nat's reading diary <3 (2025)

[Nataweeee]

hi! welcome to my book blog thingy. i've gathered this is the main focus of the forum so i guess i'll start one. i'm going to include the stuff i've read since i started keeping track a few months ago but i'm only going to review stuff from this point on.

 

01. Ducks, Newburyport (Lucy Ellmann, 2019) ★★★½

02. A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing (Eimear Mcbride, 2013) (reread) ★★★★★

03. Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity (Julia Serano, 2007) (audio) ★★★½

04. Escape from Incel Island! (Margaret Killjoy, 2023) (audio) ★★½

05. The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K. Le Guin, 1969) ★★★½

06. Warriors: Power of Three - Eclipse (Erin Hunter, 2008) (audio) ★★★½

07. The Passion According to G.H. (Clarice Lispector, 1964) ★★★

08. Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens (Lynn Hutchinson Lee, 2025) ★★★½

09. Warriors: Power of Three - Long Shadows (Erin Hunter, 2008) (audio) ★★★★

10. Black Flame (Gretchen Felker-Martin, 2025) ★★★★

11. Warriors: Power of Three - Sunrise (Erin Hunter, 2009) (audio) ★★★½

12. The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath, 1963) ★★★★

13. Peaces (Helen Oyeyemi, 2021) ★★★★

14. Dayspring (Anthony Oliveira, 2024) ★★★★½

15. Your Body Is Not Your Body (V/A, 2022) ★★½

16. Rainbear!!!!!!!!! (Never Angeline North, 2022) ★★★★½

17. Spoiled Rotten (Natalie Tautou, 2023) ★★½

18. Bury Your Gays (Chuck Tingle, 2024) (audio) ★★★★

19. Orlando (Virginia Woolf, 1928) ★★★★

20. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson, 1962) ★★★★

21. The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892) (short) ★★★★

22. Brainwyrms (Alison Rumfitt, 2023) (audio) ★★★★

23. Moonflow (Bitter Karella, 2025) ★★★★

24. Magica Riot (Kate Buchanan, 2024) (audio) ★★★

Edited yesterday at 06:40 PM by Nataweeee

[Nataweeee]

#17: Spoiled Rotten (Natalie Tautou, 2023)

 

I always feel bad trashing independent queer art (as well as my first review here to be a mostly negative one) but like five of the seven stories here are sadly just not good. They're so edgy and blandly written generally and often times the edginess doesn't go beyond just being bad representation and when it does it's eye-roll inducing. The first story is trying to be perverse and creepy but its also trying to be vague and subtle with the creepiness and the writing just can't hack it. The second story is a bland coming out story with some really mild forcefemming i guess? doesn't move the needle. The third story about a sex worker in over her head at a porn shoot is the first one with a snappy premise that could have been interesting and I like some of the imagery here but again it also just reads as bland. The fourth one comes off so tryhard with the content (I'd likely get banned if I elaborated) which, in a way is what I wanted, but the writing is still the issue here, just no flair to it and even though a more blunt style could work for shocking imagery it doesn't here. The fifth has some slightly more engaging writing and though I'm not super into stuff that makes this many references (music in this case) but you get a bit more of who the author is when they talk about art they like and that's something I guess because the story itself isn't, like just completely forgettable. Fortunately, the last two stories are a noticeable increase in quality, we're getting more of the author's voice coming through and the edgier content in these stories feels a lot more real and transgressive. The whole collection covers a lot of taboo subject matter but these last two stories are the only times it feels like its not just there for the shock value alone and the final (and by far best and longest) story is actually a pretty neat Fight Club-esque metafiction about the author herself and it actually lands, surprisingly. So yeah, mostly bad but it sticks the landing and the best story being twice as long as the others makes the whole work feel a bit better than the sum of its parts.

 

5/10

[Nataweeee]

i guess i need 10 posts before i can use the edit tool? this is post 10 lol.

[Madeleine]

Hi Nat and welcome to the forum, great to see you're such a keen reader!

 

there are guidelines and rules for newcomers at the top of the thread list if you want to have a look through them.  They're under "The Office", 2nd line down.

 

Have fun here.

[Nataweeee]

2 hours ago, Madeleine said:

Hi Nat and welcome to the forum, great to see you're such a keen reader!

 

there are guidelines and rules for newcomers at the top of the thread list if you want to have a look through them.  They're under "The Office", 2nd line down.

 

Have fun here.

thanks so much ❤️

[muggle not]

Three books for you to consider by Rebecca Yarros:

 

Fourth Wing

Iron Flame

Onyx Storm

 

i am anxiously awaiting for the 4th book in the series to come out.

 

[Nataweeee]

7 hours ago, muggle not said:

Three books for you to consider by Rebecca Yarros:

 

Fourth Wing

Iron Flame

Onyx Storm

 

i am anxiously awaiting for the 4th book in the series to come out.

 

thanks! tbh i'm not too into high fantasy but i'll definitely keep this mind <3

[Nataweeee]

#18. Bury Your Gays (Chuck Tingle, 2024)

 

Listened to the audiobook of this to get through a couple of long night shifts and since its spooky month I went with some horror instead of my usual listening fair (middle grade cat books). You may be familiar with Mr. Chuck Tingle as a living literary meme, known for writing an absurd amount of parody smut books usually with a very long title that starts with "Pounded in the Butt by..." and the character doing the pounding often being some kind of anthropomorphized object or even abstract concept. At some point a few years ago he decided to follow his passions and write some "real" books and the lane for his serious work is queer horror. The story follows Misha, a Hollywood screenwriter who is being pressured to kill off the gay characters in the show he writes by the studio while he is haunted by his past.  This is the second Tingler i've read (listened to) the other being Camp Damascus which I thought was surprisingly effective (until it fumbled the final act), it had a compelling mystery and some strong horror imagery but in Bury Your Gays those elements take a backseat to the character growth and the frankly impressive amount of themes and issues the book gets into. Even just looking at all the ways he uses the titular trope (which refers to the longstanding requirement from publishers/studios etc. that any queer characters had to be punished, often killed, to discourage the sin of homosexuality) from a literal examination to a metaphor for being in the closet, "burying your gay" inside yourself to queer characters' queerness being relegated to subtext in mainstream media not to mention all the other stuff he touches on to do with the industry like the rise of AI in creative fields, algorithms and trend-chasing, capitalism (rainbow or otherwise), tabloid and sensationalism, all that good stuff. As I said before the horror elements, which are mostly expressed via the horror villains the main character has written coming to life to haunt him, isn't one of the stronger elements of the book but we get these flashback chapters to the events in his life that inspired the writing of these villains, usually related to his burgeoning sexuality, and these chapters hit so hard, like i almost cried a few different times. Even though this is far from a literary masterpiece and the writing is nothing special the emotions in these scenes come through so strong and clear and feel so real. Its these bits that really elevate it because the series of events on its own isn't anything to write home about and I was worried about it having a Camp Damascus-esque fall off as it kind of has a similar third act with the big villain standoff and too much resolution where the characters know what they have to do and then go do it for far too long but this one really truncates this stuff and it felt like less of a disappointment this time since my enjoyment wasn't hinging so much on the story. Far from perfect but its so passionate and the end is a triumphant cry for queer joy and i couldn't help but be moved.

 

8/10

[Nataweeee]

#19. Orlando (Virginia Woolf, 1928)

 

Really really liked this. Loved the concept of using the biography of a fictional person who lived for many centuries as a way to explore the totality of the human spirit and how our experiences, culture and time shape us and build further upon what's there and I love how almost tabloid-y it feels with the biographer's voice being so present. Copy and paste what I said in the previous sentence about the human spirit and also apply that to art but its neat how it explores both those things simultaneously using the same character. It's got a lot of funny moments and some moving moments to balance it out. The only downsides I experienced were my own fault as my lack of knowledge of English history and (at the time of writing) modern England and just general lack of education resulted in not understanding the references as well as the passage of time in the story not being as obvious as it should be and it threw me for a loop a bit in the last chapter when it really starts bringing the time theme to a sharp point. I kind of wish we got more of Orlando and Shelmerdine together because they're really cute together but I suppose time is fleeting (love the last scene with them).

 

8/10

[lunababymoonchild]

I loved Orlando when I read it too

[Nataweeee]

#20. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson, 1962)

 

Read this for an upcoming book club and it was pretty great though admittedly I don't think I had the proper reaction to the characters off the jump lol. Like, the first thing you find out is that the people of the village don't like the main character or her family and I was like "yeah that tracks" and then when you figure out why they don't like her I was just completely on her side but I think that revelation is supposed to make you uneasy about the characters. The book lures you in with these little bits of intrigue, "Why are these the last library books to enter the house?", "What really happened six years ago?", "What did they mean by that?" but its the perspective the book is written from that really makes it. The main character is this young woman who after the traumatic inciting incident has all these rules and routines and magic that keep her and her family safe and her and her sister play off of each other to create this completely restrictive safe haven. It's a really interesting angle on the unreliable narrator because her view of their situation kind of obscures how sad it all is that it didn't fully hit me until it was over. I did kind of think the ending (everything post climax) was going on too long until it hit me what was being conveyed and how it solidified the themes and then I was completely back on board. Despite being a rather mundane story it was pretty much always engaging due to the writing and the main character's magical thinking and there's all these little hooks throughout that grab your attention. Definitely get why this book is so beloved.

 

8/10

[Nataweeee]

#21. The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892)

 

Maybe not worth making an update for as this is a 16 page short story but its legitimately unnerving and i loved it. Great imagery and you really feel the character's isolation. You'll notice I give out 8/10's like candy lol.

 

8/10

[Hayley]

On 10/19/2025 at 11:41 PM, Nataweeee said:

#21. The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892)

 

Maybe not worth making an update for as this is a 16 page short story but its legitimately unnerving and i loved it. Great imagery and you really feel the character's isolation. You'll notice I give out 8/10's like candy lol.

 

8/10

Agree, it's worth it and now I want to re-read it . Have you seen The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights short story collection? There was a story in that which I thought was definitely inspired by The Yellow Wallpaper!

[Nataweeee]

#22. Brainwyrms  (Alison Rumfitt, 2023)

 

Listened to the audiobook for this one to squeeze more spooky stuff into spooky month. Grotesque body horror about kink, shame, loneliness and current UK politics. Extremely grimy and despite having a strong stomach there were parts that legitimately made me feel nauseous but it never crossed into feeling like the gross stuff was just there for shock value, it all felt connected to the themes and was clearly a part of the vision from the outset, none of it feels random. Its at its best when its at its most depraved and when its at its most heartfelt as I really enjoyed the relationship between the two main characters (even if its conveyed through a lot of extreme sex acts) and even though the writing is very crass, vulgar and modern there are parts (especially from one of the characters perspective) that manages to come off as somehow beautiful as they describe the most vile and disturbing moments in the book, though its possible its how it was read as much as how it was written (again, audiobook). I really loved all this but it admittedly stumbles a bit with the some of the political stuff. I agree with all of it but not all of it feels as biting as its meant to and could probably have cut the direct references. As much as I wish I didn't know the things that are being referenced I don't know how much of it would make sense if you didn't, it can be a little inside baseball sometimes. The ending is also kind of whatever, like its set up fine but it still kind of feels like its suddenly switching gears. The pros certainly outweigh the cons though at the end of the day and I think the characters really carry it, though they are weirdo f-ups that aren't meant to be especially likeable the author builds them up enough to feel real and they convey feelings that are definitely real.

 

8/10

Edited October 23 by Nataweeee

[Nataweeee]

4 hours ago, Hayley said:

Agree, it's worth it and now I want to re-read it . Have you seen The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights short story collection? There was a story in that which I thought was definitely inspired by The Yellow Wallpaper!

I haven't heard of that! maybe something to look into for the holiday season

[Nataweeee]

#23. Moonflow (Bitter Karella, 2025)

 

This was my book for this quarter's BCF book club. I've read a number of horror books now this year and have enjoyed all of them a lot and while this maybe doesn't have the highs of those other one's it might be the most consistent of the bunch which is impressive given how out-there it gets at points. Everything feels really well considered, like not only does every silly seeming choice fit the tone they turn out to be integral to the story. I dug the setting a lot, its mostly set at a lesbian hippie commune/cult in the middle of a seemingly mystical forest with members of the cult having fun names like Virginia Dentata and The Hell Slut, and the characters are what really make it. Every character we spend a significant amount of time with is well developed and likeable (or at least enjoyable to read) and as they are characters in a horror novel, they do some very stupid things but the book always makes sure you get the rationale or lack thereof. As for the horror, the closest it gets to being actually creepy is probably in the first act when two of the characters are lost in the forest while looking for a specific type of mushroom but generally its going more for splatter and gore and body horror stuff and yeah it gets pretty goopy and grimy when it needs too and while I'm not typically too into horror that gets really idk, big, for lack of a better word at the end its done in a way here that feels very natural. I wish I had a better way of saying "its fun" but its really just a ton of fun and a very fast-paced read.

8/10

[Nataweeee]

#24. Magica Riot (Kate Buchanan, 2024)

 

Another night-shift audiobook and wow this is some shameless wish fulfillment slop and the fact that its wish fulfillment I get and could (at least at a point in my life) relate to makes it both more endearing and also more transparent. Like, I was smiling and cringing in equal amounts lol but to be fair I did smile quite a bit, especially in the first half before it has to start focusing on the plot more heavily. The mahou shoujo girl band thing its got going on is a fun enough premise and the narrator performed it with an infectious amount of enthusiasm so it was a pretty good time even if the action sequences aren't particularly riveting and the story is extremely safe and by the numbers. Definitely would have rolled my eyes at it a lot more if I was spending my free time reading it as opposed to passively listening to it while at work.

6/10