Critiques et Commentaires

Llaverac

Llaverac@bookwyrm.social

A rejoint ce serveur il y a 2 ans, 7 mois

Currently interested in queer books and obscure comics [he/him]

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Beth Fuller: Witching Hour (EBook, 2023, Quindrie Press) Aucune note

Esio knows all the rules about travelling to the fae realm: stick to the path, …

Why do you tell the reader the rules of the fae realm if you... end up not using them? Who is the main character, Ted or Esio? I feel like none of them were fleshed out enough to know what the story wanted to say.

The fae realm looked magnificent though, it was worth it just for the visuals.

a publié une critique de Find a Seat par Faye Stacey

Faye Stacey: Find a Seat (EBook, 2023, Quindrie Press) 3 étoiles

It's hard being dumped. It's even harder when, on the way home from being dumped, …

🚋💀🍄

3 étoiles

The premise is interesting: the main character finds themself in a train for the "lost and weary" that belongs to Death, and wonders if they want to stay aboard. The train and its passengers are also covered in mushrooms, which creates a unique atmosphere.

However I felt that Death's characterization was a bit inconsistent and the emotional stakes were quickly rendered moot.

Taylor Titmouse: Roger Crenshaw: The Shadow in the Shelves (EBook, 2022) Aucune note

Burning hands rouse Roger in the night--but do they belong to the bookseller Cam Ellis, …

The first two stories were more lighthearted, whereas this one revolves around a mystery and has a heavier mood in general. I didn't not like it, it's nice that the atmosphere isn't the same from one story to another, but the first two stories were more up my alley.

Taylor Titmouse: Roger Crenshaw: The Wolves of the West (EBook, 2022) 5 étoiles

Wild beasts and wilder men roam the deserts of Arizona, and folklorist Roger Crenshaw runs …

On one hand, the story has the perfect length, it's long enough to flesh out the characters and the setting before the sex scene at the end.

Having read a lot of mangas, comics etc. before turning to books-without-pictures again, I'm still used to spending between 30 min and 1 hour in a story, and then moving on to something else. With essays and novels, I sometimes still resent the fact that I have to commit to them for hours, which become days and sometimes weeks. Yes they generally have chapters, but it's not the same. So it's nice to find shorter stories that don't feel too short.

On the other hands, ugh. The characters are lovable and I would like to read more about them, but it would defeat the previous point.

a publié une critique de Flung Out of Space par Hannah Templer

Hannah Templer, Grace Ellis, Joan Schenkar: Flung Out of Space (Hardcover, 2022, Abrams, Inc.) 5 étoiles

A fictional and complex portrait of bestselling author Patricia Highsmith caught up in the longing …

What's your wife's name again, Eddie? Because I'd like to murder you, but I want to be sure that she hasn't called dibs first

5 étoiles

It was amazing?

Admittedly I love sarcastic female leads with devastating one-liners, but I really liked this book. It's a fictional take on an episode in Patricia Highsmith's life, when she was anonymously writing low-grade comics while penning what would become Strangers on a Train, followed by The Price of Salt, later renamed Carol.

The muted color palette effectively captures the grayness of Patricia's life, between her boring jobs and the rest of the world telling her she should stop being a lesbian. An occasional pop of orange signals a rare moment of excitement, and I love how Hannah Templer renders shadows in the thriller scenes, or how she mimics old comic books style to illustrate Highsmith's stories.

There's also a little mise en abyme here, that makes us realize just how far we've come since then: the story shows a lesbian writer in the 1950s, struggling …

a commenté Ramen Wolf and Curry Tiger Vol. 1 par Emboss

Emboss: Ramen Wolf and Curry Tiger Vol. 1 (Paperback, 2022, Seven Seas) Aucune note

Meet your new favorite food critics: a chubby wolf named Mita Jiro and a ripped …

A reread. Sometimes, after a string of novels that did nothing for you, you have to treat yourself with a manga about a cute fluffy wolf fan of ramens and his ripped and brooding tiger friend that makes you want to cook curry on your next day off.

a publié une critique de Dark Moon, Shallow Sea par David R. Slayton

David R. Slayton: Dark Moon, Shallow Sea (Hardcover, 2023, Blackstone Publishing) 3 étoiles

When Phoebe, goddess of the moon, is killed by the knights of the sun god, …

🌙🌊

3 étoiles

I had a hard time buying into the initial premise of the book: since the Knights of Hyperion murdered the Moon Goddess, a dozen years ago, the souls of the dead have been haunting the streets and may kill anyone who bleeds. Fish, or food in general, has become increasingly difficult to find. But it's treated as something that happened, whereas it's very much something the head of the main religion ordered, for reasons that only become clear near the end of the book. And people keep worshiping Hyperion without questioning his Knights' actions. If it were me, I think I would be ANGRY. (You could probably write a story about how some religious leaders made their followers' life difficult for selfish reasons and how these followers kept on believing in them, but that's not what Dark Moon, Shallow Sea is about.)

The first half of the book …

a publié une critique de Wolfsong par T. J. Klune

T. J. Klune: Wolfsong (Paperback, 2018, Dreamspinner Press) 2 étoiles

not really epic or awesome

2 étoiles

This is the first shifter story I've read and I don't think I'm a fan of the tropes I saw in it.

The first one is not specific to these stories but it bugs me every time I see it: on one hand, Ox - the main character - is described as a little slow and rather average, probably so that readers can identify with him, or at least empathize with him. On the other hand, he accomplishes unheard-of feats, and the other characters keep telling him how unique and extraordinary he is.

To be clear, I'm not against wish fulfillment stories, or just stories where there's an obvious fantasy at play. For instance The Goblin Emperor reads like a fantasy for people who have been mistreated in the past and feel that, if they were given a lot of power, they would use it to treat other people with …