Nora
“She loves and hates this lung, a mystery to her, a tiny lung that carried her son way past his expected life span. She wants to thank it, and also spit on it for not having carried him further.”
I'm leaving this review at a 4-ish for now but this is very hard for me to rate. I want to say I loved it and I enjoyed it but I don't know if those are the right words. This is a disturbing and graphic story of a monster turned boy (?), grown from a mother's grief. Grief is the overwhelming theme here, and it is palpable. Normally I rate based on my enjoyment of the book, the writing, the characters, and the plot, but my overall enjoyment of reading the book usually stands tallest. I can't say that I enjoyed this book, but it is definitely a story that will stick with me. And as disturbing as some of the characters were they were also realistic somehow, in all the surrealism. I felt for Monstrilio towards the end, he's really just another victim of grief as well, whilst also its result in a way. I wonder if he became what he is because of how others viewed him? As unrealistic as this story is it somehow feels possible that immense grief could do what it did in this book, and that is a feat of Sámano Córdova. It's definitely the story that's made me reflect the most lately, so I'm putting a 4-ish for now, but I may bump it as I sit on this for a bit.
Bottom line: read it.
“They are happy to believe I forgot how they maimed me.”
This book got to me. It deals with very heavy topics - I suggest reading the list of trigger warnings beforehand and not to read if you don't think you're in the headspace for it. I was, and it pulled on my every heart string. It made me angry, sad, anxious, joyful, excited, hopeful. The story follows the life of four friends, mainly through the lense of Willem and Jude in particular. We get to know Jude from beginning to end and slowly uncover why he is the way he is, and the horrors he has experienced throughout his life. As heavy and descriptive and detailed as the topics and events were written, I think that's what made me love it - because it felt so real and raw and honest, and I really felt for Jude and everyone else in the story. Of course one can problematize writing a book as heavy as this but I do think it has its place, it's just not for everyone.
This is right up my alley. Stories of growing up, of friends and relationships, of spending dreamy summers outdoors in the summer, of memories, and of life. Yet there is also mystery, intrigue, a puzzle to be solved.
“And maybe,
just maybe,
he'd come back one day,
and burn that
fucking
palace
to the ground.”
As a fan of all things puzzles and games, I loved this YA novel. The teenager me would have been obsessed. Like a cross between knives out, the princess diary and locke & key without the fantasy. I'm off to read the second one because that ending.
This book covers important topics and is beautifully written, I just couldn't get into it. I think the second-person perspective threw me off, so it took me a while to finish despite being short.
“Imagine knowing that your wholeness could be split at any moment, so you live in pieces. You live broken, you live small, lest someone makes you smaller, lest someone break you. You are Black body, container, vessel, property. You are treated as such because property is easy to destroy and plunder”
An odd little book all about the love of books, with a talking cat and labyrinths of lost books and book lovers waiting to be saved. What more could you want? Quite simple, but effective. Very quotable and heartwarming.
“Reading isn't only for pleasure or entertainment. Sometimes you need to examine the same lines deeply, read the same sentences over again. Sometimes you sit there, head in hands, only progressing at a painstakingly slow pace. And the result of all this hard work and careful study is that suddenly you're there and your field of vision expands. It's like finding a great view at the end of a long climbing trail.”
This was a pleasant surprise! I knew nothing about it going in, and picked it up on a whim while looking for an audiobook with a narrator I could tolerate. The narration is fantastic and the different voice actors for different characters made it come alive that much more.
I can't quite put my finger on why I loved this book so much. It's not my normal type of book, and I'm not sure how to explain it. It's about Greta, a transcriber for Om, a sex coach, who becomes infatuated with one of Om's clients who she calls Big Swiss. As the transcriber she gets to hear all Big Swiss' secrets, and soon Greta meets Big Swiss at the dog park, and in a panic introduces herself with a fake name. What ensues is a quirky, funny, sad, and downright odd story. It is rare that I laugh out loud at a book. Greta is definitely an unhinged mess, yet still manages to be endearing and emotional. Very excited for the TV adaptation!