reading update 1/20/2022
Jan. 20th, 2022 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwalla6/50 books read! We are steamrolling.
Current TBR:
Read:
The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He
This is the second Joan He novel I've read and I think I can now definitively say her books just aren't for me. This was so hyped up and it was so underwhelming. Kasey is an incredibly dull protagonist, the worldbuilding is really thin, and the plot just...doesn't make a lot of sense to me. This book is full of secrets that it keeps threatening to reveal, but it never gives you a revelation that makes all the pages you've slogged through worth it. Also, I expect a book being promoted as climate change sci-fi to actually have something to say about climate change, and this just...doesn't.
Overall it feels like a book made to be twitter quote bot fodder. It's full of beautiful writing, but it's like cake fondant: tastes a lot worse than it looks.
Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
Man, Talia Hibbert does not miss. This is my favorite of the three Brown Sisters books, which I am shocked to say, because I loved the second one so much. But Eve and Jacob's dynamic is so compelling, so sweet, and Eve's development as a character is so wonderful to read. I was quite annoyed with her during the first couple chapters, but as the book unfolded, I loved that she was allowed to grow and mature without having to become more "normal".
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Whoa. This is a book that succeeds at everything it tries to do in spades. it brings to life the community and people it wants to portray, it gives you a mystery you can sink your teeth into, and it brings a courageous and compassionate protagonist that I would happily spend another 500 pages with. I have not read a lot of literature from indigenous authors, but if that is something you're looking for in books, I would highly recommend this.
Note that the subject matter is pretty heavy (drug use, kidnapping, murder, violence, sexual assault) but in my opinion it's handled very well.
The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer
This is marketed as YA SF and the blurb makes it sound a lot more light-hearted than it actually it. This is a twisty, turny thriller set aboard a spaceship. The romance is integral to the story, but I wouldn't call this a romance. It asks you to reflect on what the meaning of life is and what makes it worth living, and my only complaint is that I wish we'd gotten to see the protagonist reflect more on some of his beliefs.
Current TBR:
- The Councillor by E.J. Beaton
- The Lady or the Lion by Aamna Qureshi
- The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
- Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
- A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab
- The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
- The Queen of Ieflaria by Effie Calvin
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
- The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian
- The Hellion's Waltz by Olivia Waite
- A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark
- A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
- Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Read:
The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He
This is the second Joan He novel I've read and I think I can now definitively say her books just aren't for me. This was so hyped up and it was so underwhelming. Kasey is an incredibly dull protagonist, the worldbuilding is really thin, and the plot just...doesn't make a lot of sense to me. This book is full of secrets that it keeps threatening to reveal, but it never gives you a revelation that makes all the pages you've slogged through worth it. Also, I expect a book being promoted as climate change sci-fi to actually have something to say about climate change, and this just...doesn't.
Overall it feels like a book made to be twitter quote bot fodder. It's full of beautiful writing, but it's like cake fondant: tastes a lot worse than it looks.
Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
Man, Talia Hibbert does not miss. This is my favorite of the three Brown Sisters books, which I am shocked to say, because I loved the second one so much. But Eve and Jacob's dynamic is so compelling, so sweet, and Eve's development as a character is so wonderful to read. I was quite annoyed with her during the first couple chapters, but as the book unfolded, I loved that she was allowed to grow and mature without having to become more "normal".
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Whoa. This is a book that succeeds at everything it tries to do in spades. it brings to life the community and people it wants to portray, it gives you a mystery you can sink your teeth into, and it brings a courageous and compassionate protagonist that I would happily spend another 500 pages with. I have not read a lot of literature from indigenous authors, but if that is something you're looking for in books, I would highly recommend this.
Note that the subject matter is pretty heavy (drug use, kidnapping, murder, violence, sexual assault) but in my opinion it's handled very well.
The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer
This is marketed as YA SF and the blurb makes it sound a lot more light-hearted than it actually it. This is a twisty, turny thriller set aboard a spaceship. The romance is integral to the story, but I wouldn't call this a romance. It asks you to reflect on what the meaning of life is and what makes it worth living, and my only complaint is that I wish we'd gotten to see the protagonist reflect more on some of his beliefs.
