fe_lea's reviews
119 reviews

The Impossible Fairytale by Han Yujoo
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.

not in the mood. will revisit later

Network Effect by Martha Wells

adventurous funny medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

I love Murderbot. I love ART. I LOVE THIS BOOK. The best Murderbot book and my favorite. Murderbot is now my favorite robot, it’s just very relatable and it’s very human. This is also the first time I actually paid attention to the plot and to the humans and I love the character dynamics here. Especially ART and Murderbot as well as their relationship with their humans. 

The Sacrifice by Rin Chupeco

mysterious

3.75

 When locals tell you to leave a haunted island, you follow them. 

Legends say that there is a Dreamer god asleep in the island of Kisapmata who grants unimaginable power if you give him eight sacrifices. Alon, a local teen, guides a group of Hollywood people who are there to document the evidence of the existence of this god. As soon as they arrive, a giant sinkhole appears revealing a giant balete tree with a mummified corpse in its branches. The crew also starts seeing visions and become victims to the island’s curse. 

I don’t usually read YA, but I give an exception for Rin Chupeco’s YA horror novels. Ever since reading the author’s The girl from the well duology, I became a fan of their writing. Chupeco just knows how to inject an eerie and spooky atmosphere to her books. I enjoyed the prose and how the horror tied in with anti-colonial themes. The lore hooked me from the start too. It was new and interesting yet nostalgic as it reminded me of horror stories surrounding haunted islands and balete trees from my childhood. Even the twist surprised me. This isn’t a perfect book though. First of all, the author used Tagalog for the locals when it should have been Waray or even Bisaya. The pacing was also uneven that it felt like a lot was crammed in the last quarter. 

My big mistake though was listening to the audiobook instead of reading this with my eyeballs. I was listening to Eartheater and Perfume before The Sacrifice, and I appreciated how the audiobook narrators of those two novels took great care in pronouncing the Spanish and French words and phrases there. I can’t say the same for this one. In fact, I never had luck with audiobooks by Filipino authors. I always hated them. There weren’t a lot of Tagalog words or phrases here so I couldn’t understand how the narrator didn’t couldn’t be bothered learning them. And then here’s what’s worse. Alon was given an American accent (while butchering the Tagalog words), which would have been fine if the narrator was consistent, but then he gave one of the local characters the stereotypical Filipino accent that honestly sounded like the stereotypical Indian accent. 

Note to self: never pick up a Filipino-authored audiobook narrated by a foreigner or Fil-Am who can’t speak any of the Filipino languages, can’t be bothered to at the very least learn the proper pronunciation, or can’t let go of the stereotypical Filipino accent. 

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.25

 “One believes the stupidest things in grief.” 

There was once a story about a woman who wanted to have a daughter but she didn’t have a husband or a lover. When a girl from their village died, the woman snuck out and cut the girl’s heart. She fed the heart believing it would grow into a daughter but it turned into a man, a young man her age who loved her. 

Hearing this story, the mother remembered the piece of lung that she cut out from her dead son and she also fed it. Until it grew and it became more hungry. 

Monstrilio is a literary horror debut that follows the life of a family (both blood and non-blood) after the loss of their child. Told from four different POVs, the book explores the themes of grief, family, identity, and acceptance as they live their life revolving around Santiago, their dead son, and Monstrilio, the monster that was formed out of Santiago and who they’re now trying to transform into a human being. 

“Did that thing just called me Papi?” 

Overall, this was an enjoyable read for me. It’s when I look at the individual POVs that make this book short of perfect. Starting the book with the mother, Magos, was the logical decision since it all started from her and her head was interesting. And then it switched to Lena, the friend, whose POV was also interesting and where one of the key moments in the book happened. I liked how her POV ended but after that it switched to Joseph, the father, and there was a time jump that took me out of the story. His was unfortunately my least favorite POV. The book ended with M. I wanted more from his POV but his was the most emotional and also my favorite. Another issue that I had was wanting the characters to be cooked just a little bit more. While the exploration on grief was interesting, I think the author could have squeezed more. I wanted a deeper look into the characters’ minds and hearts and enter the very core of their being. I liked the depth that we got but going deeper would have destroyed me which would even be better. I say this because it felt like I was losing some of the characters when we shifted POVs. I felt this in particular with Magos. Her voice in the beginning was great but I began to understand her less as the story progresses. 

Despite the above, Monstrilio was still a great book. It was unexpectedly heartfelt, tender, and kind. It was also introspective. M’s part was the highlight for me as there was a lot to unpack in his chapters. His chapters felt the most human despite him not being one. It’s where all the themes explored in the previous parts all came together and painted a full picture. 

“I wade through the shadows of our living room, hoping to find monsters. Chat with them. Laugh. But there are no monsters in these shadows. Only me.” 

As a literary horror, I was expecting a little bit of spooky and a more dark atmosphere but I did not feel those at all. I even called this book cute and fun because of Monstrilio (he’s adorable and a cutie). There was nothing scary about this book. I only found love, pain, loss, and tenderness in it. It’s a story about grief in its different shapes and forms. It’s a story about family and the people who will always be there for you even if you hurt or get hurt by them. It’s a story about identity and learning to accept everything about yourself. It’s a story about being human as Monstrilio learns how to be one. And ultimately, it’s a story about love as it was love that connected all the threads in this book. 

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

0.25

 The moment I started reading this book, I had a feeling I wouldn’t like the writing. I had hoped that I would still have fun thinking it would be like those trashy movies or tv shows that were so bad they’re so good, but unfortunately this one was just bad. I know I should have DNFed but I was reading this for a readathon and was determined to finish it. 

I found the book to be a mess. It felt like a list of character traits, tropes, plot points with no proper story to thread them all together. The world and politics were barely explained. The two male leads had no personalities outside of their usefulness to Wu Zetian. I remember the throuple being hyped so much back then but they had no chemistry. It was like the two male characters fell in love with her separately and then suddenly one of them started helping each other (it was not explained why character A was suddenly so concerned for character B but it was convenient for the plot I guess) and then boom, all three of them are kissy kissy and in love with each other. 

And then you have Wu Zetian. She’s obviously better than everyone else. She’s the only who saw the world for what it was: that they live in a highly patriarchal society and women are oppressed. She hates women but who cares? She’s going to liberate them from oppression and misogyny anyway. We spend the entire time in her brain and yet we got nothing from her aside from the fact that she’s cool, she’s great, she’s better than everyone, and that patriarchy makes her mad, oh so mad. Did you see the suffering that she went through when they bound her feet? Did you see how patriarchy has killed her sister? Now look at her humiliate and decimate these dumb men! The author wanted us to love Wu Zetian so much they forgot to give Zetian depth and personality. 

As for the writing, I could hear Xiran’s voice loud and clear in it that my brain sometimes replaces the audiobook narrator’s voice with Xiran’s. I swear the prose sounded like the author’s tweets and tiktok videos. 

The commentary on feminism and colonialism were poorly executed and shallow you’d think they came from twitter discourse, which is funny because I have seen some of Xiran’s tweets and tiktoks and they were able to make their points on colonialism come across clearly but how come I couldn’t see the same in the book? What happened? I just couldn’t understand how a book in this state got published. The concept was cool but man the execution was so bad. 

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

funny lighthearted medium-paced

3.0

This was cute! I’d describe this as a cozy dark fairy tale. I got bored at some parts, especially in the beginning but overall enjoyed the story. I love Agnes and her chicken.

Eartheater by Dolores Reyes

3.25

 “I stroked the earth, closed my fist, and with my hand lifted the key to the door through which Maria and so many other girls had passed, beloved daughters carved from the flesh of other women. I lifted the earth and swallowed it, then swallowed more, swallowed plenty, giving birth to fresh eyes that allowed me to see.” 

When they buried her mother, the girl swallowed the earth and she saw how her mother died, killed by the hands of her father. Eartheater is a dark magical realism debut by Dolores Reyes set in the slums of Argentina. It tells the story of a girl who eats dirt and gets visions of the dead and the missing. When word of her ability spread throughout her barrio, people started seeking her out to help them solve the murder and missing cases of their loved ones, cases the cops didn’t bother looking into or have simply given up on. 

“When they don’t listen, I scarf earth. I used to do it for me, for the fuss, because it annoyed and embarrassed them. The earth was dirty, they said, my belly would bloat like a toad. Then, I started eating earth for others who wanted to speak. Others, already gone.” 

Eartheater was a unique concept, but I think it would have been better as a novella. The pacing didn’t work for me and some parts felt dragging and slow. I liked the story, but something about the execution fell short - perhaps it was the translation. Where the story shined for me though is the earth eating. I think it was brilliant that the author decided to use this to tell the story of forgotten people. The translator’s notes explained how this book rose as a response to the ongoing femicide in Latin America. The scenes of eartheater eating dirt and then having visions of these victims were, for me, the strongest part of the novel. The author paints visceral and haunting images through these scenes. The grief and pain become palpable, not just the pain of the victims, but the pain of the ones left behind as well. I would have preferred it if the book focused on the femicides but I also get the intention of the author to include the stories of the neglected - the people of the slums who cannot afford justice and are also easily forgotten. The ending also felt abrupt and I needed more resolution, but perhaps this can also be considered a metaphor for how these people never get the clear resolutions that they deserve. 

While I may not be a fan of the execution (or the translation? who knows. but I wish I knew how to read Spanish), there’s a lot to get from Eartheater. It’s a story about poverty and gender violence; an ode to the forgotten and the neglected; and for people to listen to the pain and grief that they go through. It can be heavy and a little clunky (again, not sure if this is an execution or a translation issue for me), but it’s worth reading. 

“Gravestones, letters written to our dead. Ana never got one. Mama got a name and two dots. I thought of how I also wanted to have a name. Out there. One all my own.” 

Peach Pit by Kristel Emma Buckley, Molly Llewellyn

dark emotional sad

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 She was drawn to these books - girls with powers, girls who were monstrous, girls who had the potential to be terrible and violent things.

Peach Pit is a collection of 16 stories of unsavory women written by BIPOC and queer authors. When the cover said unsavory, it really meant unsavory. It has murderers, con-artists, arsonists, even women who are not afraid of destroying other women to advance their ambition. 

Earlier, I read Unlikeable Female Characters by Anna Bogutskaya and the character archetypes that she mentioned there are exactly these women in the stories. Bogutskaya also highlighted how these unlikeable characters are more often than not given to white women, as if white girl anger and white girl tears are more acceptable over a brown girl’s. With a focus on queer and women of color, Peach Pit tells the stories of conniving, despicable, vengeful, mean, messy women that can make you uncomfortable. 

“It was devastating. It was beautiful.” 

Seeing K-Ming Chang as one of the authors drew me to the book and now I have a few more authors whose works I need to check out. As with most short story collections, not everything worked for me. Some of the stories in the second half fell a little flat. The first three stories were my favorite. Fuckboy Museum by Deesha Philyaw was a perfect opener and set the tone for what’s to come. I loved how the story slowly unravelled as the woman recounts her tale of dating fuckboys after her divorce. The second story is Caller by K-Ming Chang. Honestly, this one left me kind of confused but I couldn’t help but be hypnotized by her prose. The third one is All you have is your fire by Yah Yah Scholfield and I loved the portrayal of young female rage in this one. 

Reading this was also a trip. In one story I was grossed out by the pedophilia and incest and speechless at the intensity of the story and the next I was left confused if the woman the narrator is singing praises about was an actual water bottle or a metaphor for something, I’m still not sure what that one was. 

While some stories weren’t for me, I still think this was a solid collection. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Pedophilia, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse and Death of parent

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

3.0

me 🤝 murderbot
don’t like emotions.

a little meh for me. wasn’t really paying much attention to it.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind

dark slow-paced

2.25

I really liked the concept and thought it unique. However, I wasn’t a big fan of the execution. It was fine, and I figured it was trying to mimic 18th century writing. It just didn’t work for me which is unfortunate because I really thought I would like this. The writing felt a little unfocused, focusing on parts I didn’t care about and skimming the parts I actually wanted to read about. Perhaps this is why I ended up feeling a little disconnected to the story. I loved the parts that focused on Grenouille’s sense of smell, the almost orgasmic intoxication from the smells, but I wish the author could have delved deeper into his psyche instead of endless paragraphs about perfumes or distilling random objects like coins or wood. All these unnecessary paragraphs made the story feel longer than it actually is.

Also, it’s quite obvious that a man wrote this. Something about it using virgin girls just gives me ick.