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The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy
“I think a lot of people would elect to be dead if they didnt have to die.” By turns, blunt and meandering The Passenger presents its readers with an unsparing tale permeated by existential angst. Cormac McCarthy’s prose is uncompromising: much of the narrative consists of dialogues: rambling conversations, mystifying backwards and forwards, sharp repartees,…
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 3rd pov, 4 STARS, addiction, ageing, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, ambivalent mood, America, atmospheric, bad love, bars & restaurants, Cormac McCarthy, dead girls, DEATH, desire, dialogue heavy, endless monologues, existentialism, experimental, feverish, FLORIDA, GRIEF, grit lit, GUILT, hallucinations, hauntings, history, i don’t think happiness is for me, Ibiza, Idaho, incest, introspective, ISLAND, Kafkaesque, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, literary references, Longing, Louisiana, madness, MEMORY, mental health, Mississippi, morality, MYSTERY, nature, New Orleans, no plot just vibes, no quotations marks, obsession, paranoia, philosophical, PSYCHIATRISTS & THERAPISTS, psychological, psychology, published in 2022, read in 2022, road trip, schizophrenia, science, scientists & co, sea, siblings, Southern America, spain, suicide, survival, terrific prose, The Passenger, tragedy, trans side characters, war, western -
The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri
well, my expectations were destroyed so i guess i got what i wanted 🤡 The second book syndrome was strong in this one. If you’ve read my review for The Jasmine Throne you know how much I loved that book (i think i described it as one of the best fantasy novels out there)…sadly I…
2 STARS, 3rd pov, Adult, ANGST, battles, british indian author, court intrigue, DEATH, f/f, FANTASY, female authors, high fantasy, indian inspired setting, LESBIAN, lgbtq+, myths, political intrigue, published in 2022, queer, read in 2022, revenge, ROMANCE, royals, sapphic, siblings, TASHA SURI, temples, The Oleander Sword, war -
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang
“Languages aren’t just made of words. They’re modes of looking at the world. They’re the keys to civilization. And that’s knowledge worth killing for.” Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution is an fierce indictment against colonialism. Within this superbly written slow-burner of a bildungsroman, R.F. Kuang presents her…
1820s, 1830s, 19TH CENTURY, 3 STARS, 3rd pov, 4 STARS, abuse, academia, Adult, ALIENATION, alternate history, anxiety-inducing reads, atmospheric, babel, Babel or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution, belonging, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, brothers, child abuse, CHILDHOOD, China, chinese american author, class, cliques, colonialism, coming of age, cultural dissonance, dark academia, DEATH, england, FANTASY, fathers & sons, female authors, friendships, great storytelling, growing up, GUILT, HISTORICAL FICTION, history, identity, India, language, lgbtq+, LONDON, loneliness, Longing, MAGIC, morality, MURDER, muslim side characters, My reviews, MYSTERY, orphans, oxford, philosophical, politics, PRIVILEGE, psychological, published in 2022, queer undercurrents, R.F. Kuang, RACE, read in 2022, reading, revenge, secret societies, secretiveness, ship, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, social issues, strong sense of place, SUSPENSE, teachers, terrific prose, tragedy, travel, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE, URBAN FANTASY, war -
Ru by Kim Thúy
I was born in the shadow of skies adorned with fireworks, decorated with garlands of light, shot through with rockets and missiles. The purpose of my birth was to replace lives that had been lost. My life’s duty was to prolong that of my mother. Ru is a short read that blurs the line between…
1970s, 1980s, 1st pov, 2000s, 20th century, 3 STARS, Adult, autofiction, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, canada, CHILDHOOD, cold tone, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, DEATH, female authors, HISTORICAL FICTION, introspective, Kim Thúy, language, LITERARY FICTION, lyrical prose, Malaysia, MEMORY, migration/immigration, motherhood, mothers & daughters, My reviews, neurodivergent side characters, Poverty, published in 2009, Quebec, read in 2022, reading, restrained prose, Ru, style over character, TRANSLATED FICTION, trauma, unnamed characters, unnamed narrator, Vietnam, vietnam war, vietnamese canadian author, vignettes, war -
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
“Desire is the cause of all suffering. All Zhu had ever desired was to live. Now she felt the pure strength of that desire inside her, as inseparable as her breath or qi, and knew she would suffer from it. She couldn’t even begin to imagine the awful magnitude of the suffering that would be…
14th century, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, Adult, ALIENATION, anti-hero, Asian Australian author, battles, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, China, court intrigue, f/f, FANTASY, friendships, gender identity, ghosts/spirits, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, loneliness, MAGIC, monasteries, mongolia, myths, netgalley, political intrigue, published in 2021, queer, read in 2021, RETELLINGS, revenge, sapphic, She Who Became the Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan, terrific prose, war -
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
“Trust is not an endlessly renewable resource. Loyalty might be. For longer.” With A Desolation Called Peace Arkady has achieved something quite rare in a sequel. In fact, I liked A Desolation Called Peace so much so that, when I looked back to my review for A Memory Called Empire, I found much of…
3rd pov, 4 STARS, A Desolation Called Peace, Adult, ALIENS, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Arkady Martine, court intrigue, cultural dissonance, f/f, female authors, language, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, morality, netgalley, philosophical, political intrigue, politics, published in 2021, queer, read in 2021, sapphic, SCI-FI, SPACE, space battles, SPACE OPERA, spaceships, SPECULATIVE FICTION, Teixcalaan, terrific prose, war -
The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
For a book published in the 90s The Kitchen God’s Wife comes across as strangely outdated. And I guess in spite of Tan’s writing—which is far from mediocre or incompetent—I could not look past the fact that her story was the antithesis of female solidarity. At first I was taken by Tan’s storytelling. The first…
1930S, 1940s, 1990s, 1st pov, 2 STARS, 20th century, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS, Adult, America, Amy Tan, China, chinese american author, class, drama, HISTORICAL FICTION, horrible friends, MARRIAGE, MELODRAMA, MEMORY, mothers & daughters, published in 1991, read in 2020, sexual assault/abuse/rape, Sino-Japanese War, story within a story, The Kitchen God's Wife, war -
A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
“That was the thing about people on the outside. They thought it cheered him up to see their faces, but it just reminded him too much of freedom when everybody knew it was better to adjust to the kind of freedom available on the inside.” Heartbreaking yet luminous A Kind of Freedom is a truly…
1940s, 1980s, 2010s, 20th century, 4 STARS, A Kind of Freedom, addiction, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Black & Black heritage authors, cheating, Contemporary, family, FAMILY SAGA, fatherhood, female authors, HISTORICAL FICTION, LITERARY FICTION, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, MARRIAGE, motherhood, New Orleans, prison, PUBLISHED IN 2017, RACE, read in 2020, SISTERS, social issues, war, WWII -
The Travelers by Regina Porter
The cast of characters and locations at the start of Regina Porter’s The Travelers is a tiny bit daunting as they promise to cover a far wider scope than your usual family saga. The Travelers explores the lives of characters who are either related, sometimes distantly, or connected in less obvious ways. Porter’s switches between…
1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 20th century, 4 STARS, abuse, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Berlin, Brittany, CHILDHOOD, class, Contemporary, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), f/f side, family, FAMILY SAGA, female authors, FRANCE, friendships, georgia, Germany, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, interconnected stories, intergenerational, lesbian side characters, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, MARRIAGE, MEMORY, new hampshire, NEW YORK, published in 2019, queer, RACE, rape, read in 2020, Regina Porter, sexual assault/abuse/rape, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, social issues, tennessee, terrific prose, The Travelers, travel, unrequited love, Vietnam, vietnam war, violence against women, war, war related ptsd, WWII -
At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop
At Night All Blood is Black is a short yet certainly not breezy read. David Diop’s novel reads very much like the increasingly feverish confession of a man whose every-day reality is permeated by violence. He is both victim and perpetrator, cognisant of the violence that dominates his life yet somehow unwilling to truly consider…
1910s, 1st pov, 20th century, Adult, At Night All Blood is Black, Black & Black heritage authors, David Diop, DEATH, feverish, FRANCE, FRENCH, HISTORICAL FICTION, lyrical prose, male authors, morality, published in 2018, RACE, read in 2020, revenge, Senegal, Senegalese French author, stylised prose, TRANSLATED FICTION, violence, war, war related ptsd, wwi
luce [is reading] 