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Are You Happy Now by Hanna Jameson
“That this was the trade-off. The price of happiness. In order to feel happy he had to feel everything.” A quietly crushing yet devastatingly tender work scintillating with insight and emotional intelligence. With acuity and empathy Hanna Jameson presents her readers with a captivating narrative chronicling four people’s attempts at happiness despite a looming health…
3rd pov, 4.5 STARS, Adult, adulthood, age gap, ALIENATION, ambivalent mood, America, anxiety, Are You Happy Now, atmospheric, bad love, beautiful prose, belonging, BISEXUAL/PANSEXUAL, British author, contemporary malaise, dancers, DEATH, DEPRESSION, desire, divorce/separations, ennui, female authors, first love, gay, Hanna Jameson, heartbreak/breakups, i don’t think happiness is for me, identity, illness, introspective, it’s about the *yearning*, jealousy, journalism, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Longing, m/m, male friendships, melancholy, mental health, musicians, near future/alternate reality, NEW YORK, pandemic, psychological, published in 2023, queer, read in 2022, restrained prose, right person wrong time, ROMANCE, self-destructive, SEXUALITY, SPECULATIVE FICTION, strong sense of place, suicide, trauma, unrequited love, wedding drama, work culture -
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
“It felt scary, as if she were stepping across some invisible boundary, as if she might not know herself afterward. As if she were becoming the self she’d always thought lurked just underneath her skin. Her coolest possible self.” The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is very much old-school Holly Black: edgy aesthetics, gritty/snarky dialogues, and…
3.25 stars, 3rd pov, Adult, adventure, age gap, America, AMERICAN AUTHOR, atmospheric, balls, bi side characters, DEATH, drama, dystopia, FANTASY, favourite authors, female authors, gritty aesthetics, HOLLY BLACK, HORROR, it’s about the *aesthetics*, lgbtq+ side, monsters, no plot just vibes, PARANORMAL, published in 2013, queer side characters, re-reads, read in 2013, read in 2022, revenge, road trip, ROMANCE, SPECULATIVE FICTION, survival, The Coldest Girl, trans side characters, URBAN FANTASY, VAMPIRES, violence, YOUNG ADULT -
The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
Sherlock Holmes with a space opera twist…it works! An entertaining novella! This is one of the most refreshing Sherlock Holmes-inspired tales. The space opera setting was such fun! The Watnsonesque character here is The Shadow’s Child, a transport ship that lost its crew in a traumatic experience and now earns a living by brewing drugs…
3.5 STARS, 3rd pov, Adult, adventure, Aliette de Bodard, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, DETECTIVE, female authors, French American Vietnamese author, futuristic, LGBTQ+ Author, light reads, MYSTERY, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, published in 2018, read in 2022, RETELLINGS, SCI-FI, sherlockiana, SPACE, SPACE OPERA, spaceships, SPECULATIVE FICTION, The Tea Master and the Detective, Vietnamese inspired setting -
Lakewood by Megan Giddings
“America is only routinely good to women, especially Black women, when it wants something from them.” Having recently read Megan Giddings’ intriguing sophomore novel, The Women Could Fly, I decided to revisit Lakewood, a book that I have picked up and put back down on and off since August 2020. Each reading attempt saw me…
3 STARS, 3rd pov, abuse, Adult, America, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, creepy setting, doctors, female authors, feverish, graphic content, HORROR, illness, Lakewood, Megan Giddings, Michigan, morality, MYSTERY, near future/alternate reality, Poverty, psychological, published in 2020, RACE, read in 2022, reading, social issues, SPECULATIVE FICTION, subject over characters/story, surreal, SUSPENSE, violence -
The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings
“This is the story of the witch who refused to burn. Some people said that there was power in her blood, a gift from her ancestors that she could endure.” Megan Giddings’s sophomore novel is highly evocative of those The Handmaid’s Tale inspired dystopias where readers are presented with a near-future where women—sometimes men—live in…
1st pov, 3.25 stars, Adult, America, AMERICAN AUTHOR, ART/CREATIVITY, atmospheric, beautiful prose, BISEXUAL/PANSEXUAL, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, dystopia, FANTASY, female authors, female friendships, feminism, forgiveness, GRIEF, HORROR, identity, ISLAND, lesbian side characters, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, MAGIC, Megan Giddings, Michigan, missing moms, missing persons, missing women, mothers & daughters, My reviews, MYSTERY, near future/alternate reality, PARANORMAL, published in 2022, queer, read in 2022, reading, social issues, SPECULATIVE FICTION, SUPERNATURAL, the female malaise, The Women Could Fly, trauma, witchcraft, WITCHES -
Happy for You by Claire Stanford
The premise for Happy for You made me think that this would be something in the realms of titles such as Temporary, The Factory, and Severance, which present their readers with wry commentaries on the gig economy and the modern workplace, or, satires about social media, the tech industry, and wellness culture, such Followers and…
1st pov, 3 STARS, Adult, America, AMERICAN AUTHOR, asian american, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Claire Stanford, Contemporary, fathers & daughters, female authors, Happy for You, identity, loneliness, MARRIAGE, My reviews, pregnancy, PSYCHIATRISTS & THERAPISTS, psychological, published in 2022, read in 2022, reading, satire, she is not feeling good at all, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, social issues, social media, SPECULATIVE FICTION, technology, the female malaise, work culture -
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Cloud-Atlas-esque novels seem to be all the rage in 2022… “This place is precarious, that’s the only word for it. It’s the lightest sketch of civilizations, caught between the forest and the sea. He doesn’t belong here” This is my third novel by Mandel and once again I have rather conflicting thoughts and feelings about…
1910s, 20th century, 3 STARS, Adult, America, ART/CREATIVITY, ARTISTS, beautiful prose, belonging, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, books about books, books about writers, canada, canadian author, Contemporary, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), dystopia, Emily St. John Mandel, f/f side, female authors, HISTORICAL FICTION, interconnected stories, interesting structure, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, moon, morality, musicians, My reviews, pandemic, philosophical, published in 2022, queer side characters, read in 2022, reading, restrained prose, SCI-FI, Sea Of Tranquility, siblings, SPECULATIVE FICTION, time travel -
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu
Like most other collections of short stories, Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century is a bit of a mixed bag. Out of the 12 stories, only 2 really stood out to me while the rest blended together somewhat. The author uses fantastical elements to explore familiar themes and dynamics. I liked her use of…
3 STARS, Adult, BOOK REVIEW, Booklr, canada, canadian author, collection of short stories, DEATH, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), female authors, girlhood, hauntings, Kim Fu, Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, MAGICAL REALISM, My reviews, published in 2022, read in 2022, reading, short stories, SPECULATIVE FICTION, surreal -
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Lacklustre and monotonous, not only did How High We Go in the Dark fail to grip my attention but it also failed to elicit an emotional response on my part. It was a bland and repetitive affair, which is a pity given the hype around it. It didn’t help that a few weeks ago I…
2 STARS, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, apocalyptic, asian american, DEATH, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), doctors, dystopia, environmental, existentialism, family, GRIEF, illness, interconnected stories, japan, male authors, pandemic, parenting, post-apocalyptic, published in 2022, read in 2022, SCI-FI, SPACE, spaceships, SPECULATIVE FICTION, weak prose, weak worldbuilding -
Life Ceremony: Stories by Sayaka Murata
This collection was both disappointing and unnecessarily disgusting. Not a great start to my reading year… “What could be more normal than making people into clothes or furniture after they die?” A lot of things… As Life Ceremony happened to be one of my most anticipated 2022 releases, I was very happy to learn that…
2 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, arc, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, cannibalism, Contemporary, DEATH, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), favourite authors, female authors, feverish, gay side characters, graphic content, grotesque, HORROR, illness, japan, lgbtq+ side, Life Ceremony, Life Ceremony: Stories, My reviews, netgalley, Neurodiversity, published in 2022, read in 2022, reading, Sayaka Murata, sex, SPECULATIVE FICTION, surreal, TRANSLATED FICTION, weird, what ifs
luce [is reading] 