juushika

( List of book reviews for 2005 )

Year Long Total: 25 books

( List of book reviews for 2006 )

Year Long Total: 64 books

( List of book reviews for 2007 )

Year Long Total: 37 books

( List of book reviews for 2008 )

Year Long Total: 67 books

( List of book reviews for 2009 )

Year Long Total: 50 books

( List of book reviews for 2010 )

Year Long Total: 37 books

( List of book reviews for 2011 )

Year Long Total: 52 books

( List of book reviews for 2012 )

Year Long Total: 32 books

( List of book reviews for 2013 )

Year Long Total: 65 books

( List of book reviews for 2014 )

Year Long Total: 16 books

( List of book reviews for 2015 )

Year Long Total: 61 books

( List of book reviews for 2016 )

Year Long Total: 123 books

( List of book reviews for 2017 )

Year Long Total: 148 books

( List of book reviews for 2018 )

Year Long Total: 145 books

( List of book reviews for 2019 )

Year Long Total: 339 books

( List of book reviews for 2020 )

Year Long Total: 187 books

( List of book reviews for 2021 )

Year Long Total: 157 books

( List of book reviews for 2022 )

Year Long Total: 147 books

( List of book reviews for 2023 )

Year Long Total: 218 books

( List of book reviews for 2024 )

Year Long Total: 149 books

( List of book reviews for 2025 )

Year Long Total: 45 books

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Tags: book reviews, book reviews: recommended, book reviews: not recommended
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Title: First on the Antarctic Continent: Being an Account of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1898–1900
Author: C.E. Borchgrevink
Published: George Newnes, 1901
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 400
Total Page Count: 536,670
Text Number: 1965
Read Because: these boys are just so cold, borrowed from Open Library
Review: The first "British"(-funded) Antarctic expedition, and the first to overwinter on land, among other accomplishments, as told by the commander. This is imminently skippable and, yet like most polar memoirs, fascinating, albeit rarely for intended reasons. This expedition is remarkable for being poorly planned, and the location poorly chosen, which makes other expeditions look more successful by contrast. Given the inimical setting, Borchgrevink's slipshod focus on research and slew of manufactured adventures feel almost comically blithe, although his tone isn't as insufferable as I was lead to believe; it's only in contemporary context (the Southern Cross expedition was considered a competitor to the upcoming Discovery expedition) and in the differences of opinion in Bernacchi's memoir that "insufferable" makes sense. Do skip this one unless reading also Bernacchi, mostly because Bernacchi is funnier with this as a counterpoint.

Title: Calling on Dragons (Enchanted Forest Chronicles 3)
Author: Patricia C. Wrede
Published: HMH Books for Young Readers, 2015 (1993)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 245
Total Page Count: 536,270
Text Number: 1964
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The witch Morwen leads a ragtag group to save the Enchanted Forest from wizards. Familiar premise, indeed; what differentiates it is the PoV; and I like Morwen, but we don't learn much about her and her clowder of talking cats runs into all number of cat-related tropes that I don't enjoy. I also don't like the new comic relief character. Or the ongoing Telemain communication gimmick, and all of these are running gags, and that's a lot of running gags to find frustrating in one short book. This didn't work for me, and it feels, even more than its predecessor, like it's just a setup for a "real" book.

Title: Through the First Antarctic Night, 1898-1899
Author: Frederick A. Cook
Published: 1900
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 520
Total Page Count: 536,025
Text Number: 1963
Read Because: I have Problems; Project Gutenberg has this one
Review: This is the first primary source that I feel like has not appreciably added to my understanding of Antarctic exploration, in that, between Sancton's Madhouse at the End of the Earth and Guly's papers, particularly "'Polar anaemia': cardiac failure during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration", I'd already read the good bits, and better contextualized than in Cook's direct account. What's left is a fairly uninspired narration with repetitious but, worse, often ineffective meditations on the Antarctic atmosphere. There's not much insight into the human factor even as regards Cook himself, the fascinating period medical understandings are better analyzed elsewhere, and while it's a glimpse into Cook's narrative style, that style is scattershot and unreliable. Eminently skippable, but given that accessible Belgica resources are thin on the ground, I'm not mad I read it.

(FWIW, Arçtowski's narratives are more spread out and obviously weighted towards science, but I still liked them more: that bias and brevity makes the peeks of a distinctive sarcastic voice, the foibles of the expedition, and the polar atmosphere all feel better chosen and more valuable.)

Title: The Mysteries
Author: Bill Watterson
Illustrator: John Kascht
Published: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2023
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 70
Total Page Count: 535,030
Text Number: 1960
Read Because: personal enjoyment, hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: A picture book for adults, sparse text in black on white set against dark, square, claymation-y illustrations. It's very intentional but almost intentionally unsuccessful, a conflicting aesthetic (fables and caricatures, ominous and satirical) to match a narrative about humanity demystifying its great dangers only to find itself on the brink of extinction. Interesting, sure, if only for the change in tone and aesthetic for Watterson; successful, though... There are panels I love, but I can't see beyond a smugness that, like most doomerism, fails to accurately map to real world mysteries/dangers. There's a line to be drawn from the Enlightenment to climate change, sure! But that line is industrialization and capitalism, not just that the general modern public is cocky and incurious.

Title: The Bonshaker (Arcane 1)
Author: Kate Milford
Illustrator: Andrea Offermann (Illustrator)
Published: Clarion Books, 2010
Rating: 1.5 of 5
Page Count: 375
Total Page Count: 533,290
Text Number: 1953
Read Because: reading more of the author/world, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A traveling medicine show comes to town, and our protagonist is must unravel its secrets to protect her home and family. This took me two months, and I would have DNF'd except that I liked Greenglass House (my review) and hold out hope for reading other books in this world. But this didn't do it for me. It's a lot of story, and the scale of town saga and deal with the devil sits uneasy against fairly standard MG characterization/arcs; the fabulist historical fiction with automata/carnival aesthetic touches is very visual, setpiecey and aphantasia-unfriendly. This is a debut, so I expect it to be rough, but I think Arcane as a setting just isn't for me.

Title: An Academy for Liars
Author: Alexis Henderson
Published: Ace, 2024
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 455
Total Page Count: 530,835
Text Number: 1944
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Our protagonist is recruited by a magical school whose students have the ability to persuade people, and perhaps the world itself, to change. I mean this as a neutral statement: this feels like serial numbers filed off fic for The Magicians (TV), feat. OFC/young Dean Fogg: similar premise and tone, the wonder of magic against the grime of new adults and power differentials, with some bonus moth imagery thrown in. The magic system is unique, and I like it; the pacing and character arcs increasingly strained, a racially-aware dark academia premise undermined by the narrative's endless patience for the protagonist, who is simultaneously the most flawed and the most powerful person on campus, an exaggerated combo that can't but feel tropey. None of this is bad, per se (except for the predictable, tonally-discordant climax); it's just kind of silly, wallowy and indulgent and weaker than most of its potential comparisons (Vita Nostra is thornier, Scholomance does tropey better, hell, The Magicians (TV) has better character arcs; it is, though, better than Magicians-the-book.)

(I had a very similar "nice premise, not very skillful execution, strong tropey/ficcy vibes" from Henderson's House of Hunger and, tbh, if I'd checked to see why the author's name was familiar I might not have read this.)

Current Music: I Will Follow You into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie

Title: September House
Author: Carissa Orlando
Published: Berkley, 2023
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 350
Total Page Count: 530,380
Text Number: 1943
Read Because: reviewed by

rachelmanija, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Our protagonist's house is haunted, and every September ramps up to a total horror show; and she stays, and copes, because it's her home. What a premise, right? It's a fun exploration of, confrontation of, many classic horror tropes and questions, with a lively dark humor that reminds me of T. Kingfisher, toned back. But the question "why stay in a bad home" naturally becomes an extremely literal metaphor for abuse, and then graduates to painfully belabored real-or-delusional section, complete with police and the threat of involuntary commitment. Here are the spoilers I wish I'd had: the protagonist isn't committed; the haunting is "real"; the climax is speculative.

I'm a sucker for the realistic consequences of a speculative concept, and the practical approach to a haunting scratches that itch. But the fun dies as the plot progresses and later sections are frustrating and, for me, triggering. Does the text pay back the pain? Not really; the tone's too mishmash, and for all the trope-awareness in the horror premise, all the later reveals are tropey and flat, down to the silly climax.

Current Music: Night Sky - Pair of Arrows

Title: Klara and the Sun
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Published: Alfred A. Knopf, 2021
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 305
Total Page Count: 530,030
Text Number: 1942
Read Because: alterhuman book club read, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A solar-powered robot is purchased to be the companion of a sick child. This is sunk deep into Klara's close perspective, limited, often unconvincingly, by her knowledge; shaped by the logic she invents to explain the world. And this is the book's strength. It's an excuse to deliver plot & world piecemeal, to do fun things with visual framing, the encourage the reader's large perspective to echo, uncomfortably, the human cast. But. It also a cloaks a lack of genre-awareness and dearth of research into AI and robots, straining said worldbuilding and plot twist, substituting instead a tiresome sentimentality. I didn't like how Ishiguro handled the speculative/literary crossover in Never Let Me Go, and, unsurprisingly, didn't like it here, either. But it was an interesting book club read, so: not entirely without merit.

Current Music: Ain't No Grave - Crooked Still

Title: Entangled with You: The Garden of 100 Grasses
Author: Aki Aoi
Published: Seven Seas, 2022
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 185
Total Page Count: 529,725
Text Number: 1941
Read Because: browsing graphic novels shelf at..., hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: 2.5 stars, bumped up for my favorite. One novella-equivalent with a Beauty & the Beast vibe and a few short story-equivalents, all gentle BL. Very gentle: tender, sexless dynamics, that, without either heat or friction, are a little bland. The exception is "Corrosion," which is weird and embodied and much more memorable. The art is beautiful, especially (and somewhat ironically) the loving, detailed backgrounds against which vaguely undifferentiated pretty boys wander. All told, I'm not wild about this.

Current Music: Feel This - Claire Cronin

Title: My Darling Dreadful Thing
Author: Johanna van Veen
Published: Poisoned Pen Press, 2024
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 380
Total Page Count: 529,380
Text Number: 1939
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Our protagonist performs false séances, but she has a true spirit companion that only she can see. The vibes here are earnest and appealing: gothic abundances set in 1950s Netherlands, with spirit companions that look distinctly dead and nibble the blood & tears of their human partners; a Rebecca inversion with seductive sapphic tendencies. Unfortunately, this is a debut, so the "but" is predictable: lackluster writing. There are exceptions, namely the loving, precise descriptions of physical injury, but both in plot structure and on sentence-level, this feels raw, clumsy, killing much of the atmosphere and pushing the mystery/thriller narrative frame (the protagonist accused of a crime she attributes to her companion) to a tedious breaking point.

Current Music: Here Comes the Feeling - Until the Ribbon Breaks

Title: The Many Deaths of Laila Starr
Author: Ram V.
Illustrator: Filipe Andrade
Published: BOOM! Studios, 2022
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 130
Total Page Count: 529,000
Text Number: 1938
Read Because: browsing graphic novels shelf at..., hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: The god of death is fired and sent to live on earth when the baby who will invent immortality is born. The art here has a stretchy, caricatured flow and vibrant colorwork, celebrating the setting (Mumbai) & related cultural imagery. But the plot bores me. It's a meditation on the fear of & inevitability of death and doesn't offer anything new to that well-tread ground: chose to value life in the face of death; okay. When short comics are released in individual issues, I think they suffer; the beats (introducing/dismissing supporting characters; tackling the resolution) are too regular & often rushed. The big takeaway, and one day I'll internalize this, is that American comics tend not to work for me.

Current Music: The Devil in Camp - American Murder Song

Title: Library
Author: Michael Dumontier, Neil Farber
Published: Drawn and Quarterly, 2021
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 110
Total Page Count: 528,450
Text Number: 1935
Read Because: browsing graphic novels shelf at..., hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: A collection of book covers that aren't, not in any particular arrangement. Some are "honest book covers" pastiche, and many have contemporary literature vibes, preoccupied with loneliness, social prestige, and death. I could see myself liking this if this were structured, if it had an internal narrative; if this were more fantastical, if the titles inspired wonder or curiosity. As is: tedious, pointless; at best, cute.

Current Music: One Match - Until the Ribbon Breaks

Title: Cloud Hotel
Author: Julian Hanshaw
Published: Top Shelf Productions, 2018
Rating: 1.5 of 5
Page Count: 175
Total Page Count: 528,340
Text Number: 1934
Read Because: browsing graphic novels shelf at..., hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: When he disappears in the woods, a boy ends up at a strange hotel that he can reenter at will—as long as he refuses to answer the lobby's ringing phone. Weird premise, right? And the tone sometimes sells it: the protagonist escaping into the surreal, refusing to step fully into either realm, has a particular melancholy-but-intriguing vibe.

Unfortunately, that's the best of it. The mundane plot he endeavors to escape is conventional, the speculative half is set-piecey without real depth, and the art is bad, with incoherent movement between panels and awful stylization: children look like middle-aged men, adults look like bobbleheads, and blocky shadows around the eye render every character interchangeable. I love a weird graphic novel, but this manages to be weird in a tedious way.

Title: Such Sharp Teeth
Author: Rachel Harrison
Published: Berkley, 2022
Rating: 1 of 5
Page Count: 335
Total Page Count: 528,165
Text Number: 1933
Read Because: I read werewolf books even when the decision to do so is ill-advised; ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Our super-cool protagonist returns home to stay with her pregnant twin sister, when homecoming and incipient romance shenanigans are interrupted by a werewolf attack. The smash cut to werewolf is appreciated, the ultra-short paragraphs and confessional tone have momentum, I did get through this. But this is a contemporary romance at its heart and, as such, not for me. The werewolf is a big part, and interestingly gross at times, but it's primarily thematic and it's repetitively thematic (transforming to a werewolf parallels various female losses of bodily autonomy), the rest of the plot is unexceptional, and it ends as conventionally as it can: werewolf problem? found a workaround. promiscuity? not once you get a boyfriend! social & body dysphoria during pregnancy? don't worry the baby will fix all that. Just read Tokuda-Hall's Squad, which has similar but more complex themes, a constrained length, and much sharper teeth.

Title: Monster Blood (Goosebumps Book 3)
Author: R.L. Stine
Narrator: Kirby Heyborne
Published: Scholastic Audio, 2015 (1992)
Rating: 1.5 of 5
Page Count: 135
Total Page Count: 527,830
Text Number: 1932
Read Because: browsing available now horror on audio, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Stranded with his strange great aunt for a few days, our protagonist buys a slime toy ... with dire results. I didn't like this as much as The Werewolf of Fever Swamp. Multiple factors, I think: the initial delight of nostalgia has worn off; this is less atmospheric, although the monster blood's varying qualities are evocative and gross; there's a lot of animal imperilment with a side of soft ableism, which saps my fun. Consensus seems to be that this is one of the weaker Goosebumps books; seems likely, but I think I've exhausted my interest in rereading.

Current Music: wyd - wyd

Title: The Daughters of Ys
Author: M.T. Anderson
Illustrator: Jo Rioux
Published: First Second, 2020
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 205
Total Page Count: 527,370
Text Number: 1930
Read Because: browsing graphic novels shelf at..., hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: After the death of the fairy mother, the lives of two princesses radically diverge. Rioux's illustrations are remarkable. I wasn't initially sold on the faces, but the stylization grew on me (the horse was my tipping point), and the real strength is the color work: superb, varied palettes, deep and dark and with fantastic use of contrast; the art can sell this whole book.

Good thing, too, because the narrative is weaker. This is a retelling of Breton folklore, and making Dahut a more complex and sympathetic character is a great jumping off point. Indeed, she's the only character with real depth; but introducing a second daughter both dilutes and simplifies Dahut's arc with a good/virginal/uncultured vs Problematic™/sexual/cultured dichotomy which is extremely tedious. Not recommended; at the same time, I was happy to read it, and would seek out more of Rioux's work.

Current Music: Gallows - Shelby Merry

Title: Crema
Author: Johnnie Christmas
Illustrator: Dante Luiz
Published: Dark Horse Books, 2020
Rating: 1.5 of 5
Page Count: 120
Total Page Count: 526,935
Text Number: 1929
Read Because: browsing graphic novels shelf at..., paperback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: When caffeinated, our protagonist can see ghosts; then she meets the owner of the coffee shop where she works. The all coffee all the time aesthetic is gimmicky, but I like the complementary warm wash over the art. This takes inspiration from telenovelas to justify its big, tropey plot beats; an admirable effort. Nonetheless: unrefined, predictable, with an undifferentiated whirlwind romance and hasty, oversized ghost story. Give this a miss.

Current Music: Survive It - Ghostpoet

Title: From Hell: Master Edition
Author: Alan Moore
Illustrator: Eddie Campbell, Pete Mullins
Published: Top Shelf Productions, 2020 (1999)
Rating: 1 of 5
Page Count: 50 of 665 (percentage finished based on comic length, excluding paratext)
Total Page Count: 526,600
Text Number: 1927
Read Because: personal enjoyment (?), hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library (October chewed on the binding a little, which would be less noticeable if it hadn't been visibly pristine and unread before I tried to have a crack at it; oh, forgive me, library)
Review: DNF at 10%, and that 10% took me weeks to get through. There are moments in the tone—painfully forthright in the way that tips into dark humor—that could work. If not for the endless asides into conspiracy theorizing; if not for the unappealing art and dense, rambling text. Each page, a headache; I concede to the inevitable and acknowledge I'm not going to get through this.

Current Music: Graveyard - Marah in the Mainsail

Title: Infidel
Author: Pornsak Pichetshote
Translator: Aaron Campbell, José Villarrubia
Published: Image Comics, 2018
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 170
Total Page Count: 526,425
Text Number: 1925
Read Because: browsing graphic novels shelf at..., paperback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: Racism as horror: after what appears to be an extremist attack in her building, a young Muslim woman is haunted by the angers that reside there. The paratext attests that horror & politics in comics are rare and rarely successful, so I guess I'm glad this is making strides with its WoC leads. Otherwise, I'm not impressed: my takeaway from most American comics is that I don't like comics, and this is no exception; I should have DNF'd, but instead struggled through the art and typesetting, and found no scares here, which left just talky politics not strong enough to support the narrative.

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juushika

June 2025

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Entries tagged with review: book review: not recommended

List of book reviews for 2005-2025

Book Review: First on the Antarctic Continent by C.E. Borchgrevink

Book Review: Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Book Review: Through the First Antarctic Night, 1898-1899 by Frederick A. Cook

Book Review: The Mysteries by Bill Watterson, illustrated by John Kascht

Book Review: The Boneshaker by Kate Milford, illus. Andrea Offermann

Book Review: An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson

Book Review: September House by Carissa Orlando

Book Review: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Book Review: Entangled with You: The Garden of 100 Grasses by Aki Aoi

Book Review: My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen

Book Review: The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V., illus. Filipe Andrade

Book Reviews: Library by Michael Dumontier, Neil Farber

Book Review: Cloud Hotel by Julian Hanshaw

Book Review: Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison

Book Review: Monster Blood by R.L. Stine, narr. Kirby Heyborne

Book Review: The Daughters of Ys, M.T. Anderson, illus. Jo Rioux

Book Review: Crema, Johnnie Christmas, illus. Dante Luiz

Book Review: From Hell, Alan Moore, illus. Eddie Campbell, Pete Mullins

Book Review: Infidel, Pornsak Pichetshote, illus. Aaron Campbell, José Villarrubia

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June 2025

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