effingunicorns's reviews
380 reviews

I Got Reincarnated in a (BL) World of Big (Man) Boobs, Volume 1 by Tsukiji Nao

funny

4.0

I have no excuses.

I Got Reincarnated in a (BL) World of Big (Man) Boobs, Volume 2 by Tsukiji Nao

funny

4.0

Constantly getting called out by a fucking manga, but I don't care because I want Onizuka to get his man...

I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

Honestly I spent a not-insignificant part of this book thinking about how this would make an awesome backstory for a superhero who never makes it higher than second string because his power's too creepy and tragic, so I was too attached to really accept the inevitability of Tolly's death. That being said! I appreciated the big switcheroos of Amber being the final girl rather than Mel and peanuts being Tolly's weakness even after he became a slasher. Both points were obvious, but in that really satisfying way a good story gets where the payoff makes you feel clever and/or attentive.

My Sister Took My Fiancé and Now I'm Being Courted by a Beastly Prince (Manga) Vol. 2 by Kiduki Hoshikawa, Yu Sakurai, Ren Hidou

fast-paced

2.0

What the hell was this? Where the first volume was a cute, soap opera-style distraction, this volume resolved and revealed things so abruptly that it felt like a TV series where the writers are trying to fit five years of planned plot into what they've just found out are the last two episodes ever. Except the story continues after this! And then, on top of that, the resolutions especially in the first half of the volume have that fake, overly direct "and then everybody clapped" therapy homework monologue vibe, which sucked all the tension out of the story.

I dunno. I might take a peek at the next volume to see if the series gets back on track after this, but I've got a million other things to read so I'm probably out.

The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice

slow-paced

2.5

Honestly there's this weird pervasive nihilism that makes me feel like, in light of Rice's subsequent born-again Christian phase, Akasha is the main Anne Rice insert in this book. There's a lot of other stuff to unpack, of course, and frankly Stan's poetry wasn't doing it for me, but the high-density worldbuilding and laundry list of POVs after spending a whole book with Lestat was a nice change, I still broadly enjoy the story of the origin of vampires, and I have to give this book credit for being the one where the gay shit was finally outright stated instead of strongly implied.

I am absolutely not continuing past this point in the series this time around, though. I have better things to do with my time!

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste
Did not finish book. Stopped at 28%.

I genuinely wanted to like this book as a counter to all the shenanigans, but... well, some things just aren't meant to be. The vocabulary feels like it was only recently divorced from those lists that convince innocent young writers that "emerald orbs" is a suitable replacement for "green eyes", the narration is clunky and repetitive, and I've read and watched too many stories about witches to buy into the conceit of potion-brewing being a uniquely dangerous form of magic. I wish Ms. Baptiste nothing but the best and hope she finds many loving readers, but this book is just not for me.

Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse

4.5

I don't know how much of this is a function of my own expectations rather than the writing itself, but Naranpa's arc felt a little... off-rhythm? compared to the others. Like it had more steps to cover in the same amount of time, so some of those steps were getting glossed over despite being actually fairly important to the overall journey. Otherwise the story was very good once again, though!

I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle

adventurous dark funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

There were many excellent things about this book, but

the fact that Robert more than once wondered at the larger dragons' ability to fly in the first place, only to not even see how it was accomplished when he finally got the chance,

makes me feel like we're on the same wavelength, at least a little bit. It's a world of magic! Things should be magical!

The Innocent Sleep by Seanan McGuire

slow-paced

3.0

Just realized I've been caught up to this series for a decade now, so that probably accounts for some of my growing distance from it in recent years. I can't say it wasn't nice to see what Tybalt was actually up to over the course of the previous book and finally get a proper bridge between the beginning of that one and the end of the one before it, but my favorite parts were

The Great Costco Heist

and

Tybalt & Company Discover GPS

, both of which were far too brief. The story otherwise felt repetitive even when it wasn't trying to be--with so many characters who had to be brought up to speed, this was a perfect opportunity to experiment with more natural exposition, but instead it felt like we got double the reminders about nearly every person and situation that came up.

I plan to stick with the series for a while longer, but unless the next one really tightens up, I think I'll be less concerned about reading them as soon as they come out.

My Sister Took My Fiance and Now I'm Being Courted by a Beastly Prince (Manga) Vol. 1 by Kiduki Hoshikawa, Yu Sakurai

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

Main character: hyper-competent, clever, insightful, level-headed, nigh-unflappable.

Also the main character: overthinks things so much she invents elaborate political machinations and a glove fetish to explain a cute guy showing interest in her.

Anyway, so far this series is a solid mix of cute romance with social drama that's petty and horrible without being overly grimdark. I want to see how things progress!