Tag: Vibe: Social Issues

Review: Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson

★★★★½

Titan Books | 2024

Filed Under: Let them eat cake.

I don’t know about you, but I’m fully in my Eat the Rich era.

Could things be any more fucking upside and twisted? I’m sure the answer is yes.

*laughing with tears* Every day gets worse!

Things are exhausting and scary and surreal right now, and I can’t even say I’m spared because I’m Canadian, which was the standard play the last time this shitshow circus of evil came to town. No, this time, the entire world is being affected by the Manchurian Cantaloupe and his merry band of Rich Pieces of Shit and Enablers.

Never thought I’d have to check each day whether my country has been invaded by the US.

Honestly, keep fucking up those Tesla dealerships. I’m 100% supportive of this kind of vandalism, apparently.

That said, if you are feeling very much like some cathartic violence against the rich and powerful (Free Luigi!) that is consequence free and doesn’t even require you to leave your house, may I suggest this fucking novel for your vicarious pleasure?

Continue reading “Review: Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson” →

*In My Best Carol Anne voice* I’m Baaaack!

I think it’s so cold out because hell has frozen over. That’s just a theory, but it feels right.

Oh hello, hi, it’s me! Your intrepid absent blogger crawling out from under my books to once again reclaim my corner of the internet (omg for realsies this time!) that is not owned by those loser-ass broligarchs taking over the world, app by app. (But I guess in some ways it is. Like does anyone have the deets on the WordPress CEO? How evil are they?)

Honestly, I think we really need to figure out a way to dose all the billionaire villains with ayahuasca until they realize they are not destined for shit, that we are all connected to the universe and they are destroying the planet. We don’t need to move to Mars if we just take care of the planet we are currently on, you stupid shits.

Free Luigi!

Anyway…

Continue reading “*In My Best Carol Anne voice* I’m Baaaack!” →

Review: Hideout (Alice Vega, #3) by Louisa Luna

★★★★½

Doubleday | 2022

Filed Under: Make Racists Afraid Again

I loved this instalment in the Alive Vega series.

LOVED.

I may be one of only a few giving this such a high rating, but I stand by it. It was sealed for me by the time Vega grabbed a bat and went on a Lemonade-esque rampage against white nationalists.

But it didn’t start out in a way that convinced me I was going to love this. When the novel opens with a college football scene and then Vega taking on the case of a footballer missing for 30 years, I thought, ugh not sports! But the football angle really is just the catalyst for discovering a Nazi movement disrupting a small town and all the murder and mayhem that follows as Vega takes it upon herself to deliver some “find out” after right-wing turds fuck around.

White nationalists and a missing athlete cold case is an odd combination, but it works.

Vega kicking white nationalist ass:

Me:

Continue reading “Review: Hideout (Alice Vega, #3) by Louisa Luna” →

Review: The Violence by Delilah S. Dawson

“It was all sandcastles built on the shoreline by someone who’d forgotten that sand was just another kind of dirt.”

★★★★½

Del Rey Books | 2022

Filed Under: Good for her.

Well, this novel is a weird little gem.

I don’t know what I was expecting from a plot centring around a new virus – five years after COVID – that turns people into mindless, murderous violent monsters and a mother who joins a new wrestling… group? Organization? Federation? What is the correct term for a wrestling thing? Whatever, the point is that this is oddball, heartfelt and violent in equal measure and I totally dug it.

Chelsea is married to David. David is a controlling, gaslighting, abusive piece of shit. When the virus – named the Violence – starts spreading with rapid and deadly results, Chelsea devises a way out, but between her two children and her emotionally abusive rich-bitch mother, things don’t go exactly as planned.

This novel has a wild and original plot that takes many unpredictable turns, with vibrant scenes and satisfying prose. I was bewildered by the kooky moments mixed in with the uncomfortably real ones – but was also on the edge of my seat the entire time.

It’s all “what the actual fuck” vibes but in a good way.

But be warned, a massive content warning is needed for domestic violence and animal death.

Continue reading “Review: The Violence by Delilah S. Dawson” →

Review: Bluebird, Bluebird (Highway 59, #1) by Attica Locke

40605488. sy475

★★★

Mulholland Books | 2017

Filed Under: Makes Racists Afraid Again

This is a tricky review to write because two different elements of this book require attention. The first is the atmosphere and setting and all the social issues that go along with writing a novel set in a small one-horse Texas town with deep ties to America’s racist history.

The other is the mystery itself, because this is a mystery novel. Why were a black man and a white woman murdered together, and who did it?

The setting and the mystery work together and separately, propelling the plot forward while also giving the reader a glimpse into what small-town southern life is like when the local bar is full of Aryan Brotherhood members and up the road is a black-owned Jim Crow-era restaurant.

Honestly, is it just me or is the idea of travelling to the U.S. as an outsider just like, no thanks? I’m gonna quote Bowie here and say, I’m afraid of Americans. Obviously not all Americans, but as a whole? It’s iffy. I think if I was going to travel to the U.S., I’d pick places where my risk of running into bigoted, racist assholes and people carrying guns for no reason is significantly lower. I don’t want to die just because I wanted to see the Grand Canyon, you know what I mean?

But, I digress…

American Usa GIF by CTV Comedy Channel
Continue reading “Review: Bluebird, Bluebird (Highway 59, #1) by Attica Locke” →

Review: The Night Swim by Megan Goldin

51169341

★★★★

St. Martin’s Press | 2020

Filed Under: Sarah Koenig’s soothing tones

Remember when I was on the blog tour for this last August and said I’d have a review posted “soon?” Man, I’ve got some hilarious jokes.

Listen, I’m blaming everything on 2020. I’m double-digits deep on backlog reviews and triple digits up in unread ARCs because I just… couldn’t. And I didn’t know how to even explain what was wrong/is wrong with me. But it’s literally all the Pandemic’s fault. I have the science to back it up! Research shows that the high levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) that we have been producing for a prolonged period because of the pandemic, can inhibit perceptual learning and memory formation. This interferes with our ability to assimilate facts and focus on work. So, if you’ve been having trouble working, reading and or, just general, concentration has been difficult for you, then this is why. STRESS, bitch! That you got from a Panny!

I just learned this after a whole fucking year of screaming at my husband, “Why can’t I do any of the things I like to do?”

Now I know.

I had big plans for last year. I was going to get my reading life organized, tons of reviews posted and make a serious dent in my ARCs, None of that happened. Now, we’re days away from the first anniversary of this goddamn pandemic. How can it be March 2021 when I’m still processing March 2020!?

people photo GIF

Anyway, it’s officially six months since I was supposed to review this book, so let’s get this shit posted.

Continue reading “Review: The Night Swim by Megan Goldin” →

Review: The Swallows by Lisa Lutz

“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”

43744294

★★

Ballantine Books | 2019

Filed Under: Blow jobs weren’t on the curriculum.

This is a popular read with high ratings on Goodreads from other reviewers, but my overall opinion is basically WHAT THE FUCK THIS IS REALLY DUMB???

I don’t mind being one of only a few people going against the grain here, but honestly, I just can’t even with this book. I had to suspend disbelief in such an extreme way that I started to feel legit angry about it.

This was 400 pages about girls at a boarding school going all Sally Field-Norma Rae with shaved heads because they’ve somehow fallen into a secret game of giving blow jobs for points to all the popular boys at the school who have a yearly championship bracket.

All of the teaching staff knows kind of (the six of them running a school of hundreds of students,) but turn a blind eye because…I guess…rich parents? Or college admissions? Or reputation? Or whatever else rich people care about. Someone ask Lori Laughlin. I’m still a little fuzzy on why full-grown, educated adults dedicated to America’s youth would be all elbow patches and tweed, and please ignore our student sex ring.

I mean, there must have been a way to stop the abuse without putting “ran a blow job side-hustle his senior year” on school transcripts. Then again, maybe the Ivy Leagues would call it entrepreneurship.

Continue reading “Review: The Swallows by Lisa Lutz” →

Opinion: Banning Abortion Doesn’t Stop Abortion

Ayoooo! It’s about to get a little political/feminist up in here, nerds! So, if you prefer your book bloggers to be 100% book-talk all the time and to never express opinions beyond that, or if you’d rather not ruin our relationship on the chance that we have differing opinions on sensitive subject matter, then consider this your five second warning…

5, 4, 3, 2…

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m opinionated. Unapologetically so. Does that mean I never change my position? Of course not.

I like facts and logic and statistics, and using judgement, to reach a position of opinion or principal. And if new information comes along that can tweak that position, then I duly take that into consideration. I don’t come to conclusions based on emotions, but rather on what’s the most rational..

That said, I don’t respond well to people who have no logical reasoning to back up their opinions, who instead choose to function from a place of emotion or, in some cases, religious belief.

“I don’t like LGBTQ people because the bible…!!”

SHUT. UP. You don’t like or condone, or give respect or just basic human decency, to a whole group of human beings because of… magic?

fuck you david schwimmer GIF
Continue reading “Opinion: Banning Abortion Doesn’t Stop Abortion” →