I know there are Guncle stans on booksta and if that’s you then please look away from this review. 😵‍💫 I fear that this ultimately was a mismatch in book to reader pairing, I just did not vibe with this one! So, take this all with a grain of salt.

There’s a lot of potential in this one as the plot does cover a wide array of topics like grief, family relationships, ‘non traditional’ family structures, and confronting toxic patterns of behavior. However, I really could not get past the fact that the main character did feel like a caricature of a gay man. I realize that flamboyant, theatrical, luxurious gay men ~do exist~ but the main character felt a little one dimensional in terms of his gay identity.

I was also just generally put off with how much the main character seemed ignorant to the needs of children? I dislike children and I think they’re kind of annoying but if I had to take care of them I would be able to do that. Guncle just seemed to be a little too unaware for me to have believed it.

The author does a good job of fleshing out the main character’s grumpy, recluse-like behavior and I overall found the character’s dialogue to have chemistry.

This just wasn’t a book that I overall vibed with, but I think it’s a heartwarming and charming book that a lot of folks will enjoy deeply!

Persepolis: The Story Of A Childhood by Marjane Satrapi

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dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

OF OCTAVIA BUTLER HAS ZERO FANS IM DEAD.

Okay for real, I am so annoyed with myself for not picking up any of her books sooner!! Kindred is 100% going to be one of my best reads of the year, it was fantastic and absolutely catapulted me out of a reading slump. I cannot remember the last book I stayed up late into the night reading like this! I almost read the whole thing in one sitting.

The novel follows Dana, a 26 year old Black woman, living in California in the 70s. Dana is repeatedly forced back in time to the antebellum South to save her ancestor, Rufus (the white son of a plantation owner), when he is in danger. Each trip back in time leaves Dana in increasingly more danger. She’s never sure how long she will stay and how much time has passed when she returns home.

The juxtaposition of Dana being transported back and forth through time seemed to demonstrated that while some parts of our country have become “more progressive,” there are places where white supremacy is so engrained that it feels almost impossible to root out. Even though this book was written in the 70s it is still jarringly timely, which makes Butler’s writing feel perennial in an eerie way that forces the reader to reflect on how little progress our country has made in terms of racial equity and justice. This book demonstrates that the deep wound of enslavement has reverberated across our nation’s entire history and likely will continue to do so unless there is a deep, collective reckoning with our country’s insidious history.

There is SO MUCH MORE to say about this book. Just read it, it was very good and I am excited to dive into more of her work!

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

My second five star read of 2024 and this is one you’re not gonna want to miss. I feel like this is the kind of book I want to give to people when they say they don’t read nonfiction because this didn’t ~feel~ like nonfic. I listening on audio, so that may have contributed, but this really felt like an oral history and I think that was intentional.

“Say Nothing” covers The Troubles in Northern Ireland, a time period between the late 60s and 1998, that concluded with The Good Friday Agreement. I was absolutely fascinated listening to history of Irish resistance against British occupation and the rise (and maybe fall, tbd sounds like they’re still kinda hanging on) of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

There’s truly so much for me to say regarding this book but two points I really want to touch on are the Price sisters and the parallels between Northern Ireland and Palestine.

There’s a reason we’re seeing folks like Hozier and Nicola Coughlan publicly speaking for Palestine. They understand the history of Ireland and have likely seen the impacts in their lifetime because 1998 was not so long ago!

Secondly, I was completely enthralled while listening to the story of Marian and Dolores Price. The most salient part of their story was when they were imprisoned in 1973 for their role in a terrorist attack called Old Bailey Bombing. While they were jailed the sisters embarked on a 208 day hunger strike which lasted that long because jail officials force fed the women to keep them alive. The sheer grit and determination of this act is wholly unfathomable to me and I was blown away listening to this section of the book.

Again, there is much more to say and I’ll likely do a review in a longer format, but my main takeaway is read this one! You won’t regret it!

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laynemandros's reviews 248 reviews

laynemandros's reviews
248 reviews