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triciajk's reviews
144 reviews
Lobster by Guillaume Lecasble, Polly McLean
adventurous
funny
inspiring
reflective
5.0
Lobster watches a woman eat his father. He falls in love. We've all been there. Unfortunately, the rather famously known ship he's on goes down after getting hit by an iceberg, and Lobster loses his love to the rescue boats. What follows is an odyssey of obsession, a search for companionship, and a one-man lobster cult. Inspiring and unsettling. 10/10
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Sexual content
Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Gothic space horror set on the moon in the 1920s. Mad scientists. Moon cults. Spider lobotomies. Grub.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Medical content, and Murder
Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Gaslighting
After the Dragons by Cynthia Zhang
emotional
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is a great addition to the soft-apocalypse sub-genre. The perfect blend of magical realism and the slow effect of climate change on the environment and society. Kai is running away, throwing himself into the care of stray dragons even to the detriment of his own health and well-being. Eli is searching, though he’s not quite sure what for. When their lives cross paths, they are forced to confront the buried parts of themselves, and in the process find comfort even in a dying world.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
My personal favorite of Shirley Jackson's work. A story about sisterhood, loyalty, ostracization, and, of course, murder. Two sisters: one accused of murdering her family, the other ostracized because of her family's history and her own strange behaviors. They have created a life for each other on the outskirts of society until their routine is disrupted by the appearance of a wandering stranger. Jackson uses the story of these two sisters to explore panic and misconceptions in a small community, and the lengths a person would go to protect the ones they love.
If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Sappho
5.0
Anne Carson breathes new life into the words of Sappho in this complete translation of her work. Short and long, every fragment of Sappho is included in this collection, with the untranslated version on the adjacent page. The title for the book comes from Fragment 22 on page 41, a fragment which also contains one of my favorite lines “...because I prayed/ this word:/ I want”. I highly recommend looking at her Notes in the back if you are interested in the art of translation or you are looking for more insight on the fragments themselves.
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
5.0
This is a great memoir on personal identity and overcoming generational trauma told with familiar stories and wonderful illustrations. As someone who loves mythology I have a great appreciation for Bechdel’s ability to meld personal experience with the tragedies of old. Her perspective on Icarus still sits with me years later.
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
5.0
Murakami’s moody story set in Tokyo “after dark” splits the perspective between two very different sisters: on sister who wanders the shops and streets of Tokyo with a strange and charismatic boy, and one sister trapped in the world of sleep. Spooky girls, late-night adventures with strangers, brothels, weird TV people. What more could you ask for?
The Naomi Letters by Rachel Mennies
4.0
An epistolary collection of letter-poems, drafts sent, unsent, and unfinished, from the speaker to a woman named Naomi, from the time they met to the time their relationship ended. The love in these poems is a palpable thing, at times devotional and melancholic. It is an explication to the way absence sits heavy in the chest and to the way our childhoods shape the way we love.
Post colonial Love Poem by Natalie Díaz, Natalie Díaz
4.0
A testament to hips. Diaz explores the ties of love, family, culture, and colonialism with language that slips over the tongue like a river, constant and ever-changing.