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The most recent commute audiobook was The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, of The Night Circus fame (although admittedly I have not read that one yet). This is a fantasy novel about Zachary, a young man swept into the drama of a secret underground society and the mysterious figures who surround it.
I finished this book on Sunday morning, catching the last 7 minutes of a whopping 19-hour runtime over breakfast, and since then I've settled into a relative disappointment. On paper, this book has so many things that should make it an ace in the hole for me: Book lovers! Cats! Secret magical societies! Queer characters! Women who are something Other taking control of their destinies! And yet, overall, this book just did not land for me.
As is a risk, I think, with all stories that are about the power of stories, The Starless Sea comes off a little pretentious and self-important. It is a book lauding the unmatched importance of books. I felt aware at various points throughout the book of how hard it was trying to appeal to people like me, who would enjoy the idea of a dark-paneled underground room with endless books and an on-demand kitchen, and this sense of pandering did take away from it at times.
However, it also does some interesting things with regards to what it is like to be the person in a story (such as the fate of Eleanor and Simon, once their part in the story is done) as well as the risks of valuing preservation over change and growth. Without giving too much away, there is a secret society in decline, and a woman so determined to prevent its downfall that she ends up causing significant harm to the organization she's trying to save because she is unwilling to accept that an end comes for all things. I enjoyed this theme and I felt like it was echoed well throughout the story, and in many ways it's easy to sympathize with her ultimate goals, if not her methods.
( Read more... )
This is the third book in the Wayward Children series. The book description is:
When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can't let Reality get in the way of her quest - not when she has an entire world to save (Much more common than one would suppose.)
I was relatively disappointed with this entry. It's not bad, but it's also not really interesting enough for me to want to plow through another 7+ books in the series.
Recommend if:
When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can't let Reality get in the way of her quest - not when she has an entire world to save (Much more common than one would suppose.)
I was relatively disappointed with this entry. It's not bad, but it's also not really interesting enough for me to want to plow through another 7+ books in the series.
Recommend if:
- You like isekai adventures
- You're looking for some light reading
- You like big ensemble casts with lots of different personalities
- You're into heavy worldbuilding
- You read Every Heart a Doorway and were more interested in the emotional journey of the characters than their fantasy adventures
- You want to really get to know the characters in the story
This is the second book in the Wayward Children series (first book: Every Heart A Doorway). This book focuses on Jack and Jill from Every Heart, and what happened to them before they came to Ms. West's school.
Twin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.
This is the story of what happened first…
Spoilers below!
( Read more... )
Twin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.
This is the story of what happened first…
Spoilers below!
( Read more... )
The reviews continue! Although this may be the last one for a while; I recently added about thirty new books to my TBR thanks to a library rec list, so I'll have to dig through some of those. However, I will say that so far, this has been my favorite of my ace/aro book list.
Previous review: The Bruising of Qilwa
The description of this book is:
Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.
But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.
Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.
But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.
No matter the cost.
The character: Nancy Whitman, asexual
Verdict: Thumbs up!
( Read more... )
Previous review: The Bruising of Qilwa
The description of this book is:
Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.
But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.
Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.
But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.
No matter the cost.
The character: Nancy Whitman, asexual
Verdict: Thumbs up!
( Read more... )
Mexican Gothic is a 300-page novel by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This book made a bit of a fuss perhaps a year or two back, but I have no faith in the NPR or NYT book recommendations after the heaps of uncritical praise piled on Madeline Miller's Circe. Nevertheless, Mexican Gothic remained in my head as something to check out when I had the chance, and in a rare W for my neighborhood free book library, I triumphantly snatched a slightly waterlogged copy of it a few weeks back.
First, Moreno-Garcia is clearly a fan of the gothic genre in general, and that shows in the book. You can tell while reading this is someone who loves this genre and is eager to work within that space. Few things are more disappointing than an allegedly "groundbreaking" genre novel written by someone with no respect or care for the genre itself. Moreno-Garcia's prose so lovingly paints those elements we adore about this genre: the unsettling isolation, the muddling fog, the strangers with sinister motives, the weight of a family legacy hanging over one's head. I absolutely loved picking this up at the end of the day to sink into the atmosphere.
Second, I just loved the protagonist, Noemi. Novel protagonists often trend towards introverted, bookish, slightly standoffish types (sometimes writers DO write what they know...) so Noemi in that sense feels like a breath of fresh air as an unapologetically extroverted socialite, who, in her own words "wished for eternal youth and endless merriment." A spoiled debutante Noemi may be, but she is also quick-witted, determined, and courageous. And her honed ability to read the room and manipulate social situations to her benefit becomes another weapon in her arsenal when she faces up against the Doyle family.
I was also delighted with Francis Doyle. Can a piece of gothic lit be complete without a sickly waif preyed upon by the forces of evil? This role unfailingly falls to a woman, who is often love interest-adjacent, if not an outright love interest, and her delicate, ill beauty inspires feelings of protectiveness in the protagonist which help spur him to escaping the dark forces at play. I love genderbending stock characters, so to see Francis fulfilling this role in a masculine way tickled me. Apparently the book has taken some flak for the relationship between Francis and Noemi, but I thought it was delightful.
Moreno-Garcia also shows us how well traditional gothic lit themes work intertwined with commentary about colonialism, classism, and racism. The House in this gothic lit story belongs to a family of wealthy English immigrants in Mexico, and the horror of it stems not only from the supernatural forces at play, but the cruelty and abuse of the Doyle family, their family silver mines a veritable graveyard of local impoverished Mexican workers used up and cast off to fuel their extravagant lifestyle.
The one real criticism I could cite is that the book is quite predictable if you're familiar with gothic lit or film. There are no huge surprises here, and the plot twists are likely to all be familiar to you. However, as someone who usually detests predictability in my stories, even I'll say that Moreno-Garcia's story was engaging enough that I was still keen to read on and find out just how these things came about, if I wasn't surprised by the plot points themselves. And I found all the concluding elements quite satisfying.
My final thought is that I will definitely be hanging onto this one! I think Mexican Gothic deserved the praise it got and I hope the appreciation of it continues.
Crossposted from my main.
First, Moreno-Garcia is clearly a fan of the gothic genre in general, and that shows in the book. You can tell while reading this is someone who loves this genre and is eager to work within that space. Few things are more disappointing than an allegedly "groundbreaking" genre novel written by someone with no respect or care for the genre itself. Moreno-Garcia's prose so lovingly paints those elements we adore about this genre: the unsettling isolation, the muddling fog, the strangers with sinister motives, the weight of a family legacy hanging over one's head. I absolutely loved picking this up at the end of the day to sink into the atmosphere.
Second, I just loved the protagonist, Noemi. Novel protagonists often trend towards introverted, bookish, slightly standoffish types (sometimes writers DO write what they know...) so Noemi in that sense feels like a breath of fresh air as an unapologetically extroverted socialite, who, in her own words "wished for eternal youth and endless merriment." A spoiled debutante Noemi may be, but she is also quick-witted, determined, and courageous. And her honed ability to read the room and manipulate social situations to her benefit becomes another weapon in her arsenal when she faces up against the Doyle family.
I was also delighted with Francis Doyle. Can a piece of gothic lit be complete without a sickly waif preyed upon by the forces of evil? This role unfailingly falls to a woman, who is often love interest-adjacent, if not an outright love interest, and her delicate, ill beauty inspires feelings of protectiveness in the protagonist which help spur him to escaping the dark forces at play. I love genderbending stock characters, so to see Francis fulfilling this role in a masculine way tickled me. Apparently the book has taken some flak for the relationship between Francis and Noemi, but I thought it was delightful.
Moreno-Garcia also shows us how well traditional gothic lit themes work intertwined with commentary about colonialism, classism, and racism. The House in this gothic lit story belongs to a family of wealthy English immigrants in Mexico, and the horror of it stems not only from the supernatural forces at play, but the cruelty and abuse of the Doyle family, their family silver mines a veritable graveyard of local impoverished Mexican workers used up and cast off to fuel their extravagant lifestyle.
The one real criticism I could cite is that the book is quite predictable if you're familiar with gothic lit or film. There are no huge surprises here, and the plot twists are likely to all be familiar to you. However, as someone who usually detests predictability in my stories, even I'll say that Moreno-Garcia's story was engaging enough that I was still keen to read on and find out just how these things came about, if I wasn't surprised by the plot points themselves. And I found all the concluding elements quite satisfying.
My final thought is that I will definitely be hanging onto this one! I think Mexican Gothic deserved the praise it got and I hope the appreciation of it continues.
Crossposted from my main.
Page Summary
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rocky41_7 : Recent Reading: The Starless Sea [+0] - rocky41_7 : "Beneath the Sugar Sky" by Seanan McGuire [+0]
- rocky41_7 : "Down Among the Sticks and Bones" by Seanan McGuire [+2]
- rocky41_7 : A+ Library Review: "Every Heart a Doorway" by Seanan McGuire [+0]
- rocky41_7 : Recent Reading: Mexican Gothic [+6]
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