enbeefinery's reviews
43 reviews

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

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dark emotional funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

me too, tori, me too. 
I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman

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emotional sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

there were a couple of inconsistencies that really bugged me, plus, as an iranian ex-muslim i’m not a fan of religious characters, especially iranian muslims. there’s also the fact that it was unbelievably unrealistic and the plot was quite watery. massively disappointed, can’t lie.
I Don't Want to Talk about Home by Suad Aldarra

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emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

“We all come from somewhere. However, when someone asks where I come from, I pause, for longer than I should, before I answer. And every time I say I am from Syria, I feel like I’m standing at a funeral while Syria lies in an open casket and mourners tell me how sorry they are for my loss.” 
 
i wept for hours.
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Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

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adventurous emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

it was good but it wasn’t loveless-good hence the 4.75
Loveless by Alice Oseman

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emotional funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

the most wholesome yet heartbreaking book i’ve ever read. i don’t think i’d ever felt this seen reading a book before, i’ll hold this close to my heart till the day i die.
Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Devon Price

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informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

i’d never felt this seen in my entire life.
Trans and Autistic : Stories from Life at the Intersection by Bridget Liang, Noah Adams

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 26%.
the ableism in this book is honestly baffling. certainly not what i thought it was going to offer. the repeated use of the term “Asperger’s” without acknowledging it’s horrifying history. disappointed.
A Girlhood: A Letter to My Transgender Daughter by Carolyn Hays

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emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

“But remember, intellect can close the heart as quickly as ignorance can. With ignorance, you can hope that knowledge will lead to new understanding. This is unlikely when the intellectual has already built a fortress of bigoted ideology.” 
 
this letter –full of historical facts and philosophical musings on what it means to be human, to be alive and to be at odds with everything– was the best love letter i’ve ever read, and to be honest, i don’t think anything will ever top this. 
 
what i most appreciate about this book is the measures ‘carolyn’ has taken to protect her daughter, from changing all the names and publishing the book under a pen name to obfuscating any potential identifying information. she loves her children and every single word in this book shows that. that being said, i’d be lying if i said this book didn’t hurt every inch of my being. it was such a bittersweet feeling, seeing how some trans children are treated, and how we all could’ve and should’ve been treated. how easy (not effortless, but easy) it is to actually love your child unconditionally and how so many parents (mine included) deny their children that love. i will never be safe enough to come out to my parents, but boy am i happy to know there are trans and queer children that are not only out to their parents but out, fought for AND loved. i also really loved the fact that carolyn didn’t sweep her daughter’s privileges under the rug, and constantly (but never dismissively) reminded her that she is white and middle-class and that not all parents are like hers, and how  transphobic can and does intertwine with other forms of bigotry.
 
the only chapters i slightly (a bit more than slightly) disliked were those in part 4, talking about god and how we are all his creation, yada yada... as an agnostic-leaning atheist with years of religious trauma (and also as someone studying evolution and developmental biology), it felt a bit… how do i put it… meh? but i can see how those chapters can help religious parents or even queer people who feel their faith contradicts their existence and are looking for the middle ground. 
 
anyways, i wish my mum would read this book.
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We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets

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challenging dark informative fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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

it was a good read overall, made me think  about a world i’d never thought about before, but i feel like the book had a lot more potential (“great idea, poor execution” except the execution started off great but slowly lost its flow.).
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Babel by R.F. Kuang

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 10%.
some texts are effortlessly sophisticated and poetic, but this one’s complexity felt like scratching nails on a blackboard. it was forced. the author had tried so hard to make it complex that it’d become repetitive. e.g., “he was still not sure what socialism was yet”; unnecessarily worded, it’s either “still” or “yet”. ugh. too many similar issues, i just couldn’t anymore.