Book reads and reviews, hopefully. After this chapter. This is just a place for me to keep track of my reading this year, and as motivation, but I would love some bookish friends. 🌸Sideblog of Kaitiedidanne🌸
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The main reason I personally interpret Shen Qingqiu as fairly objectively attractive (at least to Binghe) is just how damn fast Bing-ge tried to fuck him once he had an in. Like seriously, Bing-ge appears in the svsss universe after all the canon pidw events - after all the abuse and years of hatred, having presumably already tortured his evil shizun to death. Then spends all of one ☝️ day with alternate universe shizun, casually reads the entirety of a porn novel about himself with said shizun, and just goes.... yes.... I must hit that. For science.
Marcille: I will be doing illegal necromancy because I love my scary feathered dragon wife <3
I understand you on a deep and spiritual level. I love this series. Got through volumes 7-11 this month.
The Sacrifice
A bunch of white people filming a documentary series go where locals warned them not to go and suffer the consequences.
(Spoilers, obviously) I loved this one. The legends, curses, and botanical horror on top of the sentient island coming for them made this a beautiful story. I just wish Alon got a happy ending. :(( They deserved it. (I didn't know it was a queer book going in, and that was a pleasant surprise.)
Case File Compendium
When I first started this series, I was a little hesitant. The description didn't seem to be up my alley, but I love Erha. Several people said I would love it, and here we are. I call it my dark soap opera when my friends let me info dump about it and I couldn't be happier. It's wild and I'm gasping and clutching my pearls every volume.
I did not like this book. Just watch the movie. Extended rant on another post because I had Opinions. This was two books Frankensteined together. One was boring, the other was absolutely nonsense. 1.5 stars.
Leave the Sacrifice at the Gate
I wasn't expecting the emotional backstory, that actually got me a bit. I was expecting more romcom, but this was a perfect standalone romance, funny and sweet. 3.5 stars
Blue Lock
Borrowed from my brother since we finished the first season. It's basically the same as the anime, and I liked it, but I think I'll just continue with the anime instead of reading. 3 stars.
This Wretched Valley
This one had a good premise, but it fell flat for me. There were some good spooky scenes, especially with the ghost couple.
"The fire prickled at the right side of her body, left side icy and shivering. The flames snapped when she stepped past the fire pit, as if they were baiting her, trying to force her to turn and confront what they were eating."
And the description of Clay's death made me a little queasy.
It's not a bad book overall; I initially rated it three stars, but on reflection, based on personal enjoyment, I lowered it to 2.5.
The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish
This is my feel-good fluff series. Definitely recommend if you want a silly, family-oriented palace drama. 5 stars.
Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint is still going strong. 4.5 stars for volume six.
Strong 4 stars for The Summer Hikaru Died, vol. 5. Can't wait for the next one.
I really liked the movie, especially the monster. I felt the ending was a little weird, so I wanted to read the book since they're usually even better.
This book is why the "usually" caveat is there.
From the beginning, it was kind of disappointing. The characters were incredibly shallow.
It quickly became: 1. Hutch 2. The Angry One 3. White-British-guy-who-hates-his-wife #1 and 4. White-British-guy-who-hates-his-wife #2. (One of them became The Whiny One later.) That's fine, I'm here to see a monster, I can handle flat characters if the story is good.
Then they were walking. And complaining. Then there was a cool description of the forest or something eerie, and then right back to it.
Then the second half of the book happened. It's a completely separate story shoved onto the hiking horror.
I had to keep pausing to make sure I heard things correctly, because we have sentences like:
"Through the delirium of pain, he caught her scent. She was yogurty, sour creamy, sebaceous. He was smelling her cunt through a nose he knew was crushed flat." Brother, why is that what we're doing here.
Instead of a monster horror, we get weirdly gross sexual cult teens in their getaway cabin. The author starts proselytizing about Christianity to The YouthsTM, since they're so caught up in their black metal music, face paint, and murder. He has them saying things like, " We are Vikings, we serve Odin who wants us to kill the Christians, the faggots, the immigrants". "Now you begin to understand our Viking ways with foreigners who fuck with Odin". How is this relevant. How did we get here.
More weird gems include:
"You know, lying here with my face hanging off, I'm beginning to think that the end of the nuclear family wasn't a good thing. Because people like you might not have happened. There would have been no Blood Frenzy then, ey? I reckon you took it in the ass from an early age, Loki."
Mind you, he's supposed to have a severe head injury where he can't speak or walk well at this point, but somehow he's able to be homophobic quite clearly.
The main character then starts talking about the sacrifices of other religions, etc. as "all of us who have died unjustly for the Gods of the insane". That is... I can't even begin to explain how wildly out of touch that is.
We also have descriptions like "Against his stomach and groin, he felt a nose as wet as seafood and contracting like a baby's heart in his navel".
I'm putting these sentences because nothing else can fully put into words what I felt at reading them. It was incredible repetitive and boring at the beginning; I kept losing focus, rewinding, and getting nothing out of it the second time. It's the kind of book where you're bored and get to an okay climax, and then you still somehow what almost half of the audiobook left to go.
One positive- the narrator was good. Almost covered up how nonsense some of the sentences were.
Besides Delicious in Dungeon, the theme this month was romance.
Delicious in Dungeon
I bought myself the box set for my birthday since I loved the anime so much. I couldn't wait to see the end of the story. The first book is a solid four stars, but overall, the series is a five for me. The themes of friendship and community and the monsters and adventures are so well-balanced and creative. The world building is absolutely phenomenal. I read the first six volumes in February.
When the Villainess Seduces the Main Heroine
Honestly, this one is on me for not doing any research before I got it, but I have a bone to pick with whoever wrote the summary. I assumed that the synopsis was the plot, not just the first ten pages, with the rest being ecchi bordering on hentai. "Worked her way up through the ranks with her wit and charm alone" is code for "she's a victim of sex-trafficking".
There's no real plot, and it was insta-love, which is a major turnoff for me. I want the relationship development. The terrible porn talk had me half rolling my eyes, half gagging. And the fucking cat.
For the majority of the story, she's not even a Villainess. She's only a little mean to men, which is just normal considering the men they're around. At the end, she did one bad thing. But she didn't even kill him, just had him yaoi-trafficked.
1.5 stars. Definitely was not for me.
A Lily Blooms in Another World
The art enticed me on this one, and if you show me a lesbian transmigration novel, I will immediately read it. In this one, she has entered a game where she breaks off her engagement to pursue the villainess. They then enter into a competition- one where to keep her, the MC has to get the villainess to admit to being happy being with her in two weeks.
It was a cute concept, sweet and simple. Nothing crazy, but a good cozy romance with a fun game plot that come together at the end. Solid three stars.
The God and the Flightless Messenger
My only complaint is that it wasn't longer. And his hair, which was a crime. 4.5 stars, I want to spend more time in this world.
Wanna Be My Dress-Up Lover?
I went to the bookstore with a friend, and she picked this one up. Despite the plastic wrapping, we thought it was going to be a mature, sexier version of My Dress-Up Darling. It's incredibly horny filth, porn with feelings, dubcon/blackmail. Good old classic yaoi plotline. Modern-day ones with this plotline aren't for me, so I'm only giving it a 2.5, but if that's your cup of tea, you're going to love it.
Sheep Princess in Wolf's Clothing
This was cute, but I was expecting more plot and yearning. They get together very quickly, which just leaves the rest of the story for cute dates, I guess. Three stars because it was cute, but I'm not in a rush to read the next volume.
I Ship My Rival X Me
I'm pretty sure I read a fic with this as an AU, and I'm pretty sure it was Erha. I need to find that again. This was adorable fandom-themed fun, with beautiful art. Four stars.
Stolen Tongues
I have a longer post with all my thoughts, because there were many. Overall, this was too long. The women needed to be written better, and he should not have included the Native people in the way that he did. Some of the scenes were good, but it dragged and I got bored and annoyed. 1.5 stars.
I'd been hearing about this one, so I thought I'd give it a shot since it was on Libby.
It was... okay. I liked the idea, and some of the scenes were creepy, especially the playground. My only complaint at the beginning was that the main character was not talking like she was eight, so I just pretended she never said that and imagined her younger, which fixed a lot of problems.
It lost steam halfway through, and I didn't like the whole "we have to take her innocence by telling her this" ending. It was boring.
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I listened to this on Libby. The first little bit in the prologue with the bird was spooky.
It was all downhill from there.
It got so so so repetitive. I think that if they had stayed in the cabin for the story, kept it a more contained, high-stakes thing, it would have worked better. As it is, it went on for way too long, and the scary scenes sometimes didn't have a resolution in the moment when it definitely could have. Like the cellar door thing. You're telling me they didn't search for a way in or anything?
The characters were really shallow and kept pissing me off, and not in the good way.
"Don't talk to it."
"Okay, I won't, I know this is serious."
*Starts talking it it two seconds later*
There were some good creepy scenes, but if you see the same thing fifty times, you get desensitized.
And this for sure was written by a man, Faye is treated like glass, like a child who has to be protected from this when she absolutely should have been included in figuring out her own haunting. The story was centered on her, but she was just a prop.
And the preaching about Native American stuff while using them as a spiritual guide and then killing them?? Off-screen???
The ending was absolute trash. The epilogue reads like you needed to write a conclusion in an elementary paper- he went through his Three Body Paragraphs to summarize each and every one of his points. He retells the plot AS IF WE DIDN'T JUST READ THE BOOK and adds a couple of brief "and here's what we thought/did about it later".
It should have been a much much shorter book. A novella, even.
[When talking about asking his colleagues if he should write about Native people] "Some of them were concerned that I would do a poor job in my portrayals." And they were right. Stop talking.
A small nitpick about the audiobook- I hated the breathy way he talked when a woman was speaking. Why are you reading it like everyone was shouting?? I feel like he also portrayed a couple of scenes in the wrong tone, which was annoying.
This had potential, and some of the creepier scenes were good, but what the actual fuck.
January is the proud holder of National SciFi Day, so I'm never out of things to read for my birthday month.
Lout of Count's Family, Volume 1
*Immediately reads a book that is not SciFi*
I picked this up solely because of the cover. Turns out it was my brand. MC has transmigrated into a story he enjoyed- one which he unfortunately didn't finish. Now he has to work with what plot he knows to prevent his fate as a minor villain. The hero of the story was isekai'd, and I know this isn't BL but it should be. Cale saved the MC and now he's sworn his undying loyalty? Peak. Also our lord is out here pretending not to care, but adopting every orphan he sets eyes on. There's magic and a secret assassin political plot, and all kinds of quests. Super fun so far, and I'm continuing the series. 4 stars, probably 4.5/5 for the fun I had.
Qualia the Purple, Omnibus (Volumes 1-3)
Got this for myself for my birthday <3 I saw Sapphic and SciFi and needed to read it. It was different than I was expecting. A lot of deep science and quantum physics. I loved the horror aspects and while it wasn't my absolute favorite, I enjoyed reading it. 4 stars.
Otherside Picnic, Volumes 5 & 6
Back with my girls~
I have to say, while I am greatly enjoying the mangas, the anime was.... less than optimal. I was so excited to share this story with my anime group, and it was disappointing. They made some interesting choices on what to change. I'm hoping that the plot stays strong in the mangas. 4 stars each
The Scourge Between Stars
This was a really fun novella. Classic setting- you're on a spaceship, every one of your sister ships is experiencing The Horrors, and now it's your turn. It was fast-paced, and I really loved the aliens. This would make for a really fun movie, but I wanted it to be longer and to get to know everyone better. 3.5 stars for me, but still definitely recommend for some quick SciFi horror.
Dinghai Fusheng Records, Volume 2
This is technically a reread, since I read it online, but now it has a physical copy so I can reread it. :3 I love this series, and I can't wait to read the novels themselves. 4 stars. And look at that art.
Survival Instincts
I got this book a long, long time ago, and finally cracked it open for this month. I went a little wild when I first got a disposable income and purchased a lot of queer books without checking ratings or reviews. This was one of them. It wasn't the worst, but it definitely dragged. It's set in a post-apocalyptic world, where civilization failed and now nature has retaken the cities. The main character is a woman who gets caught up in the lives of one of the only settlements left, forced to go on a road trip with one of their members on what amounts to a suicide mission. It wasn't anything in particular that I disliked. It was just long and I prefer my SciFi to have a more fantasy/horror tilt, and while this had some aspects, it just wasn't quite for me. Still 3 stars.
No. 6, Volume 4
The classic queer SciFi series. These two kill me, and I'm reading it so slowly because I know it's going to hurt me and I'm scared.
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Book 74 was a library book. I've been wanting to pick it up since I've enjoyed the author's other works.
It's a horror/mystery about an island that the main character is renting out. Weird stuff has been found by the renters. There's hex circles, bloody claw marks in the closets, etc. So she heads to the island with her niece to investigate. Once there, they're joined by her ex husband, his sister, their high school friend and her brother. Each excuse for them being there was flimsier than the last, but we needed a cast.
This one did not land. At all. The concept was interesting, and the start was fine. It was first person, which I don't tend to like, but I was interested in whatever was going on with the island. Then I realized the main character annoyed the fuck out of me, which sucked since it was from her perspective so I couldn't get away. It also had the self-insert author vibe a bit, especially with the "I'm a ~writer~, so I know better than you" moments. I know it probably wasn't meant that way, but it gets on my nerves.
The mystery was fine, but it felt like the mysterious happenings and questions weren't given long enough before the characters were trying to shove some explanation onto the reader, if that makes sense. Way too rushed in a lot of aspects like that.
There was some good suspense, and some of the body horror was quite good, but it spent way, way too much time on the will-they-won't-they second chance romance and the drama going on between them all.
Like this? This went on for so many pages.
And it wouldn't have been so bad if IT WAS ACTUALLY A DRAMATIC REVEAL. The ✨totally artful✨ concealment of the subject gave it away almost instantly, so every time they tiptoed around the subject- trying to not let the audience know- it felt insulting. There was literally a point where the MC and her ex were talking, and it did a fade to black, and then a "I can't believe she asked you that!"
Plus it just felt. How do I say this. Performative? In the explanation she's giving. The whole interaction just rings hollow, partially because the characters aren't well developed.
Another annoying passage. Idk, I just really, really didn't like her. She was such a doormat with everyone, and kept doing stupid shit. Too stupid to live.
AND ANOTHER THING. The whole "You're really my daughter" thing (besides being dumb) brought into question a whole bunch of stuff. You kept your rapists baby, kept in contact with his sister, and let them both on your island?
And you were fifteen. I know it was supposed to come off as self-sacrificial, but that kind of made me hate the sister. I don't care if you're infertile, you let your fifteen year old sister carry her rapist's baby to term just so you could have it??
I think it's because it's such a real and hard topic that using it in this kind of drama pisses me off and I get real heated about the characters 😅
The ending was.... Fine, I guess. I had to force myself to finish, and at that point, I was like, "fine, sure, the island was summoned somehow. Sure, the Scooby-Doo plot of someone trying to drive you to sell also happened. Why not". It was incredibly heavy-handed in the message, which came across as yet more telling-not-showing.
Not the worst book I've read, but I am glad I borrowed it instead of impulse buying it.
theartofmadeline
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