rzarate9696's reviews
82 reviews

Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs by Jamie Loftus

funny medium-paced

5.0

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I love its fatalistic dialogue and nostalgic tone. His dialogue is cheesy for me but it's still really compelling.

Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Although the pacing, character development, and mystery box delivery still continue to rub me the wrong way a bit with Vandermeer, I still loved the world building and Borne, the character. I'm excited to explore the landscape more in Dead Astronauts and The Strange Bird. 

Dangerous Women: Fifty reflections on women, power and identity by Jo Shaw, Ben Fletcher-Watson, Abrisham Ahmadzadeh

challenging funny hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Paradais by Fernanda Melchor

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book is a massive hangover that never ends, garnished with years of regret and nostalgia. You will feel thirsty, dusty, deprived of hope, and angry about your circumstances reading this. 

The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century by Olga Ravn

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is an absolute gem. It's a terse recount of an interstellar ship's crew's relationship with work, the planet they left behind, and their humanity (some of the crew are humanoids, or androids of sorts). There are also interesting aliens present who act as "comfort animals" to the crew, giving off scents reminiscent of home, inducing vivid dreams, and creating hallucinations of the trypophobic manner. This is a story that invites you to fill in the blanks between individual accounts of the events that transpire, and the effect is nothing short of tragically magical. This is one of my new favorite books. 

Count Luna by Alexander Lernet-Holenia

adventurous dark funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Much less a maddened journey into the underworld, and more a travelogue through snippets of history and paranoia, Count Luna delivers an intriguing and classic journey into the mind of an apathetic aristocrat of sorts who inadvertently commits murder to evade an assailant who probably isn't there. I loved the ending and would almost say it's worth just reading the last ten or so pages, but the overall experience really is worth reading through. 

The Doloriad by Missouri Williams

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

This book is a masterclass for me, and I will revisit it for many years to come. It's grotesque, poetic, challenging, philosophical, unapologetically unique and above all, personal. If you hated it, disregarded it, or saw it as pretentious and exploitative drivel, I would highly recommend at least reading her interviews with Triquarterly and Bookforum to get her perspective and intentions with the book and her writing style.

If you're a big fan of Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" and love falling down Youtube rabbit holes to try and find meaning in a work you find challenging yet compelling, this will be the book for you.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different by Chuck Palahniuk

dark emotional funny informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

 Chuck delivers a fantastic writing guide, along with some dependable and hilarious anecdotes on life, the biz, fandom, and death.