a dark and drowning tide by allison saft

Since its entire existence is so blatantly algorithm-optimized, I actually don't have much to say about the totally nonsensical premise, the weird pacing, the unoriginal fantasy setting, or the prose that's somehow overdone while still lacking romanticism. It's also completely my fault for cracking open another romance novel when historically I don't 'get' those. However, the novel totally shoehorned in political story elements, to no end. It spends 300+ overwrought pages to determine that colonialism is cool and everything will work out, which also represents no development from the beginning of the novel. I would not call this an adult novel because it is not very sophisticated, but I would not call it a YA novel because those usually have overstated and cheesier political sentiment.

the traitor baru cormorant by seth dickinson

When it comes to politically didactic novels, I think this one is quite good because the prose is strong and the main character is intelligent while very obviously flawed. The start is gripping, but it drags on, and I think it suffers from how, from Baru's perspective, there isn't really any character who's smarter than Baru.

dark carnival by ray bradbury

You can't say something like this is corny when they were written before most of the genre conventions even existed. The ones I wanted to reread the most were The Homecoming and Cistern.

vanishing world by sayaka murata (trans. ginny tapley takemori)

 I think this would have affected me as much as Convenience Store Woman did if I had managed to read it at the right time in my life. At my age, it's pretty good and observational - and not a page too long! - but that's it.

the will of the many by james islington

 I only finished this book because I was on a 13 hour flight with no other entertainment. You'd think something that owed 90% of its existence to The Name Of The Wind would have better prose. 

perdido street station by china mieville

 I enjoyed reading this, but a lot of the "quirkiness" of the world served only to make the book even longer and not really mean anything in the story. Also, Isaac was the main narrator yet he literally had no backstory and no motives. It got to a point where it just became about fixing Isaac's mistakes and ends as soon as they're fixed. Also, the Yagharek reveal is super underwhelming because it's kind of obvious from page one. 

Embassytown is similar, obviously, and maybe less exciting, but has more to think about in the end.

hell is dark with no flowers 1 by yoru michio (trans. taylor engel)

I understand that this is a thriller and that's why the story beats are the way they are, but I don't particularly like it. The epilogue chapter impressed me a little by departing from this, but overall, I found the humor in the writing style to be very poor and the atmosphere not particularly memorable. I do think it was better than Yami-Hara, another Yen On light novel with a similar premise. But why are there multiple novels using supernatural elements as window dressing on a banal tale about the dark side of mundane life? What are stories like these trying to say about "normies" in the first place?