avatar

sharonoutloud

32F ♈️🏳️‍🌈🦇 PhD in Medieval Literature Fantasy writer and sometimes-poet

157 points

0% overlap
Level 2
My Taste
Blood Over Bright Haven
Rebecca
Jane Eyre
The Secret History
Reading...
The Starving Saints
2%

sharonoutloud made progress on...

3d
The Starving Saints

The Starving Saints

Caitlin Starling

2%
0
0
Reply

sharonoutloud started reading...

3d
The Starving Saints

The Starving Saints

Caitlin Starling

0
0
Reply

sharonoutloud wrote a review...

5d
  • Red Rabbit Ghost
    sharonoutloud
    Feb 11, 2026
    3.5
    Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 4.0Characters: 3.5Plot: 3.5
    🔴
    🐇
    👻

    I enjoyed Red Rabbit Ghost, especially as someone who is familiar with North Carolina and lived in the rural South. It’s more atmospheric and vibes-based than plot driven, but it neatly wraps up its mysteries without overly-explaining every little thing to the reader. It’s heady, at times creepy, and gives you lots to think about regarding what haunts us and what we hold on to. An interesting take on spells, as well, that feels very earthy and tactile. It does drag a bit in the middle, but it was an enjoyable read overall.

    0
    comments 0
    Reply
  • sharonoutloud finished a book

    5d
    Red Rabbit Ghost

    Red Rabbit Ghost

    Jen Julian

    0
    0
    Reply

    sharonoutloud made progress on...

    6d
    Red Rabbit Ghost

    Red Rabbit Ghost

    Jen Julian

    86%
    0
    0
    Reply

    sharonoutloud entered a giveaway...

    6d

    Vera Kurian giveaway

    A Step Past Darkness

    A Step Past Darkness

    Vera Kurian

    SIX CLASSMATES. ONE TERRIFYING NIGHT. A MURDER TWENTY YEARS IN THE MAKING… There’s something sinister under the surface of the idyllic, suburban town of Wesley Falls, and it’s not just the abandoned coal mine that lies beneath it. The summer of 1995 kicks off with a party in the mine where six high school students witness a horrifying crime that changes the course of their lives. The six couldn’t be more different. • Maddy, a devout member of the local megachurch • Kelly, the bookworm next door • James, a cynical burnout • Casey, a loveable football player • Padma, the shy straight-A student • Jia, who’s starting to see visions she can’t explain When they realize that they can’t trust anyone but each other, they begin to investigate what happened on their own. As tensions escalate in town to a breaking point, the six make a vow of silence, bury all their evidence, and promise to never contact each other again. Their plan works – almost. Twenty years later, Jia calls them all back to Wesley Falls—Maddy has been murdered, and they are the only ones who can uncover why. But to end things, they have to return to the mine one last time.

    print10 copiesUS only

    sharonoutloud commented on a post

    6d
  • The Gryphon King
    is this fucking reylo

    The thought dawned on me with the slow terror of a exorcist in a horror movie discovering a corpse in the attic.

    Bataar (Mr. Let's Do Imperialism) wears a long black cape. This is really weird because ankle-length black capes aren't a part of nomadic steppe wear + his cape swishes around his legs even while they trek through a DESERT. He's also described with long black hair and a scar running down his face. Haha, i said nervously, just like kylo ren, but surely it's only a superficial resemblance.

    (spoilers below)

    And a coincidence besides that the love interest is warrior girl who fights with long stick/who he is trying to form an alliance with to strengthen his reign(does this romance work? no. it's weird and i hate it, but that's a problem for a different post).

    But then, three quarters into the book. He uses the fucking force to choke someone out. I stared at the page for twenty minutes. not even a trigger warning?????? reylo??? in MY political fantasy?? i hate it here.

    28
    comments 29
    Reply
  • sharonoutloud made progress on...

    1w
    Red Rabbit Ghost

    Red Rabbit Ghost

    Jen Julian

    69%
    0
    0
    Reply

    sharonoutloud made progress on...

    1w
    Red Rabbit Ghost

    Red Rabbit Ghost

    Jen Julian

    37%
    0
    0
    Reply

    sharonoutloud earned a badge

    3w
    Level 2

    Level 2

    100 points

    0
    0
    Reply

    sharonoutloud made progress on...

    3w
    Red Rabbit Ghost

    Red Rabbit Ghost

    Jen Julian

    3%
    1
    0
    Reply

    sharonoutloud started reading...

    3w
    Red Rabbit Ghost

    Red Rabbit Ghost

    Jen Julian

    1
    0
    Reply

    sharonoutloud DNF'd a book

    5w
    The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars, #1)

    The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars, #1)

    Thea Guanzon

    0
    0
    Reply
  • The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars, #1)
    Thoughts from 21% (page 99)
    spoilers

    View spoiler

    4
    comments 3
    Reply
  • sharonoutloud made progress on...

    5w
    The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars, #1)

    The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars, #1)

    Thea Guanzon

    20%
    0
    0
    Reply

    sharonoutloud set their yearly reading goal to 24

    6w

    sharonoutloud's 2026 Reading Challenge

    1 of 24 read
    Red Rabbit Ghost
    1
    0
    Reply

    sharonoutloud commented on sharonoutloud's review of Babel

    6w
  • Babel
    sharonoutloud
    Dec 29, 2025
    1.0
    Enjoyment: 0.5Quality: 1.0Characters: 0.5Plot: 0.5
    📚
    🇬🇧
    🎆

    While the prose is objectively good and Kuang is clearly intelligent, the core composition of Babel: plot, pacing, characters, structure, are very weak. I wanted to love this book as an academic whose work heavily involves linguistics and etymology, but it’s formally a bit of a mess. The momentum of the book drags horribly, and any fantasy elements are extremely underused. It’s clear that Kuang’s main objective was to write a book about imperialism and identity, which is fine, but plot, characterization, and genre elements fell by the wayside in service of it. The translation theory included in the book is super basic, and Kuang doesn’t add anything to the discussion, so it ends up feeling like a narrativized Translation 101 lecture. Some people might like this aspect, but to me it felt repetitive and indulgent. I heavily skimmed this book from around page 300 to its conclusion. This book could have been historical fiction about an early Cantonese student at Oxford but then Kuang would have to be more precise; the translation-magic idea ends up being flavor instead of substance.

    3
    comments 2
    Reply
  • sharonoutloud finished reading and wrote a review...

    7w
  • Babel
    sharonoutloud
    Dec 29, 2025
    1.0
    Enjoyment: 0.5Quality: 1.0Characters: 0.5Plot: 0.5
    📚
    🇬🇧
    🎆

    While the prose is objectively good and Kuang is clearly intelligent, the core composition of Babel: plot, pacing, characters, structure, are very weak. I wanted to love this book as an academic whose work heavily involves linguistics and etymology, but it’s formally a bit of a mess. The momentum of the book drags horribly, and any fantasy elements are extremely underused. It’s clear that Kuang’s main objective was to write a book about imperialism and identity, which is fine, but plot, characterization, and genre elements fell by the wayside in service of it. The translation theory included in the book is super basic, and Kuang doesn’t add anything to the discussion, so it ends up feeling like a narrativized Translation 101 lecture. Some people might like this aspect, but to me it felt repetitive and indulgent. I heavily skimmed this book from around page 300 to its conclusion. This book could have been historical fiction about an early Cantonese student at Oxford but then Kuang would have to be more precise; the translation-magic idea ends up being flavor instead of substance.

    3
    comments 2
    Reply