en-US Mon, 28 Apr 2025 21:02:46 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7129682980 Mon, 28 Apr 2025 21:02:46 -0700 /review/show/7129682980 Celeste gave 4 stars to My Big Fat Fake Marriage (Paperback) by Charlotte Stein
3.5 stars ]]> Review7260116911 Mon, 28 Apr 2025 20:06:42 -0700 /review/show/7260116911 Celeste gave 3 stars to The Wind Weaver (Reign of Remnants, #1) by Julie Johnson
2.75 stars

I'm upset.

I'm upset because there is a story worth being told here but the lack of plot in over 500 pages combined with the slow pace of the novel just to cultivate a slow burn romance between supposed enemies-to-lovers is just not enough pay-off for me as a reader. And the hint of love triangle at the end doesn't bode well for me in terms for the future of the series.

It also doesn't feel adult no matter what demographic label you try and slap on it.

The characters were fine - I liked the majority of the side characters. And the world-building is decent even if I didn't find entirely interesting or original in a way that excites me. But the lead character Rhya is a bit too whiny for how headstrong she's meant to be.

I still don't care for fae in general, which probably means I should stop trying to make fae reads happen for me and just stop picking them up. ]]> Review4605883547 Mon, 28 Apr 2025 20:04:30 -0700 /review/show/4605883547 Celeste gave 5 stars to Lessons in Chemistry (Audiobook) by Bonnie Garmus
bookshelves: better-than-anticipated
4.5 stars

I made the executive decision upon picking this novel up to not read pretty much anything about the premise and coming out of the story and briefly dipping my toes into the reviews surrounding it, seems like I made the right decision.

Because it would appear that I was picking on quite a bit that others perhaps did not upon their reading journeys, and I'm glad for that.

To start my good fortune, I consumed this story in it's entirety as an audiobook. The narrator, Miranda Raison does a fantastic job at capturing Elizabeth Zott's voice and immersing the reader so that her story is not only engaging, but feels like it actually happened in an almost biographical sort of way.

Almost being the operative word here because it doesn't actually happen.

And that leads us to my second bout of good fortune. I'm not sure if I would consider myself to be a seasoned reader, or a particularly nuanced one in terms of critical thinking and analysis. I often read as a form of escapism, and a lot of the time, that means reading for good vibes but not necessarily deep thoughts. But it became very clear to me as I progressed through the story that so much of what Elizabeth Zott's tale incorporates is incredibly absurd.

And I've come to the conclusion that it's because Lessons in Chemistry is not merely historical fiction as it's often touted to be. It's absurdist fiction with a satirical bent and a historical framework with which the story is structured upon. Now, I didn't necessarily know what absurdist fiction was to any large degree coming into the story, but it was evident that with Elizabeth's singular focus on science, Mad's incredible intelligence as a child, the neuro-divergence encoded in both of their characters, Six-Thirty being essentially a talking dog in terms of his thought process and thinking a la Andre Alexis' Sixteen Dogs (which is definitely absurdist fiction), the one-dimensionalism of entirely too many male characters to drive home the misogyny of the 60s, the blatant sexual assault and rape of Elizabeth and the lack of unpacking it all from a character development perspective, etc. the list goes on - all of it and more was just incredibly absurd as a whole.

I'm a little concerned that it appears at least to me in my brief perusing of reviews that not enough people who have read it have come to this conclusion.

My somewhat limited understanding of absurdist fiction is explained quite well by Michael Woodson in his short article from Writers Digest, which describes it as "a genre of novel that explores existential themes, where the meaning of life is explored, often nihilistically, leading to feelings of meaninglessness". The fact that Elizabeth Zott is a raging atheist and her life's work surrounds the concept of abiogenesis could not reinforce that definition any better in my opinion.

And when you consider that as a whole, I think the story is executed so well. From the almost repetitive tragedies that Elizabeth Zott undergoes, to the hopeful if vague sense of found family (both literal and figurative) at the end, there is this sense that though the meaning of life and from whence it all came is never uncovered, the notion of enjoying life and living it to the fullest with those that you care for and for those that may live long after you is at the forefront.

The meaning isn't what is important, the actual act of living is.

I think this is a story which emulates that perfectly. It's not made to be taken overly serious, it's not made to be a rallying cry of femininity. It's a tale of struggle and trials and tribulations in order to value the tiny moments of happiness which grow into larger moments of a life worth living because to struggle means you are living, even when it feels like you're merely surviving.

This wasn't the most profound novel I've ever read, but I think there's just such an inherent truth to it for it to have such a global impact and to have touched so many readers so far. It was definitely enjoyable, and I think is a great introduction to absurdist fiction for those who are willing to look past its obvious surface.

(And I think the ridiculous cover inadvertently proving this is the cherry on top because while there is a romance to this, it is not a rom-com, it is not a tale of humour, and it's not meant to be taken as gospel with respect to the science or history within it.) ]]> Review6926910886 Sat, 26 Apr 2025 13:44:35 -0700 /review/show/6926910886 Celeste gave 5 stars to The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (Hardcover) by Stephen Graham Jones
bookshelves: hysterically-anticipating
4.5 stars

Easily one of my favourite reads of the year, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a historical horror vampire story that follows Etsy Beaucarne a tenure seeking professor whose great-something-or-other-Lutheran-pastor-grandfather’s journal detailing his encounters with an Indigenous man, Good Stab, who begins telling his life story over the span of multiple confessions. It becomes clear as the story progresses that a vampire with a vendetta is murdering people in and around Miles City as more and more of Good Stab’s story is revealed, and eventually we see how Etsy herself becomes involved in the dark history of her ancestor.

It’s incredibly gory, full of murder and death and torture, and cultivates this level of dark tension that builds and builds and builds until it bursts into this crescendo of further horror and revenge and its bloody brilliant.

It’s such a phenomenal twist on the vampire subgenre, and the only thing I wanted to change was more page time with Etsy in Act II to explore her role in the plot a little further.

But other than that? No notes. Just good creepy vibes. ]]> Review7260026579 Thu, 24 Apr 2025 19:35:04 -0700 /review/show/7260026579 Celeste gave 4 stars to Murder by Memory (Dorothy Gentleman, #1) by Olivia Waite
3.5 stars

Genuinely one of the most charming lead characters I’ve come across this year in my reading.

This was a cozy sci-fi locked room mystery with a heavy emphasis on the cozy. I have not read a cozier novella before. And for it to be a sci-fi mystery one at that? Colour me impressed, I didn’t know that this was something that was allowed to exist, but I absolutely love that it does.

The characters are cute, I absolutely adored our MC Dorothy both as a middle-aged one and an affectionate aunt to boot, and while the plot wraps up entirely too quickly for my preference and the world-building is not as fleshed out as I feel it should be considering the memory books are fascinating as a subject, I still quite enjoyed my time with this story.

I’ll definitely be checking out the rest of the series as it comes out in the future. ]]> ReadStatus9345357374 Wed, 23 Apr 2025 19:20:08 -0700 /review/show/7513939281 Celeste wants to read Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
]]> ReadStatus9337096786 Mon, 21 Apr 2025 19:05:08 -0700 /review/show/7508122000 Celeste wants to read The Things We Water by Mariana Zapata
]]> ReadStatus9335103616 Mon, 21 Apr 2025 10:11:08 -0700 /review/show/7260717836 Celeste marked as half-empty-glasses-of-tepid-water Exquisite Ruin by AdriAnne May
]]> Review7129687971 Mon, 21 Apr 2025 09:04:28 -0700 /review/show/7129687971 Celeste gave 5 stars to The Bane Witch (Paperback) by Ava Morgyn
bookshelves: hysterically-anticipating
4.5 stars

This has quickly shot up to being one of my favourite reads this year because it's dark, vindictive and alluring in the way poison can often be. And considering the tagline for the story is "A very little poison can do a world of good." well, needless to say, this was fantastic.

The world-building surrounding bane witches and the venery wasn't terribly explained to any great degree, but what we were offered made sense in how much information Piers had access to and it also felt like enough when navigating the hunt and the hunger Piers had unknowingly been a part of from birth. And the world-building in terms of setting and atmosphere more than made up for the lack of history and lore because the descriptions in this story were top notch - from the mushrooms and the mountains to the people and the villains (of which there are plenty in this story).

I love how Piers as a character could've been so much more hateful and distrusting of men based on her history and her gift, but that Ava Morgyn managed to strike a nice balance between good and evil instead of villainizing men as a whole. Piers was such a strong female lead who really came into her own by the end, and her struggles to leave her husband and find the truth about herself and her magic were written in a way that she was still vulnerable despite her power. She was kind of designed to be a special snowflake in that she was so powerful, but it never came across that way since she was inexperienced and that inexperience was right front and centre even when she was successful.

I do wish we had more time to see relationship dynamics really thrive in this story, because I think they're arguably the weakest aspect. Myrtle and Piers have a decent amount of interaction but it really did feel like their time together was cut short by virtue of the plot. And because the rest of the venery has minimal page time, there was a lack of depth there as well. Reyes and Regis also had connections to Piers but they were either under-explored in the former and sped through in an insta-love manner with the latter.

But outside of that, I really enjoyed how dark and ominous the entire tone of the novel was, how the hunters became the hunted, how murder was often mercy and how female rage was depicted as a force of nature trying to balance the scales. Highly recommend this one for readers who enjoyed Layne Fargo's They Never Learn or the movie Promising Young Woman primarily for the revenge and retribution plotlines. ]]> ReadStatus9334822923 Mon, 21 Apr 2025 08:55:12 -0700 /review/show/5038324489 Celeste marked as half-empty-glasses-of-tepid-water Godkiller by Hannah Kaner
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