heelturn2's reviews
32 reviews

The Troop by Nick Cutter
Did not finish book. Stopped at 57%.

sometimes you simply do not have to finish a book that is making you feel ill!

idk she was not doing it for me. I think I like my horror a little vaguer and less interested in the specifics of horrible things - I’d like to not know exactly what the monster looks like, but this book tells you that within 100 pages. I dig the premise of biohazard parasite disease + teenage future serial killer terrorize boyscouts on small pei island! but the sections with Shelley or whatever, the future serial killer kid, were making me feel physically unwell. sometimes I’m down to stick with that (I love and recommend TITANE to everyone despite finding it physically difficult to watch that film!) but broadly the experience of reading this book was more like a too-long r/nosleep story and didn’t feel worth hanging around for. I hope those kids escaped and learned the meaning of friendship or whatever. I guess in the world of this book Falstaff island is an absolute no-go forever lol. 

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

in this house we love a reflection on death and grief. stylistically interesting! i like the idea of removing lincoln’s agency a bit at the end, that’s fun to me. but i think not 100% my thing or maybe didn’t approach the historical aspects i find most interesting? 

Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Ben Miller, Huw Lemmey

adventurous dark funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

fun and thoughtful expansion on the podcast. i’ve been saying it for years but bad gays is excellent public history!!! histories of sexuality are discussed so differently in academia than they are in like, regular queer life (and imo this is a good & valuable thing!) & bad gays is really great at bringing that academic way of thinking about sex & sexuality to a non-academic audience. 

however: not to be a cunt but this book needed another editing pass before going to print though. many typos and some structural/syntax quirks that didn’t help flow & comprehension. it was totally fine! but present enough that i noticed & commented. cmon verso!

The Years by Annie Ernaux

reflective medium-paced

4.5

beautiful flowing prose (& great translation) - i dislike reading aloud but i read some of this to my partner & it was really enjoyable to speak the words on the page/hear it spoken. so evocative of time & place & especially collective mindset in a way that was fascinating and very recognizable to me. the way events happen & you feel yourself experiencing them with others, experiencing events the same way at the same time with others like you - the way certain elections and protests are described here draws up moments i’ve experienced in this collective way, the panic surrounding the 2016 us elections, excitement & possibility around police brutality protests during covid lockdown, horror watching the siege on gaza from afar… idk. one of those pieces of art that conveys its highly specific thing so well and so clearly that it gives you sense of shared human experience, rather than that of an outsider looking in. 

Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective

4.25

lovely lovely writing

Closer by Dennis Cooper

challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.0

the scat really took me by surprise to be honest but i dug this. utterly manic & deeply bleak

Devil House by John Darnielle

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

true crime author questions his genre. teens discover installation art. totally quietly devastating. 

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

totally fun grimdark science fantasy. i forget how fun it is to be invested in a series that makes you want to guess and hope at how things will turn out. 

Acts of Service by Lillian Fishman

challenging mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

3.25

at times excruciatingly boring. early to middle of the book are very “cis person discovers gender exists and it’s hot!” but I ended up feeling much warmer on this book than I thought I would. the relationships & dynamics between the characters were interesting, I enjoyed the sort of challenging conversations playing out and developing the themes & thoughts of Eve, imo the strongest parts of the book are scenes between Eve and Fatima and Eve/Olivia/Nathan. 

How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

writing style was a little too bare to do it for me. sometimes so similar story-to-story that they could have been disjointed scenes from a single novel. I always wanted the weird/magical/surreal elements to go a little further than they did. overall ok but unsatisfying.