talonsontypewriters's reviews
140 reviews

Crier's War, by Nina Varela

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/injury detail, Murder, Grief, Classism, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Gore, War, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Child abuse

Minor: Drug use, Suicide, Vomit, Torture, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Infertility, Self harm, Addiction, Sexual content, Excrement, and Suicidal thoughts

Discrimination and derogatory terms between in-universe factions. Self-injury for magical purposes.

Moon of the Crusted Snow, by Waubgeshig Rice

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Death, Animal death, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Gore, Injury/injury detail, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Body horror, Colonisation, and Drug use

Minor: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Suicide, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, Child death, and War

Far from the Tree, by Robin Benway

emotional hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Medical content, Violence, Injury/injury detail, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Sexism, Bullying, Drug use, and Grief

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual content, Deportation, Eating disorder, Ableism, Car accident, Vomit, Cancer, Homophobia, Racism, Infertility, Forced institutionalization, Animal death, Death, and Death of parent

Slut shaming. Underage drug use.

Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century, by Dorothy Roberts

challenging informative slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Racism, Xenophobia, Classism, Medical trauma, Slavery, Colonisation, Ableism, Antisemitism, and Death

Moderate: Torture, Child death, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Hate crime, Murder, Terminal illness, Cancer, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Violence, Police brutality, Chronic illness, Trafficking, and Pregnancy

Minor: Misogyny, Sexual assault, War, Islamophobia, Abortion, Gun violence, Rape, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Addiction, Suicide, Drug abuse, Sexism, Deportation, Drug use, and Vomit

Eugenics, forced sterilization.

Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories, by Aviaq Johnston, Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, Gayle Kabloona, Repo Kempt, Cara Bryant, Thomas Anguti Johnston, Jay Bulckaert, Richard Van Camp, K.C. Carthew, Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, Ann R. Loverock

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Gun violence, and Medical content

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child death, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Racism, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, Excrement, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Vomit

Illness, pandemic, needles ("Utiqtuq").

Cinderella Is Dead, by Kalynn Bayron

adventurous dark hopeful fast-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Death, Murder, Body horror, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Lesbophobia, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Grief, Gore, Injury/injury detail, Confinement, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Bullying, and Kidnapping

Minor: Vomit, Excrement, and Suicide

Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History, by Bill Schutt

informative medium-paced

Starts strong, and has some interesting content, but it starts to fall apart when Schutt delves more into the history of cannibalism among human populations, with the light tone feeling more and more forced and the concluding scope even wider and more disorganized than the setup justifies. (If you have to cite Freud to lead into your final thesis, it probably needs some reworking.) In general, I found myself irritated by the author's attitude more than once, and as a biology student I found the popular science angle more to the book's detriment than anything -- though some lack of depth is probably just due to the author balking for fear of playing into sensationalism, the fact that even very simple concepts in biology must be explained for laypeople is likely a factor as well.

I was also unimpressed that Gajdusek's work with kuru is repeatedly referenced, but that he was a convicted child molester -- who sexually abused boys he adopted from the very region he studied, at that -- is never even touched upon, while several much lesser scandals among other cited researchers are at least noted in passing. Given the meandering path from relevance the last few chapters seem to take (and the respect Schutt tends to extend to the victims of both colonization and cannibalistic murderers), surely so much as a footnote might have been warranted.

Ultimately overall fairly disappointing, with poor organization, weak writing, and tentative conviction dulling what could have been a truly fascinating read, though I did like the earlier chapters on cannibalism in other animals and the discussion of the questionable accuracy of historic claims of cannibalistic practices around the world. I'm refraining from giving a star rating (at least for now) for that reason, but I'd say it probably sits somewhere between 2-3.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Animal death, and Gore

Moderate: Classism, Murder, Pregnancy, War, Racism, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Genocide, Injury/injury detail, and Slavery

Minor: Ableism, Child death, Rape, Sexual content, Alcohol, Excrement, Gun violence, Incest, Self harm, and Torture

The Luminous Dead, by Caitlin Starling

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/injury detail, Confinement, Death, Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gore, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Medical content, Gaslighting, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Murder, Abandonment, Vomit, and Classism

Minor: Suicide and Excrement

Nonconsensual drugging, loss of bodily autonomy. Overdose. Hallucinations, paranoia, surveillance, unreality. Descriptions of bodies in various states of decay. Limb loss.

Cemetery Boys, by Aiden Thomas

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Dysphoria, Sexism, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Medical content, Transphobia, Self harm, Body horror, Gore, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Death of parent, Animal death, Racism, Deportation, Child abuse, Gun violence, Abandonment, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Deadnaming, Car accident, Drug use, and Xenophobia

Self-harm for ritualistic purposes.

Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Body shaming, Gore, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Body horror, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Death, Violence, Injury/injury detail, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Pregnancy, Medical content, Murder, Rape, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Abandonment, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, and Mental illness

Minor: Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Incest, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Bullying, Pedophilia, Cannibalism, Suicide, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, and Child abuse

Illness outbreak, epidemic ("Inventory"). Unreality ("Especially Heinous"). Insects ("Eight Bites," "The Resident"). Illness ("The Resident").