papercraftalex's reviews
362 reviews

The Black Queen was definitely an entertaining and fast read, but it lacked a lot of depth. A lot of Black reviewers are pointing out that the narrative is mostly the white girl and the titular Black queen is just a plot device. I fully agree. The characters aren't fully fleshed out and often act stereotypical. The mystery itself is somewhat predictable; I didn't know everything, but I got most of it right in the beginning. It's also blatant copaganda. Duchess spends so much of the book saying her dad works so hard and is so good as if he's not upholding a disgusting institution. The ending was really cliche and

Tinsley was never actually held accountable for the terrible things she said

. This was one of my most anticipated reads and I'm pretty disappointed. 

Middle grade books always have this beautiful tingle of magic in it that heals my inner child. Song For a whale was stunning; the characters were all so real and I felt Iris's pain and loneliness so deeply. The way loneliness and community are represented in this novel are so deep and nuanced. I particularly love the small chapters where we follow Blue 55. I was crying so hard by the end. This book made me feel the most hope I've felt since before the pandemic. Please read it.

When I first started reading this book, I was terrified. There was palatable suspense and the characters and plot were set up perfectly. Then it went downhill. The villain

s were</> was kind of ridiculous and really unexpected

and borderline antisemitic, like a group that sacrifices children to gain worldly power? That's just spicy blood libel

and the ending was laughably bad. I'm rating it 3 stars because it had a 5 star beginning and a 1 star end.

This is very instagram style and does run into a problem with too many cliches and not enough poetics, but I really enjoyed it. It's warm and it's so wonderful to see something so unapologetic lesbian. Read this if you're looking less for flowery language and more about authentic queerness.

This book was lackluster at best. It was very addictive at the beginning, but the end was disappointing and it never really developed. I guessed the person who did it right away, but it was very unsatisfying.

Mostly because her reasons were "it's God's will" and not anything of actual substance.

It was very religious with a devote main character, rare challenges to the religion, the "it's not the religion that's bad, it's the individuals who use it for evil!" excuse, and negative portrayals of atheists. Her one character is a pile of Black stereotypes with white skin slapped on top, and the main character calls him white trash, which is played off as funny when it's just bigoted. It was an intriguing premise that did not follow through.

I haven't read any of the other "Really Strange" books, but now I'm interested in them! It was a short and beautifully illustrated guide that still managed to cover a wide variety of topics. It discussed the etymology of gender, how colonialism affected gender and gender roles, the medical side of gender/sex, and what to do if you're struggling with your gender identity. It did well at explaining each of the topics while giving pointers of where to research first. It's like baby's first gender analysis when Judith Butler is far too difficult. The art style was what originally caught my eye and it was consistently beautiful throughout. I absolutely recommend this to anyone interested in the biopsychosocial elements of gender.

I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I read this for the disability readathon and I really shouldn't have. Throughout multiple stories, it perpetuates the idea that physically disabled people have it easier than people with mental illness. Like many anthologies, the quality of the stories varied widely, but unfortunately the subjects did not. The stories were mostly about anxiety and depression, with a sprinkle of OCD, bipolar disorder, and eating disorders. The only story in this collection about schizophrenia was about someone's abusive mother, which perpetuates very harmful stereotypes. That's not the worst one though! The editor was reprehensible for including "The Alchemy of Healing" by Emily Mayberry. The story is about a school shooting survivor who blames school shootings on mental illness (I thought the point of this collection was to destigmatize mental illness) and then advertise her appropriated scam business. Another story was a veteran's narrative of living with PTSD, which would be great to include if the veteran telling the story wasn't racist. He said "My little blond-haired daughter deserves a father who lives in the present." So she only deserves that because she's blond? You took that opportunity away from other dads. "I will not let Iraq win." They didn't, thousands of people's lives are destroyed, because of you.

The only stories I feel are worth reading are CODA by Meredith Russo, What We're Born With and What We Pick Up Along the Way by Heidi Heilig, and Call Me Crazy by s.e. smith.

This was an absolutely stunning graphic novel that was basically multiple stories in one. I love fairy tales, and the author had such a creative spin on all of the ones he included. I especially loved his explanation in the back of the way he chose to illustrate them. Speaking of illustrations, this book is beautiful! The use of color was reminiscent of On a Sunbeam and really added layers to the story. It was so short, but absolutely packed a punch. 

I have liked Lovelace's previous works, but I really didn't enjoy this one. It lacked identity; it seemed like it was supposed to be based off Persephone and juxtapose healthy and unhealthy relationships, but it didn't end up very strong. Her Girls Are Some Kind of Magic series had concrete stories and her Things That Haunt series was deeply personal, but this one felt so flimsy. The poems also felt weaker. Many have complained about their cliched lines before, and it didn't bother me until this collection because it's usually surrounded by more poetic language. This collection just didn't do it for me.