wolfreader

[wolfreader]

when my june wrap-up comes around you'll see that i've been exclusively reading queer books during pride :-)

[wolfreader]

may 2025 wrap-up - comics / manga

this month i read five (5) comics and manga.

daredevil: born again by frank miller and david mazzucchielli 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

ugh i hate when something frank miller wrote is good.

the adventure zone: the suffering game by carey pietch and the mcelroys 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

there's only one more volume of the adventure zone graphic novel series to come out, which is exciting! (that's assuming no other taz seasons will be turned into graphic novels)

of the volumes thus far it's probably the most changed from the podcast. in the suffering game arc of the podcast there were a whole bunch of side characters that were entirely cut, which i guess makes sense because they're only there for the very beginning and the very end, so when you already need to condense things for a new medium they're probably on the chopping block. this volume also combined parts of the stolen century, tacked onto the end of the suffering game, which also makes sense - get some of that exposition out of the way instead of devoting an entire volume to it

asumi-chan is interested in lesbian brothels! vol. 2 by kuro itsuki 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

yes i read more of the lesbian porn manga <3

inuyasha vol. 4-5 by takahashi rumiko 📚 🌟🌟🌟🌟

excited to be continuing inuyasha! just as finishing fma was a goal for last year, finishing inuyasha is a goal for this year. i didn't think i was going to achieve that goal because i was just so unmotivated to buy the volumes until recently, but now that i've decided to read the series from the library i'll definitely be able to finish by december. i still want to own the series eventually, but based on both my funds and my physical space on my manga shelf, it just doesn't make sense right now. so while i'm still keeping the three volumes i've already bought and read i'm going to read the rest at the library.

[wolfreader]

may 2025 wrap-up - children's fiction

this month i read three (3) children's books.

howl's moving castle by diana wynne jones 📖 🌟🌟🌟

finally actually finished this thing! i first tried to read it when i was a lot young and couldn't get through it i was just so bored. but i gave it another chance and did enjoy it, but i have mixed feelings.

i think the ending starts to get a bit too overly complicated. as in, complicated in a way that i don't think is serving the story. to compare the book howl's moving castle to the film howl's moving castle, that movie is lowkey confusing as hell but in a way that adds to the very intentional dreamlike, fairy tale vibe of the entire film, and it doesn't feel like a shift because that's the tone of the entire film. meanwhile the book feels like it suddenly gets very confusing and complicated out of nowhere at the very end, and i don't feel like its contributing to this deliberate dreamlike tone as it is in the movie i'm just confused.

i still had a fun time reading it, don't get me wrong! i'm still glad i read it and i'm still really curious to read castle in the air and house of many way. BUT i think the movie is better and i think that certain fans who are a little uppity and pretentious about having read the book before even learning of the movie are kind of laughable.

the story of king arthur and his knights by howard pyle 📖 🌟🌟🌟

kind of basic and a little overly moralistic but still enjoyable! all in all not a horrible retelling of some of the common king arthur narrative points, especially for children. though i really hate the forced formal language and tone the entire book takes, and i thought that the book of three worthies was weaker than the book of king arthur.

dragon flight by jessica day george 📖🔁 🌟🌟🌟

definitely the second book in a trilogy. there are a lot of lore aspects that are dropped here that i know will be important in the third and final book but aren't as important now. the dragon country, dragon hatchlings, the matriarchal royal bloodline of the dragons, et cetera - all of these will play a big role in dragon spear but need to be introduced earlier so we can get to the action faster in dragon spear itself.

dragon flight also has aged somewhat poorly in that it's full of this... well-intentioned 2000s orientalism? a large part of the book takes place in this country that is kind of a mismash of a bunch of cultures but is also clearly muslim-coded in a way that's not hateful but is still very othering and strange, which is uncomfortable to read.

all that being said i thing it's still a fun little read! just like with dragon slippers i love the irreverant fairy tale esque tone and story of the series, it almost reminds me of the princess bride but not quite. i'm excited to reread dragon spear for the first time in a while soon!

[wolfreader]

may 2025 wrap-up - young adult fiction

this month i read three (3) young adult novels.

the monarchs by kass morgan and danielle paige 📚 🌟🌟🌟

the main problem is that scarlett is just such an unlikeable character and jackson is just so boring, so the half of the book being scarlett's pov is grating and her love interest being jackson doesn't help.

i think mason should have transitions and vivi, mason, and xavier should have been a throuple. and vivi's secret sibling should have been real and xavier (the interesting, brand-new character) shouldn't have died just to give jackson (the boring character) something to do. there was so much wasted potential in this book.

bonesmith by nikki pau preto 📚 🌟🌟🌟🌟

i had a lot of fun with it! it was described to me as "straight young adult the locked tomb without the scifi" and yea you definitely see that. the main character, wren, is kind of like if you combined the personality and physical prowess of gideon nav with the noble upbringing and place in society of harrowhark nonagesimus.

it was really easily readable. i was in a little bit of a reading slump so it took me some time to actually sit down and read but once i did it flew by. i'm definitely going to be picking up the sequel at some point this summer, though i'm not sure when.

i did suspect that this one character was trans but alas. he's just a fantasy version of a cyborg. missed potential i'm telling you.

the dagger and the flame by catherine doyle 📚 🌟🌟🌟🌟

a cute little young adult fantasy. not super original, but it doesn't pretend to be and though its tropey those tropes are done reasonably well. i liked both point of view characters well enough and i thought their relationship felt very natural (... for a young adult fantasy lmao).

the twist about sera's father felt a little out of nowhere and i lowkey didn't like it very much but it wasn't completely unforeshadowed nor was my dislike of it at a book-ruining level. i'll probably pick up the sequel once it comes out and my library gets a copy.

there were a couple of aspects of the fantasy that felt almost brandon sanderson esque? lmao. but i'm not saying it was copied or anything i'm just wondering if he was an influence on catherine doyle.

[wolfreader]

may 2025 wrap-up - adult fiction

this month i read four (4) adult novels.

the martian by andy weir 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

i hate it when a majorly hyped book is good. it genuinely shocks me that this was andy weir's debut novel, and it makes me excited to read project hail mary (on my tbr), which was written after weir had more experience as a writer and which i've seen a lot more tumblr-specific hype for rather than general publishing hype.

mark watney is a really fun and engaging protagonist, which is important because for massive chunks of the book he's literally the only character. he was for the most part really lighthearted but there were just enough times where the mask slipped and you could see that that humor was in part just a coping mechanism, but it didn't slip so many times that it brought the mood down. and so the book was able to be layered and dramatic while maintaining its intended comedic tone.

the bright sword by lev grossman 📚 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

aside from my reread of the hobbit, this is the first five star read of the year!

bit of a rant: i really hate modern takes on arthurian legend that act like the entire concept is like... stupid? i don't want books that act like the main character (and by extension, the audience) is dumb or naive for believing that there is goodness and justice and hope in the world. yes, in a real-world context we understand that "just king" is lowkey an oxymoron, but king arthur isn't real and never was. arthurian legend is, to me, escapism on the level of the lord of the rings; sometimes, a classic "good vs evil" conflict where evil is defeated and goodness and hope win the day is just fucking nice. and i'm tired of edgy, cynical reimaginings of arthurian legend that act like they're not. the setting style of arthuriana is so classic and standard for fantasy that you can just create original characters inspired by athurian legend to make your point.

and therefore i was hesitant to pick the bright sword up because i was worried that that's what it was. i knew vaguely that lev grossman's most well-known work, the magicians trilogy, is this kind of cynical deliberately-unlikeable-protagonist decontructionist take on a lot of classic fantasy tropes, and i'm not saying that doesn't have a place but i am saying that it's not really my thing and i was worried that the bright sword would be that but for arthuriana, which i've thoroughly established that i don't like.

but i was so incredibly pleasantly surprised that while the bright sword is somewhat a deconstruction of arthurian legend, it's one that's still hopeful and so clearly filled with love and respect for arthuriana rather than the disdain i feared it would have. there were some moments that were so moving that they almost brought me to tears.

swordheart by t. kingfisher 📚 🌟🌟

this book was so disappointing. it started off strong and really enjoyable; i thought i was going to give it four stars. then by the midpoint it was down to three stars, and by the end you can see it became two stars. there were a bunch of smaller issues, the main one being that it was just two long. it's a little over 400 pages and i think 100 could easily have been cut. it really started to drag on, which is why it went down to three stars by the midpoint. the majority of the novel the characters are just going up and down the same stretch of road over and over again. there were significant chunks where it felt like the book was just treading water; we weren't progressing the plot and we also weren't getting any new or interesting character / relationship development. the prose itself was also somewhat repetitive. there are some phrases that were repeated so often that they stopped registering as words ie "a respectable widow", "the decadent south", and "clammy hands".

however, if these were the only issues it could have stayed at a three star. now we get into my major issues.

i lowkey didn't like sarkis and didn't really believe in his and halla's romance, which is a problem when sarkis's point of view takes up half the book and the romance is 80% of the plot. he's consistently annoyed or exhasperated by halla's talkativeness and curiosity, aka a huge part of her actual personality. when he's thinking or talking about something that he actually likes about halla, it's almost always about her breasts. i'm serious, the amount that this man talks or thinks about this woman's tits and how amazing they are gets excessive. maybe it's just because i'm not much of a boob gal, but this really got on my nerves.

and then there's the part that made me uncomfortable and a little angry, and that's how halla's husband was treated. when the book started, i thought it was going to be fine. like, they had a generally loveless but ultimately fine marriage. they weren't close and he's been dead for along time so he just doesn't come up a lot. it's when he does start to come up a bit more (near the end of the book, as halla and sarkis's relationship progresses) that problems start occuring.

halla (the main character) had an unnamed first husband who died a little over a decade before the book began, and he is fairly obviously intentionally coded as asexual (and potentially also neurodivergent but that's less so). he was completely uninterested in sex, not just with halla but in general. the physical act of sex made him nervous and uncomfortable, he found it very unpleasant, and he avoided it as much as possible. he and halla would have sex very, very rarely and when they did he would make it as fast as possible and would "stare at the wall" the entire time.

so it makes it pretty fucking digusting the way he is talked about by halla and (mainly) sarkis. the dead husband's lack of attraction to halla is presented as a personal and moral failing. he is degraded by sarkis simply for not wanting to have sex with halla. sarkis says that a man would have to be "half-dead" not to be into her, and that his religion has "no use for a man who cannot please a woman [or man]". the husband's constantly forcing himself to have sex and zoning out the entire time is framed as a trajecy for halla. sarkis believes this to have been borderline abusive to halla. because he wasn't focusing on her pleasure when he was dissociating his way through sex.

meanwhile (and believe me i hate to use this argument because it's almost always done in bad faith) if we were to switch the genders around, and this were a woman who really fucking did not want to have sex but who was forcing herself to consisently because of both familial pressures and her husband's desires, who was fucking dissociating the entire time in order to get through it, and her husband's only problem with this was that sex wasn't as good as it could be for him, we would say this is a textbook example of marital rape.

the way this book treats asexual people is really fucking gross! halla's husband's asexuality is only ever presented as a problem, a moral failing, a trajedy for his wife, something that made him less of a man, and a sign of someone who had something wrong with him because obviously you have to have something wrong with you to not want to have sex with halla. the absolute worst fate halla can imagine for her nieces should she not financially support them is... being married to a subtexually asexual man. there is one (1) moment where acespecs are not degraded and that's when sarkis says that he "[doesn't] blame a man for not enjoying bedsports" but this rings incredibly hollow when not only is it a single line in a sea of sarkis absolutely blaming a man for not enjoying bedsports (including having violent fantasies about halla's dead husband for the ultimate sin of... not wanting to have sex with her) but also that's not even the entire line! the whole line is "i don't blame a man for not enjoying bedsports, but why marry and condemn his wife to the same?". which is just so disgusting considering (1) sarkis knows at this point that the marriage was arranged and was not the husband's choice and (2) it implies that sex-repulsed asexuals are doing a moral wrong by being with allosexuals, or else that they should suck it up and have sex with their allosexual partners or else they're doing a moral wrong.

the treatment of asexuals in swordheart genuinely pisses me off. and for what? a weird attempt at a "female pleasure is important" subplot that unintentionally place halla's pleasure as more important than her husband's consent? a lazy plot device so that the female main character can be older than is typical for a romance + a widow but still be sexually inexperienced so the male love interest can still rock her world?

the only reason this isn't getting one star is because it started off strong and the prose was fairly enjoyable.

authority by jeff vandermeer 📖 🌟🌟🌟

i don't think it hit quite as hard as annihilation, but i still really enjoyed it and i'm still going to finish up the trilogy and read acceptance. i don't know if i'm going to read absolution (the fourth book released a few years after the og trilogy ended), it all depends on how i like the ending of acceptance.

authority is longer than annihilation was, and i feel like it was a lot more meandering? vandermeer's talent as a writer is still on display, and it still has that modern lovecraftian scifi feel that annihilation had, but i think it could have benefitted from being just a little shorter. i also think that while annihiliation felt like it was confusing with a purpose authority felt (at times!) like it was confusing for the sake of being confusing.

[wolfreader]

may 2025 reading wrap-up

this month, i read 15 books.

of those, 4 were adult fiction, 3 were young adult fiction, 3 were children's fiction, and 5 were comics or manga.

the first book i read in may was the monarchs by kass morgan and danielle paige and the last was dragon flight by daniel day george.

i read 7 books from the library this month.

my top five books of the month were:

the bright sword by lev grossman

the martian by andy weir

bonesmith by nicki pau preto

the adventure zone: the suffering game by carey pietsch and the mcelroys

authority by jeff vandermeer

[wolfreader]

april 2025 wrap-up - comics / manga

this month i read seven (7) comics or manga.

the guy she was interested in wasn't a guy at all volume 1 by arai sumiko 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

"thought they were a beautiful butch but turns out it was just a twink" in reverse: the manga.

biting and ripping and killing that the series isn't finished (and the third volume hasn't even been published in english) but at least it gives me something to look forward to.

yea it's cute! insane that aya hasn't realized she's a lesbian yet, seeing as she's completely uninterested in boys and the one (1) boy she was interested in turned out to be a girl in the end (and she's still crushing on that girl after finding out). love the uncle character who saw his niece interacting with a girl once and is already planning the wedding. excited to continue.

witch hat atelier volumes 12-13 by shirahama kamome 📚 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

caught up with wha once more! i'm really enjoying this series - first and foremost i absolutely adore the art, and the world is so fascinating and the main characters are so endearing.

in these volumes especially though also in previous volumes shirahama works in these elements of horror, particularly body horror, that not only hit you hard because of the cutesy nature of much of the story, but also help bolster the main conflict. in these two volumes in particular shirahama contrasts the great good that can be worked through magic were it not for the witches' laws, while also demonstrating a great horror that was also caused through breaking of the witches' laws. it's showing you how the laws hold the witches back while also showing you why they have the laws in the first place.

run away with me girl by battan 📖🔁 🌟🌟🌟🌟

finally collecting my own copies of this <3

maki is really pathetic for being hung up on her high school girl friend a decade after they graduated, but at the same time it led to a heartfelt reunion and rekindling of their old flame at a time when midori really needed it, so i guess she was right to be pathetic?

i like this series lmao. it's really sweet but also has serious moments that it balanced really well. definitely recommend.

asumi-chan is interested in lesbian brothels! by kuro itsuki 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

yes i bought the lesbian porn manga with my own money.

it's low priority but i am going to continue this eventually. not only because the sex scenes aren't half bad but also because the plot is compelling in a stupid sort of way.

don't have much to say about this lmao.

talli, daughter of the moon by sourya sihachakr 📚 🌟🌟🌟🌟

fun, cute little beginning to an interesting fantasy story! the author's note said that the author was inspired by jrpgs, and i definitely see that influence. it also reminded me a lot of d&d lmao, perhaps just because i've had d&d on my mind lately, but also because it has that set up of a "classic" vaguely medieval fantasy backdrop with a cast (party, if you will) of unique and colorful characters.

i'm definitely interested in continuing eventually, though i'll have to request an inter-library loan because my own library doesn't have the next two volumes.

the guy she was interested in wasn't a guy at all volume 2 by arai sumiko 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

cannot believe mitsuki has a fucking carabiner.

not much to say! still really cute, still really enjoyable! i'm lad to be caugght up so i can read it as its coming out. especially since i don't know how long the author is going to drag this romance out for, i like being able to get it as it comes out because that feels less intimidating than starting a finished series that's the same length.

[wolfreader]

april 2025 wrap-up - children's fiction

this month i read three (3) children's books.

dragon slippers by jessica day george 📖🔁 🌟🌟🌟🌟

this was one of my favorite books when i was in middle school so when i saw the entire trilogy in good condition at my college's secondhand book sale for like. five bucks altogether i had to get them.

if you like reading middle grade i definitely recommend this one. it's such a fun fantasy story and is almost definitely one of the things that shaped my love of fantasy fiction as an adult. it reads like a fairy tale, or like a more fantastical version of a medieval romance.

cinderella and the beast (or, belle and the glass slipper) by kim bussing 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

i really enjoyed this! i think it had this really good balance of staying true enough to the fairy tales to be worth being fairy tale retellings in the first place while also being different enough to be its own thing and not feel overdone.

belle and ella were both compelling protagonists in their own right, and though there wasn't technically any romance, it had that very young children's version of romance where both protagonists have one (1) person that they're really close to and feel these really intense feelings for that are never explicitly labelled as romance, and i found both of those relationships compelling.

snow white and the dragon (or, sleeping beauty and the seven dwarfs) by kim bussing 📖 🌟🌟🌟

not as good as the first one :-/ the plot itself was compelling enough for me to finish it, but i wasn't attatched to snow and rose as protagonists in the way i was to belle and ella.

i also don't think it struck that balance that the first book did. the vast majority of this book felt very disconnected to the fairy tales it was retelling; only the beginning and the end felt like real retellings. and even at the beginning and the end, i felt that snow white got far more attention than sleeping beauty, where the first one felt a bit more balanced. i think it diverged far more than the first book did from its fairytales.

that being said it was still cute and i am looking forward to picking up rapunzel and the sea witch (or, the little mermaid and the tower) when it comes out later this year and i hope kim bussing continuing to write these.

[wolfreader]

april 2025 wrap-up - young adult fiction

this month i read two (2) young adult novels.

the ravens by kass morgan and danielle paige 📚🔁 🌟🌟🌟

reread this because i want to read the sequel but i first read the ravens when it came out (which was a while ago) and now i see why i didn't remember anything from it because it's soooo just okay.

one big issue is that while vivi is a likeable enough protagonist, scarlett (the other pov character) is really... not? maybe i'm just not a sorority sister so i don't get it, but i really don't understand the whole "sister loyalty" thing. scarlett is a massive bitch to vivi for the entire first half of the book for genuinely no reason, but vivi kissing scarlett's ex one (1) time is seen as a huge betrayal of the sisterhood.

i did like the romance between vivi and mason, however little it's there, and i'm interested to see if it will be developed further in the sequel or if it will fall into the background. i do think mason should go on estrogen though and i'm only half joking.

unlock the dark by sasa hawk 📚 🌟🌟🌟

an aggressively mediocre, perfectly passable standard young adult fantasy debt. enjoyable enough prose, likeable enough characters, compelling enough romance, intriguing enough worldbuilding executed in a well enough manner. nothing super special, which not only means it's not particularly good but also not particularly bad.

the main issue here is one of pacing. when your dust jacket summary is revealing plot points that happen after the halfway point you know your book is paced poorly. i rarely say this, but this could have really benefited from being a duology rather than a standalone. the first book could cover everything up to trys reading the scroll and being turned into a monster (aka everything revealed in the current dust jacket summary) and the second book could be everything after that.

that would give the events of the second half of the book some really necessary room to breathe, because as they are it feels really rushed. it feels like an entire second book was crammed into less than half of this one. it would also give the romance more time to develop naturally, and the genuinely interesting worldbuilding elements to be fleshed out and better implemented.

that said, pacing is a common issue for debut novels and there is talent and originality on display here, so if sasa hawk continues with her writing career i'd be interested to pick up what she puts out next.

[wolfreader]

april 2025 wrap-up - adult fiction

this month i read eight (8) adult books.

the scarlet pimpernel by baroness orczy 📖 🌟🌟🌟

one of the more fun classics i've read! obviously poorly aged in many ways lmao, like most if not all literary classics, but definitely one of the ones i've read more suited ot a modern audience.

i loved the genuinely sweet and tender relationship between sir percy and marguerite. this is one of the few classics that i want to see modern writers try their hand at retelling or adapting into other literary genres (such as fantasy or scifi), because i feel that the genuinely compelling romance and the action-heavy plot that laid the groundwork for modern superhero media would lend itself well to a reworking by a modern writer.

immortal by sue lynn tan 📖 🌟🌟🌟

i'm disappointed that i didn't like this one as much as i wanted to. i've always loved sue lynn tan's prose and i still do - the prose is one thing that is still great about immortal. but i guess i was just expecting more.

immortal felt very unoriginal. not only in the clear inspiration from beauty and the beast (specifically the disney film, but also just in general) in the first quarter or so, but also just... it lowkey felt like a bunch of elements from daughter of the moon goddess and heart of the sun warrior were thrown into a blender and served up with a few new garnishes. so as someone familiar with sue lynn tan's work, immortal felt very derivative. and given that i love her prose, i was really hoping for something more original from her first work after her debut series.

immortal also seemed like it was trying to have its cake and eat it too. first, in terms of the romance, tan didn't seem (to me) to be able to strike the balance of liyen being independant and self-sufficient while also having the fairy tale appeal of zhangwei sweeping in to save her. that balance is possible: you can have a strong, capable female protagonist who can still rely on her male love interest from time to time, but i don't think sue lynn tan pulled it off in this instance.

and beyond that, the entire conflict between the golden desert immortals and the wuxin felt very much like sue lynn tan was torn between writing a complex and nuanced conflict but also being unable to bear the golden desert (home to our love interest) having done anything wrong. i won't get into it any more than that, but each new reveal about the war felt very contrived.

tan's next work is a young adult cinderella retelling, and while i'm definitely still interested in reading it, i fear that i might pick her work up at the library from now on.

the lies of locke lamora by scott lynch 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

i thought i was going to hate this, but it turns out i just started reading it during a reading slump lmao. so, having set it to the side only a chapter in and picked it up after my slump was over, i really enjoyed it!

locke was a far more likeable protagonist than i thought he was going to be, though it definitely took some time to warm up to him. to any interested in reading this book, i'd like to put out there that unfortunately i don't think the (incredibly long) prologue is the strongest and recommend you stick out until the end of chapter one at least.

interesting world, interesting characters, et cetera. while it's not high on my priority list, i'm definitely going to be continuing the series at some point.

the murderbot diaries volume 3 by martha wells 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

finally caught up with murderbot! 🥳

fugitive telemetry was a nice little murder mystery that felt like a breather after network effect, especially given that it was relatively self-containted even in within a series of nominally self-contained novellas.

system collapse was obviously the big one, i actually wonder if it could have been made just a little longer and been released as a novel like network effect, especially because it follows the direct aftermath of that novel. but i really enjoyed it! obviously what i've loved about this series (and what the main "story" of the series is lmao) is murderbot's emotional development throughout the books. and therefore seeing it finally acknowledge its emotions and specifically its trauma in a way approaching healthy and constructive was a joy to see. especially seeing murderbot commit to (eventually) seeking help for recovering from its lifetime of trauma! my blorbo <3

an education in malice by s.t. gibson 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

after reading all of s.t. gibson's currently released novels, i have to conclude that the only reason i disliked a dowry of blood so much is because i'm just too precious about dracula. because i really loved this!

i loved laura and carmilla's dynamic and its evolution throughout the book. it was very compelling, and the somewhat speedy development of their relationship felt very natural given the tight knit nature of this kind of women's college to begin with and the circumstances the two of them specifically are put through.

the only two things (really one and a half things) keeping this from a five star are: (1) the book felt like it ended a little too quickly. even before the book actually came to a close, i was looking at how many pages / chapters were left and was wondering how everything would be wrapped up in that amount of time. i feel that an education in malice could have benefited from being even just three or four chapters longer. and (2) i don't need this to be a morality play or something, but the ending felt a little too kind to professor de lafontaine. especially given the way laura and particularly carmilla's feelings toward de lafontaine had been changing throughout the book, the level of forgiveness when they parted felt a little out of left field. i get that carmilla and de lafontaine's relationship was incredibly complex and the level of worship carmilla had for her will take years to fully deconstruct, but shortly before the climax of the book carmilla was begging laura to not leave her alone with the professor; i think just the smallest alteration to her attitude toward her at the end of the book would have made it feel a lot more natural.

cursebound by saara el-arifi 📚 🌟🌟🌟🌟

i don't think it was as strong as the first book but still a really fun installment that left me excited for the next book! there was a twist revealed in the very last chapter that i hadn't guessed completely but i had gotten close; at the very least i guessed there was a connection between these two things, if not exactly what that connection was.

i think the sex scenes were a little cringe lmao. they weren't so horrifically written as to put me off the entire book but they weren't great either. and i think perhaps there are too many romances. there were already two romantic subplots in the first book and this one introduces a new point of view character with his own love interest, and it makes it feel like most of the pages are spent on romantic drama rather than the fucking war where the first one felt more balanced.

the bitter twins by jen williams 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

god i love this series. this was definitely the middle book in a trilogy, i didn't abosolutely love it as much as i loved the first book, but i still really loved it and i'm probably going to pick up the poison song and finish out the series this summer. i'm really looking forward to it.

i can't say much for risk of spoilers but there was a reveal about something about the fantasy world in this book and i thought it was really well done.

if you enjoy epic fantasy at all and you haven't read the winnowing flame trilogy thus far you should do yourself a favor and pick up the ninth rain!

beebo brinker by ann bannon 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

the very first lesbian pulp novel i've ever read 👍 and it holds up surprisingly well! there are definitely things that have aged poorly (such as the biphobia coming from multiple other queer characters, including beebo herself) but overall it could pass for a modern day pastiche rather than a genuine novel of the time.

i already own odd girl out and i'm looking forward to continuing this series.

[wolfreader]

april 2025 reading wrap-up

this month, i read 20 books.

of those, 8 were adult fiction, 2 were young adult fiction, 3 were children's fiction, and 7 were comics or manga.

the first book i read in april was the scarlet pimpernel by baroness orczy and the last was snow white and the dragon (or, sleeping beauty and the seven dwarfs) by kim bussing.

i read 6 books from the library this month.

my top five books of the month were:

the bitter twins by jen williams

an education in malice by s.t. gibson

the murderbot diaries volume 3 by martha wells

dragon slippers by jessica day george

beebo brinker by ann bannon

[wolfreader]

why are the uk paperbacks two different heights 😭 don’t get me wrong unbelievably excited to read a drop of corruption but this is going to piss me off

[wolfreader]

march 2025 wrap-up - comics / manga

this month i read two (2) comic books or manga.

inuyasha volume 3 by takahashi rumiko 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

i was hoping to finish inuyasha this year, but i'll be so real i'm probably not going to achieve that goal given how many volumes i have to get through and the fact that it took me two months to pick up one of them. but i'm still really excited to continue!

i'm really enjoying inuyasha - i never watched the anime as a child, but a lot of my older siblings did, and once i got into reading manga more than one of them recommended inuyasha, and i'm glad they did. in this volume i either got introduced to or got more information about some characters i've heard a lot about through the fandom / my siblings, and it's got me really intrigued.

i will say that there are so many moments in inuyasha and kagome's relationship so far that make me like. god fucking damn this would have made an amazing yuri. if only they were lesbians.

akira volume 1 by otomo katsuhiro 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

i've heard a whole lot about akira over the years, and i'm excited to start the series for myself. as of this first volume, i don't have too much to say other than that i like the art. i really enjoy the imagery of this post-post-apocalyptic japan that otomo has created.

i still feel fairly confused as to what's going on, but i understand that that's typical for first volumes lmao. gotta keep things vague enough to hook the reader onto the next volume. and i am going to be giving the second volume a chance, whereas i've lowkey given up on continuing evangelion (the other dystopian future manga i started reading this year).

[wolfreader]

march 2025 wrap-up - young adult fiction

this month i read one (1) young adult novel.

wings of starlight by allison saft 📚 🌟🌟🌟🌟

i love allison saft's work - though as i'm not really in the mood to purchase a disney tie-in novel, this is the only one of her works thus far that i don't own myself. and i think saft was definitely a great choice for a disney fairies novel, particularly one about queen clarion and lord milori from secret of the wings. her previous work has been very fairy tale esque, feeling like adaptations of fairy tales that don't exist, if that makes sense. and given that this is a love story that would have to end in separation, going with saft works out well given that two out of four of her previous works have very bittersweet endings.

all around i thought it was pretty good! even though i knew roughly how it would end, saft managed to make a pretty engaging and original story out of the brief she was given by disney. probably not something i'll ever revist, but thankfully not a stain on saft's otherwise amazing body of work.

[wolfreader]

march 2025 wrap-up - adult fiction

this month i read five (5) adult novels.

emily wilde's compendium of lost tales by heather fawcett 📚 🌟🌟🌟🌟

i really enjoyed this! i'm a little disappointed that it's not as good as the first two books, in my opinion, especially considering it's the final book in the series (though i wouldn't be surprised if it gets a novella or short story collection or something like that). i just felt that it wasn't as tight of a "script" as encyclopaedia of faeries and map of the otherlands were - i think the end started to drag a little. i also felt that ariadne (emily's niece) and farris would play a much larger role in the final book than they did considering the set up for them in book two.

that being said, i still had a great time reading it. emily and wendell were cute as always. there's not a whole lot i can say without spoilers, considering this is the final book in a trilogy. but i'm glad picked this series up. i didn't think i was ever going to read this series, as it's a little outside what i normally read (being (1) a romantasy and (2) a low fantasy setting) and the people i'd seen recommending it were really not doing a good job at selling it lmao. but i had a great time reading it, and finished it fairly quickly considering how long it usually takes me to read sequels.

evocation by s.t. gibson 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

i liked this a lot more than a dowry of blood, s.t. gibson's debut novel. i know that a lot of people were disappointed by this book because they were expecting something more fantasy-plot-heavy whereas evocation is far more focused on the relationships between the characters than the plot, but because i knew that going in i wasn't disappointed.

i really liked all three point of view characters, which is nice because typically there's at least one that i really dislike and i have to labor through their chapters. the development of the pov characters' relationships with each other felt very natural, especially given the unspoken history between them and the circumstances they're in. i'm definitely going to pick up the sequel when it releases to see where they go from there.

annihilation by jeff vandermeer 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

really weird book, but really interesting and engaging as well. i read this to dip my toes a little further into science fiction, but annihilation is really more horror + litfic than scifi. i got the whole original trilogy for a couple of dollars each secondhand, and i'm interested to continue. i knew next to nothing about this book going in, and i think i'm going to keep that up and not look into the next two books at all.

i can't really say much because everything that i want to talk about is pretty deep into the novel (which isn't too deep in general, because it's very short, but still) and i don't want to give spoilers, especially for a book like annihilation, where the main appeal of the book is in the mystery, in knowing just as much if not less than the narrator and having information about the setting revealed to you slowly but surely.

the last wish by andrzej sapkowski 📖🔁 🌟🌟🌟🌟

tentatively starting my witcher reread as i collect the hardbacks! i decent time to do it, considering the new witcher book releases in english at the end of this year.

i do believe i enjoyed this more on the reread, either because i'm older or because i have the context of the entire series to help me understand what's happening or a secret third option or some combination thereof. and i cannot believe there are actually people out there who say you can go straight to the main saga without reading the short story collections, because the last wish is the perfect introduction to the world and some of the major characters of the witcher saga.

the hobbit by j.r.r. tolkien 📖🔁 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

technically this is a children's book, but i don't feel like it's enough of a children's book to make a separate post for children's fiction when it's my only "children's" book for this month.

i love the hobbit so much <3 i don't have much to say about it. what i will say is that i think it's responsible for my reading slump this month because i ordered a paperback copy from a secondhand seller to annotate and for the entire two weeks it took to come in i was unable to get invested in any book i attempted to read. every time i tried i was just thinking "but i could be reading the hobbit right now".

[wolfreader]

march 2025 reading wrap-up

this month, i read 8 books.

of those, 5 were adult fiction, 1 was young adult fiction, and 2 were comics or manga.

the first book i read in march was emily wilde's compendium of lost tales by heather fawcett and the last was akira volume 1 by otomo katsuhiro.

i read 1 book from the libary this month.

my top five books of the month were:

the hobbit by j.r.r. tolkien

the last wish by andrzej sapkowski

evocation by s.t. gibson

annihilation by jeff vandermeer

emily wilde's compedium of lost tales by heather fawcett

[wolfreader]

february 2025 wrap-up - comics / manga

this month i read four (4) comic books or manga.

transformers: the idw collection vol. 1-4 by various authors 📚

so glad my library has the collected editions because trying to get into the idw comics and keep track of reading order through readcomiconline would be actual hell 😭 my library doesn't have phases two and three so i'm going to see about requesting an interlibrary loan once i finish phase one. hopefully some other library in the country has the phase two and three hardcovers and is willing to loan them out?

not too much to say at this point because most of what's included in these first four volumes are the "spotlight" short stories, so there's less plot development than you might think after four volumes. some that i was excited to get to read were megatron: origin, spotlight: arcee, and drift + spotlight: drift. the megatron origin story was interesting to read because i had heard a lot about this version of megatron and i was excited to actually see him. the arcee spotlight was like... train wreck exciting because i wanted to see the comic where idw!arcee was confirmed a transgender woman in the single most transphobic way possible. and the two drift stories were exciting because i had heard a lot about this character but never actually read / watched any canonical media with him in it.

in general i'm really excited to finally be reading the idw comics because i know they're pretty foundational to a lot of the fandom - a lot of the lore about cybertronian society or culture has roots in the idw comics, or at least was popularized by them.