plexxable-reads

[plexxable-reads]

Review: Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

Read: 9/17/20-10/8/20

✪✪✪

3.3/5

I really liked this! Zipped through the better half of it, making it to around the 500 pg mark before I had some health issues that set me back. Maybe it was the couple weeks away from it that made me feel like the last 200 pages were super overdrawn... but the ending landed at “just okay” for me.

I really enjoyed the writing style and the different choices Chbosky/publishers made for stylizing segments. I wouldn’t say this scared the shit out of me or anything, but it was certainly a great story with a creep factor!

I’ve seen a few reviews of this book where the reader really harps on how different this book is from Chbosky’s better-known Perks of Being a Wallflower, but I find that note to be exhausting and irrelevant... I’m sure the author does too. People, ofc this book isn’t a Wallflower sequel. If he wanted to write that, he would’ve.

This is a solid horror/thriller with King influence and I think it was done really well. Let’s leave it at that.

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

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Read: 9/11/20-9/13/20

What an absolute mind fuck.

Just absolutely raucously outrageous.

I can’t even really explain the plot without getting too into spoilers, so I’m just going to suggest that if you are a fan of super weirdness— read this.

CWs: adult coercing child into sexual situations

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic/Grove press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: The Devil All The Time by Donald Ray Pollock

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Read: 9/4/20-9/8/20

3.4/5

Oh man. Oh man, oh man.

CWs: Rape (both adults and children), grooming, violent pornography/perversion, overt bigotry and flat-out racism, suicide

It’s difficult to rate this. The majority of the characters in this book are not, in any universe, good people. I’d say that I truly disliked the front 2/3 of it. The prose is masterful, there’s no denying that. But, spending so much time with such absolutely disgusting characters is... not typically how I’d choose to spend my time.

It’s tricky for me to read a character study that requires me to begin to desensitize in order to finish it... 🥴

You get a great deal of redemption in the final 100 pages or so, which is where it does turn the corner for me, but I had to take breaks from how incredibly, viscerally violent/horrendous most of this story is... at only a little over 300 pages ⚰️

You follow about 3-4 characters’ stories and only one isn’t a complete racist, homophobic, misogynistic, flaming sack of dog shit human. It’s just... it’s a lot.

I think it’s going to be a rare instance of liking the on-screen adaption more than the book???

Anyway, read at your own risk.

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender

Read: 8/26-9/2/20

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4.25/5

I am so impressed by Kacen Callender. For those unfamiliar, Callender is probably best known for their contemporary fiction novel Felix Ever After, which I absolutely cherish and adore.

I’ll admit, I was skeptical going into this, though, because I’ve never experienced an author being able to write CF so well, but also Epic Fantasy at equally a skilled level. To say they exceeded my expectations is a gross understatement.

Queen of the Conquered is not for the faint of heart; not for those who wish to read a lighter tale with themes of racial inequities within BIPOC community, aka light skinned privilege. It’s brutal, in your face, and rivals GoT in terms of no character being safe.

Our anti-heroine, Sigourney, is firey and endlessly complex. Callender explores dynamics that are very real within BIPOC spaces in a way that stands above similar works— Children of Blood and Bone, A Song of Wraiths and Ruin— it just tells it much more honestly, in my opinion. A much more mature telling of this theme.

I think part of its success was Callender’s choice to not do multiple POVs, which I’m typically a fan of, but pretty much every YA fantasy novel has employed that as a device lately, so QoC bucking against that was a welcome change. I’ve seen some criticism on the magic system, but it worked just fine for me, personally. Especially since we do only have Sigourney’s POV— her ability to see intimately into other’s thoughts and memories really helped give us needed backstory, without switching perspectives. A literary device, for sure, but it worked.

A big “THANK FUCK” to Callender for not using tired forbidden romance tropes. There was some sexual tension, sure, but the trigger was never pulled, and for that I’m extremely pleased.

I’m super stoked to read King of the Rising!

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

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3.75/5

I’ve read quite a few YA fantasy novels over the past few months. All written by talented authors, but all objectively rating for me both good and bad.

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin sits somewhere in the middle for me. I didn’t find there to be too many annoying tropes. I enjoyed all of the character’s dynamics very much.

The magic system worked for me, despite it perhaps not being the most fleshed out.

That said, it is a very “easy” read. Nothing complex in its language/prose. It’s definitely a good read if you’re in the mood for something that doesn’t require too much effort, but also does have a powerful message, and rich character development/world building.

All in all, I’m very excited to read the next one, to see where the author takes this story.

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Read: 8/17/20 - 9/3/20

✪✪✪

3.5/5

Fairly disappointing.

This took me a much longer time than i expected to get through.

Its middle 200 pages or so were not working for me, but the last 1/4 of the book really impresses.

This had a lottttt of YA tropes, mainly the forbidden romance aspect, that were extremely tiresome, imo. Each of the romance dynamics felt super forced. However, I did grow to enjoy the characters, for all their flaws and annoyances.

I will admit that it could partially be that I started reading Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callendar during my time reading this. With their themes being so similar, but QoC being clearly geared towards a more mature audience, it definitely didn’t help my feelings towards CoBaB.

I’ll be reading the next installment eventually because I do believe that the author is very talented but this just did not live up to the hype for me. I’ll do it for Amari.

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: She’s Too Pretty To Burn by Wendy Heard

✪✪✪✪

Read: 8/18/20-8/19/20

Oh. My. W O W Wowowowowowowowww [opens window, opens fridge, sits in a tub filled with ice, straps on a ventilator] Ya’ll. Y’alllllllllllll What. A. Ride. Some people will hate this. It’s definitely very YA, there’s no denying that. I can even see sophisticated a Middle Grader really devouring this. . . And yet, so did I. Honestly, if the romance aspect had been hetero... I probably would’ve DNF’d. I find hetero romances in YA to often be tiresome tropes. And this is coming from a bi, genderqueer, cis womxn who’s in a cis hetero marriage. Lol. The only exception to that for me was Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince series, which not only had a hetero romance, but a damn love triangle... normally dynamics I would throw a book in a dumpster fire for, but it really works in those. I digress... This book was pitched as inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray and I can kiiiiinda see that, but I think I went into this expecting that exact archetype, and did scratch my head the entire way through comparing the two. It felt more The Virgin Suicides meets You to me with how dark it gets, tbh. That last chapter? Whew! Goosebumps. Despite this, I honestly ate it up. Finishing it in just about 8 hours of active reading time. It’s got great, conversational prose, clear perspective switch indicators at the beginning of each chapter, and is packed with .... A C T I O N ! ! ! ! I also really appreciate that this book doesn’t take itself too seriously. I kind of dislike when YA Thrillers try to act super sophisticated and have a lot of “Gotcha!” moments. This didn’t feel that way to me and it made its twists feel so much more natural than most in its category. It’s really exactly what I wanted to read— ✔️something light ✔️with atypical representation, ✔️a bit of action/mystery, ✔️and solid dialogue/prose. Thank you to NetGalley, Henry Holt and Co/Macmillan Children’s Publishing, and Wendy Herd for granting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review✨

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

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Read: 8/13/20-8/17/20

You find your way into my room; it’s pitch black, but there’s a glimmer of light coming from inside the closet. You approach with caution, unsure of what you might find. A bead of sweat tickles the side of your face as it makes its way down and around your ear, and finally to the back of your neck. You take a deep breath in, hold it, and as you slowly lean your hand against the door, pushing it open, a book sails out from the closet’s interior, smacking you right in the face. ”Read this fucking book— right the fuck now,” I’ll call out from the shadows before disappearing back into its depths where I’ll lie until Andrea Stewart releases Book 2. Hi, I’m Alexxa, and I’ve been personally victimized by Andrea Stewart. Since reading The Bone Shard Daughter, I have experienced the following emotions: - intense attachment to a magical creature - intense excitement over an established sapphic relationship - intense anger at the political socioeconomic structure of an empire that feels enormously apt - intense attachment to pretty much all of its protagonists - intense reaction to a twist. Like, I screamed, y’all. ITS JUST VERY INTENSE OVER HERE

On a final note— I’m a sucker for the broody-guy-begrudgingly-inherits-cute-animal-and-they-become-chosen-family trope 🥺 I would like to take this time to volunteer, as tribute, to camp out in front of HBO’s studios, begging executives to produce an on-screen series adaption. 🙋🏻 All this to say— this book fucked me up. In the brain. Bad. In the best way. BOOK2NOWPLZ Thank you to NetGalley, Andrea Stewart, and her publishers for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review ✨

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: Persephone Station by Stina Leicht

✪✪✪

Read: 8/6/20-8/17/20

*UPDATE* It’s come to my attention that I was mistaken— this is meant to be a standalone, and to that I say to Stina Leicht, “whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy 😩” Ugh, why go through all of that world building for one book with these lush characters?? I guess i should’ve taken the hint with the epilogue, but for some reason I was convinced that its goodreads page indicated it was a series. Super disappointing. Unfortunately, that does effect my rating, and I will be recanting my curve. Should this error turn out to be a premonition, I will adjust it back. 💔 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Actual rating is like 3.25 Stars, but I honestly very much liked the writing style, prose, and characters, so gave it a round up— it was just the overarching plot, its stakes specifically, that I couldn’t get into. However, I did not DNF because of the aforementioned. We have our entire cast of characters consisting of both womxn and non-binary folx. Helllll yes The dialogue and character dynamics rule and kept me interested. There was just something lacking in the expository sections— and this happens with Book 1s in a series— it all felt very exhaustive, such an info-dump. And that’s okay!— but it lead me to start another book at about 40%, that was almost twice its size in length, finished it, and came back to Persephone. Because the positives really do outweigh my struggle with the stakes and overly-vast world-building, I was determined to finish it, and I’m so glad I did! Genuinely, I will pick up Book 2–The author is very talented and I grew a fondness for the characters. I have a feeling the next installment is really going to hook me in. Thank you to NetGalley, Galley/Saga Press, and Stina Leicht for granting me a very early eARC for my honest review✨

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: Some Laney’s Died by Brooke Skipstone

✪✪

Update: The author/publisher DM’d me on Goodreads after review was posted to tell me my opinion was wrong. 🙃

----

Read: 8/11/20-8/13/20

Yeahhh— I really wanted to like this And truthfully, it’s not that I didn’t, per say... the concept itself is right up my alley, so I truly enjoyed the parts that were heavy on dimension “skipping”, as this book calls it. I’m a big fan of multiverse stories, paradox theory, all of that. I also love YA— when they’re good. But... (And it’s definitely a large qualifier) At ~25-40%, the author really started to let her biases show. The following dog whistles went off: — kink/sexuality shaming; I was a pretty prudish 16 year old, but I didn’t have the kind of utter disgust and horror that Laney does for discovering her mom’s toy drawer. Like, I get it, it’s always a weird event when you’re a teenager and you have the revelation that your parents fuck, but the way in which the character is written really rubbed me the wrong way. There’s actually an entire part of the plot that centers Laney and two other girls from school filming each other masturbating with a vibrator— which in and of itself is absurd and just not something that actually happens???— but the way it’s written, has so much shame in it, that I was not only frustrated with the fact that this was (an “important”, nonetheless) part of the plot in the first place, but also frustrated that the author was suggesting that young women should be ashamed of their sexuality. It was just weird, y’all. Definitely made me uncomfortable. It could be very possible that this was the author’s intent, but I kind of doubt it. — addiction shaming; they seemed particularly focused on weed for some reason, despite its legality in many places, and there being little evidence to support it being addictive in the way that actual substance abusers struggle with. Laney’s father’s girlfriend struggles with addiction issues, but the only substances that the author names are alcohol (totally valid) and weed (why???). She has miscarried in the past, according to the author, due to this substance abuse. She was also fired because she smoked weed at her job inside... who does that? And look, weed, like other things, is not for everyone, and that’s fine. But to have it be the main struggle for someone who’s supposedly an addict was weird. It’s just silly. If she’s an alcoholic, say she’s an alcoholic. There’s not nearly enough scientific research to suggest that weed usage during pregnancy causes miscarriages, and there certainly is enough research out there for the consensus to be that weed is no more addictive than caffeine (technically caffeine is more addictive...) The way that Laney’s perspective on these issues is written really gives off the impression that the author is letting her personal feelings on the subject of sexuality and cannabis usage show, which is fine, it’s her book, but it really alienated me as a reader who both has some kinks in her sexual preferences, and also, to be transparent, uses a lot of weed both recreationally and medicinally, someone who also worked in the legal cannabis industry for many years. — casual racism; Laney’s friends flash “gang signs” ( the author’s words 😒🧐) in photos. She also goes out of her way to describe a black or brown (we don’t know because Laney literally describes him as something to the effect of, “could be African-American, could be middle eastern”) boy working at the camping/outdoors store. It’s just always a bad look when all of the white characters are not described exclusively by the color of their skin and then the one BIPOC shows up and that’s their leading descriptor. There are trigger warnings at the beginning of the book which is so, so, so, so great! Seriously, more authors/publishers need to do this. What’s strange is that some of the bigger triggering themes were not listed in this warning, and in all honestly, the trigger warning is strangely broad. Like, if you’re going to warn us, you should be specific. “This book contains scenes of violence, sexual situations, and suicide.” Really doesn’t cover it, imo. There’s a sexual assault scene that will honestly probably haunt me and it would’ve been nice to get a heads up. Listing both ‘violence’ and ‘sexual situations’ is not enough, nor helpful. If you really care about a reader being triggered, say what it actually is, don’t beat around the damn bush... not to mention the, ya know, incest.... why on earth is that not listed? I know that this is an ARC and hopefully enough people will talk about these issues, but this overall, these were big negative marks for me that had me, mid-read, docking it from 4 stars to 3 within the span of maybe 20 pages. Overall, I just really didn’t connect to a lot of the writing style. The dialogue felt particularly forced. Never at any point did I feel I was being narrated to by an actual teenager. It gave me, “I’m a cool, hip 30-to-40-something who totally knows how teens interact nowadays,” vibes, but they really, truly don’t. Like, at all. It’s a 4/5-star concept with 2/3-star execution 🤷🏻‍♀️ **Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC**

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

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Read: 8/5/20-8/6/20

Like many born in the late 80s-early 90s, one of my earliest memories of reading is Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, a visionary. It’s a book that doesn’t have many words at all, but it’s such an important one. Years later, Spike Jonez and Dave Eggers took what Sendak had done, and embellished upon it. Many critics of their work and this adaptation, but I think it’s a masterpiece. Pet, although obviously a very different story in some regard, has a similar spirit to me. It’s a story of innocence leaving, a coming-of-age tale, not unlike Stephan King’s The Body, but with a super natural twist. And lemme tell y’all— I was here for it. Just. All the way. This was my first time reading anything from Akwaeke Emezi and I am rushing to buy the rest of their offerings to this world. What a genius. Seriously. Ah. Wow. Okay. Just read it. Byeeeee

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

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Read: 7/22/20-7/26/20

Okay, pals. Buckle up.

I want to start this review with a confession— I DNF Game of Thrones...

I know, I know. Scold me. GRRM's style and prose is just way too slow for me. To me, he writes like he has severe ADD, and I mean no offense to anyone with attention deficit problems, but I can't read a saga that derails itself over and over and over ad nauseam. I just can't do it, can't get into it. Thank goodness GoT translated very well onto the screen (ignoring the final season that I just have decided to wipe from my memory Eternal Sunshine style to deal with the grief, obvi), or I might not have ever become familiar with that world.

I bring this up as introduction because Rebecca Roanhorse is a brilliant author and I will take this statement to my grave. She has not only managed to build a brilliantly lush and visceral world like so many legendary fantasy storytellers have done before her, but she managed to do so without needless expository! Nothing was missed, nothing was left unsaid necessarily, but I could just tell that she was very intentional with where she decided to embellish, and from a reader standpoint it absolutely thrilled me! So, thank you Rebecca for knowing that it wasn't necessary to launch into an entire 5 paragraph expository section, detailing (view spoiler)

There several other examples where she chose not to divulge useless information for the sake of taking up a page, but this one was the first time I really was like, "Oh, wow, thank god.. T H A N K Y O U".

I'm not going to go into too much crazy detail as far as plot and characters go, I'm not that kind of reviewer, and you have a very fine summary provided by the author/publisher at the top of the goodreads page, bookstore description, etc. but here's a little synopsis in case you haven't actually read anything about this book before reading this review:

This epic takes place pre-columbian infiltration, so like our author, its characters are indigenous (YES PLEASE LOVE). Thus, the lore that Roanhorse introduces us to is influenced by a lot of real native customs and culture. Every chapter begins with telling us where on the map we are, and gives us a timeline in relation to the Convergence: when the Sun, Moon, and Earth all are in alignment. The first character we are introduced to is a young boy, 10 years before convergence, Serapio. His mother carves sigils into his skin, and blinds him, because she believes he is The Crow God. It's difficult to talk much about Serapio without getting into spoiler territory, so I'll just leave it at that he's endlessly fascinating, and a far more intruiging take on GoT's (not to keep bringing this comparison back....) Bran. I have a lot of mixed up feelings about Ser, and I think anyone who has finished the book can understand why. We don't return to that timeline for some time, as the next main character we meet, 20 days from convergence, is Xiala—a ship captain and a drunk, to be direct. We meet her in a jail cell, locked up for public indecency and getting physical with a Lord Pech. She is bailed out by another merchant lord, Lord Balam, on the promise that she is to captain a ship carrying precious cargo, that must arrive across the map before convergence. Although Xiala insists to Balam that there's not enough time and that it cannot be done, he seems oddly confident that she'll do as he desires. Xiala is incredibly likeable, the kind of heroine that I love to relate to. She's moody, she's super comfortable with her (pan)sexuality... oh, and she's a Teek: she can hold influence over water. Pretty handy in her profession, as you might imagine. Our third main character in the same aforementioned timeline, is newly appointed Sun God, Naranpa. I have a great deal of love for Naranpa—she ascended despite coming from a common clan, not of Sky Made, like all of the other priesthood. She's a realist, and has very keen instincts for people: Iktan— her nonbinary sheild, knife, and former lover (who is the first character to feature nonbinary pronouns!!) is one that I'm still not sure how to feel about. That said, Abah her priesthood nemisis, can go straight to hell. Fuck Abah. The final main character arc that we follow along the timeline towards the Convergence is Okoa— Prince of Tova, Carrior Crow. His journey starts later in the timeline because he's only brought in when (view spoiler). He is so essential to the plot, and I'm excited to learn more of him from a more personal level in the installments of the series to come.

The other choice of note that had me grinning from ear to ear and screaming, "Y E S S S S S" at 2am, most likely waking my husband, dog, and our neighbors: Xe, Xir, Xed freakin pronouns. NONBINARY PEOPLE, YALL. YES, NOT JUST ONE. YES. YES. What a treat.

I gotta tell you guys, I have, like many, been making a much more conscientious effort to read more fiction by BIPOC authors, and I am kicking myself and my privilege for not doing so sooner. BIPOC authors are murdering the fantasy/sci-fi game right now, and this is just another brilliant example.

Frankly, if HBO or Netflix doesn't option

Black Sun

for a series, they would honestly be pretty fuckin stupid.

Btw, here's a map just in case you're like me and thought while reading an ARC,

hmmmm, I'm loving this but I'd really like a map...

https://simonandschusterpublishing.co...

Okay, I'm done rambling, but seriously: this is in my top 5 favorites of the year. It's amazing. Endofstory.

ENJOY!

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls

✪✪✪✪✪

Read: 7/20/20-7/23/20

I probably could’ve finished this in a day, but I wanted to savor it. I love this so, so much. I honestly don’t even know what I could say that would put my feeling into an articulate review. Just know that this is exactly what you want to be reading right now, don’t look away—hold these characters close, think about them when you go to bed at night, think about them when you wake up, brush your teeth, drive to wherever. Really think about them. Carry them with you. Also, I’m a total slut for gorgeous covers and I will be purchasing a physical copy for my pretty book cover collection. ✨

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow

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Read: 7/18/20-7/19/20

Really, really loved this— super conversational prose that makes for an easy escapist read, which is welcome in these very anxiety-inducing times. Its heroines are expertly crafted, extremely relatable, and visceral. I’m a big fan of sci-fi/fantasy that also roots itself in social commentary, and that’s exactly what Morrow accomplishes here! Not to mention, the cover is absolutely stunning, so I’ll definitely be buying a physical copy 💕

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

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Read: 7/6/20-7/18/20

**S P O I L E R S** Please continue at your own risk. Thank you so much to NetGalley, Redhook Publishing, and Alix E. Harrow for the early ARC in exchange for an honest review 3.5/5 I’m honestly heartbroken to write this review. Taking a deep breath here... I’ll start by saying Alix E. Harrow is an exceptional author and one of my ‘Top 5’ all-time favorites (The Ten Thousand Doors of January) came out of her brain. I’d also like to add, I’m a fellow artist, a musician— I know how daunting it is to follow up such a strong debut. It sucks, honestly. Really fkn sucks. A lot. With that said... [I’m so upset to type this] I did not immerse into this like I had hoped. 🙍🏻 The pacing was really not my thing. Every time I thought I was getting hooked in, it flat-lined for me. There’s a lotttt of exposition. This isn’t always a bad thing, and if Harrow wasn’t such a skilled writer that truly has a knack for developing a unique, visceral tone for her main characters, I might’ve given up at about 40%. I would say that this is fiction, sub genre historical fiction. It’s absolutely necessary to provide a bit of context, but I felt it was overdone at times (and underdone in others????) And now, folks, the most devastating and uncomfortable critique I have— As I said, this piece has a lot of historical context to it, which I love. Unfortunately, I was disappointed that a story, centering witching, barely spent any time talking about the Black (Egyptian and Haitian) community of witches (The Daughters of Tibuta) who reside in New Cairo. I found it incredibly frustrating that there was so much given regarding our [white] protagonist Sisters of Avalon from New Salem— their history, their family history, their witching history... and yet the section when Cleo finally tells Bella about The Daughters is so lacking, I actually had a hard time finding it again when I wanted to go back before writing this review (Chapter 18). To write a historically accurate book on witching, and to neglect a key part of its history, considering the overarching theme of the novel is “stronger together” in many ways, left me pretty disappointed. Speaking of disappointment, let’s talk about Ms. Cleopatra Quinn some more— oh wait, there’s not much more to tell. 😢 Again, a huge missed opportunity here. I found her character fell into a common trope with “strong, black femxle” characters across pretty much all disciplines of narrative fiction: they’re one-dimensional and pretty much act as a plot device in service of bailing out the white characters from their messes. Harrow barely scratches the surface...throwing us a few crumbs when we finally hear about her bearded marriage to a gay man, and then it’s back to the Eastwood Sisters Show. And listen, I’m not unaware of who this story is supposed to be about. I get that. I like the sisters, I really do, but it’s quite possible to create supporting characters that are fully messy, beautiful, piercing ruckuses (which, with Harrow’s previous work, shows she’s fully capable of, by the way!) without taking away from the story’s main protagonists and I just did not feel it happened here. It just... bothered me. Again, I take no joy in sharing this, and maybe had I read this a year ago, I might not have (as a white cis person) thought twice about this, but with racial inequity at the forefront of mine and many other people’s minds, I again found myself pretty frustrated... I mean, Cleo is honestly one of the most interesting characters in this book in my opinion— she deserved better, she really did. Cleo was not the only supporting character to get the shaft— Jennie, the Sisters of Avalon’s first member and record keeper, former suffragette assistant, and as we find out at ~82%, she happens to be trans. Now, I’m all for having trans characters without focusing too much on their identities. I think this is an important evolution that needs to be made in how art tells trans stories and represents that community. To represent them as regular people who are, and need to be known as trans, but it’s not the entirety of who they are. This is necessary, so it’s not the lack of talking about her identity that I take issue with. However, this is revealed so late in the book (like, 82%???) that I actually had to double-back and reread the section again. Similar to Cleo’s small nugget of development, it came and went so fast, I was left feeling really empty from wanting to get to know Jennie better, and not being given that chance. Phew. How’s everyone doing? That was rough. I feel tired. Let’s talk about some great parts of this book, yeah? Again, I can’t overstate enough how skilled I feel Harrow is. Despite feeling like I missed out on so much of who Cleo is, my favorite sections were the dialogue between Bella and Cleo. Their romance is truly beautiful with some of the most elegant intimacy scenes probably ever written. I would 100000% read a spin-off centering them. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention our Sisters Eastwood and their masterfully crafted dynamic. Each of the three are so distinct, not just in personality and quirk, but also in the way that they process (shared and individual) trauma. Really freakin riveting character study. (Not to beat a dead horse, but that’s precisely why I couldn’t let my critiques slide for Cleo, Jennie, hell... I even would’ve taken more on August! It’s not only a disservice to what I know are such fascinating characters living in the author’s brain, it’s a disservice to Harrow as a very capable character author. Just let me in your brain, Alix!) Okay, so here’s the summarized consensus— I didn’t hate it, how could I? It’s Alix-freakin E. Harrow. It just wasn’t all the way there for me. I told myself after finishing that I’d reread it, I’ll definitely buy a physical copy once it’s officially released, but currently I’m not crazy about this one. And like, that makes me so, so sad. Thank you again to NetGalley, Redhook Publishing, and Alix E. Harrow for allowing me such an early look! (please don’t hate me...)

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: The Conductors by Nicole Glover

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Read: 6/22/20-7/26/20

Wow wow wow wowwwwww What a debut! Gorgeous, delicious prose. Juicy historical-fiction-mystery... but with a touch of magic ✨ Honestly, would not hate it if this turned into a series. I’m super into the magical lore that Glover has created here— really creative to use the historical context of occultism being born of Black cultures, while also creating the idea that wands used by non-magical folk for sorcery (the “dark magic” and pretty much used by only white people) are made from bones of magic slaves. Our naturally gifted magicians use constellations drawn in the air to perform spells, summoning astrological signs. Also, really enjoyed the romance between Hetty and Benji so, so much. Will definitely be following Nicole Glover for her future works! * I received an ARC from Netgalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review— thank you so much! *

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

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Read: 6/14/20-6/22/20

What a gorgeous piece of art— man, oh man. This work of fiction (with tons of historical context) shows clearly how the systems of whiteness and white supremacy effect hierarchy dynamics even within and amongst the Black community, i.e lighter skinned folk and darker skinned folk. It is so important to talk about and to understand. At its core, The Vanishing Half is a character study; a damn good one. The characters that lead us down this road of learning are rich (figuratively) and flawed. They make countless errors (with maybe the exception of, ANGEL EARLY 🥺 whom i can only hope Mahershala Ali will portray in an on-screen adaption) that leave the reader able to really see themselves. I also want to give a little space for talking about how much I loved the character, Reese— a Trans Man. The way in which Bennett writes for this character and for the romance between Jude and him is one of the loveliest love stories I’ve personally ever read. On the same general note, I would be remiss if I did not mention how utterly romantic the relationship between Desiree and Early is. It’s so important to have depictions of healthy, loving relationships between black folx; the narrative has been skewed for so long. This is truly a unique, special read that I will treasure. I look forward to reading many more titles by Brit Bennett ✨