April Reading Update 2024
May. 6th, 2024 02:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaSome good stuff in here. I've been trying to read more off my backlist, which I think is going well, but it means a lot of new releases are going neglected. Alas.
Currently Reading:
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
Only sheer willpower keeps me from DNFing this.
Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap
Just started this, but I enjoyed the first short story. This was recced to me by a twitter thread about books for TLT fans.
The Anatomy of Genre: How Story Forms Explain the Way the World Works by John Truby
God, this is pretentious drivel. And it's over 700 pages long. Help me.
New Reads:
The Heiress: The Revelations of Anne de Bourgh by Molly Greeley
5/5. I was pleasantly surprised by how full this makes Anne as a character. I thought the opioid dependence was very interesting and added a lot to her character, and I felt like the story handled Anne's burgeoning lesbianism and the period-typical homophobia and sexism very well. And I thought the ending was masterful, too. One of the best P&P-adjacent novels I've ever read.
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
4/5. This is an unexpectedly tragic piece of sci-fi. It feels small and tense and tight, and it wrings so much pathos out of only a few characters. I really liked the inclusion of the protagonist's novel, too.
Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughn
4/5. I really debated whether to rate this 3 or 4 stars, because it definitely does not get 4 stars based purely on my enjoyment, but I do think it's a very competent book and I can see why it has the following it has. That said, it feels very...toothless? I don't know. I think it would be better if it was a little more problematic, to be honest. The book is so quick to exonerate the love interest and his people, and to condemn the heroine's father, that none of the conflict feels compelling.
We're Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2021 edited by L.D. Lewis
4/5. Overall a very solid and varied collection of queer speculative short stories. My favorite is the one about the gay video game mod!
The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid
5/5. I feel like Reid is able to transmute real life cultures and their oppression into a fantasy context so well, keeping them recognizable and incorporating the fantasy elements very naturally. And this is the real enemies to lovers! Reid does not pull her punches with the romance, which really makes it compelling to read.
Molly by Blake Butler
5/5. Man, this is a weird book to review. I've seen a lot of criticsm of this, and I see where it's coming from, but...I don't really agree with it? I think Butler's portrait of his wife is pretty nuanced, and he doesn't make himself look like a hero, either. He's obviously writing to cope, and I think his style and prose are probably not for everyone. But for me this was massively impactful in a way I had not expected it to be.
Lady Venom Takes A Mistress by Kat Blackthorne
5/5. Sometimes a book doesn't need to be good. Sometimes it just needs two hot ladies with scorching sexual chemistry who have mildly freaky demon snake-themed sex.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
4/5. This is a very good novel. It's well crafted, the world-building is so thoughtful, and the book is so obviously, lovingly researched. But I do think it starts to drag after a while.
Rereads:
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
5/5. I mean, it's just an insanely good mystery. It's so tight, so suspenseful, and even on reread when I knew all the twists I was still gripped. Christie knows how to make characters up and bring them to life.
Currently Reading:
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
Only sheer willpower keeps me from DNFing this.
Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap
Just started this, but I enjoyed the first short story. This was recced to me by a twitter thread about books for TLT fans.
The Anatomy of Genre: How Story Forms Explain the Way the World Works by John Truby
God, this is pretentious drivel. And it's over 700 pages long. Help me.
New Reads:
The Heiress: The Revelations of Anne de Bourgh by Molly Greeley
5/5. I was pleasantly surprised by how full this makes Anne as a character. I thought the opioid dependence was very interesting and added a lot to her character, and I felt like the story handled Anne's burgeoning lesbianism and the period-typical homophobia and sexism very well. And I thought the ending was masterful, too. One of the best P&P-adjacent novels I've ever read.
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
4/5. This is an unexpectedly tragic piece of sci-fi. It feels small and tense and tight, and it wrings so much pathos out of only a few characters. I really liked the inclusion of the protagonist's novel, too.
Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughn
4/5. I really debated whether to rate this 3 or 4 stars, because it definitely does not get 4 stars based purely on my enjoyment, but I do think it's a very competent book and I can see why it has the following it has. That said, it feels very...toothless? I don't know. I think it would be better if it was a little more problematic, to be honest. The book is so quick to exonerate the love interest and his people, and to condemn the heroine's father, that none of the conflict feels compelling.
We're Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2021 edited by L.D. Lewis
4/5. Overall a very solid and varied collection of queer speculative short stories. My favorite is the one about the gay video game mod!
The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid
5/5. I feel like Reid is able to transmute real life cultures and their oppression into a fantasy context so well, keeping them recognizable and incorporating the fantasy elements very naturally. And this is the real enemies to lovers! Reid does not pull her punches with the romance, which really makes it compelling to read.
Molly by Blake Butler
5/5. Man, this is a weird book to review. I've seen a lot of criticsm of this, and I see where it's coming from, but...I don't really agree with it? I think Butler's portrait of his wife is pretty nuanced, and he doesn't make himself look like a hero, either. He's obviously writing to cope, and I think his style and prose are probably not for everyone. But for me this was massively impactful in a way I had not expected it to be.
Lady Venom Takes A Mistress by Kat Blackthorne
5/5. Sometimes a book doesn't need to be good. Sometimes it just needs two hot ladies with scorching sexual chemistry who have mildly freaky demon snake-themed sex.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
4/5. This is a very good novel. It's well crafted, the world-building is so thoughtful, and the book is so obviously, lovingly researched. But I do think it starts to drag after a while.
Rereads:
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
5/5. I mean, it's just an insanely good mystery. It's so tight, so suspenseful, and even on reread when I knew all the twists I was still gripped. Christie knows how to make characters up and bring them to life.
