sicksadlit's reviews
496 reviews

Rouge by Mona Awad

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

All That We Know by Shilo Kino

Go to review page

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

All That We Know is a stunning, searing and confronting novel that highlights the true and ongoing human impact of colonisation on Māori in Aotearoa.

This book is humbling and vitally important for all Pākehā (white) and Pākehā-passing Kiwi, and actually should be required reading for us all. I have learned more about the disastrous impact of colonisation from this book than I have ever learned in school.

Shilo Kino bravely crafts the poignant message of the ongoing trauma experienced by Māori through the lens of our main character Māreikura Pohe, a young, wāhine Māori on a journey to reclaim her reo and her identity. Māreikura’s experience demonstrates the many layers of intergenerational trauma, language trauma and the deep roots of colonisation that continue to weave through every day life.

I cried many times during this book. I cried for Māreikura and her justified rage and anguish. I cried for Māreikura’s Gran Glennis and her horrific childhood experience having her reo and identity literally beaten out of her. I cried in shame for my role as Pākeha-passing in upholding colonisation and for the actions of the Pākeha before me to inflict it.

All That We Know also got me thinking about my own intergenerational trauma. I thought about what life must have been like for my Grandmother, growing up First Nations Indigenous in Canada, who is now too traumatised to talk about it.

This is a book that will stay with me for years to come and I am grateful, because we should never ever stop talking about the ongoing experience of Māori at the hands of colonisation and the ways in which we continue to uphold it.

Thank you Shilo Kino, for writing such a vulnerable and visceral story. This is a story to be celebrated.

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Carrie by Stephen King

Go to review page

dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I did not expect to finish this book considering OnlyFans as a legitimate business idea but here we are.

Margo's Got Money Troubles tells the story of 19 year old Margo Millet who falls unexpectedly pregnant by her college English professor and decides to keep the baby. When little Bodhi comes along, Margo's life explodes. She loses her waitressing job, is forced to quit uni thanks to her baby daddy's threatening mother, and she loses two of her three flatmates all in one week. With her father barely on the scene and her mother fairly useless, she realises she needs to find a way to make money that provides flexible working conditions to be available to her baby - and FAST.

Enter: OnlyFans.

Margo's Got Money Troubles is a whole lot of important cultural discourse, piled into one super fun and easy-to-consume package. You'd hardly realise the book is talking about misogyny, sexism and the hypocrisy surrounding a woman's right to choose what she wants for her body.

I loved the confronting plotlines surrounding the reality of engaging in sex work as a mother, even when it's OnlyFans which doesn't involve any actual face-to-face interaction. The blistering reality of the ways in which society looks down its nose at mothers young and old no matter what she does, under the guise of "caring about what's right for the baby".

The characters were complex and nuanced and utterly believable. I rooted for Margo and Jinx and loved the way Margo viewed those she loved and their flaws.

What I reaaaalllyyy didn't like was the switch between Narrative Points of View. I hated it.

I know it was meant to be a literary device, but there were so many little passages that seemed to foreshadow some huge revelation in this way that just never came. It made me wonder if the author used it just to sound/come off super smart?? Idk. Maybe I'm too dumb to get it but I did not feel like it added a single thing to the story. In fact, every time it switched between first and third person it yanked me out of it.

For that reason I give it four stars. The POV thing truly detracted from the story and if not for that it may have been a five-starrer.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense fast-paced