilla commented on a post

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  • The Memory Police
    R is caping

    This man is too suspicious.

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  • kamilla commented on a post

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  • The Memory Police
    fuchssy
    Edited
    Thoughts from 2%

    If it's a physical object that has been disappeared, we gather the remnants up to burn, or bury, or toss into the river.

    I'm reading the translation by Stephen Snyder but the grammatical awkwardness bothers me so much. Does that bother anyone else ? Is it just me ?

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  • kamilla commented on a post

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  • Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky, #1)
    Thoughts from 68%

    This book really goes down like butter. It is just SUCH easy listening! I know it's helped by the large text and formatting, so you feel like you're flying through it. But the 4 narrators, the engaging plots, the fascinating world; it's such a joy to read this book and I'm excited to finish and begin the next one tomorrow!

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  • kamilla commented on a post

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  • The Last Song of Penelope (The Songs of Penelope, #3)
    Thoughts from 47%
    spoilers

    View spoiler

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    comments 5
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  • kamilla made progress on...

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    The Parlour Wife

    The Parlour Wife

    Foluso Agbaje

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