futurama's reviews
315 reviews

Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin

Dry understanding/telling/narrating of unreal events. Fave was The Heavy Suitcase of Benavides

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Prompt 2: A book from your least-read genre last year 
Mine was...graphic novel! And I love graphic novels! I was shocked but also pleasantly surprised. This is actually my third graphic/illustrated/manga/comic book I've read this year (the others being What is Obscenity? and the Japanese manga). GT is different though, it's not that illustrated, it's the same drawings of people on top of different images but still telling a multidimensional and complex story of the self. I saw Mira Jacob at AWP and really liked her, she has this charm about her. Not only was I interested in the book itself but I also wanted to see how she made the book. Her artwork is very clever. At first the repeated images was a little distracting but I got used to it when I got deeper into the story. 

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

mysterious

3.0

I really liked the concept and design. very creative. love how each chapter was a different ORSK item. But the writing lacked substance. there were so many opportunities where tension could be drawn out or moments that could've been much scarier. amy was not a good protagonist, she was annoying and bratty, absolutely did not care about her. however, the side characters had more personality and added comedic elements to the story. 
i also enjoyed the elements of the cycles of work/labor but it needed to be more drawn out for it to be a bigger element. 
i wish grady could rewrite the book with the horror-chops he has now. 

The Dog of the North by Elizabeth McKenzie

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted

a definition of a "romp" a bit overwhelming but it works! i loved the portable veblen and don't remember anything about it. i feel the same way about this too 

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

3.5

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

4.0

The Color Master: Stories by Aimee Bender

2.5

Queens of the Abyss: Lost Stories from the Women of the Weird by Mike Ashley

3.0

Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson

2.0

It feels strange to ask what the point of this story was, because what is the point to any story? This book was deflated, boring and flat. Never read more one dimensional characters. I did read a review saying

the twist might have been invented by the narrator (author) after his failure of a book tour in Germany,

but that's probably wishful thinking. 
I'm so glad it's over.

The Most Precious Substance on Earth by Shashi Bhat

dark reflective slow-paced

2.0

I didn't get the point of this book. It's a novel in stories but Nina never learns her lesson. It's like every story had something terrible happen to her, on her end or externally, and she learns nothing. Then, she continues in the next story in a worse place, with zero wants or needs. I didn't understand her relationship with Amy, or her parents. It was like she was just...there...
I picked this up randomly at the library bc I liked the cover. Overall I found it depressing and sad.