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toadlett's reviews
93 reviews
The Garden by Fumio Obata, Sean Michael Wilson
relaxing
medium-paced
2.0
Fumio Obata's artwork is very lovely, and I was super there for a story about gardens and the learning and healing involved in building one, but the writing really lets it down I'm afraid. it's just kinda bland - it reads in places like an educational comic about mindfulness, but without enough detail to really teach a reader anything. it feels like there are no challenges for the protagonist, she just sort of glides through the narrative without bumping up against anything enough that we get to learn who she is.
Andromeda or The Long Way Home by Zé Burnay
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
burnay's artwork is beautiful, so fine-grained and detailed it gives a feeling like the images are crystallized in anger - though it reads quickly, and I raced through it in an hour or so, the storytelling feels slow-paced, dreamlike, inviting you to interperet it and find meaning.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
The Gloaming by Kirsty Logan
dark
emotional
hopeful
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
4.0
really beautifully written exploration of family and mythology and grief and how all these things warp us and how we can grow through and past them. also super relatable as someone who grew up in a small highlands village!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Child death
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
hopeful
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
What a great book to finish just before New Year. Novik is great at weaving fairytale themes distinct with her polish cultural heritage into big adventures with lots to say and fantastic, deeply human characters. This isn't a twist on the story of rumplestiltskin so much as an expansion, and becomes a huge story about the cost of things, debts and how we honour them, and smart women stepping in to fix the mistakes of incompetent men. it was so fantastic to see a Jewish protagonist whose faith and culture informs so much of the story, though I'd love to hear the opinion of a jewish person on this. Also I did foster a hope for much of the book that it'd be gayer, and it felt a little mean to have the only unequivocally queer character in the book be hopelessly pining for a man he'd never have a chance with, but the book as it actually is, rather than as I might daydream about, is fantastic and had me hooked throughout. though I've added in content warnings as these are themes in the book, they never feel gratuitous, and in all the action and characters of the book are defined by the loving relationships and growth they build for eachother, rather than their traumas.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Antisemitism