by Naomi Kuttner
★★¾
Category archives: ★★½
Great Granny Webster
by Caroline Blackwood
★★½
Strange Pictures
by Uketsu
★★½
Breasts and Eggs
by Mieko Kawakami
I appreciate that female friendships and fulfilment without a romantic relationship are themes in the author’s work. Writing about poverty and classism from the opening chapter also boded well, but in the end I was disconnected from every one of the characters’ thought processes and motivations. Disengaging scenes … Read more
Nails and Eyes
by Kaori Fujino
★★½
Private Rites
by Julia Armfield
★★¾
She’s Always Hungry
by Eliza Clark
- “Build a Body Like Mine” DNF
- “The Problem Solver” ★★★
- “She’s Always Hungry” DNF
- “The Shadow Over Little Chitaly” DNF
- “Hollow Bones” ★★★
- “Goth GF” ★★★
- “Extinction Event” ★★★★
- “Nightstalkers” ★★¾
- “Shake Well” DNF
- “The King” DNF
- “Company Man” ★★¾
Model Home
by Rivers Solomon
★★½
A View from the Stars: Stories and Essays
by Liu Cixin
★★½
Displeasure Island
(Grave Expectations #2)
by Alice Bell
★★¾
Absent in the Spring
by Agatha Christie
Racist and colonialist right out of the gate. The author tells us in clumsy, halting self-revelations that the protagonist is smug, controlling, and unable to think outside of conventions, that a man’s vision of life ought to be prime, while her unloving and dishonest family is portrayed as … Read more
Ex-Wife
by Ursula Parrott
** spoiler alert **
Dear Dolly
by Dolly Alderton
★★½
Animals
by Emma Jane Unsworth
★★¾
La Fille dans la tour
(The Winternight Trilogy #2)
by Katherine Arden
★★¾
Jumpnauts
by Hao Jingfang
He repeatedly disrespects boundaries—but she’s intrigued. He also happens to be an astronomer-hacker who is tall, handsome, wealthy, and an expert martial artist. The first 60% doesn’t stretch beyond that level of groundwork. Once they meet extraterrestrials, the interactions still ring petulant. Also I thought Ken Liu was … Read more
The Golden Mole: and Other Living Treasure
by Katherine Rundell
An excess of ancient superstitions, ill-chosen analogies, and needless asides alongside fine facts
Feminism and Marxism
by Dorothy Ballan
A lot of space is focused on critiquing Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics instead of standing on its own. The antiracism holds up, and the parts about communal social relations that Leslie Feinberg distilled in Transgender Warriors.
The Emergent
(Cosmic #2)
by Nadia Afifi
My patience for reading action/thriller got used up. Amira is friends with cops. Hadrian’s linguistic affectation, for someone who moved to the States when he was twelve, is still obnoxious.
Murder Among Friends
by Lange Lewis
★★½