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mateoj's reviews
432 reviews
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
It Devours! by Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
my god, WTNV just doesn't miss.
I really enjoyed getting to see more of the characters from the first novel and the podcast, and the newly introduced characters are just wonderful and lovable. my only criticism, which may be very subjective, is that as someone who did not grow up within a religion, sometimes the satirical nature of the religious elements felt... overdone? too on-the-nose? but I have no experience in that area and maybe it really is like that, I don't know. either way, what a great book.
I really enjoyed getting to see more of the characters from the first novel and the podcast, and the newly introduced characters are just wonderful and lovable. my only criticism, which may be very subjective, is that as someone who did not grow up within a religion, sometimes the satirical nature of the religious elements felt... overdone? too on-the-nose? but I have no experience in that area and maybe it really is like that, I don't know. either way, what a great book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, and Grief
Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw
Did not finish book. Stopped at 39%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 39%.
"He threw a shrug, hands tossed up so quickly that his fin gers, if they had been birds, would have broken in the violence."
girl what
girl what
Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose by Leigh Cowart
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
just delightful — vulnerable, honest, informative, and funny. a difficult balance to strike in journalistic nonfiction, but Hurts So Good does it very well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Excrement, and Medical trauma
The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I'm mad because I absolutely adored The Borrower and therefore had really high hopes for this book, but it's just so slow and unsatisfying. I couldn't really get behind any of the characters, which is fine (no one said a protagonist has to be a good person), but none of them managed to be bad people in a way that made me want to read about them or care what happened to them despite it. The superatural element was the only truly interesting thing about this book and it was essentially nonexistent, just a topic of conversation to give the characters a connnection. lots of egregious racism that seemed to seve no purpose whatsoever. I have no idea how i was meant to be feeling at the end of the book or what exactly it was trying to tell me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Alcohol
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor
challenging
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
honestly, I think I partially stuck with this one because I loved reading about early-90s gay culture and was kind of enthralled by it—the writing is not fantastic (not horrible, either) and the plot dragged on occasion, but the setting and "set dressing" more than made up for that to me. this could be, objectively speaking, much better than it is, but I'll take the parts I liked and leave the rest.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Alcohol
We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I don't know if I really got it, which bums me out because I feel like it's saying something really interesting.
The Lonesome Bodybuilder: Stories by Yukiko Motoya
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
2.25
I usually like weird short stories, but these really missed the mark for me.
Conversations with People Who Hate Me: 12 Things I Learned from Talking to Internet Strangers by Dylan Marron
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
(review later)
The Duck That Won the Lottery: 100 New Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher by Julian Baggini
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.25
I was expecting philosophical quandaries in the vein of the trolley problem, but this is a book about rhetorical fallacies. I'm willing to forgive the misleading, however, because I found it very incisive, easy to understand, and thought-provoking. I do think it's dated, though, and I can't help but wonder what Baggini's thoughts would be on the rhetoric used by today's journalists and politicians-- the same fallacies are in effect, but I think personal bias makes it harder to spot them. Overall, misleading marketing for this book but a good read for anyone wanting to improve their critical thinking skills. If I were teaching a media literacy class I would definitely incorporate passages from this book.