Or, A Wrap Up of Reads from May to August
Well, I intended to do a quick wrap up of my monthly reads in May and June. And then I thought, I’ll do a quarterly wrap up and include July. And then before I knew it, August was over. Because that’s 2020.
But I’m stubborn and so I’m still going to make this happen, despite September already almost over as well. So, in the most concise way possible considering I read 75 books during that period (but let’s be real still very long), here are some thoughts on my May through August reads.
The majority of the books in this period I read for Hugo Award voting, a few in my continuing quest to read the books longlisted for the Women’s Prize (even though they’ve already announced the winner), and then a moderate amount to try to tackle my ever-growing physical TBR that had already existed before either of those.
May Books
I read two of the Women’s Prize longlisted books in May: Weather by Jenny Offill, and Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. I honestly still don’t know how I feel about Weather. I’ve been meaning to go back and re-read it—it’s super short, less than 200 pages, so it would only take a few hours—but haven’t gotten back to it yet. I hadn’t read Offill’s other book, Department of Speculation, and I kind of wish that I had because I was fully unprepared for the disjointed narrative style that is common in the two. I think it’s becoming more common in fiction these days, and quite honestly, I’m not sure it’s for me. But I’m going to give it another try when I get a chance. Now Queenie, that, I loved. It was definitely not a “beach read,” as one list I saw claimed. I thought it did a really lovely job of addressing mental health and the echoes of traumatic events and trying to figure out who you are in a world that feels like nothing but obstacles, especially as a young Black woman.
I read two books for work-ish. The first was Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby. I already had a pre-order of this because I love her, but then we were able to book an event with her so I read the book in advance of that event. As with everything Sam Irby writes, down to a Tweet or Instagram post, I highly recommend you read it. The other was River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey by Sister Helen Prejean. She’s a strong advocate for criminal justice, specifically when it comes to the death penalty. This book was a memoir of her journey from a kind of naive, admittedly ignorant young white woman in the south to having her eyes opened to the struggles of Black southern folks, and the genesis of her identity as a crusader. It was lovely and pulled no punches, especially when it came to admitting her own blind spots. As somebody who is not religious, I really appreciated her addressing how her faith interacts with her mission. She’s also just a kick-ass lady, and I never in my life thought I would be texting with an octogenarian nun, so thank you to Town Hall for that opportunity.
Before I got too deep into my Hugo reading, I read six books on my pre-existing TBR: Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu, Sadie by Courtney Summers, The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers Abroad by Emily Thomas, Beach Read by Emily Henry, The City We Became with NK Jemisin, and Happy & You Know It by Laura Hankin.
I bought Moxie at a point where it was announced that Amy Poehler was working on an adaptation for Netflix. I think it’s probably great for its intended audience, which is young adults, but I did enjoy it. I loved that it captures the feeling of new friendship. It also does a great job incorporating all of the common things that feminists hear: that they’re man hating, boys will be boys, “not all men,” white feminism, rape accusations ruin men’s lives. Sadie had been on my radar for a while because it was talked about a lot in relation to the incorporation of a podcast. It was…very not for me. I know a lot of other people love this one, but…Super triggers for pedophilia, and I’m glad I glanced at (didn’t even read but luckily they included triggers) someone else’s review to know that going in, otherwise I would have absolutely fallen apart reading this. It was riveting, as promised, and I think the structure and podcast were interesting, but more and more like true crime and crime-related books that I’ve read, felt exploitative and like pedophilia was used for shock value. The Meaning of Travel I enjoyed quite a bit, though it ended up being quite different from what I expected. I thought that it would really center on the ethics of travel, which IS a chapter in the book but not the main focus. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently, thinking about not only the financial and environmental impact on travel but also the idea of visiting a culture and things like Airbnb impacting local areas. All of that. But what I didn’t see when I initially grabbed this book was the subtitle, which clarified that it is really a retrospective of philosophers throughout history, and their relationship with travel. I’m still a nerd, so I did love that shit. Beach Read I loved loved loved. Really scratched the itch of rom-com for me (some others I’ve loved recently: The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary; Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert; The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman; Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes), while also containing some more serious themes and tones. It was my first Emily Henry book, will definitely be reading more. And it’s also one of those books that has caused me to think a lot about genre classification, because if it had been written by a dude, it would 100% be considered litfic, but because it was written by a woman, it’s romance. Hilarious. The City We Became was much anticipated, obvs, because it’s Nora. I’m a big fan of New York, so I appreciated that focus, and I think there were some great kernels here. One of her biggest strengths is worldbuilding, and I think with something that is based in a real place, there wasn’t as much of that and the story suffered just slightly. I also think it was maybe trying to do too many things with not enough to hold it together, but I think the story is interesting and engaging, and I am 100% in for the sequels, which I think will only improve my feelings towards this first in the series. And Happy & You Know It was a Book of the Month pick for me. It got at the idea of the masks we wear for social media and the pressure on people—especially moms—to be perfect, the constant scrutinization. Pretty light and fluffy and I had a solid time with it.
For the Hugos, I read A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, The Deep by Rivers Solomon, and the first four books in the Wayward Children series (Every Heart a Doorway, Down Among the Sticks and Bones, Beneath the Sugar Sky, and In An Absent Dream) by Seanan McGuire. A Memory Called Empire was nominated in the Best Novel category, and ended up being one of my absolute new favourites and I’m looking forward to continuing the series. It’s queer space opera, political and social intrigue and drama, amazing worldbuilding. Loved it. I’ve been an ambassador for the good word of Rivers Solomon since I read An Unkindness of Ghosts in early 2018. It was one of my top books that year. The common thread here is that it is also a space opera, but recreates our stratified, broken society on a spaceship. I thought the commentary on society was incredibly nuanced and strong, and loved Aster as a main character. So it’s not really a surprise that I greatly enjoyed The Deep as well, which was nominated in the Best Novella category. It’s hard to have something as meaty as An Unkindness of Ghosts in a novella length, but I thought that Solomon did a solid job of building this underwater world. The examination of generational trauma, its impact on people, and the range of gender and sexuality representation were very strong for me. Always/still a fan. The fourth book in the Wayward Children series, In An Absent Dream, was also nominated in the Best Novella category, so of course I had to re-read the first and read the others before getting to that fourth one. I just am such a huge fan of Seanan McGuire. My intro to her work was about five years ago now, with the Toby Daye series, and I just find it prolific and enjoyable. I’ve never been disappointed to have read one of her books. The Wayward Children series is so lovely. It’s a portal series about kids who go through a personalized door to a very different world that feels like home, and then have to deal with the psychological repercussions of somehow being spit back into our world. There is some great representation, which is a hallmark across McGuire’s writing, I would say, and these are super enjoyable and novella length so super easy to speed right through.
June Books
In June, I thought I was mostly focused on Hugo reading, but I did about an equal amount of Hugo reading and regular TBR reading, with a couple thrown in that were work-related.
For work, I read The Joyce Girl by Annabel Abbs and The Groom Will Keep His Name by Matt Ortile. The Joyce Girl on paper seems up my alley, but it wasn’t really for me. It was an historical fiction about Lucia Joyce, the daughter of James Joyce and one-time lover of Samuel Beckett. Liked the Paris stuff, but big trigger warnings for incest and mental illness. The Groom Will Keep His Name I enjoyed quite a bit. It was a collection of essays about race, being an immigrant, being a gay man, colonization, and just general ruminations on his life.
For funsies, with books on my TBR, I read Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall; Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera; A Cowboy to Remember by Rebekah Weatherspoon; A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow; Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo; and Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender.
I feel like I’m usually pretty good at incorporating non-fiction into my reading, but I also feel like that’s not been true this year. Maybe because it’s been…well, this year, and escapism was necessary. But one of the books I did read, and gave five stars because it’s absolutely essential reading and super accessible, was Hood Feminism. I’ve been following Mikki Kendall on Twitter since I saw her several years ago at NerdCon: Stories, so I had been really hyped to get into this book that she’d been talking about for a while when it came out. It is such an intersectional look at feminism, including topics that many other intersectional books leave out, I feel, like sex work and how it intersects with the ideals of feminism. A lot of big takeaways for me, and I’m certain it’s one of those I’m going to turn to regularly over and over. Juliet Takes a Breath had been on my list for such a long time, not only because I’d heard good things but also because I used to work with Gabby. It was everything I wanted it to be, coming of age, queer, painful and revelatory, five stars. A Cowboy to Remember is the first in a trilogy of fairy-tale retellings in the guise of cowboy romances—this one was Cinderella. I never thought I would be in the middle of that Venn diagram, but turns out…I also am not usually a fan of an amnesia plotline, but this one did it for me. Maybe because I love Rebekah Weatherspoon so much, or maybe it’s because it was just an adorable romance. But top marks on this one. One of my favourite books of the last few years, that had such a tremendous impact on me when I read it, was Mem by Bethany C. Morrow. So I was pumped to get to jump into this contemporary YA fantasy, not least because the cover is absolutely gorgeous. I think some of the word of mouth marketing did the book a bit of a disservice because people (mostly people who hadn’t read the book yet) kept calling it a mermaid book and it SORT OF is? But more it’s about found family, and about race, and about being a young girl, and about living in a “liberal” city as a Black youth, and about the secrets we have to keep. It was beautiful and poignant, and I didn’t think I could love Bethany C. Morrow any more than I already did after Mem but I was wrong. Clap When You Land was another first for me, with Elizabeth Acevedo. I’ve heard extraordinarily good things about her previous books, especially The Poet X, which is her other book in prose. I adored this one, big old five stars for me, it made me cry, it made me angry, it made me laugh. It did such a stellar job of capturing the nuance of grief and loss while also reckoning with the complicated legacy of the person who is gone. And though some might deride it for not being realistic, I loved the optimistic, happy ending. More of that please. And finally, Felix Ever After, another first from an author I’ve heard wonderful things about. This one was rough, because there is a public outing/deadnaming of the lead character, who is a trans boy, and there IS catfishing that is done in order to exact revenge on the person Felix is certain is the person who outed him. But it also captures so much of what it means to be a teenager, about not always making the best choices, about having to deal with your mistakes and with complicated relationships, and also struggling with your identity and your family and your friends. Another five star read.
Then for the Hugos, I read: The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark; This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar; To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers; The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley; Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker; LaGuardia by Nnedi Okorafor and Tana Ford; and City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders. Several of those were nominated in the Best Novella category, and with two of the three, I had the issue I often have with especially standalone novellas which is that it just doesn’t feel like ENOUGH. That’s how I felt about The Haunting of Tram Car 015. I really enjoyed the world that was created, I liked the kind of spooky, monster-of-the-week approach, nestled in a culture that doesn’t often get a lot of room in fantasy. I have heard great things about The Black God’s Drums, also by Clark, and that cover art really sticks in my brain, but I hadn’t read it, so this was also my first experience with his writing. Definitely up for reading more from Clark, but I’m hoping there might be something that’s full novel format because that’s what I’m dying for. I felt similarly about To Be Taught, If Fortunate. It’s technically not part of the Wayfarers series by Chambers, but it’s got a themed cover and is also set in space, so it’s tangential. I’ve only read Long Way to a Small Angry Planet thus far, and I LOVED that one, most especially because of the found family. But this one didn’t really stick with me much, though I do remember that it made me feel more claustrophobic than the other book of hers that I’ve read. On the other hand, This Is How You Lose the Time War is absolutely one of my favourite favourite favourites from the last few years, and I think part of the reason it feels more solid is that none of it is enclosed? Like, it’s such a disjointed story already—in a way I absolutely LOVE—that the questions I usually still have at the end of many novellas didn’t surface because the story’s not really about that? I don’t know if that makes any sense. Mooncakes and LaGuardia were both nominated in the Best Graphic Story of Comic category, and I totally recommend both. Mooncakes is a gentle, lovely fantasy with enby rep and lesbian grandmothers and witches and dead ghost parents. And LaGuardia was a little more serious, tackling immigration and racism through the allegory of aliens. Hard to go wrong with Nnedi. And then City in the Middle of the Night was in the Best Novel category, and it ended up being in the middle of my rankings. It was my first Charlie Jane Anders, and I’ve had the bird title one on my ereader for approximately a fafillion years, so I’m looking forward to reading more from her because I did have a good time with this one. I was also in a bit of a weird headspace for it, so that may have impacted why I didn’t super love it.
July Books
Whew! Home stretch here. I read SO much in July, and a lot of it was digital/ebook format provided in the Hugo voter pamphlet. To be fair, a number of these were novelettes or short stories, but I wanted to track them anyway, so I did.
So let’s start with the Hugo reads, because I really powered through this in an attempt to read as much as possible for voting. I read The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow. I’m still not sure how I feel about this book. Lots of things I love: portal fantasy, sweeping tale that starts with something that feels disconnected and then comes back at the end, a girl who feels out of place. Mostly I’m conflicted by the representation of race in the book, because January is a mixed race character, and *spoiler* her father is not of Earth so there’s not a direct equivalent? But I still don’t love somebody’s skin being several times referred to as “red.” Much less of an issue, but the pacing was off at times, and not a lot of urgency, which there should have been because there was legit peril. Then I read Monstress Volumes 1-4 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. Loves the queer rep, loved the tortured main character, loved the worldbuilding although I still don’t understand, I realize it’s intended to be that way and not just bad storytelling. I admit I did feel some sort of way when I remembered that Marjorie Liu is with Junot Diaz, but that’s neither here nor there. I also read Paper Girls Volumes 5 and 6 by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, and Matt Wilson. I love this series. It’s a bummer that it’s written by (ostensibly, though I admit I haven’t researched) a bunch of dudes, but it’s very Stranger Things meets kind of Baby-Sitters Club? A group of papergirls get stuck in a weird space-time mess. I didn’t realize Volume 6 was the end, but super enjoyable, love the artwork and colouring, love the zaniness, highly recommend. I also read Die Volume 1 by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans. This one was…not for me. Very D&D based, and extremely dark, and while I actually am not averse to either of those things and even like them sometimes, it just didn’t work for what I’m into.
Okay, little paragraph break! Let’s talk about Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. I’ve already expressed my love for McGuire once in this wrap up, but just to remind you, I’m a super big fan, I think she’s amazing and thoughtful and inventive. Also, she’s local! Did I mention that last time? Okay, I’ve been hearing about this book since it was released, she has talked about it extensively on her Twitter because she’s said she feels like it’s the most of her and some of her best technical writing (I agree), which she talked about after the Hugo nominations came out. I loved this just as much as I expected. Twins Roger and Dodger are separated at birth, they’re part of an experiment, they’ve got powers, there’s time travel, there’s a battle against an evil mastermind. Everything a person could POSSIBLY want. I highly recommend. There’s also a Wizard of Oz-like book that is mentioned in and is part of the mythology of Middlegame that Seanan actually wrote and released under that author’s name, and it just came out so obvs I need it. And Tor recently announced a sequel to Middlegame so I legitimately cannot wait. I also reread Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir for voting because it’s one of my absolute favourites, it hits every single button for me, it’s got space, it’s got necromantic lesbians, it’s got battles, it’s got puzzles, it’s got a murder mystery. It’s for sure a polarizing book, but it’s just so my jam that I can’t even see any flaws, I refuse. (Still have to read Harrow…)
I read the selections for Best Novelette. Not going to go into those because I don’t know that I have super a lot to say but they were: Away With the Wolves by Sarah Gailey, The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye by Sarah Pinsker, For He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll, The Archonology of Love by Caroline M. Yoachim, and Emergency Skin by NK Jemisin.
And finally, I read a few books in the Best Young Adult Book (which were actually all middle grade, but it’s fine). Deeplight by Frances Hardinge. The cover is gorgeous, and I ended up enjoying this, but I don’t know that I would have picked it up or powered through if I hadn’t been reading it for Hugo voting. Felt very slow at moments, but this was also in the last few days before voting and I was admittedly getting fatigued. Also, I can’t speak to the accuracy, though based on my limited knowledge it’s good, but really appreciated the deaf rep, all the way down to something like a name sign. Minor Mage by T. Kingfisher. Very Arthurian vibes, I liked the dark comedy, I liked the fairly simple yet enjoyable adventure. I did have one doubt about a particular description and whether or not it was problematic, but honestly the story didn’t stay in my brain long enough to look into it more. Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee, which is part of the Rick Riordan Present sub-imprint with Disney Hyperion. I enjoyed this one. Space opera based on Korean mythology. Nonbinary rep, was actually very surprised that *spoilers!* her brother ended up really being dead, which is a pretty serious revelation for a middle grade, although I guess he gets to continue existing as a ghost so not AS serious. And Riverland by Fran Wilde. This felt like a deeply personal piece about two young girls struggling with domestic abuse in the house, and then experiencing a fantasy world that more tangibly allows them to confront the problems. Honestly, I found it a little hard to follow/suspend my disbelief in the fantastical parts, but admittedly that may be because of my pace in trying to speed through it before Hugo voting closes. I also recognize that I’m not the target audience for this book—or any of these middle grades—so that may have affected my response to it as well. I did think it did what many great children’s books do: addressed a serious topic with magic and allegory. So kudos there.
For book clubs, I read three books. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Takemori. This one is super short, SUPER fucking weird, and I had a great time with it. I also read Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon, which is (I believe) the only f/f romance that she’s written for reasons that she’s talked about, and it’s really more of a novella. I appreciated the positive representation of sex work, I love how smutty Weatherspoon’s stuff is, and I think the conflicts in the relationship were real and feasible, which is one of the things I most look for in a romance. And finally for book clubs, Forbidden Promises by Synithia Williams. My first book of hers, and probably won’t be continuing in the series, because it was not my jam. The family relationships were VERY unhealthy, there were some timeline things that didn’t quite match up that I couldn’t get over, and I also just think the premise was not doing it for me, though I’m not generally averse to second-chance romances.
For funsies, I read six books, and how even. (To be fair to myself, I was furloughed from work for the majority of July so I had a LOT of free time…) I read the third Rebekah Weatherspoon in as many months, Haven. This is the first in the Beards and Bondage series, and whew, yes, definitely bondage happening. There were some truly traumatic events represented in this book before getting to the sexy times, and since S&M is not necessarily my thing, some of the connections between the trauma and processing it through bondage didn’t super make sense to me, but I still appreciated the positive representation of the bondage community, of the safety and rules. And I did find the sexy times sexy. But definitely look up trigger warnings before you jump into this one, I would say. I read The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal, and of course the McElboys (and Carey Pietsch!) have done it again. This one is the best yet, and the artwork is absolutely stunning, gorgeous, flawless. Makes me want to get a tattoo of it, honestly. I read Don’t Call Us Dead by poet Danez Smith. This is a collection of poems by a nonbinary writer, and it was an extremely emotional journey, with topics of brutality against the Black community to their experiences as an HIV+ person. Highly recommend, but have the tissues ready. And then finally, I did a mini-theme read with three books that all had women in dresses on the covers: Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and The Best Worst Man by Mia Sosa. Cinderella Is Dead…There were a lot of things I loved about this. Was it a bit heavy-handed at times? Yes. Was it predictable in some places? For sure, what book isn’t? Were there at least one or two twists I didn’t anticipate? Also yes. Did I like the premise? Loved it. However, all that said, I’m a bit disappointed this one didn’t hit me as hard as I wanted. I didn’t think the worldbuilding or investigation of the magic system was particularly robust, and the characters were a little one-note in favor of fleshing out the connection to the Cinderella myth. But overall, I had a really good time reading it, I couldn’t put it down, and I think it was solid for a debut. Plus, there’s also the reality that I’m not the target audience – as much as I may feel like I’m still 17, I’m no longer a young adult. There was an opening to investigate other fairy tales in a similar way in the book, so I would 100% pick up one of those, or really anything else that Bayron writes, because I do think her writing is very striking and engaging. The Best Worst Man by Mia Sosa actually had some similarities to Forbidden Promises but I liked it so much better. Closer to rom-com, which is very much my scene these days. Not a home run for me, but glad I read it. And finally, Mexican Gothic. Man, what a disappointment for me. I was so hyped for this book. The cover is gorgeous, I’m into gothic shit, I follow the author on Twitter and she’d been pitching it and I was very in. And I just truly hated it so much. I didn’t believe the “romance.” The characters felt flat. Other than not wanting them to have access to cell phones, I did not understand the particular historical setting (though I admit that could be a hole in my cultural competency.) And most striking, why did the dad send his young daughter into a crisis? I couldn’t buy that. It DID feel very eerie, spooky, gothic, that was all well done. The imagination present was stellar, EXCEPT I DON’T THINK THAT INCEST AS A SPOOKY SECRET IS NEW OR INTERESTING AND I’M FUCKING SICK OF IT. I said it when I read The Roanoke Girls years ago, still true. And any kind of horror, but especially body horror, is very not for me.
August Books
Coming around home plate. (Is that accurate to the sports thing? I don’t know, but you get the idea.) Wildly, August was a lighter month for me but I still read 16 books.
Let’s start with the Katie O’Neill books: The Tea Dragon Society, The Tea Dragon Festival, and Aquicorn Cove. Just lovely, warm, soft books. Artwork is adorable, enjoyable for everyone ages 3 to 93. I also read a couple of other graphic novels: Sheets by Brenna Thummler (cute middle grade-ish about a girl who is dealing with the death of her mom and starts seeing ghosts while she tries to help run her family laundromat, very gentle); Goldie Vance Volume 1 by Hope Larson (Nancy Drew but featuring a young Black woman who works in a hotel); and The Backstagers Volume 1 by James Tynion, Waltr Baiamonte, and Rian Sygh (teen high school, supernaturally-connected backstage drama and I ATE. THIS. SHIT. UP.)
I read Beheld by TaraShea Nesbit because it was on some list at some point, or maybe because I reserved it at the library from the Insiders new release index? Either way, nothing extremely revelatory. It was short historical fiction about the fledgling Plymouth colony. There were definitely some funny moments, and I’m glad I read it, but not sure I would recommend it. I read The Beauty in Breaking by Michele Harper, which is a part memoir, part medical history. While I think there were some valuable things here, I found it a bit hard to track the connection or through line. It ultimately just didn’t feel particularly well constructed to me, and I didn’t appreciate the re-imagined conversations/dialogue. I read My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing, which a bunch of Booktubers I watch have been raving about, and it was okay. I didn’t go crazy for it like some of them seemed to, definitely not a new fave, but it was fast-paced and a page turner, for sure. I read Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara, which was another on the Women’s Prize longlist. I REALLY wish I’d read the synopsis for this before jumping in. I think probably because the narrator is nine, it all felt like it was lighter fare, and I knew there had to be something deeper in order for it to be on the Women’s Prize longlist, but by the time we got there, it felt rushed and I didn’t feel the emotional impact as much because I had convinced myself that child narrator=everything works out okay. I WAS WRONG.
I read The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins which…kind of defies genre, but was historical fiction and gothic and queer and it was a bit overwritten and I had some mixed feelings about it but ultimately I think I enjoyed it? I read The Buddhist on Death Row by David Sheff, which was heartbreaking and uplifting, all at once, about Jarvis Jay Masters’ life and experiences on Death Row, and how that has impacted his spiritual practice. Astounding, inspirational, aspirational. But I’ll never be calm or forgiving enough for that shit. I read Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis, and the answer is yes. Read this, read everything about prison abolition, and a reimagined world where all our needs are met and we take care of each other. I read Witchmark by CL Polk, which is the first in a new fantasy series. I really enjoyed this. I found the storytelling compelling, I loved how soft and gentle the romance was between Miles and Tristan (with lines like “I wished I was funny just to hear him laugh again” and “I question the taste of every man and woman in this city,” it’s hard to not feel swoony), I really enjoyed what I perceived to be some heavy anti-war and anti-power messages. The existence of rich, powerful people saying that the needs of the many are more important than the needs of the few, as long as “the few” never includes themselves, that they are willing to personally sacrifice exactly NOTHING…too real. I did enjoy the bits and pieces of the worldbuilding, but this was one of the weakest parts for me. It is a pretty soft fantasy, but even with that in mind, I still feel like I do not have a strong concept of what the world is like. I am really intrigued by it, and I’m looking forward to learning more as the series continues. For most of the book, the plotting and pacing felt pretty solid to me—though there didn’t feel like any particular urgency, but I didn’t really mind that—but the final boss bottle definitely felt a bit rushed. I got to the point where they were heading into it, and there were only 20 pages left, and I was sure the book must’ve ended on a cliffhanger because of how few pages were left and how much more it felt like there still was to do. And as much as I loved the relationship between Miles and Tristan, that ending also felt really rushed and ever-so-slightly unearned. That said, I am excited to continue on in the series and see the world continue to grow, though I’m worried about reading #2 with Grace as the central character, because I fucking hated her…
I read You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson, and although it tackles some very real and difficult topics (death of a parent, chronic illness, homophobia), it was also just a heart-happy book, and if you’re looking for an uplift, this is the one. And last but not least, I FINALLY read I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara, which I preordered when it was coming out and then proceeded to not read it for a number of years. It definitely lived up to the hype, McNamara’s writing is so simple in such a beautiful way, and also so evocative. Obviously devastating that it had to be finished by others following her death, and that she missed getting to see the capture and conviction of the monster she was hunting, but I like to think she knows.
That said, I am excited to continue on in the series and see the world continue to grow, though I’m worried about reading #2 with Grace as the central character, because I fucking hated her…
Okay, never again can I do this, get THIS behind, if only because this blog post is literally six thousand words long and nobody is ever going to read it. But at least I got my thoughts down! And a whole minute before the end of September! That’s what really matters.
Later, losers.
Jo In Real Life 