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almosttootight's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual violence
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Homophobia, Racial slurs, and Murder
wowimreadingagain's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I liked this book for some of the themes about time travel, ocean conservation, and transgenderism. I dunno, maybe it’s just because I’m trans, but I found the concept and description of Rainbow-Brite very interesting. The whole mythology of the book surrounding deities of the ocean, etc was new for me but was done well. Don’t let the long negatives section in the next paragraph fool you, I still have a positive opinion of this book overall.
I had a hard time with some of the explicit sexual mentions, even the non-SA stuff, but I have a low tolerance for that anyway. I was still able to make it through the book fine. My biggest problem with this book is the very quick jumping of perspectives. In each there are a few characters that I lost track of because the book is too short to establish them. We spend time indystopian near-future (2027 I think?), the 16th century, and around 1990-2005. That’s a lot to process for one book. Also I agree with someone else’s review that too much time is spent on the perspective of the more villainous main character. It feels like the first 30% is Acilde, 50% Argenis , then the last 20% is some of both. Finally, the ending was too quick and did leave me with some questions. I respect the book’s choice to not give detail about the effects of Acilde/Giorgio’s actions, but I struggle to understand the role of Argenis in the story beyond the one mention from Acilde about him being involved with the government in some way in Acilde’s time. It seems like all he was was a shithead who also went back in time somehow? Why was he allowed to stay with the rest of them for so long? Why did they chose that moment to finally kick him out? But the parts of the ending I do understand, I like very much. I appreciate that Acilde just gets to chill as Giorgio with a wife he loves doing work that brings them together.
I had a hard time with some of the explicit sexual mentions, even the non-SA stuff, but I have a low tolerance for that anyway. I was still able to make it through the book fine. My biggest problem with this book is the very quick jumping of perspectives. In each there are a few characters that I lost track of because the book is too short to establish them. We spend time in
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Moderate: Violence and Murder
Minor: Abortion
It’s important to note that several chapters in the book are from the point of view of a mysogynist racist homophobic person and his internal dialogue does not hold back on slurs or terrible descriptions.dreareads_'s review against another edition
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
More like a 3.5 for queer Latinx ✨
(My review is a message I sent to a dear friend of mine about the book)
I have many thoughts! But mainly I think it was a very purposefully unnerving story that forces you to be uncomfortable. I didn’t like the trans rep in the beginning (tbh I think this is an overall issue of a cis person not understanding transgender people (although idk if it was the author or the translator at fault)).
A very interesting approach to the history of the Dominican Republic. The combination of Caribbean indigenous and African religions wasn’t my favorite. Almost a bit orientalist tbh.
But overall kind of love how uncomfortable it made me feel from the characters, to the political commentary, to the ending.
A very unique experience
(My review is a message I sent to a dear friend of mine about the book)
I have many thoughts! But mainly I think it was a very purposefully unnerving story that forces you to be uncomfortable. I didn’t like the trans rep in the beginning (tbh I think this is an overall issue of a cis person not understanding transgender people (although idk if it was the author or the translator at fault)).
A very interesting approach to the history of the Dominican Republic. The combination of Caribbean indigenous and African religions wasn’t my favorite. Almost a bit orientalist tbh.
But overall kind of love how uncomfortable it made me feel from the characters, to the political commentary, to the ending.
A very unique experience
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Dysphoria
waterbear0821's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Well. I didn’t really enjoy this. It was too filthy and distressing and literary. It was deeply unpleasant and full of slurs and violence and harm. But the story is brilliant and bizarre and I know it will stick with me and I’ll probably want to read it again.
Pros:
-well-executed, unique sci-fi time travel
-twisty and brain-expanding
-captivating description of dystopian future; good world-building
Cons:
-truly how many racial slurs and homophobic slurs and how much violent misogyny must I read?
-so, so many content warnings
-the author is a musician and the droning, pretentious descriptions of the songs and music characters are playing or listening to throughout the book are cringe and insufferable
-high on aesthetics, light on plot. I’m curious what this author will write in the future
Pros:
-well-executed, unique sci-fi time travel
-twisty and brain-expanding
-captivating description of dystopian future; good world-building
Cons:
-truly how many racial slurs and homophobic slurs and how much violent misogyny must I read?
-so, so many content warnings
-the author is a musician and the droning, pretentious descriptions of the songs and music characters are playing or listening to throughout the book are cringe and insufferable
-high on aesthetics, light on plot. I’m curious what this author will write in the future
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Transphobia, Murder, and Cultural appropriation
hfrancesh's review against another edition
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Violence
Moderate: Medical content, Murder, Colonisation, and Dysphoria
Minor: Animal cruelty
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
A set of expansive ideas that tries to squeeze itself into an under-200-page novella, Tentacle feels like three different narratives combined into one -- and not in a particularly good way. The writing style, or at least what of it is clear in translation, is stiff and dry, only sometimes veering into something more interesting. Information is revealed in flat blocks that make it impossible to tell what will be relevant later and what will never be referenced again, with the most key details about the plot and world buried in stream-of-consciousness rambling (and the occasional rape fantasy).
The most interesting elements of that world, like an "instant sex change" injection, are treated effectively as set dressing, never really explored in depth. Instead, the meandering plot follows uninteresting, indistinct characters through events and timelines that are equally difficult to differentiate. Despite parts of their backstories being recounted in detail, I have no sense of who most of the characters are as people... other than their bigoted attitudes.
Such views being expressed by characters is one thing, but they're present in excess and never treated with especial gravity or challenged meaningfully by the narrative, and if anything seem reinforced by it. Black characters are invariably treated with disdain, to say nothing of the constant use of the N-word (by a non-Black author and translator), and the trans protagonist is only appropriately gendered after undergoing full physical transition, with no real conscious examination of his identity and experiences. Perhaps these are purposeful qualities of the setting, but if so it's never communicated well.
Could have probably been very interesting in a different format, but the combination of dense writing and gratuitous racism/homophobia and sexual violence made it far from an enjoyable read.
The most interesting elements of that world, like an "instant sex change" injection, are treated effectively as set dressing, never really explored in depth. Instead, the meandering plot follows uninteresting, indistinct characters through events and timelines that are equally difficult to differentiate. Despite parts of their backstories being recounted in detail, I have no sense of who most of the characters are as people... other than their bigoted attitudes.
Such views being expressed by characters is one thing, but they're present in excess and never treated with especial gravity or challenged meaningfully by the narrative, and if anything seem reinforced by it. Black characters are invariably treated with disdain, to say nothing of the constant use of the N-word (by a non-Black author and translator), and the trans protagonist is only appropriately gendered after undergoing full physical transition, with no real conscious examination of his identity and experiences. Perhaps these are purposeful qualities of the setting, but if so it's never communicated well.
Could have probably been very interesting in a different format, but the combination of dense writing and gratuitous racism/homophobia and sexual violence made it far from an enjoyable read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, and Medical content
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Murder
Minor: Ableism, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Vomit, Antisemitism, and Abortion
valpal77's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Murder, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Dysphoria
femmenova's review against another edition
challenging
- Loveable characters? No
For full disclosure: I DNF-ed it at 42 pages and I only got that far into the book because I was trying to make sense of what I was reading. There's just so much exposition dump and sexual and racial violence casually mentioned for the sake of.. shock? To show how post-apocalyptic the state of the world is? The writing is dense and convoluted for the sake of introducing many different stories to understand a character more but I don't see it. The book boasts that it is genre-bending but that phrase feels like a catch-all to pretend that this book was something more than what it was which was: clunky writing, bad pacing, the awkward transition between characters that I thought it was a collection of short stories instead, and bad character studies.
Between that and finding out that the author is a whole ass non-Black person, which immediately made me reading the work uncomfortable because of the casual N-word being thrown around and how every Black supporting person in the book is hated by the main character(s).
Listen, I have read a lot of dark literary books that does not have a single redeeming character in them. Books like The Black Cathedral are of a similar tone to this one but the writing was far more simplistic and the millions of characters that were written were developed in a Show-Not-Dump way.
Not for me at all which sucks because I was excited to read this!
Between that and finding out that the author is a whole ass non-Black person, which immediately made me reading the work uncomfortable because of the casual N-word being thrown around and how every Black supporting person in the book is hated by the main character(s).
Listen, I have read a lot of dark literary books that does not have a single redeeming character in them. Books like The Black Cathedral are of a similar tone to this one but the writing was far more simplistic and the millions of characters that were written were developed in a Show-Not-Dump way.
Not for me at all which sucks because I was excited to read this!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Murder
jelka_theclimatereader's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Sexism and Sexual assault
Minor: Animal cruelty, Deadnaming, Drug use, and Murder
morebedsidebooks's review against another edition
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Drug use, Racism, Sexual assault, and Murder
This book also features sex work, slurs and religious cults.