★★★☆☆ A well-worn Gothic premise in the novel setting of 1950s Mexican countryside. This book hits all the best Gothic cliches, i.e. a young woman is sent to a creepy remote mansion with prickly secretive inhabitants and uncovers a terrible mystery…

★★★☆☆ Not as good as the previous ALTA graphic novels by Gene Luen Yang but still contains the signature political and moral themes.

★★★★☆ The idea of extracting the bone marrow of Indigenous people is so chilling. But Indigenous people having the unique ability to dream in this post-apocalyptic future is a beautiful counterpoint, and something that is given several incredibly evocative narrative moments.

★★★★☆ This book was painful, poetic, cinematic, chaotic, terrifying, elegiac...The intensity and totality of Morrison’s language is overwhelming, but it completely envelops you in the drama and horror of these characters’ stories.

★★★★★ TLDR: this is the best memoir I have ever read and you must read it, I cried in anger, in joy, in catharsis, I learned, I was moved, shocked, proud - Chanel Miller is a phenomenal writer and immensely talented, smart, sharp, emotionally mature person whose writings and experience on trauma and rape culture and justice you absolutely need to read.

★★★★★ I don’t give out many 5 stars and books like this are the reason why - it’s so resoundingly good that I couldn’t bear to lump it in with lesser books. So beautifully composed, toggling between post-apocalyptic survivalism and an urban capitalist grind.

★★☆☆☆ This is like a John Green novel but with less of a thesis and more annoyingly obvious it’s an oblivious man writing how he thinks young women think/feel/act.

Davis talks about mass movements, transnational solidarity, and intersectional, radically inclusive feminism. This is the first book by Angela Davis that I’ve read but certainly not the last. She uses very accessible language to make her points, and pointedly does not bog her arguments down in heavy theory/dense vocabulary.

The book is mostly a history and lives of Black people after the abolition of slavery. Dubois gives both a systemic history (Freedman’s Bureau, 15th amendment, other administrations and policies of abolition, etc.) as well as some very personal accounts from himself and other individuals who lived through this period and its aftermath.

★★★★★ This might be the best book I’ve read all year, and certainly the best and smoothest reading experience I’ve had in MONTHS. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is an adventure fantasy/myth retelling set in Mexico in the 1920s Jazz Age.

★★☆☆☆ I am definitely too old for this book (which skews on the young end of middle grade) and found it pretty boring with no stakes or real character development.

★★★☆☆ DARK COTTAGECORE FEATURING CURMUDGEONLY ASTROLOGY-WITCH IN THE REMOTE FRIGID POLISH COUNTRYSIDE AND STRANGE ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR AND TOWN DEATHS. Ok but seriously though this was wicked good. Beautifully written. A dark feminist, animal rights, anti-ageism manifesto.

★★☆☆☆ A book recounting a series of crimes and insidious acts committed by a middle-school teacher and her students against one another. Story begins with the apparent drowning of the teacher's four-year-old daughter, and each character gets their own POV section recounting what happened and what happened next in their perspective.

★★☆☆☆ Not as good as the others - villain and action set pieces not as compelling or believable. The new hyper-advanced video game console at the centre of the story is VERY dated, and more obviously so than the super computers in Stormbreaker, surprisingly.

★★★☆☆ Very enjoyable and funny read. Solid character development for ditzy protagonist Lucy and great cast of characters. Gets a little rape-culture-y with the nonconsensual kissing and girl falling in love with boy anyway. Contextual character stuff holds up though and makes the romance decently believable.

★★☆☆☆ I really loved Dig, the first A.S. King book I ever read, but this one was really very mediocre. I’m not really sure why but it just dragged, I didn’t care about any of the characters, and the contemplative bits on what is art and originality got more and more irritating.

★★★★☆ The second book in The Witch Boy graphic novel series. A wonderful world of queer witchcraft, deep friendships, and healing inherited family traumas. This second instalment focuses on themes of isolation, bullying, and adolescent angst.

★★★☆☆ Dreamy sad teen lesbian romance, very very very loosely based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in the American south in the early 2000s.