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The Starving Saints
Caitlin Starling
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Possession
A.S. Byatt
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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.
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Red Rabbit Ghost
Jen Julian
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sharonoutloud commented on a post
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.
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Red Rabbit Ghost
Jen Julian
sharonoutloud DNF'd a book

The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars, #1)
Thea Guanzon
Post from the The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars, #1) forum
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sharonoutloud set their yearly reading goal to 24

sharonoutloud commented on sharonoutloud's review of Babel
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.
sharonoutloud finished reading and wrote a review...
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.