Latest Posts by embracing-the-shortness - Page 2

Weight || Jeanette Winterson ★★★★★ Started: 13.11.2023 Finished: 14.11.2023 The story of Atlas and Heracles Atlas knows how it feels to carry the weight of the world; but why, he asks himself, does it have to be carried at all? In Weight — visionary and inventive, yet completely believable and relevant to the questions we ask ourselves every day — Winterson’s skill in turning the familiar on its head to show us a different truth is put to stunning effect. When it comes to recent retellings of Greek Myths, my approach can best be described as kissing paper frogs, hoping one of them would turn out to be a masterpiece. Most understandably didn't. With "Weight", however, my perseverance was rewarded in spectacular fashion. This is no mere recounting of events, it's a careful, considerate and thoughtful conversation with an age-old story. It's building upon the solid fundament of universal truth within the myth and intertwining it with the experiences of contemporary readers. An absolute pleasure to experience, and certainly a book to return to time and time again.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter || Brandon Sanderson ★★★★★ Started: 15.02.2025 Finished: 23.02.2025 Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster? The second one of Sanderson's secret projects that I read (after Tress of the Emerald Sea, another five star read), and Yumi is just as good, if not better - the narration is similarly humorus, the world is completely different yet still whimsical and meticulously thought out, and the characters - simply lovable - you can't help but root for Yumi and Painter from start to finish. The action does take some time to truly pick up the pace, but the payoff is absolutely worth it!

Mina's Matchbox || Yōko Ogawa ★★★★★ Started: 12.02.2025 Finished: 23.02.2025 In the spring of 1972, twelve-year-old Tomoko leaves her mother behind in Tokyo and boards a train alone for Ashiya, a coastal town in Japan, to stay with her aunt’s family. Tomoko’s aunt is an enigma and an outlier in her working-class family, and her magnificent home—and handsome, foreign husband, the president of a soft drink company—are symbols of that status. The seventeen rooms are filled with German-made furnishings; there are sprawling gardens, and even an old zoo where the family’s pygmy hippopotamus resides. The family is just as beguiling as their mansion—Tomoko’s dignified and devoted aunt, her German grandmother, and her dashing, charming uncle who confidently sits as the family’s patriarch. At the center of the family is Tomoko’s cousin Mina, a precocious, asthmatic girl of thirteen who draws Tomoko into an intoxicating world full of secret crushes and elaborate storytelling. Having read and loved two of Yoko Ogawa's other novels - "The Memory Police" and "The Professor and the Housekeeper", I was very excited about Mina's Matchbox, but I just couldn't get to it in 2024, when the translation came out. I do regret not reading this beautifully haunting book earlier, but you know what they say - better late than never! I really enjoy Ogawa's character studies, and Mina's Matchbox definitely doesn't disappoint with it's ensemble cast of characters, none brighter than the titular Mina - a sickly young girl that collects matchboxes and lives vicariously through the stories she writes about the illustrations on their covers. A quiet, understated, yet powerful coming of age story, Mina's Matchbox was an absolute pleasure to read!

We || Yevgeny Zamyatin ★★★★★ Started: 22.02.2025 Finished: 23.02.2025 Set in the twenty-sixth century AD, We is the classic dystopian novel. In the totalitarian society of the OneState of the great Benefactor, in a glass-enclosed city of absolute straight lines, is a world where people are numbers, there are no individuals, only numbers. Life has been reduced to a mathematical perfectly balanced equation, an ongoing process of mathematical precision. Free will is a disease. Primitive passions, instincts, and creativity have been subdued. Even nature has been defeated, banished behind the Green Wall. But one frontier remains: outer space. Now, with the creation of the spaceship Integral, that frontier, and whatever alien species are to be found there, will be subjugated to the beneficent yoke of reason. One number, D-503, chief architect of the Integral, decides to record his thoughts in the final days before the launch for the benefit of less advanced societies. But a chance meeting with the beautiful 1-330 results in an unexpected discovery that threatens everything D-503 believes about himself and the One State… the discovery, or rediscovery, of inner space, and that disease the ancients called the soul, and Love. If you are interested in dystopian literature in the vein of Orwell's 1984 and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, We is a must read!

Autobiography of Red || Anne Carson ★★★★★ Started: 25.01.2025 Finished: 22.02.2025 “There is no person without a world.” And, it turns out, there is no monster without a world. An immensely rich, if, by his own admission, somewhat monochromatic inner world. "Autobiography of Red" is not so much a typical contemporary mythological retelling, and more a tale of self discovery, painful love, and, inevitably, acceptance, set against a relatively modern backdrop (read: not the Ancient Greece the namesakes of these characters inhabited). More than anything else, it's the writing itself that elevates this work into a true masterpiece: concise, evocative, at times heart-wrenching, unfailingly exquisite. It is no easy task to fit so much meaning into so few pages, most authors veer into empty purple prose in attempts to justify their retellings, but not Anne Carson - therein lies her strength as an author. She doesn't simply rehash the myth as we know it, but reinvents it, brings it into the new age, makes it speak to the modern audience. In her novel "A Short History of Myth", Karen Armstrong argues the following: “A myth, therefore, is true because it is effective, not because it gives us factual information. If, however, it does not give us new insight into the deeper meaning of life, it has failed.” Following this logic, it wouldn't be unfair to say that, where most contemporary retellings fail "Autobiography of Red" achieves a roaring, resounding success.

String || Paul Tobin (Author), Sara Colella (colorist), Taylor Esposito (letterer), Carlos Javier Olivares (illustrator) ★★★★★ Started: 20.02.2025 Finished: 20.02.2025 Thank you to NetGalley and Mad Cave Studios for providing me with an ARC and giving me the opportunity to share my honest review. This vibrantly illustrated graphic novel follows Yoon-Sook Namgung, a 25-year-old Korean-American woman with the unique ability to see two types of “strings” connecting various people: one blue, stretching between intimate partners, the other —dark black— connecting murderers and their victims. She puts her abilities to good use by aiding the police in solving homicide cases, and earns a living by using the blue strings to help people expose their cheating partners. All is good, until one day she discovers a black string connected to herself, and she's set in a race against time to uncover her would be murderer. The story is fast-paced and engaging throughout, and we see Yoon in her element, solving her open cases in an attempt to prevent her murder. I enjoyed seeing her interact with her clients and the suspects in their cases - none of them felt one-dimensional or cartoonish, and it made for a truly compelling story. The easy-going banter between Yoon and Luke, the police officer she were consulting, in particular, was a highlight. Another strength of "String" is the artwork - the entire graphic novel is illustrated in full, vivid color, that only enhances the story - excellent work by Carlos Javier Olivares and Sara Colella! That being said, the graphic novel does include quite a bit of violence and one particular graphic sex panel, so it might not be suitable for a younger audience.

Indigo || Chi-Ho Kwong, Chi-Kit Kwong ★★★☆☆ Started: 19.02.2025 Finished: 19.02.2025 Thank you to NetGalley, Mad Cave Studios and Nakama Press for providing me with an ARC and giving me the opportunity to share my honest review. "Indigo" follows the story of Ella Summer, a reporter at a magazine that chases urban legends and conspiracy theories; with the suspicious death of her university professor, Ella's life is suddenly turned upside down, as things she thought were outlandish turn out to be very real after all. If you're interested in conspiracy theories, this graphic novel is perfect for you. The story is very fast-paced and action-packed, occasionally bordering on being a bit confusing. There is some build-up towards the big reveal, however I think it would have been better if we had been kept in suspense a little while longer. Ultimately, the plot felt rushed, and it's because of that that I can't give "Indigo" a higher rating. That, and the fact that it leans quite heavily into a particularly outlandish conspiracy theory that I personally don't buy. On the flip side, the art is magnificent. The first few pages are in full color, and the artwork is simply dreamy, and the art style translates really well into the black-and-white pages of the story proper.

Book Lovers || Emily Henry ★★★★☆ Started: 09.02.2025 Finished: 12.02.2025 Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby. Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute. If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves. As someone who hardly ever picks up a romance novel, I had a really good time with Book Lovers, despite being a narrow-eyed sceptic at first. The humorous banter between the main characters was a real highlight, as was the subversion of your run-of-the-mill Hallmark movie plotlines. Sometimes an overachieving workaholic can just be that, without converting to the Small Town Ways, and that's ok! And even though, for the most part, I could see where the novel was going, I still really enjoyed the experience.

A Dark and Drowning Tide || Allison Saft ★★★☆☆ Started: 02.02.2025 Finished: 09.02.2025 Lorelei Kaskel, a folklorist with a quick temper and an even quicker wit, is on an expedition with six eccentric nobles in search of a fabled spring. The magical spring promises untold power, which the king wants to harness to secure his reign of the embattled country of Brunnestaad. Lorelei is determined to use this opportunity to prove herself and make her wildest, most impossible dream come to become a naturalist, able to travel freely to lands she’s only ever read about. The expedition gets off to a harrowing start when its leader—Lorelei’s beloved mentor—is murdered in her quarters aboard their ship. The suspects are her five remaining expedition mates, each with their own motive. The only person Lorelei knows must be innocent is her longtime academic rival, the insufferably gallant and maddeningly beautiful Sylvia von Wolff. Now in charge of the expedition, Lorelei must find the spring before the murderer strikes again—and a coup begins in earnest. But there are other dangers lurking in the forests that rearrange themselves at night, rivers with slumbering dragons waiting beneath the water, and shapeshifting beasts out for blood. A Dark and Drowning Tide started out as a novel and swiftly devolved into a rushed trope checklist: Enemies to lovers - ✔ Accidental bed / tent sharing - ✔ Miscommunication - ✔ I loved how fairytales were incorporated into the narrative, I just wished the characters were more than fairtytale archetypes - even the two main characters, Lorelei and Sylvia were so one dimensional, it was painful to read at times. As an extension, the romance between them felt… bland. Frankly the entire last third of the novel felt bland, rushed and unearned. Perhaps if the book was longer - or even had a sequel - and the uprising / civil war plotline was more than a throwaway line, it might have been better (then again maybe not, given the underbaked cast of characters).

A Few Rules for Predicting the Future: An Essay || Octavia E. Butler ★★★★★ Started: 09.02.2025 Finished: 09.02.2025 Originally published in Essence magazine in the year 2000, Octavia E. Butler’s essay “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future” offers an honest look into the inspiration behind her science fiction novels and the importance of studying history and taking responsibility for our actions if we are to move forward. Organized into four main rules, this short essay reminds readers to learn from the past, respect the law of consequences, be aware of their perspectives, and count on the surprises. Citing the warning signs of fascism, the illusive effects of fear and wishful thinking, and the unpredictable nature of what is yet to come, Butler shares realistic but hopeful suggestions to shape our future into something good. If I was on the fence about reading "Parable of the Sower" before, I'm bumping it right towards the top of my TBR now. Butler's writing is just that good. Thank you, Goodreads Challenges!

I must admit I am charmed by these little GR reading challenge bookmarks, I just wish the categories included lesser known books, and not just the current TikTok darlings (looking at the Valentines Day challenge with eligible books such as Fourth Wing and the Dark Romance of The Hour)

HI HI HI I LOVE YOUR ART SO MUCH HIIIIIIIII

ANY AEQUA DOODLE!! because i love her so bad and also again i just want to say that i saw your art and it made my day and i am losing my mind i am so happy thank you for existing

Aah thank you so much!! I LOVEEEEEE Aequa so much! I would love to draw her more and I've been wanting to design different outfits for the different festivals and events we see in the book. Thank you so much for requesting her bc she deserves so much love aaaaaah I know there's a lot more going in in the story and she's not the biggest character ever but I think she's so interesting. I like to imagine her as trying very hard to achieve and surpass the standards set before her, but trying to find how she can do it her way. She's a mix of confidence in her skill but also doubtful. She's got every reason to be suspicious, but stays true. I just love how even though she has a smaller role, you get so much of a sense of who she is. I hope we see more of her next book! P.S. the colors might be wonky bc of my ipad. like no matter what i do the colors always turn out soooo different when it comes from there raah

Hi! I saw you were taking art requests about The Will of the Many, so hear me out: Vis falling from the window at Villa Telimus 😌

But seriously, something cute with Aequa, Callidus and Vis would be nice. I really love their friendship 💕

Thanks! ☺

Themst. Thank you for the request! This was so fun! I need to draw more art but alas...no time. Yet!

Emissa and Vis. Still thinking about them

More sketches from The Will of the Many! I loveeeee these two and I want to see more of them ofc.

"Chain your anger in the dark and it will only thrive." - The Will of the Many, James Islington

The Will of the Many || James Islington ★★★★★ Started: 25.12.2024 Finished: 31.01.2025 Favourite book of January 2025 ♥ AUDI. VIDE. TACE. The Catenan Republic – the Hierarchy – may rule the world now, but they do not know everything. I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus – what they call Will – to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do. I tell them that I belong, and they believe me. But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart. And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family. To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me. And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me. Where do I even begin with this incredible book? I loved the worldbuilding, I loved the characters, I loved the writing - it could not have been much better, and I had some pretty high expectations going in. James Islington managed to surpass them all. Safe to say I'm impatiently waiting for "Strength of the Few"!

blood over bright haven by m.l. wang

because good people can turn desperate when the horrors are upon them—especially people whose culture of plenty has left them with no systems to cope with scarcity or cataclysm. good people will turn monstrous when it’s down to their survival or someone else’s.

Blood Over Bright Haven || M.L. Wang ★★★★★ Started: 01.02.2025 Finished: 08.02.2025 An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant. What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power. Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance? Reading this line in the book description: “Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling.”, I thought the Bright Haven would come under an external threat that would have to be alleviated. What really happens is much more insidious, much more sinister, and much harder to combat, let alone overcome. The result is an exceptional standalone fantasy novel in the vein of R.F. Kuang's Babel.

Notes on an Execution || Danya Kukafka ★★★★★ Started: 11.10.2024 Finished: 20.10.2024 Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he’s done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. He hoped it wouldn’t end like this, not for him. Through a kaleidoscope of women—a mother, a sister, a homicide detective—we learn the story of Ansel’s life. We meet his mother, Lavender, a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation; Hazel, twin sister to Ansel’s wife, inseparable since birth, forced to watch helplessly as her sister’s relationship threatens to devour them all; and finally, Saffy, the homicide detective hot on his trail, who has devoted herself to bringing bad men to justice but struggles to see her own life clearly. As the clock ticks down, these three women sift through the choices that culminate in tragedy, exploring the rippling fissures that such destruction inevitably leaves in its wake. Blending breathtaking suspense with astonishing empathy, Notes on an Execution presents a chilling portrait of womanhood as it simultaneously unravels the familiar narrative of the American serial killer, interrogating our system of justice and our cultural obsession with crime stories, asking readers to consider the false promise of looking for meaning in the psyches of violent men.

Squad || Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Lisa Sterle (Illustrator) ★★★★☆ Started: 15.12.2024 Finished: 15.12.2024 When Becca transfers to a high school in an elite San Francisco suburb, she’s worried she’s not going to fit in. To her surprise, she’s immediately adopted by the most popular girls in school. At first glance, Marley, Arianna, and Mandy are perfect. But at a party under a full moon, Becca learns that they also have a big secret. Becca’s new friends are werewolves. Their prey? Slimy boys who take advantage of unsuspecting girls. Eager to be accepted, Becca allows her friends to turn her into a werewolf, and finally, for the first time in her life, she feels like she truly belongs. But things get complicated when Arianna’s predatory boyfriend is killed, and the cops begin searching for a serial killer. As their pack begins to buckle under the pressure—and their moral high ground gets muddier and muddier—Becca realizes that she might have feelings for one of her new best friends. Lisa Sterle’s stylish illustrations paired with Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s sharp writing make Squad a fun, haunting, and fast-paced thriller that will resonate with fans of Riverdale, and with readers of This Savage Song, Lumberjanes, and Paper Girls. Squad is, as advertised, very Mean Pretty Little Liars of Beacon Hills. Compels me, though. Lisa Sterle's art style is vivid and vibrant, and really brought the story alive. That being said, at times the story was almost too fast paced for me - I wonder if it would have lent itself more readily to prose - if a little more descriptive text would make the foreshadowing a little more subtle. Still a worthwhile read, though.

I Who Have Never Known Men || Jacqueline Harpman ★★★★★ Started: 11.12.2024 Finished: 25.12.2024 Deep underground, thirty-nine women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before. As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the fortieth prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground. A hauntingly beautiful novel that is seeped in a profound, hopeless sadness, that is undoubtedly worth your time.

A Certain Hunger || Chelsea G. Summers ★★★★☆ Started: 21.12.2024 Finished: 28.12.2024 Food critic Dorothy Daniels loves what she does. Discerning, meticulous, and very, very smart, Dorothy’s clear mastery of the culinary arts make it likely that she could, on any given night, whip up a more inspired dish than any one of the chefs she writes about. Dorothy loves sex as much as she loves food, and while she has struggled to find a long-term partner that can keep up with her, she makes the best of her single life, frequently traveling from Manhattan to Italy for a taste of both. But there is something within Dorothy that’s different from everyone else, and having suppressed it long enough, she starts to embrace what makes Dorothy uniquely, terrifyingly herself. Recounting her life from a seemingly idyllic farm-to-table childhood, the heights of her career, to the moment she plunges an ice pick into a man's neck on Fire Island, Dorothy Daniels show us what happens when a woman finally embraces her superiority. A satire of early foodieism, a critique of how gender is defined, and a showcase of virtuoso storytelling, Chelsea G. Summers’s A Certain Hunger introduces us to the food world’s most charming psychopath and an exciting new voice in fiction.

Even blood washes out, or you can fill your mouth with things that hide the taste.

Sophie Mackintosh, excerpt from Cursed Bread

Do you lay bread on your tongue and think of me [...] do you swallow it like a sacrament, do you still get down on your knees?

Sophie Mackintosh, from 'Cursed Bread'

(...) but the skin remembers, the body holds everything inside itself, the bones can stiffen to claws.

Sophie Mackintosh, excerpt from Cursed Bread