talonsontypewriters's reviews
313 reviews

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

cool magic system. the rest... ehhh

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The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths by Brad Fox

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slow-paced

1.0

Maybe 10-15% actually about the bathysphere and early explorations thereof, but mostly a bunch of random, poorly organized historical anecdotes with only tangential or sometimes no apparent relevance to that throughline. Occasional interesting commentary about racism and sexism in STEM that doesn't really build to anything. Not super well written in general, descriptive but lifeless style.

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Wolfpack by Rem Wigmore

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

whatever the fuck orfeus and faolan have going on >>>>>

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Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

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reflective fast-paced

1.0

Straight up badly written: scattered and repetitive with a bunch of shallow, obvious platitudes masquerading as wise advice/insight into the world. Reeks of white middle-class privilege with little to no self-awareness thereof (there's a whole word vomit chapter on what it would be like if we ignored race/gender/etc and just saw each other as ~human~, and another part about how ~inspiring~ a visit to a homeless shelter was... all right man). No direct citations or sources aside from some books quoted in the text; even if you're being purposefully messy, you should still say where you're getting any actual statistics from? I think the alternative is called "plagiarism" or perhaps "making shit up."

Some weird leaps of logic based on anecdotes too -- I really don't think panic attacks occur frequently in supermarkets because of, uh, the unnaturalness of processed foods or the subconscious realization of how companies are manipulating us or whatever tangent Haig went on there. I'd wager it has more to do with the much more obvious factors of the amount of people in them and required interactions with those people, general intense sensory input (smells, noise, lighting, etc), and thought spirals about choices and money.

Overall made me more rather than less anxious, so also kind of failed in its basic purpose.

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The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75


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Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America's Cemeteries by Greg Melville

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informative medium-paced

3.0


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Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap

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dark mysterious medium-paced

3.75


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Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0


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Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction by Joshua Whitehead

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hopeful reflective medium-paced

3.75


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Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5


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