joinreallife's reviews
1379 reviews

I really loved the elevator pitch for this book, and I liked the beats. I love Cade and Selena's partnership. I love the PNW feeling, obvs. It's a nice slow-burn-and-then-a-blaze, which is not something I've seen much with queer romances that I've read. The writing was a bit repetitive in a way that I think was likely unintentional but left me feeling like the author didn't trust readers enough to get a point without beating us over the head with it. Down to the same word choice in several spots, even. So I would have loved a bit more finesse in the writing, but overall I had a good time with this one.

Honestly, this one hit all the right notes for me. The representation of life after trauma - the ways that can go wrong and cause a person to be closed off and untrusting and stuck and afraid and angry, BUT also funny and invested and wanting to connect - was so true to how I have/do experience my trauma. The queerness, the messy family dynamics, the community - it was all exactly what I could have wanted. 

I'm just a sobbing mess and IT'S FINE.

Loved The Wicker King easter egg.

Content warning: sexual assault, mention of suicide, death of parents

I was drawn in last summer by the absolutely stunning cover, and since then have heard only good things about this memoir-manifesto from George M. Johnson. The conversations about queerness and intersectional identities were incredibly affecting and poignant, and so were the familial relationships and appreciation. I appreciated Johnson's frankness and vulnerability with the knowledge he didn't see available during his formative years, and his desire to fill that gap with the offering of his own experiences.

My one qualm here is the deadnaming of a now-deceased family member (and, tangentially, the deadnaming of that family member's friend). I don't quite know how else Johnson would have been able to tell that particular story, and it's possible this is my cis guilt coming out, perhaps it's not a huge deal. I wish I could've found an article or interview that addressed this...

Content warnings: CSA, deadnaming

I loved this, just as expected. The pacing was a bit off for me, but I loved the care and affection that Penelope and Agatha developed, and I think it is a fantastic example of how an HEA doesn't need a third-act overly dramatic conflict. Sure, that kind of thing has its place, but I really appreciate realistic, every day obstacles to happiness that partners then tackle together.

DNF at 42%. I've learned this is a fictionalized account of the real novelist Thomas Mann, so I understand that it was probably important to Toibin to include a realistic view of that. And I'm sure this book will work for some people. But yikes, I have no interest in reading about a man's sexual attraction to his underage son, real or fictionalized, and it's not something I would be comfortable hand-selling in my store.

Admittedly, a good chunk of the science here went over my head, though I think I've gotten the closest I've ever been to understanding with Dr. Prescod-Weinstein's explanations. But the things that were most impactful were the social commentary that I'll be ruminating on for a good long time, about science's relationship to colonialism, scientific housework and who is considered to have contributed to science, the myth of objectivity, and more.