emilyisliterate's reviews
166 reviews

Bunny by Mona Awad

medium-paced

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

1.5

yeah no absolutely not. i should have stayed far away from this one after seeing praise from lena dunham.

i'm not getting anything deep or interesting here, just a grating read about a boring af MC who is extremely special and lonely and also hates women. (of course the specific women she hates in this book are Bad so we're supposed to be like "yeah ur right women suck!!" imagine reading a book about a cult of pick me girls from tiktok. this is that book.)

the off the wall narration and events of BUNNY are supposed to be its strongest asset, but for me, they're just laughable. until it keeps going for 300+ pages. then it's annoying.

anyway, i respect you all for liking this one, but it's a no from me 😤

The Adult by Bronwyn Fischer

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

i was anxious to read this one as soon as i read its description. THE ADULT delivers what it promises: a tender coming of age story about a hopelessly naive college student. a little simplistic at times, but ultimately enjoyable and sweet.

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

4.0

this made me incredibly sad in a productive way. the kind of story that makes you want to love very hard and unabashedly.

Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us by Rachel Aviv

5.0

extremely well-researched and told. i think this is basically required reading, especially for someone struggling with mental illness who feels there is no "right" answer for their experience.

Central Places by Delia Cai

2.0

i read CENTRAL PLACES in close proximity to HOMEBODIES, another debut novel with nearly the exact same premise: a woman who lives in new york, works at a magazine, and is in a long-term committed relationship, ends up returning to her small hometown, where she encounters an old flame from high school and basically derails her life (arguably for the better... ig, anyway).

like HOMEBODIES, i found this novel frustrating. audrey is selfish and shirks accountability for her downright rude behavior. at one point, she does a Bad Thing and literally thinks to herself 'well that wasn't even me, that was Another Audrey who doesn't exist anymore, so i've done nothing wrong.' 

we also didn't get much interiority here beyond passing scene-to-scene observations. arguably the central conflict between audrey and her mother basically appears, fizzles, festers, resolves, and disappears. overall, i wanted more from CENTRAL PLACES but am so frustrated by the MC that i'm also just... fine with it being over.

Homebodies by Tembe Denton-Hurst

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

😤... i need a homebodies 2 told from lex's POV unpacking all the many ways that mickey (our main character) is actually emotionally abusive. 

i had such high hopes for HOMEBODIES but i am far too frustrated by mickey's self-sabotaging behavior and lack of self -awareness to appreciate it unfortunately.

Old Enough by Haley Jakobson

4.0

i really enjoyed this book, especially its take on context-switching. sometimes being bisexual feels like a superpower because you're gay (ofc) but straight-passing "when you need to be." OLD ENOUGH challenges that idea by asserting this "ability" is, in fact, a curse, one that will mentally tax you as you try to navigate new social circumstances as a dual self. several of sav's thoughts about herself and her sexuality are thoughts i've had to fight (and others, i'd yet to challenge. the biphobic lore of life is deep, lol.).

Killingly by Katharine Beutner

• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25

i'm not a historical fiction girlie by nature, so this was an interesting one. katharine beutner threads the needle with KILLINGLY by extrapolating on the disappearance of a girl long dead, who the public continues to have little knowledge of outside sparing news clips.

i am conflicted by this book. on one hand, taking liberties with real people is tricky and it makes me uncomfortable when true crime writers assign people personalities out of thin air. yet on the other hand, i felt like there was more this story could've provided. i.e., more overt queerness, better characterization. however, i also didn't WANT those things because again, these were real people. enjoyable writing, though. (yes, the cat scenes were very hard to stomach, but i respect the creative liberty i guess lma

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Berlin by Bea Setton

• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

for me, this is an underwhelming entry into the wonderful canon of weird girl fiction.

daphne does all the things that Weird Gross Girls do: she reads sylvia plath and donna tartt and feels like an alien in her own skin and is objectively unlikeable (all great things). however, despite the novel's focus on daphne's inner thoughts, her actual self-dissection is lackluster. she acknowledges her issues but never interrogates them. trust me, i LOVE unhinged women, but daphne was giving highkey pick-me republican girl vibes. unfortunately, i never felt she broke her internal monologue of misogynistic/classist/antisemitic/manipulative thinking, nor did her lack of character development feel like a good story in itself.

don't get me wrong, BERLIN is a page-turner, but i find myself frustrated with it after the fact. nonetheless, i'm interested in what bea setton does next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Jazz by Toni Morrison

5.0

i'm not sure how to expound on this, but i felt so lucky to read this book. toni morrison's writing in "jazz" works on several levels and has stuck with me in the few weeks since finishing. reading her foreword immediately after finishing the story provided clarity in such a way that it just clicked for me and became an instant favorite. excited to come back to this one sometime down the road.