Earwen
This review is for the whole series
Very strong beginning, and it keeps it up for the first 3/4 of the manga. After that it becomes increasingly ridiculous. Also throws not 1 but 2 random rape scenes at you at the end. I don't feel like rating it any lower than 3 stars because I don't regret reading it and the majority of the manga was enjoyable, and the art is beautiful. I generally find manga hard to follow but the paneling in this flowed very well. I still wouldn't really recommend it to others.
4 is still my favorite by far but I enjoyed this one a lot. I like how Hazel and Daisy's relationship feels more stable, like they really learnt from the events of last book. The other side characters were fine, I still prefer the Deepdean girls as supporting cast. The mystery was alright. Nothing much to say, a solid entry in the series.
Tonally and structurally very similar to [b:The Twisted Ones 42527596 The Twisted Ones T. Kingfisher https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567950921l/42527596.SY75.jpg 58145790]. The main character voice is also almost identical. One difference is the main character here will not shut up about fanfiction. I think its a great hobby to give your main character honestly but anytime she mentioned it I felt more like the author was talking to me, especially when she goes on a half page tirade about people calling her out over “technically incest” (whatever that means) smut. I do not care but I'm not convinced anyone would think of this during a life or death situation. I'm sure whatever fanfic drama the author has or had was very annoying but please keep it away from me. (also a more minor annoyance but, how many times did the male lead mention he isn't into women out of nowhere, and how many times has the main character mentioned if he was straight they would totally have fucked in that scenario or whatever? too many.) Other than that well the best bits of the story were at the start I really enjoy the sort of “impossible space” stories. I didn't like where it went eventually, very similar to the Twisted Ones but that one saved the stuff I disliked more towards the end. It really felt like reading the lesser version of that book sadly.
(stand in for the whole series because I don't like adding multiple volumes of manga)
It's Madoka! I love madoka. Except Madoka is barely in it. I don't really love the characters this focuses on (Sayaka, Mami, Kyoko) though this made me appreciate Kyoko and Mami more. It's essential to understand them. But a lot of what makes madoka so great is in the aesthetics and sound. The manga is pretty but it's just not the same. I liked it well enough but if it got animated I probably would love it.
Fun thriller with an interesting young main character. Of little substance ultimately but what can I say I enjoy reading about unhinged girls. I think the point it ended at was a bit of a cop out. The whole book was building towards this moment indirectly and we didn't see it when it happens. Normally I'm pretty happy with open endings but In this case It didn't feel like an intentional decision as much as indecisiveness on how it would go to me - which contributes to why I think it's of little substance. I had the same problem with another book I read recently [b:Night Film 18770398 Night Film Marisha Pessl https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1397425352l/18770398.SY75.jpg 15182838]
I don't really like romance so I'm not sure why I keep picking these books up. I did enjoy the martial arts and competition aspects but I felt cheated out that the main conflict is a homophobic family instead of anything directly to do with that. It's probably my favorite lesbian romance I read which isn't saying much but it's something. Now I can say joe rogan is a character in my favorite romance book. Because he is.
I love the story and the mood of this but it could use to be 200 pages shorter and then 100 pages longer still to give it a proper ending.
First off - the story takes a lot of twists and turns and anytime they're in a new locatio ntalking to a new character there is a massive infodump that doesn't matter wahtsoever. I don't need pages on classical music and pianos just because a character happens to be into it. Ditto with black magic. Just give me what's important to the story!
As for the ending , if it ended a few pages before I'd be content. But the specific moment it cut off felt cheap. I like open endings but this is an ending where the character I've been following for 600+ pages will get resolution, it is only I that is left out. Feels very constructed to me. He should join me in my confusion.
Not sure how a complete layman would fare with this book but it does a valiant attempt at explaining everything as simple as possible and has a glossary at the end to boot. I was also unfamiliar with a lot of things touched there but I at least have degree in computer sciences, when I imagine a random family member reading it I think they'd be still a little lost.
Still, It is the best resource I've seen yet about this subject at least. Could it be simplified further? Probably, but I don't know how. Maybe cut out the history and just focus on the immediate stuff that impacts the end user..? That would be quite a different book however..
Parts of this book should be essential reading - the parts focusing on the actual titular frailty myth. The research and studies were interesting too and I wish there was a modern versio nof this book with updated research.
But other parts just didn't feel directly relevant. Like a whole section that lists case after case of violence against women. I get how and why it connects to the subject but not what I signed up for. I think because of the time the book was originally published it's more understandable as perhaps there weren't as many people speaking out about it. I ended up skimming that section as it was very upsetting and didn't really teach me anything I didn't know.
Also, I think any modern reader is going to wonder how and if it includes trans athletes. It...sort of does? It's not a focus but one case of a trans woman athlete in womens sports is mentioned - however it is only there to support that there is no inherent biological inferiority in the part of cis women. The argument of this book tends to veer toward that sports shouldn't be gender segregated at all.
Creepy dark stories as usual. Kiernan got me into short fiction in the first place, so of course I enjoyed them. Few true standouts for me probably because I'm not a fan of the fairy tale vibes, even if it's fucked up creepy fairy tales
Standouts:
For One Who has Lost Herself
The Ammonite Violin (Murder Ballad No. 4)
This is one longass book.... I don't even know where to start.
First of all , this is published online and fan translated. The writing (or translation) on a technical level, is not very good. It's extremely stilted a lot of phrasings are odd. And as someone not familiar with this genre a lot of terms were puzzling and remained unexplained within the story. Before starting the book you really should be awareof this, it didn't really impact my enjoyment and I got over it quickly.
The format also affects the pacing, it has short chapters and was published daily. On one hand I think this sort of platform and format offered the author the freedom to go where she wanted with the story. It's very slow paced and I think an editor would cut down a lot of it and it would lose a lot of it's charm (this could ultimately be for the better but I think letting the author have full control has it's own benefits) not to mention this sort of story isn't likely to be published in the first place. The short chapters make the long overall story easier to digest. It also has very short paragraphs, perhaps this is normal in chinese but it stood out to me as a bit odd. But again this just made the read feel quicker.
For the first half of the story I thought id be giving it 5 stars despite the technical issues which I was willing to look over because it's not traditionally published or translated and it didn't make me enjoy it any less. A bit after the halfway point when all the set up was supposed to start to pay off....it just didn't. Things were glossed over and resolved in ways in convenient ways. Ultimately I felt very unsatisfied with almost all conflicts resolution. For example my biggest problem was
Wanyue is mad at Li Xian for years for being a murderous manipulative weirdo but when they "talk it out" Li Xian just goes, well, i don't regret what I did, and I'd do it again, but also I am out of the situation that I need to do that sort of thing now. and Wanyue is satisfied with that..? Like I'm sorry this is the lamest resolution possible. Maybe something was lost in translation there but even so this conversation made no sense to me and was extremely unsatisfying
Some people think the ending was rushed, honestly by that point I had lost most of my investment, and didn't care because the stuff I did care about got resolved in such unsatisfying ways. I read most of the extras and I actually really enjoyed a side character who gets more development there, author explained why she put that in extras but I think that could have been fit into the main story and made it stronger for it. As is most side characters are extremely flat and you're only there for the main couple. Who I do like, a lot. I wouldn't have read this long a book if I didn't. But that's also why I was annoyed with the non-resolutions of their clashing world views.
I've been very negative but I did enjoy most of the book a lot, the ending did “ruin” it a bit but it's still the first novel of an indie author and I will definitely check out other things by her but this one I can't in good conscience give more than 3 stars, still would recommend it , just know what you're getting into.
My enjoyment of the previous book of the author [b:Confessions 19161835 Confessions Kanae Minato https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1401076501l/19161835.SX50.jpg 4371200] was curbed by it's misinformative fearmongering about HIV, although it was competently written and an engrossing thriller. Anytime I thought about it afterwards it left a bad feeling in my mouth so I was hesitant to try this, though I can safely say it's a much better experience. I really enjoyed the format and the way individual stories were connecting and with each story you'd get another piece of the picture. Unlike in her previous book I think all characters were handled with sympathy. It'd be easy for the characters to blend into each other but they each not only dealt with the trauma in a completely different way but also had different voices. The ending was also surprisingly satisfying. 3.5 rolled up cw: very mild spoilers as it happens early on csa among other things. Not as graphic as in [b:Earthlings 50269327 Earthlings Sayaka Murata https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1580144195l/50269327.SY75.jpg 64972303] but still something I wish I knew going into.
love the concept of metal + horror but “ooooh spooky sexy demon lady will fuck your friends and split your band” doesn't do anything for me. Also, at some point the spooky sexy demon lady accuses someone falsely of assaulting her. Better not think about all this too hard. Some nice imagery though.
e: after writing this review I decided to lower my rating to 1 star.
This has been a solid 3 stars series for me until this book, I think it fully realized its potential now. I like how it focused on Hazel and Daisy's relationship and aspects of it that bothered me often were acknowledged. The cast of supporting students that always felt weak to me get focused on too and I grew to really like them. The mystery was fun and the suspects characters were interesting, I hope some of them make a return in some capacity.
This is like a more shocking and less subtle version of [b:Convenience Store Woman 38357895 Convenience Store Woman Sayaka Murata https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1523623053l/38357895.SY75.jpg 51852264] . Same themes, I might have gotten more out of this if I hadn't read that one first. I think the latter is better in every way, much more subtle and thought provoking. Though I enjoyed the writing and main character in Earthlings also. Here is an example of what I mean by the lack of subtlety, thorough the book the main character believes herself to be a magical girl. This is an obvious coping mechanism against the abuse and neglect she faces. At some point in the book her internal monologue notes “sometimes I think this is something I just believe as a coping mechanism” (don't have the exact quote as I listened to it on audiobook). This isn't something that needed to be spelt out at all and felt out of nowhere as before and after the scene she never doubts it again. This is one of many instances I felt like the author had no trust in me to read between the lines. CW: there is a csa scene that made me almost drop the book, I skimmed over that. While I get why it was there I'm not sure it needed to be that graphic. cw for end of the book cannibalism
I think I really like novels where the setting is it's own character. Reminded me of [b:The Haunting of Hill House 89717 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327871336l/89717.SY75.jpg 3627] in that aspect, though otherwise they're nothing alike. I think it went on a bit too long after the apparent ending, somehow made things feel very mundane...I'd have been content filling up that space myself.
Better than the 2nd book! I appreciate that the book highlighted police violence against black and brown violence for such a cop-heavy book that always felt awkwardly ignored to me. However
Tom basically defends the guy who shot a brown boy for no reason , and Roxanne is pissed at the moment but by the end they still end up together? Huh?
Other than that I still love Roxanne, the mysteries are nice and all but she carries these books. I like that her sexuality (she is bisexual) matters beyond just her love interests (BOTH OF WHICH SUCK but never mind that), it is something that is part of her character regardless of her love life.
The bulk of the book was really good, the scares were fun and I liked the meta-horror discussions. However the the actual plot and the ending twist especially I didn't enjoy much. I'm not the kind of person who thinks a bad ending ruins a whole story and I don't think it here either exactly, but it does reframe the story in a way I wasn't a fan of. Still a fun enough read.
this is a fantasy version of the monday nights falls set in slightly more contemporary times and with fantasy versions of the wwf and wcw with a very smarky bent. If none of that made sense to you this book probably isnt for you. The book makes a decent effort to explain terms and concepts and I cant tell how much itd help a complete stranger to wrestling but even if - it is so stock full of allusions to real world wrestling stuff and things you just wont get if you werent at some point at least a little bit invested in the world of pro wrestling. If you are – read on
this was very readable and hard to put down. I constantly was wondering what happened next. I think this book captured what makes pro wrestling so exciting to follow both in kayfabe and out perfectly. The onstage performances to the backstage politics to the fans. Sadly it also captures the worst of wrestling and not in a good way. Yeah sure it portrays the shit female wrestlers had/have to face and I have no problems with it its accurate after all. However at times it seems the book falls into the same pitfalls.
There is a lengthy tirade near the end of a book about the omther of some minor character who is apparently an evil activist feminist who decides his son will grow up to be evil because he has a penis (not an exact quote but very close to it). This isnt relavant to anythign the character in question is very minor and the backstory doesnt come up again. It sticks out like a sore thumb and just made me weary of the book.
Another example is a minor character who is a writer and she is seemingly just be there to be humiliated about how bad her writing ideas are in her own pov scenes. In other scenes she barely shows up except at some point when the main character notes that she probably sucks at writing based on the fact that she has great legs. This felt so out of place considering he at that point is dating an internation sex symbol who he admits is also a great wrestler.
Those two are ultimately small examples in a big novel but the undercurrent of it is always there and leaves a bad taste in the mouth. It didn't keep me from my enjoyment overall. Funnily enough it reminded me of actually watching wrestling. Wrestling fans especially those of us that arent male or straight or whatever are experts at compertimentalizing shit after all. And this wasn't nearly as bad as the sort of stuff I generally have to put up with in wrestling.
My other big criticism is the amount of simply uneccessary scenes. One character, lucifer it seemed at first was being set up as important. We got his backstory (including his aforementioned mother) how he got into the business etc.... And then nothing until the very end. Did I miss a few scenes? If this was a series id understand maybe it's setting up for something in the next book but I dont get the impression this was ever meant to be one.
I focused more on the negative because as a wrestling fan thats what comes easier to me (just kidding..or am I). but this was extremely enjoyable despite anything else. I think wrestling in fiction has a lot of untapped potential and I hope I see more of it in the future.
The panacea society was a real religious group (a cult essentially, what's the technical difference here?) of mostly women. I had no idea of this groups/cults existence before opening this book but I strongly recommend looking into them a bit before or after reading this book (Depending on how much you mind “spoilers” you might want to leave it to the after). Most of the characters within are directly or indirectly based on real people and records left. Most noteably the main character Dilys and the prophetess octavia. Though the book takes many liberties with Dilys in particular. Like giving her a lesbian lover. Maybe lover. Hey, they're in a religious celibate cult. It's complicated. Also, extremely dramatic – in a good way. Dilys is an extremely confused character. She wants to believe as strongly as the others but struggles to do so or else to reject it entirely often expressing jealousy of her brother who left the faith behind while at the same time believing him to be damned. The same with her totally not girlfriend where they have to talk in so many riddles and half truth by the end of the book im still not sure whether the eating-pussy-through-sheets scene was real or not and neither is Dilys. In the background of Dilys struggle is also the whole society slowly imploding upon itself while people in the middle of it deny it's happening. I thought Octavia- the prophetess was also a fascinating character and would have loved a bit more on her. The politics of the group people trying to gain power and slowly realizing what's really going on with Octavia takes a backseat to Dilys' many issues for better or worse.
My only real gripe is at the very end and impossible to talk about without spoiling.
I do not care for the books I read to have happy endings necessarily. But this didn't feel right. Even the ending that happened to the real Dilys – eventually coming back to the society would have made a better ending. As it is – her brother saves her from the group with Grace's help, even gives her a message from Grace and seems to talk about her positively. And in the next scene he seems to imply he is trying to get Dilys away from Grace specifically and shipping her off to the madhouse for it. And if he wanted her away from Grace wouldn't taking her to india be just as good a solution? Even if I accept the disrepancy even then he doesn't seem to intend to keep her there for good so it doesn't feel like any sort of ending. On the other hand if the intent wasn't to keep her away from Grace why is she absent in the finale.
individual stories were all in the “okay” to “good” spectrum but the collection as whole lacked identity. There was no common theme or content I can see in this collection, the stories are not even the same types of horror. I think this did a disservice to all the individual stories. Particularly Urban Moon which is a story of a graphic and realistic sexual assault. There is nothing inherently wrong with it and certainly I can see why it'd be classified horror (personally I wouldn't read this story at all if I knew going into it but that's another matter) but it's particularly strange to see it sandwiched between stories of body horror or “Parent Trap but if the kids were, like, evil dude!”. It gives the impression the subject matter isn't taken seriously through no fault of the author herself.
My favorites were This is How it Goes by Gemma Files and Three Lanes Deep by Gemma Amor though there were no real duds (besides the story that I mentioned above which I don't think should be in this collection) but I also doub't even my favorites among them will stay in my memory for long.
A pretty good and well written horror short. The short chapters make you want to keep reading despite there being no real mystery. The story is very straight forward 3 chapters in you think “ah, this is what happened” and well, you're probably right about it. It's really creepy and manages to build up tension despite the long timeframe its set in and you knowing the ending. While it wasn't long enough for me to say it's a character study the main characters rationales for her decisions were the most interesting part for me.
there was a very short moment – the split second between when Laure finds bobbys skulls which has horns and realizing it's a deer skull after all – where I thought the book was going to go a whole different direction and I'm a bit disappointed it didn't. This isn't really the books fault I simply prefer supernatural horror to the mundane.