TFW you start a book because the topic genuinely interests you, only to realize halfway through that a well-written longform article would have satisfied your curiosity (but you have to finish the book anyway).
Critiques et Commentaires
Currently interested in queer books and obscure comics [he/him]
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Llaverac a terminé la lecture de Exercised par Daniel Lieberman
Llaverac a noté Hibernation Guide for Rabbits and Hares : 5 étoiles

L. Adassovsky: Hibernation Guide for Rabbits and Hares (EBook, 2024, ShortBox)
Hibernation Guide for Rabbits and Hares de L. Adassovsky
Rabbits don’t hibernate...Do they? Every winter, Gentiane opens her hotel to rabbits seeking refuge from the cold. Instead of staying …
Llaverac a noté Home by the Rotting Sea : 5 étoiles

Otava Heikkilä: Home by the Rotting Sea (EBook, 2024, ShortBox)
Home by the Rotting Sea de Otava Heikkilä
The Väki are giants, and much feared and loathed by us humans. When territorial tensions threaten to break out, the …
Llaverac a noté Peau d'homme : 5 étoiles
Llaverac a commenté The Ghostkeeper par Johanna Taylor
The story had a lot of heart and, on the whole, I liked it a lot. However, even though the main character is literally a therapist for ghosts, I could have done without all the therapy-speak that he or some other characters use, especially outside therapy sessions.
Llaverac a commenté Sainted Love par Giovanni Pota
It makes me so mad, seriously. A creative team made of established creators, alt covers drawn by some of the hottest queer male artists and the result. IS. JUST. MID. It's basically this thread.
Llaverac a commenté The Long Road par Taylor Titmouse
Llaverac a commenté The Night Guest par Taylor Titmouse
These last months I have started several books that I still haven't finished even though they're interesting, which depresses me a bit.
- Option A: self-flagellate and get even more depressed
👉 Option B: read Taylor Titmouse's short smut stories with engaging premises and likeable characters
It’s weird to read it again, five years after its content was published on social media. I remember being a HUGE fan of it, and if I had had to do an end-of-year list with my favorite comics from 2019, all the strips that Lucy Knisley posted about her cat Linney would be my #1.
But in 2024 it feels like this kind of voice is now present in a ton of cat videos on social media. Reading the book didn’t make me feel anything, but reading the strips again this morning on Instagram - where they’re still available - instantly brought me back to where I was working in 2019, how a new publication would be the highlight of my day (OF MY WEEK) and how I felt when the last strip was published.
Llaverac a publié une critique de Ace (What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex) par Angela Chen
♠
5 étoiles
I've identified as gay for a while, but these last years I realized I was probably closer to aroace, but hadn't found a satisfying confirmation online, so I was excited to read this book. I'm happy to announce that it lives up to its ambitious subtitle (What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex).
Ideas I particularly liked seeing explored or picked apart:
- How labels are useful to find meaning and shared experiences. (The words are gifts. If you know which terms to search, you know how to find others who might have something to teach. They are, like Lucid said, keys. Intellectual entryways to the ace world and other worlds. Offerings of language for as long as they bring value.)
- Compulsory sexuality: I LOVE it when authors analyze concepts that don't necessarily imply each other. Yes, you can want intimacy but not …
I've identified as gay for a while, but these last years I realized I was probably closer to aroace, but hadn't found a satisfying confirmation online, so I was excited to read this book. I'm happy to announce that it lives up to its ambitious subtitle (What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex).
Ideas I particularly liked seeing explored or picked apart:
- How labels are useful to find meaning and shared experiences. (The words are gifts. If you know which terms to search, you know how to find others who might have something to teach. They are, like Lucid said, keys. Intellectual entryways to the ace world and other worlds. Offerings of language for as long as they bring value.)
- Compulsory sexuality: I LOVE it when authors analyze concepts that don't necessarily imply each other. Yes, you can want intimacy but not being that interested in sex (just as you can love to read and not want to grow A Collection™).
- Disorder vs. variation
- Queerplatonic relationships
- Amatonormativity (The assumption that “a central, exclusive, amorous relationship is normal for humans.” Not simply normal, but preferable. Not only preferable either, but ideal and necessary—better than being polyamorous, better than having a strong web of family, better than having a close-knit group of friends. A good that we should universally work toward and are incomplete without.)
- Emily Nagoski's model of consent (yes to granularity!)
- Conflict between being ace and belonging to another minority, like how being ace and disabled can put someone at odds with both ace activism ("we are not sick!") and disability rights activism ("just because we're disabled doesn't mean we don't want a fulfilling sex life!")
Llaverac a critiqué Queering the Subversive Stitch
🧶🧵🪡
I heard about this book via this post on Tumblr and immediately thought that YES, I would like to read more about how men have actually engaged with fiber crafts for a long time, especially since the blurb says:
It reveals that since medieval times men have threaded their own needles, stitched and knitted, woven lace, handmade clothes, as well as other kinds of textiles, and generally delighted in the pleasures and possibilities offered by all sorts of needlework.
Well.
The book actually focuses on a period that goes from the Victorian era to the contemporary era, and when I say focus, I really mean FOCUS. The author describes at length the work of several English and American authors and artists, with probably more details that I was ready to read about.
On one hand some passages were really interesting and I appreciated how the author's point of view was …
I heard about this book via this post on Tumblr and immediately thought that YES, I would like to read more about how men have actually engaged with fiber crafts for a long time, especially since the blurb says:
It reveals that since medieval times men have threaded their own needles, stitched and knitted, woven lace, handmade clothes, as well as other kinds of textiles, and generally delighted in the pleasures and possibilities offered by all sorts of needlework.
Well.
The book actually focuses on a period that goes from the Victorian era to the contemporary era, and when I say focus, I really mean FOCUS. The author describes at length the work of several English and American authors and artists, with probably more details that I was ready to read about.
On one hand some passages were really interesting and I appreciated how the author's point of view was informed by feminism. On the other hand, I realize that I would have been more interested by a well-written longform piece on the topic, but not a full book. There are also several mentions of contemporary needleworks that have been exhibited in museums, that questioned / interrogated our representations of this and that, and I would have preferred to read more about the actual effect they had on their audience or maybe just on the author (like in Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing for instance).
At the end, McBrinn advocates for a deeper study of this topic and for more publications about it, and I think that the book I thought Queering the Subversive Stitch was, the one that would cover a greater time span and explore all the continents, still remains to be written.
Llaverac a publié une critique de Frieren T03 par *removed* (Frieren, #3)
😴
2 étoiles
J'ai été attiré par le pitch : "Que deviennent les héros une fois le mal vaincu ?" qui n'est pas banal.
Après lecture des 3 premiers tomes cependant, je le trouve assez mensonger. L'action se déroule en réalité 80 ans après que le mal ait été vaincu et la situation n'a pas l'air très différente des récits de fantasy usuels. Il y a des nouveaux vilains à battre, et comme l'antagoniste de ce volume fait partie des "sept sages du chaos", je suppose que six autres vont lui succéder (puis leurs supérieurs après eux etc.) Il n'y a d'ailleurs ni surprise ni suspense dans la manière dont Frieren bat cette antagoniste, vu que tout nous est expliqué en détail juste avant et qu'elle utilise un gros lieu commun du shônen pour y arriver.
Visuellement, les arrière-plans sont très jolis et détaillés, mais les personnages sont assez lisses et peu expressifs. …
J'ai été attiré par le pitch : "Que deviennent les héros une fois le mal vaincu ?" qui n'est pas banal.
Après lecture des 3 premiers tomes cependant, je le trouve assez mensonger. L'action se déroule en réalité 80 ans après que le mal ait été vaincu et la situation n'a pas l'air très différente des récits de fantasy usuels. Il y a des nouveaux vilains à battre, et comme l'antagoniste de ce volume fait partie des "sept sages du chaos", je suppose que six autres vont lui succéder (puis leurs supérieurs après eux etc.) Il n'y a d'ailleurs ni surprise ni suspense dans la manière dont Frieren bat cette antagoniste, vu que tout nous est expliqué en détail juste avant et qu'elle utilise un gros lieu commun du shônen pour y arriver.
Visuellement, les arrière-plans sont très jolis et détaillés, mais les personnages sont assez lisses et peu expressifs. C'est normal pour l'héroïne car ça fait partie de sa personnalité, mais ça m'a davantage gêné pour les autres car ça rend la lecture un peu ennuyeuse. J'aurais bien aimé plus de dynamisme dans le découpage, dans les perspectives, pour contrebalancer le calme de l'héroïne.
Llaverac a commenté Sobek par James Stokoe
Llaverac a commenté Witching Hour par Beth Fuller
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.