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abbysbookwor1d's reviews
405 reviews
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
3.5
This was a good book but if I'm being honest I was left feeling a little unsatisfied.
📖 Zelu life is upended when she is fired from her university job and her latest novel is rejected. Disabled, unemployed and from a nosy, high-achieving, judgmental family, she’s not sure what comes next.
She decides to write a book unlike her others; a sci fi about androids and AI after the extinction of humanity. And everything changes.
✨ Review ✨
This is a science fiction drama that arguably sits strongly in the literacy fiction genre. The science mainly sits in the book she has written which we get passages from throughout. Having said that the sci-fi elements do become more prominent as the book goes on.
There is so much the love about this and it has the makings to be something I should love but overall it just didn't hit for me. Starting with what I did love though and that's the concept, I think it's really interesting and it has something to say.
I also really enjoyed Zelu as a character and the disability representation was fantastic. Learning about her challenges and how she navigates the world and to see her be such a strong willed and unapologetically herself was the best thing about this book.
This is also a beautiful celebration of Nigerian culture and again I loved it for that.
The thing that didn't work for me is I think this book was doing to much. It goes into ableism, racism, cancel culture, patriarchy, dysfunctional family dynamics, death, grief, the use of AI, the publishing industry, motherhood, love and relationships, nationalism, social media culture, feminism, transphoba etc...
This book tries to tackle so many important issues that I found a lot of it lacking depth and in turn it didn't have the emotional impact a book like this should have. Everything it was saying was interesting but I kept wanting more from all these different threads and I was left feeling unsatisfied.
I still think this is a great book and I would highly recommend it, it was just missing something for me.
📖 Zelu life is upended when she is fired from her university job and her latest novel is rejected. Disabled, unemployed and from a nosy, high-achieving, judgmental family, she’s not sure what comes next.
She decides to write a book unlike her others; a sci fi about androids and AI after the extinction of humanity. And everything changes.
✨ Review ✨
This is a science fiction drama that arguably sits strongly in the literacy fiction genre. The science mainly sits in the book she has written which we get passages from throughout. Having said that the sci-fi elements do become more prominent as the book goes on.
There is so much the love about this and it has the makings to be something I should love but overall it just didn't hit for me. Starting with what I did love though and that's the concept, I think it's really interesting and it has something to say.
I also really enjoyed Zelu as a character and the disability representation was fantastic. Learning about her challenges and how she navigates the world and to see her be such a strong willed and unapologetically herself was the best thing about this book.
This is also a beautiful celebration of Nigerian culture and again I loved it for that.
The thing that didn't work for me is I think this book was doing to much. It goes into ableism, racism, cancel culture, patriarchy, dysfunctional family dynamics, death, grief, the use of AI, the publishing industry, motherhood, love and relationships, nationalism, social media culture, feminism, transphoba etc...
This book tries to tackle so many important issues that I found a lot of it lacking depth and in turn it didn't have the emotional impact a book like this should have. Everything it was saying was interesting but I kept wanting more from all these different threads and I was left feeling unsatisfied.
I still think this is a great book and I would highly recommend it, it was just missing something for me.
Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao
Did not finish book. Stopped at 60%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 60%.
DNF at 60%
This book is not for me. I'm at the point of boredom where I can't even take the words in. This has such an interesting concept but it delivers it in such a lifeless way, I just can't continue.
To start with I did really enjoy the atmosphere of this book but it's not enough on its own for me to enjoy a book. Now I will say I'm not one for cosy fantasy but I do love a philosophical book. The idea of pawning your life choices and deepest regrets intrigued me. I keep waiting for this to become though-provoking and meaningful but I'm finding it's depth really shallow and surface level. It does have some pretty quotable passages but its nothing profound for me.
The characters are also incredibly one dimension and I have zero interest in them. I'm also not a fan of the romance these two characters have zero chemistry.
This book very much reminds me of Before the coffee gets cold and The Midnight Library. These are also two books I didn't enjoy but Water Moon may be for you if you liked these books.
This book is not for me. I'm at the point of boredom where I can't even take the words in. This has such an interesting concept but it delivers it in such a lifeless way, I just can't continue.
To start with I did really enjoy the atmosphere of this book but it's not enough on its own for me to enjoy a book. Now I will say I'm not one for cosy fantasy but I do love a philosophical book. The idea of pawning your life choices and deepest regrets intrigued me. I keep waiting for this to become though-provoking and meaningful but I'm finding it's depth really shallow and surface level. It does have some pretty quotable passages but its nothing profound for me.
The characters are also incredibly one dimension and I have zero interest in them. I'm also not a fan of the romance these two characters have zero chemistry.
This book very much reminds me of Before the coffee gets cold and The Midnight Library. These are also two books I didn't enjoy but Water Moon may be for you if you liked these books.
Madhouse by Miguel Estrada
Did not finish book. Stopped at 39%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 39%.
I'll be honest I picked this up without reading what it was about. Just going from the cover it wasn't really what I expected.
Having read 39% there not really anything wrong with it it's just very basic and it's failing in grabbing my attention.
Having read 39% there not really anything wrong with it it's just very basic and it's failing in grabbing my attention.
And the Sky Bled by S. Hati
3.0
I really wanted to love this more than I did. Bindery books has interested me for a while, books published by book content creators I wanna support that but sadly this was just okay.
📚 Amid the chaos of a dying city ruled by colonizers, three rivals—a thief, a slumlord, and an heiress—race to find a hidden cache of magic that will decide the city’s fate.
As Zain, Iravan, and Anastasia draw closer to finding the treasure, their paths tangle, and not for the first time—they met before, a decade ago, in a fire that destroyed each of their lives in different ways. Their reunion might bring the already-weakened city to its knees.
✨ Review ✨
Firstly I want to say this is marketed as Fantasy the Fantasy elements are very thin and I would say it leans much heavier into the Dystopian climate change Sci-Fi. This isn't a bad thing for me I love Sci-Fi but it did throw me for a second as I expected Fantasy especially from this imprint. While it wasn't a big deal for me I do think this is mismarketed and people should know that.
I'd say this books biggest strength is its world building. Especially when it comes to those descriptions of climate change and how horrifying and dangerous the weather has become. This definitely led to some of the books cooler moments.
I personally think this book is trying to do a bit to much in to short a time. We get a lot of information dumped at us in a short amount of time and it can feel a little much at times. Almost hard to follow because it doesn't give us time to really explore the politics of this world.
It also dragged out certain plotlines that I don't think it needed to. For example we know early on all our characters met before in a fire. When the answer was finally revealed it was very lackluster and I think more tension would have been created had we of known beforehand.
The characters aren't as well fleshed out as I would like. The characters are okay but I never got fully invested in them or truly cared, I would have liked to see more depth to them. We also had romantic subplots that we unnecessarily and never had the time to be developed properly.
This book has so much going for it and I really like how this book is trying to explore colonialism, climate change and its societal impacts. I feel like this story could benefit from more time everything feels so rushed.
📚 Amid the chaos of a dying city ruled by colonizers, three rivals—a thief, a slumlord, and an heiress—race to find a hidden cache of magic that will decide the city’s fate.
As Zain, Iravan, and Anastasia draw closer to finding the treasure, their paths tangle, and not for the first time—they met before, a decade ago, in a fire that destroyed each of their lives in different ways. Their reunion might bring the already-weakened city to its knees.
✨ Review ✨
Firstly I want to say this is marketed as Fantasy the Fantasy elements are very thin and I would say it leans much heavier into the Dystopian climate change Sci-Fi. This isn't a bad thing for me I love Sci-Fi but it did throw me for a second as I expected Fantasy especially from this imprint. While it wasn't a big deal for me I do think this is mismarketed and people should know that.
I'd say this books biggest strength is its world building. Especially when it comes to those descriptions of climate change and how horrifying and dangerous the weather has become. This definitely led to some of the books cooler moments.
I personally think this book is trying to do a bit to much in to short a time. We get a lot of information dumped at us in a short amount of time and it can feel a little much at times. Almost hard to follow because it doesn't give us time to really explore the politics of this world.
It also dragged out certain plotlines that I don't think it needed to. For example we know early on all our characters met before in a fire. When the answer was finally revealed it was very lackluster and I think more tension would have been created had we of known beforehand.
The characters aren't as well fleshed out as I would like. The characters are okay but I never got fully invested in them or truly cared, I would have liked to see more depth to them. We also had romantic subplots that we unnecessarily and never had the time to be developed properly.
This book has so much going for it and I really like how this book is trying to explore colonialism, climate change and its societal impacts. I feel like this story could benefit from more time everything feels so rushed.