Reviews and Comments

Tak!

Tak@reading.taks.garden

Joined 3 years, 11 months ago

I like to read

Non-bookposting: @Tak@gush.taks.garden

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commented on Curlfriends by Sharee Miller (Curlfriends, #2)

Sharee Miller: Curlfriends No rating

Nola Washington has never met a problem she can't solve. She's a fashionista and an …

Alison Rumfitt: Tell Me I'm Worthless (2021, Cipher Press)

A dark, unflinching haunted house novel that takes readers from the well of the literary …

Tell Me I'm Worthless

Tell Me I'm Worthless is a gritty horror story that kind of devolves into a disturbing stream of consciousness while simultaneously being an analysis of the persistence of populist fascism in England. It follows Alice and Ila, two friends+ living through the fallout of surviving a shared traumatic event. There's a lot going on here.

content warnings: rape, explicit and severe transphobia, literal Nazi themes/imagery, extreme violence

reviewed Interference by Sue Burke (Semiosis Duology, #2)

Sue Burke: Interference (Paperback, 2020, Tor Books)

Over two hundred years after the first colonists landed on Pax, a new set of …

Interference

I really like the way that Interference takes the themes from its predecessor and extends them in different directions, without just being like "and this is the next thing that happened to all the same characters".

I particularly enjoyed the way she wove in the contingent from Earth - it reminded me strongly of the later books in the Planetfall series.

New humans, new life forms, new explorations - it builds a great new story on the foundation laid in Semiosis.

reviewed The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Older (The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti, #3)

Malka Older: The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses (2025)

When a former classmate begs Pleiti for help on behalf of her cousin—who’s up for …

The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses

I appreciate that this one had an even more self-sufficient Pleiti, as well as exploring Mossa's fallibility. (I swear I'm not anti-Mossa, I just prefer the "two complementary equals helping people together" dynamic to the "superhuman investigator with sheltered everywoman sidekick" dynamic.)

This one felt more fast-paced and dynamic to me than Imposition, although I suspect that an objective examination would probably reveal that there isn't a significant difference.

Malka Older: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles (Tordotcom)

Investigator Mossa and Scholar Pleiti reunite to solve a brand-new mystery in the follow-up to …

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles

A solid followup to The Mimicking of Known Successes. Reading these gives me the same feeling as reading a Witness for the Dead.

I like that Pleiti had a little more independent role in this one, so she's on more of an equal footing with Mossa and isn't just Lesbian Watson in Space. (Lesbian Watson in Space is fine as a concept, but I feel like this series has more potential than that.)

Lee Mandelo: Feed Them Silence (2023, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom)

What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s …

Feed Them Silence

Content warning Feed Them Silence review with spoilers, because I can't figure out how to do it without

commented on The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025 by Nnedi Okorafor (The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, #2025)

Nnedi Okorafor, John Joseph Adams: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025 (Mariner Books) No rating

The Best American series, launched in 1915, is the premier annual showcase for the country’s …

THE BEST AMERICAN Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by me and the amazing John Joseph Adams, is now available.

These stories are profound, hilarious, thoughtful, unsettling... stories that stay with you. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did and congrats to all the contributors ! 👻👀👣🤖👽🧙🏾‍♀️🐈‍⬛🫂

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