NOTE: This review contains spoilers for Before the Broken Star. Please read at your discretion. 2/5 “Be calm. Be machine. Be indifferent, like time.” This was a frustrating read for me. Featuring the alluring premise of a girl with a clockwork heart, Before the Broken Star is a great example of how elegant prose alone can’t carry…
Movie Review: A Silent Voice
(Warning: This film contains brief suicidal ideation.) 5/5 "Back then, if we could have heard each other's voices, everything would have been so much better." How does bullying affect people, even years after it’s happened? When is it possible to overcome the trauma of bullying, or, in the perpetrator’s case, to set down the weight…
Three Graphic Novels to Read for Pride Month
As the 50thanniversary of the Stonewall Riots draws closer, Pride Month 2019 is in full swing. Rainbow flags abound, companies are gearing their brands towards the LGBTQ+ community, and parades are marching through city streets. With summer settling in, June is coming up cheery, colorful, and super queer. There are plenty of ways to celebrate…
Book Review: “Holy Sister” by Mark Lawrence
4/5 “Moons might rise and fall, empires wax and wane, even the stars come and go, but there are constants too, and though the story of our kind is ever-changing it is also always the same.” It’s always a joy and a relief when a trilogy sticks the landing, and Mark Lawrence has done a…
Book Review: “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens
4/5 “Most of what she knew, she'd learned from the wild. Nature had nurtured, tutored, and protected her when no one else would.” A lovely, thoughtful book about nature and one woman’s relationship with it. Popularized as a coming-of-age story with a dash of murder mystery, Where the Crawdads Sing is truly about Kya Clark,…
Book Review: “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. 5/5 “It’s always been fascinating to me how things can be simultaneously true and false, how people can be good and bad all in one, how someone can love you in a way that is beautifully selfless while serving themselves ruthlessly.” After finishing up Becky Albertalli’s Leah on the Offbeat,…
Book Review: “Leah on the Offbeat” by Becky Albertalli
4/5 Bi girls! Cute couples from previous books! Healthy relationships with parents! Loads of swearing and clever banter! Seriously, what’s not to love about Leah on the Offbeat? Like many fans of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (rebranded as Love, Simon by 20th Century FOX), I was thrilled to hear Becky Albertalli was working on…
Original Work: The Puppet and the Doll – Part II
Glossary of terms: Fyrnen (feer-nen): weapon derived from the wielder’s body; power depends on body and soul, said to link the two; damage to a fyrnen means grievous harm to the wielder Raiko has a fyrnen that takes the shape of a scythe. Black thread: a soul bond Temeer: a magic user whose power is imbued directly into…
Original Work: The Puppet and the Doll – Part I
Glossary of terms: Fyrnen (feer-nen): weapon derived from the wielder’s body; power depends on body and soul, said to link the two; damage to a fyrnen means grievous harm to the wielder Raiko has a fyrnen that takes the shape of a scythe. Black thread: a soul bond Temeer: a magic user whose power is imbued directly…
Book Review: The Book of Night Women, by Marlon James
4/5 Holy cow, this book was difficult to rate – almost as difficult as it was to read. But this makes perfect sense, as Marlon James’s The Book of Night Women is not a satisfying book. The story it tells is frustrating, disturbing, and, ultimately, deeply unsatisfying. My knee-jerk reaction to feeling anger and frustration…
