roisin
this could've been shorter and was kinda repetitive in places– i could tell leduc was out of her depth on the theory side of things especially with regard to mental health rather than physical (most of the analysis is drawn from her perspective as a woman with cerebral palsy and depression, so her commentary on things like schizoaffective disorders, personality disorders, etc was limited and lacked some nuance). in a lot of places this felt more like a memoir than an academic text or literary analysis which, to her credit, leduc does disclaim in her introduction. i still thought a lot of the connections drawn were interesting, and it made me think about storytelling in a different way, which i think was ultimately the point.
cool concept strong message and loveable characters, the pacing was a bit weird and dragged in certain places??? i feel like the fact that we alternated between faron and elara???s pov every single chapter slowed down the plot progression to where i felt like nothing was really happening in a few chapters, and it felt predictable in places. it???s a debut novel though, and i feel like most of my critiques just stem from that, so i???m planning on reading the sequel when it comes out!
this was just really hit-or-miss for me. there were some stories that felt pretty under-edited or like they could have used more refinement, and others that i absolutely adored. i feel like i read four versions of the “nonbinary teen lives in a culture with gender-segregated magic, has to learn their own unique kind of magic” story with just the set dressing changed, and it was a bit tiring to see even in all these magical universes people were still bound by the same old transphobia and gender roles. standouts for me were dragons name themselves by ar capetta and cory mccarthy, and espejismos by dove salvatierra.
very silly! i love the concept i loved ruthi and sol i was hooked right from the start and i love a good con written smartly??? you can tell fraimow was actually thinking through ruthi???s strategy. ngl the 20s slang in the narration did throw me some, and there were certain scenes that seemed a little under-edited, but overall a very fun read. :)
this gets a 3.25 because i loved rielle's half of the story and found eliana's sort of so-so. i love a good corruption arc/descent into madness, and the set up of the trials was engaging and kept things fast-paced. i was able to connect to rielle immediately, and found myself rooting for her even when she was clearly in the wrong. eliana on the other hand didn't do much for me in the way of character, and most of the appeal of her chapters was seeing how her story tied back to rielle's. simon felt like a cut-and-paste version of most other YA love interests i've seen, so i was most invested in eliana's friendship with navi and her relationship with remy. i'm excited to read the next book and see how rielle continues to deteriorate.
this was kind of just... solidly mediocre? i want to try something else of octavia butler's, but i found the back half of this kind of boring and confusing (i couldn't keep the names of all the council ina and symbionts straight), and the fact that shori looked like a child was really off-putting– which i suppose was the point, but it made it hard for me to focus on anything else in the book. i thought the take on vampires was interesting, but that couldn't make up for the fact that i found wright irritating and the plot dragged on.
i had a good time! i see why this is a classic, and as someone who casually watched the first couple episodes of the show, this was much more digestible and easy to understand for me. unfortunately, it was written by a white man in the 90s, and you can tell. yennefer of vergerberg you and your disabled swag deserve better.