book catch-up
Dec. 31st, 2024 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraThe City In Glass, Nghi Vo, 2024 novel. Weird book without a lot of plot (or maybe I mean a very simple plot? like a fable or fairy tale almost?) but a lot to say about survival/grief/recovery/revenge/rebirth. I was intrigued by certain ambiguities and really wish I could re-attend Vo's talk at PSB to hear exactly how she talked about it now that I've read it. On the "fancy" "every sentence is a metaphor" end of writing styles but I like Vo's writing and for me it was on the enjoyable side of the purple line. I'm glad I read it and it's probably going in my Hugo noms and I think it might stay with me, even with my spotty memory, more than a lot of stuff, but I could also see it really not working for people, who knows.
The Butcher of the Forest, Premee Mohamed, 2024 novella. I keep adding her novellas to my list and not reading them, but I grabbed this one while looking for immediately-available backup ebooks for the airplane, and thought it was good. Moved along nicely, some vivid images, right amount of story for the space. Perhaps I'll try to get to some more of those novellas.
Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan, 2024 novel. Her adult debut but very much on the "new adult" side of adult. If you liked _In Other Lands_ I predict you will like this; if you *didn't* like In Other Lands, this one kind of feels like that but even moreso, so, uh, good luck. I thought it was fun and nicely done, and I enjoy her jokes and character archetypes, and I was not wrong about a number of things she was doing and found that satisfying, and it's just so good to see her alive and writing a post-cancer book. (Heads-up for cancer content if that's something you like to be aware about.) Definitely a little funny to read this while peripheral to SVSSS fandom (like, I am not in that fandom? but I'm enough next door to it that you start to pick things up?) and be like, hmmm, were those tropes in the air or what. (I was a little confused that she acknowledges a different book by the same author, that isn't isekai but does happen to be the fandom I'm in (or maybe technically I'm more like in the show fandom), which is a weird thing to be mixed up about and not have anyone catch, but, enh, people get things mixed up sometimes and I don't know how carefully anyone edits acknowledgment sections.) Anyways, I look forward to the next one and anticipate reading it with relish. :)
The Butcher of the Forest, Premee Mohamed, 2024 novella. I keep adding her novellas to my list and not reading them, but I grabbed this one while looking for immediately-available backup ebooks for the airplane, and thought it was good. Moved along nicely, some vivid images, right amount of story for the space. Perhaps I'll try to get to some more of those novellas.
Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan, 2024 novel. Her adult debut but very much on the "new adult" side of adult. If you liked _In Other Lands_ I predict you will like this; if you *didn't* like In Other Lands, this one kind of feels like that but even moreso, so, uh, good luck. I thought it was fun and nicely done, and I enjoy her jokes and character archetypes, and I was not wrong about a number of things she was doing and found that satisfying, and it's just so good to see her alive and writing a post-cancer book. (Heads-up for cancer content if that's something you like to be aware about.) Definitely a little funny to read this while peripheral to SVSSS fandom (like, I am not in that fandom? but I'm enough next door to it that you start to pick things up?) and be like, hmmm, were those tropes in the air or what. (I was a little confused that she acknowledges a different book by the same author, that isn't isekai but does happen to be the fandom I'm in (or maybe technically I'm more like in the show fandom), which is a weird thing to be mixed up about and not have anyone catch, but, enh, people get things mixed up sometimes and I don't know how carefully anyone edits acknowledgment sections.) Anyways, I look forward to the next one and anticipate reading it with relish. :)
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Date: 2025-01-01 07:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-01 06:02 pm (UTC)