cyborgforty's reviews
197 reviews

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

5.0

I picked up this book because it has long been on my TBR (required reading as a Vietnamese American, right?) and plus, the show was coming out so now's a better time than ever. I'm really glad I waited to read it now rather than read it while I was in high school. The prose is dense but gripping. AP English Lit type shit. It gave me Invisible Man vibes right off the bat, and then I remembered what VTN named his son. I will say the war scenes made my eyes glaze over, which is the only reason I'm docking a star. The Sympathizer's style is better suited for character and reflection than for physical action, and while the war scenes were certainly necessary considering the context of the story, I was slow both to get into and finish the book because of it.

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber

4.0

I was very struck by the original essay, so decided to read the book in full. Some chapters felt like they were saying the same things as the introduction did over and over again but I think it was the right read at the right time for me. I appreciated the overview of sociological/economic theory that I got from this book being not-very-well-read in that subject matter.

Water I Won't Touch by Kayleb Rae Candrilli

5.0

Poetry collections are very hard for me to rate because I think it depends on my headspace at the time I read them and this one had me in a wreck... I think my comfort poems are in here

The Twenty-Ninth Year by Hala Alyan

4.0

I'm just starting my twenties and I feel like I will never be as cool as Hala Alyan...

What We Fed to the Manticore by Talia Lakshmi Kolluri

4.0

I haven't read a lot of animal-oriented stories that I've really enjoyed, especially told in a legend/anthropomorphic style like this, but I enjoyed this collection. The thing with short story collections are that some stories always seem stronger/more memorable with others but what drives it home is a strong start and end, which this book had. 

Three Days in the Pink Tower by EV Knight

3.0

Normally I don't read other reviews before at least jotting a few thoughts down of my own. But I don't know how to review this. Like people have said, I did not enjoy reading this but it's not the kind of book you are supposed to enjoy reading. I didn't like the writing style but I also feel like the on-the-nose style is subversive in a world where womens' bodies are danced around with metaphors and figures of speech when talking about rape and sexual assault. I thought the symbolism and speculative element were well done.

I'll be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen by Alison Hearst

4.0

Art book plus media theory. I should read more of these.

Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form by Anna Anthropy

5.0

I don't play video games but I love reading critical essays about games and gaming culture and this one resonates me particularly as a DIY zinester. Some parts I glossed over because the technology seemed less relevant in 2024 - but I am not docking stars for that because what can you do about it? 

Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art by Lauren Elkin

4.0

Well-written, well-organized, and a well-curated set of artworks (at least from my very non-familiar-with-the-subject-matter-POV). Reading this book after taking a feminist art history class was a good move, several of the artists/pieces I'd heard of which was a good segue into those I didn't. I feel like the writing got a little pretentious/New-Yorker-esque at some points (not a surprise considering that the author has written for the New Yorker).

Defiant Sounds: Heavy Metal Music in the Global South by Jeremy Wallach, Esther Clinton, Nelson Varas-Díaz, Daniel Nevárez Araújo

3.0

Disclosure: I am not an academic. I like heavy metal, and this book made me aware of several global scenes and international metal bands that I've realized I really dig, but sometimes I feel like a well-written long-form journalistic article in a contemporary outlet would have given more clarity. This is to be expected from a scholarly publication, but I wasn't the target audience - the jargon made it feel like a convoluted way of explaining something I felt was intuitive.