takecoverbooks's reviews
178 reviews

Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones by Torrey Peters

dark emotional funny fast-paced

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

3.5

A friend referred to this as the ur-text for the current slate of trans horror fiction, and it's easy to see why. I wish this was a bit longer, but for a polemic novella, this hits very hard. Torrey Peters went on to write with far more maturity and humane-ness in Detransition Baby, but I would definitely recommend this if you're into her work, or the work of Gretchen Felker-Martin and Alison Rumfitt.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Misogyny, Outing, Dysphoria, and War

The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by C.L.R. James

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

Hard to believe this was written in 1938. The story of the Haitian Revolution is remarkable, inspiring, and brutal. If you want a document that exhaustively documents the evil of imperialism and the tenacity of post colonial reaction, read this and be infuriated.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racial slurs

By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

A 100+ page paragraph that serves as the final confession of a priest and fascist collaborator in Santiago, Chile. If you're familiar with Bolano's work, By Night in Chile will be familiar in its subject matter, but it's an absolute stunner when it comes to style and tone. Furious, funny, and phantasmagorical, this is a difficult, but rewarding book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexism, Torture, Antisemitism, and Classism

Rainbow Black by Maggie Thrash

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This is the most engrossing and entertaining book I’ve read this year. It’s emotional, superbly paced, and endearingly woolly in parts. Highly recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child death, Deadnaming, Gun violence, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Suicide, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Cursing, Hate crime, Terminal illness, Dementia, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

The Unmothers by Leslie J. Anderson

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Your mileage may vary with this one, but Anderson hits on something powerful in The Unmothers. It’s creepy, unsettling, and a challenging rewrite of folk horror tropes. It’s a story about female bodily autonomy, self-control, and the ways in which men seek to domesticate what doesn’t belong to them. It can be slow and unfocused at times, but overall this book is poetically and packs a punch.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Miscarriage, and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Drug use, Car accident, and Abortion

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

4.5

The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The Field by Dave Lapp

funny lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

A Guest in the House by E.M. Carroll

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

McCurdle's Arm: A Fiction by Andrew Forbes

emotional funny sad medium-paced

5.0

I’m not a sports fella, but the way Andrew Forbes writes the baseball games in this book is so engrossing and fun, you could swear you were on the field. This thing has a huge heart, it’s simultaneously hilarious and complicated and emotional. I loved it!