The Neurospicy Bean

  While this book isn’t doing anything particularly new or unique, I thought that what it is doing, it does well. In particular, it’s an effective, if not particularly subtle, critique of the true crime genre obsession. It’s set at a true crime podcast’s competition to find the remains of a serial killer (this doesn’t seem like it can possibly be legal for a recent case, but whatever), and over the course of the novel we watch the competitors slowly unravel. Whether it’s a desire for power or romanticizing the killer, the distance between the competitors and the subject of their obsession slowly narrows, and although there’s a supernatural element at play, the reader is left to wonder how much of that unraveling is because of the supernatural and how much is simply the consequence of a culture that idolizes murderers. Balancing this out somewhat, though, is Caroline, who uses true crime as a processing mechanism for her very real trauma. This book does a nice job of walking the lin...

  This was a perfectly entertaining, pleasant romance, but it didn’t land for me quite the way the author’s other books have. Eddie in particular I really struggled to wrap my head around as a character – why he behaved the way he did and so on. I also really wish that the rest of the baseball team had played a bigger role – I always talk about how one of the highlights of a really well done romance is the relationships the characters have with people outside the primary romantic interest. That was a little bit lacking here, I think because so much of the focus ended up on Mark’s journey. That said, it’s still a well-written book that was emotionally engaging. In particular there was a scene towards the end about queerness and acceptance and society that really broke my heart. Absolutely worth picking up.

  Okay, I’ve been agonizing over this review for literally months. Pulley’s writing here is absolutely beautiful, her characters compelling, her world intriguing. She makes things that absolutely shouldn’t make any sense – talking mammoths anyone? – feel entirely natural. I was captivated from beginning to end. And yet. I have seen some legitimate criticisms of the way the book approaches its subject matter. The idea is that Mars is a human colony, specifically Chinese (although there are several cultural influences). Mars-born humans, being born in lighter gravity, are taller and generally more delicate than Earth-born humans. Earth-born humans (Earthstrongers) are comparatively extremely strong, enough so that a mere touch can pose a threat to a Martian, so they’re segregated from Martians. Our main character, January, is an Earthstronger refugee, while his love interest, Aubrey Gale, is a politician running on the platform of mandatory Earthstronger naturalization. There is a LO...

  There’s nothing special about Chin’s writing, necessarily, but the stories, anecdotes, and culture that he shares in this memoir more than make up for it. This book drew my interest because my brother goes to school in Detroit, and I’ve actually seen where Chung’s – the Chinese restaurant behind the title of the book – used to sit, near downtown. The Chinese community in Detroit has a really interesting backstory, which Chin goes into extensively. And of course as a gay Chinese American he has a specific experience to share. I found it really interesting to read about.

 

  More trans romance! It brings me so much joy! Especially great to see T4T and transfemme representation because those are both things that don’t show up very often in any genre. The basic premise of the book is a pretty traditional fake-dating setup – Jean-Pierre needs a girlfriend in order to inherit his family’s culinary empire, and Luna needs money, so they pretend to be in a relationship. But the rest of the book was brilliantly original and avoided most of the repetitive plot elements that come up so frequently in fake-dating stories. I especially loved the ending. I won’t spoil it, but not only was it not where I expected it to go, it was just so filled with trans joy and screw-the-old-rich-people, it was absolutely lovely. My biggest complaint is that the relationship development didn’t quite ring true to me. There were lovely elements, to be sure – Jean-Pierre nicknaming Luna Claire?? Adorable – but the transition from them being annoyed with one another to attracted to o...

  Perfectly enjoyable little romance here. In the couple of books of his I’ve read, Janovsky does a nice job of blending character growth with romance in a way that feels very sweet and meaningful, and not at all like the love interests are just there to help the main character be a better person. This one did strike that balance. But for whatever reason, it just didn’t emotionally grab me in quite the same way as You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince.  I guess I’ve always struggled with any kind of romance where one person comes into it with an entirely different understanding of their relationship than the other (I’m looking at you whatever the heck Marvel did to Peter Quill and Gamora). And I also struggle with this kind of magical realism where it’s a total mystery what actually happened to Nolan, but the mystery isn’t actually the point of the book. Because, come on, I really want to know more! Tell me about this mysterious wellness company! Can we get a book about that? This...

  Yeahhh this was a bit too much in the string of cis white lesbians for me. I don’t know why precisely but this one in particular just felt incredibly cisgender. I should have flagged some of the particular moments that rubbed me the wrong way and I didn’t, but there were definitely a few instances where it just didn’t feel like the author had ever considered the trans perspective. Similarly, it often seemed that the author was lumping bi and pan people in with lesbians, which…let’s maybe not. Also, I really struggle with speculation about celebrities’ sexuality. It’s one of my least favorite forms of discourse because a) it inevitably leads to accusations of queerbaiting and b) oh my God you are not entitled to information about anyone’s sexual orientation ever. Even if they seem really super queer. Even if they’re in the public eye. Even if you think it would be really super good for the queer community if someone with that level of influence came out. I. Don’t. Care. It’s not ...

  So I’ll start off with the fact that there is a good chance I’m really not the target audience for this book. I really do not care about astrology even a tiny bit. I can tell you I’m a Saggitarius and that is literally it. And I have a suspicion this book is a lot more entertaining if the reader has any idea what the various stereotypes of all the different signs are, blah blah blah. I do not. So already not the best start. But I could absolutely set that aside if the rest of the book were amazing (see previous review about baseball). Unfortunately, this was not that book. First of all, Gray really irritated me. There was a whole lot of ‘cis lesbian trying really hard to be a trans ally’ in a way that got on my nerves. I don’t remember every instance of this, but one example was a conversation in which Gray is talking to her best friend Cherry. Cherry asks her if she’s still identifying as a lesbian, and Gray says she’s open to dating anyone except cis men, but that she still ide...

  I am OBSESSED give me all of the trans romance and joy. Thank you so much to Katy Nishimoto from Dial Press for the advance copy of this beautiful book. I really loved so many different aspects of this book, so it’s going to be a bit tricky to parse through them all, but I shall try. First, and this is probably one of the things that has stuck most in my head about it, it was really amazing to see such a sex-positive trans romance. I do think this trend is changing, in the last couple of years in particular, but so often it seems like the reality of sex as a trans person gets completely glossed over. By that I don’t mean that sex is some kind of horrible ordeal, or that all trans people are uncomfortable with it; in fact, anyone who has read this book will know that’s not how it’s treated here at all. It’s more that a lot of authors – cis authors in particular – have seemed deeply uncomfortable committing to the reality of their trans characters’ bodies, whatever that may be. So ...

  There was so much hype around this book and it just…did not meet my expectations at all. I don’t have a ton to say specifically, but there were a couple reasons it annoyed me. First, there really wasn’t anything to make it unique. It felt as formulaic as a queer period romance can get – two upper-class white leads fall in love, they scheme to find a way to be together, they have sex, they break up at the end of the second act, they get back together. Whatever. There was just nothing to make it unique, nothing that gave it any grab or grit. The second issue is that Beth and Gwen were completely indistinguishable from one another. Aside from which parent they spent time with, there was really nothing about them that made it possible to keep track of who was narrating at a given point. Pro tip: if you can’t write distinctive characters, don’t have multiple POVs. They’re like the characters in a love triangle where the only difference is that one has brown hair (gasp). On another not...

  Unfortunately I just don’t remember much about this book. Mostly, there are just a few bits and pieces – there was a story about a girl who gets trapped in the body of a service robot, which was reasonably compelling; one was a story told by the days of the week; but beyond those impressions, nothing really stuck with me. I think a lot of the stories could have been really strong if they were longer, or if more attention was given to characters. But because they were, for the most part, so short, I struggled to get invested or engage at all emotionally. Beyond that, I really don’t have much to say.

  I’m not generally a big literary fiction person, but wow this book was gorgeous and heartbreaking and fascinating. It takes a bit of time for things to really get established, but once they do the multiple overlapping stories are beautiful and compelling. It’s the kind of book I’d actually want to examine for symbolism, because there’s just so much. I imagine to someone more familiar with Taiwanese culture there’s even more to analyze. I should say that it’s definitely pretty dark at times, discussing rape, abuse, and violence in a very candid manner. It’s quite intense, especially in its depictions of various kinds of violence and cruelty. These scenes are important and they’re never gratuitous, but worth keeping in mind that nothing in this book is romanticized or sugarcoated. The only things I struggled with were keeping track of everything and the ending. I know there’s a reason for all the sisters’ names starting with the same letter (explained in the translator’s note for t...

It takes a bit to get going, but once it does, this book is absolutely gorgeous. I should say – although this book is labeled as mystery/thriller, those genres are relatively small, subtle aspects of the story. The emphasis is much more on the main character, Jess, her relationship with her older sister, Liz, and the two of them navigating grief. There’s also a healthy dose of exploring small town prejudice. None of this is to say that there isn’t a mystery – there is, and the main characters work to solve it – but the mystery is for the sake of the characters’ growth, not the other way around. So I wouldn’t recommend going into the book with a mind towards a traditional mystery, because I don’t think that will get the best experience out of it. As far as what I really liked, I thought the depiction of grief was beautifully done – all the small things that bring it back, the way that it colors a person’s whole experience of life. I actually enjoyed Liz as a character more than Jess, be...

  Man, there was so much hype surrounding this book (not to mention the gorgeous cover), and it just didn’t live up. Given the whole context and aesthetic it sets up, I was looking for something with a sort of Moulin Rouge vibe – overwrought and angsty and dramatic. But I guess there was just way too much going on to really establish a coherent vibe. Basically our main characters Esme and Sybil, roommates and best friends who are also in love with each other, get roped into a scheme to steal Queen Mab’s jewels for the owner of popular club The Absinthe Underground.  There’s a lot of jumping around, from the streets of Severon to the Absinthe Underground to the main character’s brother’s house to Fae and back again. And there are so many different dynamics going on – Esme and Sybil’s relationship, Sybil’s family history, all the dynamics of Severon, the worldbuilding of Fae, the characters in Fae, and there just isn’t  room for them to all get fleshed out properly. There’s...

  For whatever reason, nothing about this one clicked for me. The premise – girl from a family of brujas doesn’t want to be a bruja, casts a spell that accidentally banishes her family, and has to save them from dark forces – is perfectly compelling, and I genuinely did quite like the wide variety of mythological creatures that were incorporated into the story. There were beings and creatures that rarely come up because, frankly, Latine mythology just isn’t that written about (though this is changing!).  But I found Alex really frustrating as a main character, and Nova was flat-out unlikeable – I know we were supposed to get a flirty banter, rivals to lovers kind of vibe from his dynamic with Alex, but I just didn’t get it. But then the other love interest, who may have had more potential, wasn’t there for half the book! So we didn’t even really get to see her dynamic with Alex much at all, which was disappointing. Beyond that, something about the pacing just felt awkward. I c...

  This was…not good. Let me first say: how on earth does a town as small as Cameron describes this one as being support not just this mall but apparently enough people to make a random elf competition go viral?? I mean, I guess it happens, but it felt really weird. But that’s not the most annoying thing about this book, by far. Cameron as a character was just so irritating. He was mean to everyone, especially Marco, for no reason. There was literally zero chemistry between Cameron and Marco. Cameron spent way more time thinking about his ex than he spent thinking about Marco, and they just seemed annoyed at each other the entire book until suddenly Cameron decided he liked this guy enough to question all his life plans for him.  Also. THE BOOK MISGENDERS THE NON-BINARY CHARACTER. How does this happen. How does it not get caught in all the many phases of editing a book must go through. Were there not sensitivity readers. Did none of the early readers notice. I mean, I had to go...

  Yeah, this was one of those books I put off reading for the longest time thinking it surely wasn’t as good as everyone seemed to think and YES IT REALLY IS. It has absolutely everything going for it: sweet romance, intricate subplots, compelling secondary characters…honestly, the whole end of the book made me tear up. My absolute favorite scene was when they came across a mural of the two main characters dressed as Han and Leia because I am a simple nerd at heart. I know I just mentioned the side characters, but they deserve mentioning again. There’s so much range and depth to every single character, each one has their story going on that ties into the plot in ways both obvious and unexpected. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: a strong ensemble is a sign of a truly well-written romance. I think McQuiston also does a really lovely job of writing about homophobia here: it’s very much present, because the book is dealing with some serious cultural forces, and you can’t set ...

  Y’all I am absolutely obsessed with this series, and this book wraps everything up perfectly (although please?? More in this world?? Because there are hints that there’s more to come???). We get lovely flashes from Robin and Edwin and Violet and Maud, including a really heartwrenching sublot with Robin and Edwin. It also benefits hugely from Jack and Alan having been introduced in the last book and having an established relationship to build on. We get thrown straight into a house full of all these delightful characters (there’s a great line from Jack’s POV describing the dynamic between Edwin and Violet as two cats with terrible personalities who have been adopted by two people determined for them to coexist and like if that doesn’t sum up this whole series I don’t know what does. Just a bunch of golden retrievers adopting grumpy cats. Anyway), and then get to watch them trying to solve a mystery when all they want to do is make out with their respective partners. So yeah, the c...

  Big time second book vibes here – this book is working really hard to do the heavy lifting of the trilogy’s plot and world-building. It takes place a year after the first book, with a bit of a surprising twist: Robin’s sister, Maud, is on an ocean liner accompanying an elderly woman who knows where part of the Last Contract is. Except the elderly woman immediately dies, leaving Maud to try to solve the murder and avoid becoming the next target. Luckily, she has Robin’s records of his visions to help her, which lead her to Lord Hawthorne and, somewhat accidentally, the beautiful but guarded heiress Violet. Mayhem ensues, with quite a lot of action crammed into one book.  It was really good, don’t get me wrong – I cannot express how much I adored Maud and Hawthorne’s sibling-ish relationship, and the whole thing was delightfully chaotic. But because it was so plot-heavy, it felt a bit like the relationship got sidelined. I mean, we don’t find out what Violet’s backstory is unt...