Hide, by Kiersten White
There is something perfect about an abandoned amusement park as the setting for horror. This story makes great use of the space. Fourteen people are invited to partake in an ultra game of hide-and-seek. Whoever wins after a week will get a big payout. But, once the game has started, the stakes are raised when people start disappearing. Turns out the picture-perfect town just down the road from the park has some dark secrets. I enjoyed this book, as I did the author’s Mister Magic. Definitely recommend.
Jane Austen's Bookshelf, by Rebecca Romney
A love letter to Jane Austen and the female writers who inspired her. Romney is a rare book dealer and fell down a rabbit hole researching women authors were inspirational to Jane. Many of these women and their works were nearly forgotten, so Romney made it a challenge to find books by eight of these authors and revive their legacy. There is a lot of talk about how the books we think of as “classics” become so. She points out how these women who were phenomenally famous in their time were rebuffed by “scholars” as less-than because they were so popular. Fascinating read!
Water Moon, by Samantha Sotto Yambao
Highly imaginative, fairy-tale like story of a woman not of the human world and the not-quite-human man who comes into her life just as she needs him. It’s hard to describe this story without going into huge amounts of details. I mostly enjoyed it, but felt that a lot of the strange places the main characters visit in this other world were created by DnD dice. It was like they were made as weird as possible with no… I don’t want to say logical because it isn’t a logical world. Maybe, as weird as possible with no connective tissue between them. Each place is physically and emotionally distinct with no through line. Not sure I’m explaining it. However, it was a decent read and I’m sure would appeal more to readers who are not me.
Ocean’s Godori, by Elaine U. Cho
A space opera where the solar system has been colonized and is dominated by the Alliance space agency and the conglomerate Anand Tech. Ocean is a disgraced Alliance member ekeing out a living on a courier ship. Her best friend Teo is framed for the murder of his family. And there are pirates. Lots of pirates that might be kind of good? This book was fun enough, but the story was all over the place. I listened to it and so could tune out. It might have been a DNF if I had tried reading it.
Homeward Bounders, by Diana Wynne Jones
This book came out early in Jones’ career and already she was showing her ability to create multiple universes—well before Howl’s and Chrestomanci. I enjoyed this short romp through the multiverse. Not amazing, though the story is super well plotted, but it was a fun romp.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, by V.E. Schwab
This was a book club read and was the worst rated book we’ve read so far. I haven’t read any of Schwab’s adult novels and my comembers have and like her work. This is a vampire tale of immortality that was so boring. The narrative switches through time among three viewpoints until it culminates in late 2019. The story of the first vampire takes up nearly half of the book and offers nothing towards the ultimate plot. Also, most of the storyline was done better by Anne Rice almost 50 years ago. I don’t usually go into why I dislike a book, but as I was not the only one to dislike it, I don’t feel quite so bad.
A Small Place, by Jamaica Kincaid
A short nonfiction book about the author’s homeland, Antigua in the British West Indies. It is a meditation on what home means when it doesn’t really have an identity of its own. The people of Antigua (in the late 1980s when this was published) are the result of the slave trade and colonialism and the poverty and corruption they experience is always a result of that history. Lyrical, sad, and somehow uplifting, this is an ode by an insightful writer to the place that made her who she is.
Even Though I Knew the End, by C.L. Polk
Lovely queer noir novella about a magical detective, Helen, who has sold her soul to the devil. Offered a chance to save it, and continue to be with her girlfriend, Helen undertakes a dangerous investigation. Great quick read that lovingly combines the gritty, 1930s detective novel with magic.
The Book Censor's Library, by Bothayna Al-Essa
In a near future where people’s access to knowledge has been removed and books are highly censored, imagination is against the law and assimilation is paramount. The story follows a newly appointed book censor who has vowed to be the best one ever. Yet one of the first books he reads—that he know has already been censored—he falls in love with. Before he knows it, he is stealthily removing books from the Censorship office and then recruited by an underground movement to save books. Surreal, this book is a delightful love letter to reading and a warning about what happens when knowledge is taken away.
There is something perfect about an abandoned amusement park as the setting for horror. This story makes great use of the space. Fourteen people are invited to partake in an ultra game of hide-and-seek. Whoever wins after a week will get a big payout. But, once the game has started, the stakes are raised when people start disappearing. Turns out the picture-perfect town just down the road from the park has some dark secrets. I enjoyed this book, as I did the author’s Mister Magic. Definitely recommend.
Jane Austen's Bookshelf, by Rebecca Romney
A love letter to Jane Austen and the female writers who inspired her. Romney is a rare book dealer and fell down a rabbit hole researching women authors were inspirational to Jane. Many of these women and their works were nearly forgotten, so Romney made it a challenge to find books by eight of these authors and revive their legacy. There is a lot of talk about how the books we think of as “classics” become so. She points out how these women who were phenomenally famous in their time were rebuffed by “scholars” as less-than because they were so popular. Fascinating read!
Water Moon, by Samantha Sotto Yambao
Highly imaginative, fairy-tale like story of a woman not of the human world and the not-quite-human man who comes into her life just as she needs him. It’s hard to describe this story without going into huge amounts of details. I mostly enjoyed it, but felt that a lot of the strange places the main characters visit in this other world were created by DnD dice. It was like they were made as weird as possible with no… I don’t want to say logical because it isn’t a logical world. Maybe, as weird as possible with no connective tissue between them. Each place is physically and emotionally distinct with no through line. Not sure I’m explaining it. However, it was a decent read and I’m sure would appeal more to readers who are not me.
Ocean’s Godori, by Elaine U. Cho
A space opera where the solar system has been colonized and is dominated by the Alliance space agency and the conglomerate Anand Tech. Ocean is a disgraced Alliance member ekeing out a living on a courier ship. Her best friend Teo is framed for the murder of his family. And there are pirates. Lots of pirates that might be kind of good? This book was fun enough, but the story was all over the place. I listened to it and so could tune out. It might have been a DNF if I had tried reading it.
Homeward Bounders, by Diana Wynne Jones
This book came out early in Jones’ career and already she was showing her ability to create multiple universes—well before Howl’s and Chrestomanci. I enjoyed this short romp through the multiverse. Not amazing, though the story is super well plotted, but it was a fun romp.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, by V.E. Schwab
This was a book club read and was the worst rated book we’ve read so far. I haven’t read any of Schwab’s adult novels and my comembers have and like her work. This is a vampire tale of immortality that was so boring. The narrative switches through time among three viewpoints until it culminates in late 2019. The story of the first vampire takes up nearly half of the book and offers nothing towards the ultimate plot. Also, most of the storyline was done better by Anne Rice almost 50 years ago. I don’t usually go into why I dislike a book, but as I was not the only one to dislike it, I don’t feel quite so bad.
A Small Place, by Jamaica Kincaid
A short nonfiction book about the author’s homeland, Antigua in the British West Indies. It is a meditation on what home means when it doesn’t really have an identity of its own. The people of Antigua (in the late 1980s when this was published) are the result of the slave trade and colonialism and the poverty and corruption they experience is always a result of that history. Lyrical, sad, and somehow uplifting, this is an ode by an insightful writer to the place that made her who she is.
Even Though I Knew the End, by C.L. Polk
Lovely queer noir novella about a magical detective, Helen, who has sold her soul to the devil. Offered a chance to save it, and continue to be with her girlfriend, Helen undertakes a dangerous investigation. Great quick read that lovingly combines the gritty, 1930s detective novel with magic.
The Book Censor's Library, by Bothayna Al-Essa
In a near future where people’s access to knowledge has been removed and books are highly censored, imagination is against the law and assimilation is paramount. The story follows a newly appointed book censor who has vowed to be the best one ever. Yet one of the first books he reads—that he know has already been censored—he falls in love with. Before he knows it, he is stealthily removing books from the Censorship office and then recruited by an underground movement to save books. Surreal, this book is a delightful love letter to reading and a warning about what happens when knowledge is taken away.
