User Profile

Jack đź’ś

WaferBiscuits@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 2 months ago

He/Him 🎉🏳️‍⚧️ Big fan of cozy gay romance, sci-fi, fantasy, and any kind of xenofiction. Exhausted, but happy to be here! 🕺✨

My longterm goal is to read every published book with a transmasc lead that I can get my grubby little hooves on. Feel free to lob stuff over in the list I’ve been growing!

Please pardon the mess - I imported my GoodReads data and it’s gonna take a lot of fiddling to get everything ship shape. 🧹

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Jack đź’ś's books

2024 Reading Goal

28% complete! Jack đź’ś has read 28 of 100 books.

Cang Wu Bin Bai: Golden Terrace (2022, Peach Flower House LLC) 4 stars

It is year twenty-five of the Yuantai Era of the Great Zhou Empire. The renowned …

Pretty good

4 stars

Do you like slow-paced court intrigue and political backstabbing? An arranged marriage of two estranged men, both of whom would rather flay themselves alive than talk about their feelings? And they’re both assholes? Then this is the book for you.

Vol. 1 of this duology starts off slow and plodding. It took me a while to get all of the factions and characters to stick in my head. Think of Game of Thrones but with less hand-holding. It’s still a good time, and I like how morally dubious the two leads are. Like they’re just wretched guys, but they have to be to have ascended so far up the ladder. Looking forward to the second part. Think of this rating as a rounded-up 3.5. The prose got a little too vague in some parts.

Yugo Limbo: Viscera Objectica (Paperback, Silver Sprocket) 5 stars

A humble tailor is very skilled at his work, but finds the complex patchwork of …

Freaky and Fantastic

5 stars

Much like their previous published work, Limbo brings in another tale of a man’s romantic tryst with a puppet… with some very key differences.

“Viscera Objectica” is a much simpler story, a lot like a passing anecdote you’d get from a close friend over an edible high. It’s personal and intimate, the kind of story where it just kind of clicks into place once you get to a certain point. Sometimes people can fall in love with the oddest things. It’s a unique mark of humanity, the way we’re able to pack bond with pretty much anything.

I’ve never seen a story like this before, let alone with one of the most gender affirming protagonist’s I’ve ever seen in my life. I adore how Limbo draws transmasc characters. No one else can do it like they do, and it’s simply splendid.

Is it weird? I mean, yeah, but that’s what …

Yangsze Choo: The Fox Wife (Hardcover, 2024, Henry Holt & Company) 5 stars

'Vivid, enigmatic, enchanting' M. L. Rio 'Irresistible' Sunday Times

Some people think foxes go around …

Really good!

5 stars

This is my first novel from Choo, and I’m very excited to dip into her other works! Her writing style is a treat to experience.

I can understand some reader’s notes on how slow the pacing is in this. I personally quite enjoyed it, a thriller that’s almost leisurely in getting from point A to B.

Tao Wong: A Thousand Li : The First Step (Hardcover, 2020, Starlit Publishing) 3 stars

Very, very slow

3 stars

This is one of those “not for everyone” type books. If you enjoy very slow-paced wuxia stories with a subtle tang of fantasy, this is for you.

Long Wu Ying is a son of a rice farmer, a peasant who has only a rudimentary understanding of cultivation. After being conscripted into the army, fate and circumstances provide an opportunity for him to join a cultivation sect. Will his humble upbringing hold him back from clawing up the ranks in-between coddled nobles and embittered elders?

Not much happens in this book, to be honest, and I wouldn’t blame folks for finding it boring. I find the plodding pace of it kind of relaxing, and I can’t help but root for Wu Ying’s success even if he has the personality of a crumpled paper bag.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much here to set this book apart from other cultivation-type stories, and for that, …

Kacen Callender: Stars in Your Eyes (Hardcover, Forever, Grand Central Publishing) 3 stars

It’s okay

3 stars

This is a really tough one to rate, to be honest. I can tell that it came from a personal place (what stories like this don’t?) but so much of it just didn’t work for me.

I think my two strongest complaints are that the interludes between chapters (especially the Ao3 fic omg) don’t stick the landing and end up feeling a bit too fake. I’m not sure why they’re there. To provide context that we’d otherwise get from the narrative? I don’t know.

What really hurts this book is that we don’t see either character really work on themselves, when that should have been the point in the first place.

I still liked it, but the problems are ones I can’t really ignore.

reviewed Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu, Vol. 5 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu, #5)

Mo Xiang Tong Xiu: Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu, Vol. 5 (2022, Seven Seas Entertainment) 3 stars

LAST GHOST STANDING, FIRST LOVE BLOSSOMS

Ghosts are converging on the cursed Mount Tonglu for …

Hoo man

3 stars

Not bad by any means, but oh man was this one my least favorite so far. It’s like a test of psychological endurance waiting for these two to acknowledge their mutual feelings already.

Tons of story developments are happening at a breakneck pace to the point where it can be difficult to keep track of where everyone is - I’m kind of surprised that there’s still more than one book ahead. We’ll get there!

Kayla Cottingham: This Delicious Death (Paperback, 2023, Sourcebooks Fire) 3 stars

Two years ago, a small percentage of population underwent a transformation known as the Hollowing. …

It’s good!

3 stars

GOSH this has such a strong concept and set-up to it. I love the idea of a cannibal pandemic, and the weird sociological upheaval that comes with coping with the aftermath.

Unfortunately, without giving anything away, I found the climax a bit lacking by comparison. I’m also personally not the biggest fan of how our protagonist is somehow completely oblivious to how her best friend 100% reciprocates her crush.

reviewed Heaven Official's Blessing, Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Seven Seas Edition), #1)

Mo Xiang Tong Xiu: Heaven Official's Blessing, Vol. 1 (2021) 4 stars

Born the crown prince of a prosperous kingdom, Xie Lian was renowned for his beauty, …

Looking forward to more!

4 stars

I’ve been very excited to tuck into this series, or really just any of this author’s work after seeing so much fanart of the leads.

This is lovely, a light fantastical romp and a hell of a slow burn. I love how fun the narration is, with a light sense of cynicism feigning gravitas.

You can definitely tell that this was a web novel, or at least serialized like one. It’s paved very episodically, but that’s not a bad thing. Just different.