Canned Bread
I don't know where to start.
My words will never be enough to tell you how good this book is. Whether you go in for the prose, food, Bourdain himself, for being only a third book, this is near perfection as storytelling goes, and it's not even fiction. You can tell he was tired, but he enjoyed life to the fullest he could get and he was a kind human being with a big heart that's not easily understood. You can cancel him for not knowing right terminology of the time, but he really tried his best to be respectful as much as he could. No human is perfect and he wasn't trying to paint himself as an idol or anything. Just a dude trying to understand his place in life and make damn good food.
I always get asked why I curse so much. Because of him. It's not to get back at life or because I was raised in a kitchen, it's like he said in his book, he didn't know how to act in normal society, yes he can talk and eat like a person, but mannerisms and the unsaid body language is super hard to define. And you don't feel like you belong anywhere else but where you were honed your skills in.
I only know how to write and he let me know years ago, that it was OK to just be.
His love for the Southeast and East Asia is more understood in this book and I always wish... If someone just told him to run away there and never look back, we might have had an, albeit confused, but happier ending to his story.
I forever will miss you and my thoughts will be with your family (not Argento, you didn't deserve the heart break) for the rest of my life. I miss you more than you realize. I'm just a stranger, but I have no regrets that you're my idol.
5/5 and beyond
Put Monty Python, Pratchett, and American memes and you get this series
Comedy is hard to nail. If you didn't enjoy Pratchett for his dry humor, try this. Even if you did enjoy him, there's a sense of humor that I busted laughing on a few occasions and reflection and twists I didn't see coming.
Not a full review as this is a series
Pace is slow, sure, and it's more of a book to chew, not gorge at a buffet. But it's been a welcome break over the dark books I've read last year.
Get this book to the 50ish page mark to see if this series is for you.
Ignore the 2 star ratings, people rave fairy smut books are the greatest things of all time on this hell site. I don't trust these hos
(they better not have dropped this series, I'm too invested in Gustave)
4/5
Das I feel was a little caged with this novella, though his style is still seen through out this work. It still has its dreamlike charm, magical realism in India vibes, and still keeps you pleading for more.
It's not his best work, though I only read his one book, several short stories, and this novella. I still think his debut is by far his best work, but Dragoners is by far a strong entry for the novella genre and shouldn't be ignored. It's already getting a spot in the Golden Sticks (TM) and it's not even Februrary
Prose: Downgrades a little compared to “The Devourers”, though still his style is still here.
Plot: Not really much of one. It's more of a documentary of a person's life and their memories. Go in for the vibes and WB, not the plot.
Pace: Neither fast nor slow, brrs to the end
Characters: Not the deepest but hey, they're LGBT so makes them more interesting and their culture is relaxed on sex so a plus there
Vibe: India with a vibe of urban fantasy dragons, all while feeling we're drinking some dank ass tea
Worldbuilding: Part of what makes Das' works shine is his worldbuilding mixing into his prose. If we make a comparison to 20th century authors, he's similar to Jorge Luis Borges, intertwining the magical realism into the words itself. The only difference is he gives us a fresh way to drink magical realism in and every century we need more magical realism as our world becomes more unbearble and confusing by the day that we need more ways to realize how to fight back.
Anyway, the worldbuilding comprises of understanding Ruel's origins, where they came from, why they're here now, the dragon's origins, and what their world was like and how they live in it today.
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We're seeing impressive magical realism works rise from the east, not just Das, ALMOST every country has magical realism author in Asia and it shows. Fantasy is not only beginning to gather steam, but we're finally seeing the west take notice of the east that we're more than just anime, k-pop, and bollywood.
We can write. And it shows.
4.5/5
Since “Crown Shy” is a sequel, this is not a full review.
It's a notch down from the first one where the magic of the book was fresh, and I feel like Becky just started beating a dead fish on what made this book special. She inserted plenty of platitudes far more than the first one. This book became stifling.
It's a cathartic book, though, and not bad, but it did feel like it was self-help sometimes
4.5/5
I am...very, VERY surprised this was a debut.
I'm like, half convinced this was a draft for a third book, and she already secretly published 3 books already, but this story got shelved for like 10 years, and Belknap dusted it off, changed her name slapped it on Tiktok, and here we are. stops making tinfoil hats
This is the first time where I have an indie book from Booktok that's genuinely good!
It's not perfect, of course, but damn, this is what I was hoping “Dreadful” would be and then some!
It's spoopy, cozy, makes you think a little too much about your failures in life like a true “horror” (hey existentialism is a type of a horror, man), and the setting is....well,
Compared to “Dreadful” where it was nondescript European country side with a dark wizard....OK, maybe Belknap didn't pick the best setting but hey, at least it's London with some snippets of worldbuilding and depressing realism. We didn't get much of anything in “Dreadful” in comparison. Fluff with little to no obstacles.
At least here there were obstacles and the found family that I fucking wish I had.
Go in for the cover, come out of it realizing how lonely you are! :D
Prose: The shining star in this book. If you love really diving into one POV only, this is it. We dive into it so smoothly that I forget I'm reading and not question my life choices of why I bothered with college. There are so many relatable lines that I wish I could have had this book physical so I can tab this shit. Excellent work! +3
Plot: We're trying to find out if someone is human or not and we're taken them in as our ward. Only problem is, the magical organization that put us in charge, doesn't want this person to find out about magic.
The OTHER problem is, where she's staying has a demon, a necromancer (and a Skeleton named Luke), a harpy, a faerie, a muse, a soul guide, two werewolves, one vampire, a demon, a mysterious shadow manipulator, and a potential poltergeist named Spoopy(?)
It was such a fun plot, to the point some scenes are burned in my head now, that it's way more involved than most cozy books. Loved it! +2
Pace: It's a medium pace, not too slow, not too fast, but the first few percentage is a bit of a slodge because we're understanding this author's style. But once you get used to it, it's well worth the money, trust me. Just because it's not on KU, doesn't mean you bypass this book. +1
Characters: Sadly, while we do get a bit deep dive on the MC and his life, and we do get a diverse character skeleton of the tenants, we only touched very little on the other tenants of the book. I wanted more ethnic diversity since London is a melting pot of SO MANY immigrants.
We only got two diverse characters and the rest are implied to be white so it didn't feel that realistic. It would have been nice to make a few of the girls be from other ethnicities. We touched basis that there are magical creatures in other countries but we primarily only focused on EU which was a bit sad and I wanted there to be a more diverse mix. -2.0
Vibe: Spoop London but make it LGBT friendly which was welcoming in a world full of darkness +1
Worldbuilding: The other reason why this is not a perfect 5 stars. The worldbuilding, while it was there, wasn't all that much and discussed only the MC's life and backstory. We do get some snippets of other places and their worldbuilding, but no explanation of the magic system and discussion of the other magical tenants and their creatures... it's just not a lot for me to merit this book as 5/5.
I loved this book, don't get me wrong, but it was more of a character/found family drama than an actual worldbuilding fantasy type of book. Think of it as an urban cozy fantasy and you'll get a better picture of what to expect. -.75
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The saving merit of this book is the prose itself and the worst part of it is the lack of diversity and lack of increased worldbuilding that it just feels like London with a touch of Spoop. But the prose is so good that at the very least, if you have a few bucks and looking for a cozy time, it's still ridiculously good for a debut.
Hopefully after a few books she'll get the hang of inserting more diversity but by no means should she be written off. I look forward to reading more books by her in the future.
4.25/5
Super dry.
First time being aware that I don't have to like every person's perspective I read about, including this guy, and that's ok!
But this book...was really dry, even for a diary confessions. Not much about his thoughts or even thoughts about other people. It's cut and dry.
Maybe it's hard for him to put thoughts about things, idk. Either way, can't say I'll get the rest. The novelty was fun for the first 1/3 of the book until you realize, yeah this dude's only likable quality is he hates Amazon. That's it.
I'm sure he's nice OUTSIDE the book though. Sorry, gotta be honest dude, didn't enjoy it.
1/5
Please brace yourself, this book review is a hard to swallow pill.
Spoiler Free: Tldr at the end
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...OK, I'm gonna be real. Short, once again, knows how to write. His prose is very good! He knows how to construct sentences, knows what a good sentence structure looks like. Some of his word choices make me question but for the most part, it plays into a good British dry humor style (I know he's American, bitch, lay off...Oh wait, Trump's doing that).However, the pacing on this was absolutely atrocious.The pacing, not only in terms of story, but the flow of the story and the paragraphs themselves.The first book we went from trying to thwart and an evil moustache twirling dude. The pace, while a little slow and brrs to the end, is bad in this book. Here, we're planning a heist which doesn't make sense how it works until the last 20% of the book. And then it crumbles with every party not being involved except Page herself. Most of the book, for the Page + Izola chapters were: "meet up at place, bicker with each other about your dead dad that was TOTALLY A GROOMER BUT PAGE AND IZOLA BOTH IGNORE THAT , Fritz being a comic relief, do a minor thing for plot" ...or other characters doing their thing, which had more interesting chapters which is a shame, Page and Izola are both good characters in their own rights. One becomes the villain the other is a MILF trying to balance love life and kid. A tad too realistic lolDon't get me wrong, I like a good coffee, pub scene etc, but when you do it for nearly all the female chapters it's a bit monotone and redundant what is trying to be accomplished here.Which is a shame, you have a good premise here but poor execution. It could have done with a big bubble chart, an OCD alpha reader (hi), and HELLA more diversity. It's fantasy, we can make a world where POCs aren't discriminated for getting on a airplane and being detained for once! (based on a true story) It doesn't have to be based on world logic, we have magic libraries and a dragon society. It's not a stretch to add diversity. There are minor grammar mistakes but most KU books do so that's fine, I'm not deducting my points on that. It was just the flow of the 80% of the book was not that great. The transitory scenes of getting to A to B are missing from this book which can be a good or bad thing depending on preference. I prefer having them since it expands our world a bit but that's just me. There are some weird logic jumps like, why is Izola going to another city assuming Viktor knows about it? Off screen talk? Can we see that off screen talk? It felt like a weird deus ex machinaSo, how did I finish and rating this still 3 stars? I'll tell where each star goes in 3 points.(Comparing this with my last 2.5 star read which had good worldbuilding but atrocious prose. We have the opposite here. It gets Short some points, but not by much sadly.)1. Look, he has good writing, that's a skill that can't be beat but Short doesn't have the resources of trad published authors so a lot of things got greenlighted that shouldn't be and we can't judge a trad published author to an indie. For instance. The books use the term Afrans as basically Africa anagram but removing a few letters, i can't be convinced otherwise. The name Yesputin. Well. It could have been tongue in cheek for the last one but the first one just felt a little lazy. Editors who are sensitive to culture wording can pick up on this in a heart beat and tell an author about it.2. I still LOVE the worldbuilding of it. Yes it's not the deepest but when he does give it to us, it smashes.and 3. I think the characters outside of Page/Izola bickering are very good. Granted, I feel the character drama overshadows the worldbuilding a bit, but for a character drama on KU, it's still executed decently.So all in all, minus stars for pacing as described above and diversity issues frankly.I'm still reading his next book though, I want to see where he goes with this.3/5
TLDR: Compared to the first book we get a lot of character drama between Page and Izola. Go in for the sparse transition scenes of walking around and description and more drama and you'll love this book.
This guy has every potential to becoming a good VERY indie writer!
...just he needs to address a few things.
1. We have a character drama focused book, but the villain is a little stereotypical which is a whoopsie poopsie. He's more stereotypical bad guy that has a morally gray reason but...he's still kinda twirling moustache kinda dude
2. Lack of diversity in main characters and that one incident he called a main side character “caramel” skin colored which was a little yikes (I've addressed this with the author via DM and he seems to understand to not do this in the future)
3. The worldbuilding, though good, is slightly lack luster because we only get mention of the magic systems which seem to be “an equivalent exchange” magic, but I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to saying it's “first novel in the series” things.
4. A minority dies first which is also yikes. (Also a whole topic on this online, my hands hurt too much to delve into that)
So, why is this still 3 stars?
Three things.
First, I still found myself having fun, I follow this guy on Tiktok and Insta and he's not a bad moustache twirling demon like the main villain, so a lot of things I stated I want to say that he just wasn't aware of said problems. If I see it in future books (outside of Page's Pyre since I literally talked to him about this a few days after that release, then it's a different story.) I still docked a star for the whole diversity issue because it does need to be addressed and I can't turn a blind eye because I follow him.
Second, I found myself ugly snorting in laughter at this book far too much than a Pratchett book. Short has a way of sneaking humor at odd times where you don't expect it and that makes it better. Pratchett sneaks humor nearly everywhere and the climax is huge and emotional. It's not like that with Short, hell, there was even good comedy scene near the climax. So if you're trying to find joy over this holiday season that is filled with passive aggression around the table, read this book while being told by your aunt “Writing is a shit career”
Third, Short has a rare gift of having a GOOD prose style that doesn't suck. There are so many traditional PUBLISHED author prose style that don't have any merit of substance unlike Short. And he's indie. He has some hiccups where the action scenes can get a little confusing but for the most part, it has a very strong potential to being honed into something truly great.
All in all, with all things I mentioned, it's still a decent KU read. It is still worth your time since the guy just published a sequel and he's a genuine treat on social media.
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Prose: Good and be sharpened to something even better. Work on action scenes and what to fix in your prose and it'll be killer.
Pace: A bit slow in the beginning until you get around 10% in and that's when the hook comes around then
Plot: Wasn't really impressed by the plot but because this is a quasi dark comedy fantasy mashup, I can't say the plot would be the biggest draw to this book. You're here for the mashup, not for screaming “WHY DOES HE HAVE WINGS”
Character: This is a character drama and though we see what pitfalls they have, we don't see a huge amount of 3 dimensions to them. I think it's because it's first novel stuff so we won't see too much of it yet, but for a starter, it's not bad.
Vibe: Germany with a side of “IT'S NOT A TUMOR”
Worldbuilding: As said above, it's not the best worldbuilding I've seen, but it has potential of being good. It got me interested, I want to see if these Wells would be literal “wells” and seeing more how this magic system gets set up.
This is a high 3 star book, if I had it in my shelf, I wouldn't resell it
3/5
I legit forgot this was a “cozy book”.
It felt “cozy” but not really? It had the right amount of existential dread, depression, and thought provoking shit, all the while, not going into cliches.
Perfection. One of the perfect novellas I read this year.
Prose: Beginning clogs the magic of this book, get to the end of Ch 2 to understand if this book is right for you
Pace: Slow until Ch 3
Plot: You dont go into these books for the plot, its all about the journey, not the goal
Characters: Oddly, both are really deep. I wasn't expecting Mosscap, the robot, to be so deep as “it” was (the robot prefers the pronouns as it and they discuss the philosophy behind it, it makes sense). The MC is nonbinary and you understand that they're not a “John Doe” nor “Mary Sue” (idfk what the nonbinary equivalent of those are). They get frustrated, silly, weird, and angry and they become more human than we realize. Fuck, they even cry, ffs. Really loved the 3 dimensions to the characters
Vibe: Solarpunk bitches. I was one of those people who first discovered solar punk as “an art medium”, not necessarily in books. But here it is in book form and I'm happy to discover it!
Worldbuilding: Oh my. The worldbuilding is surprisingly well thought out that I forgot this was a novella. A lot of novellas skirt over description and exposition to an alarming degree but Chambers strikes a good balance somehow. We talk of the gods, the past of this world, and what we might see in the future. It's so good, dude
I have a hard time putting into words that this book is literally a breath of fresh air and reminded me that books aren't rigid
They're fluid AF
5/5
On average, a lot of POC female author books I'm interested in have romance and thus I don't read them. Which is a shame cause a lot of my books I read look like I'm a white trash when it's not like that. It's just, when I do seek out POC authors and the plot looks interesting, I see what it is...Either it turns out to be:
1. Romance
2. Smut
or
3. Romantasy
Now let me be clear, I do not care if you like these topics and I have nothing against anyone who does like them.
It's just when it's said and done, all romance is “Do they get together or not or partners with benefits” summed in a nutshell, with smut or fantasy shit.
That's it.
So as such, I veer away from these categories as much as I can because I'm actually interested in the PLOT, not just “plot” (which is fine). Now here's finally a POC book that the main topic of is NOT romance but hones in on being a sci fi/fantasy by being creative.
We're seeing a rise of environmental fantasy and Okorafor is heading that way (at least with this novella, didnt read her other works yet).
The fantasy here is a dead salt lake and the way she weaves around it is interesting AF. The scifi aspect is a post apocalyptic world on Africa where the environment changed drastically and a primary source of water became a salt lake that is now the main source of the mineral of it for surrounding villages and markets.
Top that off, there's a magic system that I won't spoil that was interesting when we encountered it and I'm curious to see how she works this in the next novella.
Still, READ this book, don't just listen to it. Let your brain have enough time to soak in what was said cause if you need a sci fi but don't like sci fi and are a fantasy nerd.
HERE, TAKE THIS NOW
CW: A cat is hit by a stone, but it doesn't die. There is brutality against women as well and the unfair justice of politics. That's all I can really think of here. Nothing is really graphic either way.
Edit: Spoiler here about a deathThe father dies at the end
Prose: It isn't clunky, it does the job and for the most part, doesn't bog you down with so much tech you're lost trying to figure out wtf is happening. It's neither flowery or functional but a good medium of both. Props, Okorafor
Plot: Don't read this for the plot necessarily. If I summed up the plot, it will just spoil the whole book. The plot is slowly unraveled in this book and you're here for the journey. Salt lake and there's a girl. There's feminine rage but it's a lot more (sadly) realistic. That's all you need to know.
Pace: It kinda just buzzes along. Like any good book, if the book didn't seal you within the first chapter or so, the pace will slog or run depending how much you like it. Either way, it's steady.
Characters: Our MC, Najeeba, is a 13 year old girl but this is not a YA book. I maintain this is still adult. I want to say she has a few facets but everyone else around her kinda is 2D. I would dock some points but I feel like this book is not really about the side characters but a mark in a memoir of Najeeba's life that you're only scratching the surface of it. Do not go in for the characters, go for the NaCl
Vibe: Salt bae, but post apocalyptic Africa
Worldbuilding: Very interesting environment and magic system we're presented. I'm not going to spoil much else by describing it, you'll have to find out yourself
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I also need to note that this novella might make more sense if you read “Who Fears Death” as this novella is a prequel, however, you can still enjoy it as a standalone (as I did, didn't read the other book yet).
Still, I don't know how I slept on Okorafor, but no longer.
I'm awake, bitch
5/5
TW: Suicide, Depression, and A LOT OF SHIT.
Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
The last book this guy wrote was a foreshadowing of his own death. My god.
I don't care if this guy seemed overrated or the equivalent of hating a classic, but this book...If you have autism, depression, anxiety, social anxiety, fucking hate capitalism, this is...
...a truly mind fuck of a book. It needs to be read.
I can't begin to describe what this book means to me.
To feel seen of how much I dislike humanity, where I don't understand humanity and feeling like the world is just truly caving in on me.
Oh, but to even understand what Dazai went through you have to understand that back then, mental health wasn't even a fucking concept. You were seen as being dramatic, written off as a lunatic when all you want is a drop of solace. Of relief. To be understood.
Yet, he couldn't get any of that and ended up taking his and his lover's life. Leaving behind a widow and several children.
It took me so long after I read this book to come out of a suicidal spiral as I too have everything that Dazai probably had.
Because this is a classic, you might be tempted to not read this book because the prose might be clunky AF like a lot of writers of this time. For some reason, Dazai has an approachable and conversational prose that it's easy to digest.
...A little too easy to digest depression but hey-
The best thing about this book is the prose and dialogue.
This isn't a worldbuilding, plot, type of book. It's a deep dive into Dazai's semi-autobiographical book. His last spilling of his soul, through the ugliness of himself and the people around him.
To appreciate this book, you have to understand that Dazai, with his undiagnosed autism(?), did not understand people much and thus, he did not treat them properly at times because he did not understand how to treat himself correctly at all. This is not to excuse him of his shit, but this is one of the few people that actually spills his sins against himself and others, beautiful and ugly. He didn't discriminate what went into this work, he just told you what it was. You're not supposed to sympathize with everything he did but you get to understand the simple truth:
We are human.
Dazai couldn't understand people so he felt he was no longer human.
But in fact....he was one of the most human of us all.
5/5
Morgenstern made something to near perfection. I want to rate this 5 stars, however, the prose and some minor plot nuances dropped this down to a low 4. It's a good 4, just not 4.5 territory.
The problem with this book is more of that the magic of the book got lost because the dreamlike writing she was achieving bogged down a little with prose that wasn't relavent to said dream. Though this book, regardless, is apart of Honorguard Shelf for creating something that did manage to cast the spell it wanted.
Prose: Prose is either a hit or miss. If you read at least 30 pages for it and aren't liking it, just drop it, it doesn't get better. However, if it doesn't irk you, keep going.
She has a problem of not pacing her prose correctly where it starts to just blend in your brain a little TOO much. -.5
Plot: Solid
Pace: It maintains it's pace, it never increases or decreases all that much.
Characters: Not the most in depth, we got a cookie cutter DILF that was about as deep as ankle depth water. The MC is a self insert to be with said cookie cutter. The other characters are interesting, not deep, but do merit interest at least. -.2
Vibe: OH BOY. If you ever needed a vibe book, here. This book is mostly vibe. Keys, darkness, balls, book, coziness sometimes, a touch of darkness. I can see why Booktok ate this up. Appropriately so. +2
Worldbuilding: It's hard to seperate the vibe with the WB, the WB, while not too deep is VERY chaotic but as an art piece of a book, it was well executed. Did a lot of weaving and red herring scenarios that paid off. Some may not pay off but that's sorta the point with this book. 2+
Still, if you need a book to read while drinking whiskey, here ya go. You're not here for characters or any plot or “plot”, just vibin' like a saxaphone seal
4.3/5
