Read Blog
I wanna read more!! If I make a page on my site that I get to update every time I read a book, maybe I will read more!! Latest books & comics at the top.
☆☆☆☆☆: wow.... dogshit
★☆☆☆☆: thought it was pretty bad
★★☆☆☆: didn't like it much
★★★☆☆: it was fine
★★★★☆: enjoyed it
★★★★★: adored it
▬▬▬▬: no rating*
★☆☆☆☆: thought it was pretty bad
★★☆☆☆: didn't like it much
★★★☆☆: it was fine
★★★★☆: enjoyed it
★★★★★: adored it
▬▬▬▬: no rating*
2025
 Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (2022)⤷ My friend lent this to me fucking ages ago and I finally sat down to read it. What a well-crafted memoir, extremely sad and thoughtful. It's heart-breaking how instantly recognisable so many of Beaton's experiences with men are; my heart was pounding through these interactions because I wasn't sure where they were going to lead, and when it finally does lead where you fear it's awful. Very good book. | ★★★★☆ |
| Hungerstone by Kat Dunn (2025) ⤷ I love a slow, atmospheric, sombre build. | ★★★★☆ |
| Out There Screaming (anthology) (2024) ⤷ Again, just a very weak collection of stories, though I think my criticisms here are less relevant as this was an anthology of Black creators writing Black horror for Black readers. I enjoyed Reckless Eyeballing b y N.K. Jemisin (the only one that really felt like it belonged in a horror anthology to me), The Other One by Violet Allen, The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World by Nalo Hopkinson, and Your Happy Place by Terence Taylor. I've learned my lessons about anthologies, won't be reading any more. | ★★☆☆☆ |
| Of the Flesh (anthology) (2024) ⤷ A lot of these were really weak, but that's the price you pay when reading an anthology I suppose. I enjoyed The Broccoli Eel by Michael Faber, Shade by Robert Lautner, The Smiling African Uncle by Adorah NworahBob-a-Job by James Smythe, and Mouse by Louisa Young. The standout story had to be Carcinisation by Lucy Rose. I was honestly appalled by the inclusion of Going Large by Lionel Shriver, supposedly a horror about fatphobia but it was actually just a story about how scary it would be to be fat. The other writers must be so embarrassed by being published in the same book. | ★★☆☆☆ |
| Reading Lessons by Carol Atherton (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun (2016) | ★★★☆☆ |
| The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett (1983) ⤷ I've decided to read all the Terry Pratchett books from the beginning. I've only read a couple of them so I know he gets real good, but honestly if I hadn't known that I probably wouldn't have kept reading this author. Completely fine book. I do love a pathetic protagonist. | ★★★☆☆ |
| A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck (2011) ⤷ This one probably hits hard if you believe in Hell. | ★★★☆☆ |
| There There by Tommy Orange (2018) ⤷ Gorgeous, heartbreaking, and intoxicatingly relentless. Every character was so skilfully written and felt fully rounded despite the little time we get with them all. I loved this. Bought his next book before I'd even finished reading this one. | ★★★★★ |
| Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang (2025) ⤷ I really wanted to like this but damn. "Genre-defying" must mean "muddled". The theme of trauma felt tritely handled and the references to 9/11 (????) unfortunately bogged down the entire book by its inclusion, especially since the rest of the story felt like it was supposed to be a parody or overexaggeration fo capital A "Art". I don't know, it felt like a very childish detail to include as way to give Mathilde the Ultimate Trauma. Saved from a one star review by some unexpected ideas but overall poorly paced and did not gel for me. I was also honestly surprised how pessimistic this book's view on artists' reaction to AI art was. It's an actual ongoing thing happening right now, in real life, and this book felt completely detached from the reality of how artists are reacting to generative AI rather than having anything interesting to say about it. | ★★☆☆☆ |
| Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955) ⤷ Loved this. Unexpectedly extremely funny and such sumptuous writing. So glad I took the time to read this. | ★★★★☆ |
| Blood on the Tracks (血の轍) by Shūzō Oshimi (2017-2024) ⤷ I originally read this when it was about halfway through release and finally thought to go back to it. So incredibly glad I did, this was one of the most gripping, intense, and tragic series I've read. Completely overwhelming and claustrophic and a perfect ending. This was insanely good, it's up there with my top favourite comics ever. | ★★★★★ |
| Pine by Francine Toon (2020) [book challenge: October] ⤷ I haven't read much crime/thriller (casting my eyes down to my review of The City & the City) so maybe if you're more familiar with the tropes of those stories this won't do much for you, but I did enjoy this one a lot. It had lots of very specific "young girl growing up in rural Scotland" details that I liked and I think that drew me into the story much more than it might have done if it was set elsewhere. Not bone-chilling for me personally but some good creepy moments. | ★★★★☆ |
| Network Effect by Martha Wells (2020) ⤷ Five books into the series, I can say that I officially don't think the actual sequences of events are very gripping or well-written. I still really enjoyed this book and I obviously was delighted to see ART back but outside of Murderbot and ART I don't enjoy the characters very much. I think that's testament to how strongly written Murderbot is and how well-constructed the concept is. Yes, I will keep obviously keep reading. | ★★★★☆ |
| Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (2018) ⤷ I don't care about the story I'm just here for Murderbot. But I heard the 5th book was amazing so I'm extremely hype to keep reading. | ★★★☆☆ |
| Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells (2018) | ★★★☆☆ |
| Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (2018) ⤷ OOHHHHHH I LOVE ART.......... | ★★★★☆ |
| All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2017) ⤷ Ohh.... ohhhhh I love Murderbot............. | ★★★★☆ |
| Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (1005) [reread] | ★★★☆☆ |
| Esperanto: Language, Literature, and Community by Pierre Janton (1993) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins (2015) [book challenge: August] | ★★★☆☆ |
| Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton (2021) ⤷ This is one of my favourite books I've ever read. Sumptuous, visceral, honest. So many of these books about living in Japan as a foreigner feel like the writer is sitting on top of a layer of plastic between them and the cutlure and language, where they're sitting chuckling like "isn't Japan so strange!" but this one felt like the author was desperately trying to rip Japan open and chew on its guts. I have my own extensive personal history with Japan and this one hit some extremely specific points for me. Polly has so many interesting things to say about not just Japan but also languages in general. Dude she fucking gets it!!!! I didn't want this book to end and feel like I could gush about it for hours. | ★★★★★ |
| Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch (2019) [book challenge: July] [reread] | ▬▬▬▬ |
| チーズスイートホーム by こなみかなた (2004) ⤷ I have a huge stack of manga I want to work through. This is the first manga I've actually finished reading in Japanese - I picked it to start with because it's a super basic premise with lots of simple language but I was surprised how cute it actually was. Can't wait to read many many more children's comics. | ★★★★☆ |
| I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (2022) [book challenge: June] ⤷ Absolutely blasted thorugh this. It feels grotesque to give it a rating but this was a riveting read and I hope she's happier now. | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Ted the Caver by Ted Hegemann (2001) [reread] ⤷ Feels a little silly to put this on here but it's #literature so - I really enjoyed reading this short story in high school and I enjoyed reading it again in the bath with some wine just now. | ★★★★☆ |
| Vicious by V. E. Schwab (2013) ⤷ Ohhh I get it, his name is Victor and he got his powers through a weird electricity experiment, wow, that's very clever. (<- person who literally has a character with electricity powers named after Victor Frankenstein) | ★★★☆☆ |
| Soul of Sovereignty: Chapter 2 by ggdg (2025) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It by Gabriel Wyner (2014) ⤷ Seen a lot of language YouTubers raving about this one so I decided to read it and I don't think the information inside (use SRS, don't translate, learn sounds early on) is especially ground-breaking today. Maybe when it was published, but stuff like using SRS (ie. Anki) is common knowledge among many online language-learning communities so I'd say skip this one and start fucking studying the language instead of reading about how to study it. That's the only way you'll learn a language and never forget it. | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2001) ⤷ I read this a thousand times in high school - I recently refurbished my old Kindle and found this on there so I reread it. A lot of the books I picked for this year's reading challenge have been a slog for one reason or another and it was a nice change to actively look forward to reading something. | ★★★★☆ |
| Aama: 3. The Desert of Mirrors by Frederik Peeters (2015) | ★★★☆☆ |
| Morning Glory Milking Farm by C.M. Nascosta (2021) ⤷ Being an editor has ruined my ability to just enjoy dogshit writing. | ★★☆☆☆ |
| Aama: 2. The Invisible Throng by Frederik Peeters (2014) | ★★★★☆ |
| Aama: 1. The Smell of Warm Dust by Frederik Peeters (2013) [reread] | ★★★★☆ |
| Reading the Maya Glyphs by Michael D. Coe & Mark van Stone (2001) [reread] ⤷ I read this instead of The Three-Body Problem lmao | ▬▬▬▬ |
| The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (2006) [book challenge: April] ⤷ Look, I picked out 12 books that I had to read this year, one book a month, and Dune and The City & the City were both on that list. After two months of slogging through books I wasn't really taken by, I got to The Three-Body Problem and just couldn't take it anymore. Insanely dry translation with no personality, hard scifi that had my eyes sliding off the page. I'm packing in the towel, I'm outta here. I'm letting myself reread something I know I'll enjoy this month. | ★☆☆☆☆ |
| Warriors Graphic Novel: The Prophecies Begin #1 by Natalie Riess & Sara Goetter (2024) ⤷ I was a massive Warriors nerd as a kid - I had an extensive RP story with a friend that we wrote back and forth over email after school. I know about Riess from her webcomic days and had been following the development of this adaptation. It's delightful, a great adaptation of the source material and suitably cute or epic when it needs to be. | ★★★★☆ |
| The City & the City by China Miéville (2009) [book challenge: March] ⤷ Coming off the back of Dune, I was hype as hell when I started this, like "now THIS is how you write a book!!". Cue the slow and painful realisation that the fascinating world-building was in service of a weak and unsatisfying detective story. | ★★★☆☆ |
| Dune by Frank Herbert (1965) [book challenge: February] ⤷ This book frustrated the fuck out of me. There were quite a few bits I genuinely really enjoyed, but I got so sick of the repetitive writing and how every character knew everything all the time always. Shut the fuck uppppp. Sometimes a classic can stay a clasic and you don't need to read it. | ★★☆☆☆ |
| My Mum is a Wolf by Shuning Ji (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Rusalka: Part 1 by Kamila Krol (2021) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Laugh Riot! by Io & Jonas Goonface (2023) | ★★★★★ |
| A Gift of Crows by Chris Manson (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Bittersweet by Gordon Shaw (2017) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Dog Body by Lily Vie (2024) I think this was my favourite comic from SBCF2024! | ▬▬▬▬ |
| CLUMP by Ellen Mei (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Fabulosa! The Story of Polari by Paul Baker (2019) [book challenge: January] | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Burn With Me by Steven Ingram (2023) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| The King's Warrior by Huahua Zhu (2024) | ★★★★☆ |
| A Night Ride to the Day by Breeze Hu (2024) ⤷ Absolutely adored the visuals in this, purely on art alone this would be 5 stars. | ★★★☆☆ |
2024
| Expiry Date by Sloane Hong (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Clair de Lune by Xulia Vicente (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Chrysalis by Kris Rozich (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Bobo has an offer for you by PAVINA (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| BLEED ANY% by Blue Delliquanti (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Ballad for Black Cassandra by Olivia Stephens (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Pandora Opens the Box of Catastrophes by Alex Siple (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| A Pretty Good Wizard by Claire Weber (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Alas by Sajan Rai (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Aglaeca by Mohnfisch (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Home by the Rotting Sea by Otava Heikkilä (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| In Fair Verona by Val Wise (2024) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemison (2017) ⤷ I couldn't put the first book in this series down. I couldn't pick this book up to fucking finish it. | ★☆☆☆☆ |
| Dungeon Meshi vol. 1 by Ryoko Kui (2017) | ★★★★☆ |
| A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll (2023) ⤷ One of the best comics I've ever read. Exceptional use of colour and layouts, fantastic ending, I wish I could make something half as good as this. | ★★★★★ |
| The Dancing Plague by Gareth Brookes (2021) ⤷ I loved the use of mixed media in this comic, a couple of the embroidered elements were some of my favourite comic visuals in a long, long time. | ★★★★☆ |
| The Wilds by Aimee Lockwood & Russell Jones (2021) | ▬▬▬▬ |
| Step by Bloody Step by Si Spurrier & Matias Bergara (2022) | ★★★★★ |
| Thieves by Lucie Byron (2022) | ★★☆☆☆ |