Ava

I'm still processing Automatic Noodle, and I think I will be for a long time. When I started it, I did not expect to find something so profound. Automatic Noodle is a book set in the future that captures the feeling of living today as a queer person. The feeling of watching your rights being stripped away and listening to people debate your very personhood, and yet still needing to get up and go to work in the morning. The feeling of impending doom, and yet still having to live your life because there's nothing else you can do.

However, this book is about hope. Not just surviving but thriving despite shitty conditions and a hostile world. Fighting for yourself but not by yourself. Finding connection and community. Living, despite everything.

I needed this book, and I don't think I will ever forget it.

My thoughts on Scatter are complicated. On one hand, I thoroughly enjoyed it; on the other hand, the writing was not great.

Both Danny and Focus felt unique and fully fleshed out. The romance felt alive and at times had my toes curling. The premise was intriguing, and the world-building was well done.

However, a lot of the writing fell flat. The rest of the characters were extremely two-dimensional and felt like copy-and-pasted NPCs used for set dressing. There was an excessive amount of unnecessary exposition and a tendency to tell rather than show. The narrative would constantly undercut itself. Trying to build tension, then ruining it before the payoff by reminding the reader that everything was going to be okay and the stakes weren't actually real.

Scatter reads like a book that's scared of itself. Scared to actually be what's it's trying to be.

I don’t want to sound too harsh; when I say I thoroughly enjoyed it, I really do mean that. This book is not a masterpiece, but I'm very glad I read it. If you're looking for a sapphic superhero romance, this is worth the read, but don't expect too much.

How to Get a Girlfriend (When You're a Terrifying Monster) is everything I wanted. Eldritch horror, baby gay anxiety, and neurospicy undertones. It's a light, fun read. I think a longer word count could have given more room to flesh out the world and explore the romance a bit more, but it makes good use of its short length.

I highly recommend How to Get a Girlfriend to anyone looking for a short, fun, sapphic romance.

Confusing, gross, weird, and forgettable. This book felt like a nonsensical acid trip. The casual misogyny, two-dimensional characters, and the complete lack of anything resembling a plot made this book one of the worst reads I've had in a long time.

This book made me feel very seen. As an autistic individual I don't think I've ever related so much to a main character before. It encapsulated the feeling of knowing you're part of the human race but also feeling like you're something else entirely.