joreneereads's reviews
388 reviews

She's Always Hungry by Eliza Clark

challenging dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

SOLID short story collection to add to the "weird" collection, really liked this a lot. This collection has science fiction, body horror, science fiction + body horror, a quirky collection of Google reviews for a trippy Chinese-Italian takeout restaurant, and a solid dose of existential questioning. Fun for the whole family!! (Absolutely not). If you're a fan of the weird, absolutely check it out. 

Thank you to the publisher for an advanced review copy through NetGalley.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

After reading and loving Starter Villain earlier this year, I have been excited to pick up more of John Scalzi's work. When the Moon Hits Your Eye was not as successful for me, but I did still have a good time reading it. The premise (the moon suddenly turning into literal cheese) is of course ridiculous and hilarious, and led to some quite funny romp-esque moments, but overall the story was more reflective and serious than I expected. The cheese moon does usher in a very real possibility of the end of the world, which led to some serious moments and existential contemplation from our wild cast of characters. As the book cycles through different characters and anecdotes, some perspectives dragged on a bit for me, but whenever I thought I was losing interest, Scalzi always snapped me right back with a hilarious or endearing moment. If the premise appeals to you as a funny yet contemplative quick read, it's worth picking up.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader's copy.

22/11/63 by Stephen King
Did not finish book. Stopped at 53%.

Got returned to the library and was just a reread 

Proyecto Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Did not finish book. Stopped at 12%.

I’ll be back someday maybe, can’t focus on it for now 😣

All in by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Did not finish book. Stopped at 18%.

This series could be fun if it wasn’t so effing self obsessed. It spends so much time stroking its own ego (trying to find a YA friendly way of expressing this) about its premise that it can’t even get to the story. 

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Did not finish book. Stopped at 80%.

Idk man I wanted to adore this so much, but I just don’t care about the plot or the world even a little bit. I love the humor and some of the characters, and I’m super interested in the magic and universe but for some reason to me it just seemed like there is just not enough story…? We’re to the “good stuff” and I can’t even care. 

Punto en boca. (Esto no es un manual de lenguaje inclusivo) by María Martín Barranco
Did not finish book. Stopped at 58%.

So. DNFing this book at 58% because I’m just not interested in anything else she has to say.

While I didn’t hate this book and it gave me interesting food for thought, even without all the TERF alarm bells ringing, it did get really repetitive.

The basic themes of the book are:

• the “neutral” masculine is sexist, exclusionary, and not neutral at all
• when women (and other marginalized groups - although she mentions them as an afterthought) are not explicitly mentioned, maleness is considered the default even when the language is technically “neutral” (i.e. not explicitly masculine)
• this includes “neutral” attempts with the spanish language like using x, ‘@, or e instead of o/a. To her, these should only be used for identities outside of the o/a binary that choose to.
• any form of not naming women is exclusionary, including things like “pregnant people.” Name every group you want to include.

I agree with some of these, and some of them have given me interesting things to consider. I do agree that “neutral” language doesn’t fix the masculine neutral, as we obviously have a lot of both of these in English. Things like doctor or engineer are neutral, but we picture men. The opposite does also happen though (nurse, housekeeper, etc). Interestingly, she doesn’t seem to have a problem with “neutral” words in Spanish… only neutral pronouns? She made a point of making fun of the RAE for claiming that feminists wanted a feminine/masculine version of every profession etc., but… according to her own rules, shouldn’t there be? There should be a masculine, feminine, and neutral version so that they can all be named if necessary, because in a sexist society neutral will be perceived as male?? (Again, don’t disagree on that point! Confused on the consistency of application. Maybe I missed something though.)

Then of course we get to the TERF-y-ness. She very clearly has been called a TERF and preventatively gets in there to try to get ahead of it. The constant “if you think trans men __” “whether you agree or not” really put my red flags up, and then we got to the flat out “now lets not be calling people hurtful words like cis, man, or terf.” (Yes, I understand that’s not what she said. She said not to put labels on people they don’t like. But to group all of those together is LAUGHABLE - terf is not analogous to being cis or being a woman, and was clearly thrown in to protect her terfy agenda).

Trying to name every single identity that can possibly get pregnant instead of using something like “pregnant people” is wild. It’s actually impossible, which means you will ALWAYS end up with a “catch all” at the end, which she’s opposed to. Does she have the same freakout with “people with blue eyes” “people with innies”… There is no reason to have this argument outside of feeling like trans issues need to be subservient to feminism.

Cis white feminists always absolutely PANIC when their personal pet issue isn’t seen as the single top most important thing (Susan B Anthony anyone?) and that’s clearly what’s happening here. She’s terrified that anyone could value trans inclusion as much or more than fighting misogyny (even though they have the SAME GOAL for fuck’s sake) so she’s happily throwing it under the bus to propel her own agenda forward.

Interesting read, won’t be reading from the author again.

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
Did not finish book. Stopped at 26%.

Unfortunately, I do not care. Maybe I’ll be back another time 

Nadie como tú by Anna Casanovas
Did not finish book. Stopped at 49%.

Me da igual

Dust by Hugh Howey
Did not finish book. Stopped at 28%.

Brb, just can’t focus on it atm