librarycryptid

Mini Reviews: Apocalyptic Fiction

I have been in a horrific review slump since June. Maybe longer than that. I’ve got a huge backlog of books that I haven’t written reviews for, and it’s holding me back. Every time I think I should just push forward and forget about the books I’ve read in the past, I feel like I’m holding myself back because I feel the responsibility to go back and review all those books. So, for the next few months, I’ll be posting a mini review round-up every Tuesday until I’m all caught up, and then I’ll hopefully be back in the swing of things! This week I’ll be reviewing five apocalypse books.

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Jane McKeene has been trained from childhood to hunt Shamblers, folks who have died and risen from the grave. But something is afoot in Baltimore, and even though all Jane wants to do is return to her mother’s home in Kentucky, she can’t help digging in to the mystery.

I’ll admit I didn’t have high hopes for this book. I’m not a big fan of zombies or YA or historical fiction, But I decided to give this a shot on audiobook and I actually did enjoy it! It was a little slow and not as much of a page-turner as you might expect from a zombie book, and it really felt like the first half and the second half were completely different from each other. At another time I might have been more annoyed by this, but in this case it didn’t bother me too much.

I think what I enjoyed with this book was the worldbuilding and characters. I think the late 1800’s is my sweet spot with historical fantasy, having read The Conductors earlier this year and enjoyed it as well (also, I do like 19th century fiction). I just love the technology that is around, because it’s not medieval but it’s not so advanced that it doesn’t feel historical. I really liked Jane as a character and her relationship with her friend Katherine, which developed over the course of the book and was a great payoff. Perhaps the clearest sign that I enjoyed this book, I was highly tempted to pick up the sequel right away, which I pretty much never do.

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

The only people left in near-future Toronto are the poor. Money no longer has value for them; they have rediscovered bartering, farming, herbal medicine. Outside of the city, though, the rich play their own political games—and they’re about to turn to the inner city for their human organ needs.

Brown Girl in the Ring has been on my radar for a very long time, but I have to admit that I didn’t really know anything about it when I started it. I don’t even remember if I knew it was apocalyptic. I certainly had no idea that it was based on Caribbean folklore (thankfully I already had a general idea of some of the folklore, or I may have been more lost). It just happened to find its way onto my audiobook TBR and I picked it up to give it a go. Although the pacing was a little strange (it felt very 90’s), I did end up enjoying it. It was really interesting to me to see a near-future apocalypse, where the collapse of society is due to its inevitable decline rather than a big world-ending event. It felt so realistic which is where the true horror in this book comes from. Although this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, I did like it well enough and would be interested in reading more from Hopkinson.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Lauren Olamina lives with her family in a walled-in subdivision in the remnants of Los Angeles. The world outside their walls has devolved into general anarchy, where fire-loving drug addicts and gangs roam the streets. Money is scarce to come by, and few people have legitimate jobs; people have turned to growing their own food and utilizing the barter system to get by. As her father tries to keep their community together, Lauren deals with hyperempathy and records her thoughts about a new religion in her notebook.

Parable of the Sower was published before Brown Girl in the Ring, so my apologies to Octavia Butler for thinking the former resembles the latter when the opposite is true, but that’s the order I read them in. Really, though, they could practically take place in the same universe—the similarities are striking. It was happenstance that I read them so close together, since Parable of the Sower was one of my book club reads, but I’m really glad I did. It was really cool (and by cool I mean absolutely fucking terrifying) to see two authors come to the same conclusion about where we’re heading as a society!

This was a pretty slow-going book, and a pivotal event listed in most blurbs doesn’t actually happen until halfway through. Even though it’s a medium-sized book, it felt really long to me, and I’m not sure if I’d have finished it without a book club deadline to keep me going. However, I think it was really effective as apocalyptic horror because it really made me think about what I’d do if I were to find myself in the same situation. Could I feed myself? Keep myself and my family safe? I live in an apartment, so no. But I think that’s really the mark of great apocalyptic fiction, because it means that the setting was so realistic that you feel like it could happen.

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

The power is out—again. At first, no one thinks anything is amiss. Then two young people manage to find their way back to their Anishinaabe community, speaking of chaos in the south, where society is collapsing following the loss of power. In the face of mounting catastrophe and unexpected visitors, Evan and his community turn to Anishinaabe tradition to survive.

This was such a wonderful little book and totally got me in the mood for winter. Rice’s love for his community and traditions really shines through this novel, and even when the plot seemed completely bleak that love kept me moving forward. Like The Parable of the Sower, this book really made me think about what I would do in an apocalypse, so it was really thought-provoking in that way. I also really loved the balance between suspense/horror and a more quiet, subdued feeling. The title and season of the book was perfectly portrayed through the writing style which made this so successful in my eyes.

I am bummed that it was so short—I blew through this audiobook in just two days, and that’s probably just because I started it toward the end of the work day on the first day. I am super excited for the sequel that is tentatively scheduled for 2022, and I’m so glad that the story isn’t over.

Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton

S.T. is a domestic crow on a mission: to find a cure for his owner, Big Jim, whose eyeball has fallen out and seems to have succumbed to the disease affecting all of humanity. Along with Big Jim’s dog Dennis, S.T. will traverse Seattle and learn how to bridge the gap between animals and the human culture he loves so much.

This was a quick-witted and unique take on the zombie apocalypse. As a kid, I was a big fan of animal-centered fantasy like Redwall and Warriors, so this was right up my alley, and I was thrilled to discover the ecological bent to the story. I did struggle a bit with the pacing, since S.T. is fairly directionless for a large portion of the novel, and Buxton fell back on a technology-is-evil messaging that frustrated me. However, the character development was top notch and I had a great time with this book from beginning to end. Although I won’t pick it up right away, I am looking forward to the sequel, Feral Creatures.

Mini Reviews: New Releases (First Half of 2021)

The Project by Courtney Summers

Years after their parents die in a car crash, Lo Denham tries desperately to make contact with her sister Bea, who has disappeared into the folds of the cult known as the Unity Project. This YA mystery-thriller has met with some lukewarm reviews, and I think that’s primarily because it’s not particularly thrilling. I didn’t think it was a page turner with tons of cliffhangers that propelled me to the next chapter, but I did think it was one of the most accurate depictions of a cult that I’ve read.

Not all cults are Jonestowns or the Manson Family. Most people assume that they’d never end up in a cult, that only stupid people do and that they’re too smart to be caught up in it, and it’s simply not true. Cults are insidious, they are not straight out of your favorite thriller book, and they are extremely dangerous and ensnare people from all walks of life. So personally, I’m glad this book wasn’t a page turner! Although it did move a bit too slowly at times, I loved how accurate-to-life it was, so it’s absolutely a book I’d recommend, although I think people should curb their expectations a bit going in to it.

What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo

After an incident at her boarding school, Eleanor Zarrin returns to her family home in Maine, from which she was banished as a child. When she invites her maternal grandmother to the home to help get settled, the Zarrins’ lives are turned upside down, and Eleanor discovers just how monstrous her family can be.

This YA horror was one of my most anticipated reads of the year! I love werewolf books and the author is queer so I had very high hopes. However, I found that it floundered a bit with the plot and with the creature feature. It was very much a family drama and I found myself intrigued by certain plot points, but it ended up a little predictable and I didn’t feel like I got the catharsis at the end that I was looking for.

All that being said, I did enjoy it well enough and would recommend if you’re looking to try out a little YA horror, especially with a Gothic lean to it. This was Szabo’s debut and I’m looking forward to reading more of their work.

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten

Decades after the citizens of Silvertjärn disappeared and left only a crying baby and dead woman in their town, Alice Lindstedt—whose grandmother once lived there—returns to film a documentary about the disappearances, and hopes she’ll find out what happened to her ancestors.

This is another book I was so excited for! I studied abroad in Sweden and I just love it there, so I was thrilled to read some Swedish fiction. There were some aspects to this book I enjoyed—for one thing, it has a dual timeline that I actually did really enjoy, even though it’s not usually my thing. It also had some really good commentary on mental health and especially the stigma against people who struggle with it.

Unfortunately, that’s where my pros end and cons begin… to start with, I just could not get that suspension of disbelief with this book. I just thought it was so unrealistic. Also, even though I did enjoy the timelines, it always drives me crazy when the past and present aren’t evenly distributed, which they weren’t in this book. Finally, although this was pitched as a found footage-style book, it pretty much wasn’t and I think if it had been it would’ve made a much better book. The book ended up mostly being a disappointment for me.

Whisper Down the Lane by Clay McLeod Chapman

In the present day, a new teacher discovers a rabbit ritually murdered on the school grounds and notes in his classroom with a mysterious allusion to his past. In the 80’s, a young boy responds to his mother’s questioning without really knowing the consequences, leading to the rise of what is known as the Satanic Panic.

If you are looking for a fast-paced popcorn thriller with some 80’s nostalgia, this is the book for you. For me, though, it was a complete disappointment. It was predictable, and unrealistic, and shallow. I do think it would’ve been more enjoyable if I had read it in one sitting, but every time I put it down I struggled to feel the desire to pick it back up again. By the end of the book, I realized that I would’ve had a significantly better time if I had just picked up a nonfiction book about the Satanic Panic, rather than reading a fictionalized account that tried to use a dual timeline to generate edge-of-your-seat thrills.

The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon

Wyatt was thrown out of the Fae kingdom of Asalin when he used his witch powers to wreak devastation. Now, settled into the human world and post-transition, his ex-fiancé Emyr wants him to return to Asalin to help Emyr secure the Fae throne. I don’t read a lot of paranormal romance, but when I do, this is the kind I read (The Witch King‘s agent is Rena Rossner, who also represents Aiden Thomas’s Cemetery Boys, which I read and loved in 2020; the vibes are very similar).

I will admit that I listened to this on audiobook, and I’m not sure that I’d have liked it as much if I had eyeball-read it. It felt very juvenile and the writing quality wasn’t quite up-to-par, but on audio, none of that bothered me the way it would if I had eyeball-read it. However, it’s something to be aware of going in.

This is not a story about fluffy perfect people doing good things. It is a story about morally gray characters who fuck up, and whose relationships can be unhealthy or even toxic. It’s very coming-of-age—there’s a lot about Wyatt learning how not to be an asshole. And I really loved those aspects and ended up super invested in Wyatt and Emyr’s relationship. I ended up enjoying this book a ton and I can’t wait for the sequel, The Fae Keeper, to come out next year.

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

Nella is thrilled when another black girl starts working at Wagner Books—she’s been the only one in a white-dominated industry for way too long. Then Nella receives a note on her desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW. Could it be the other black girl? Or is there something more sinister going on?

This was another of my highly anticipated 2021 releases. It was compared to Stepford Wives a ton in the marketing campaign (as well as Get Out, but let’s be real, horror books by authors of color being compared to Jordan Peele are a dime a dozen and I don’t put much stock in it), which is a super accurate comp. I’d read Stepford Wives just a couple weeks before I picked this one up, so it was fresh in my mind when I read it, and I thought the comparison was very on-the-nose.

Unfortunately, I think where this book fails is its pacing. Harris simply fails to develop a tight, fast-paced narrative, and I think that’s really key for this kind of book. It moved extremely slowly (Nella doesn’t even receive the pivotal note until a third of the way through the book) and didn’t hold my attention. There was an interesting social commentary, but ultimately it just didn’t make for a very entertaining read.

And those are the mini-reviews for today! Check back next week for a round-up of apocalyptic fiction.

SHELLS by Joshua Radburn: A gritty noir review

A murderer in police custody kills his interrogators and escapes—and now Detective Joe is dragged into the station, hungover, and put in charge of the case. The case has more mysteries than anyone expected, though: a mysterious society, religious serial killers, and ghosts from Joe’s past. Still haunted by the death of his partner, Joe has to choose between hunting down old enemies or new ones—or does he?

Release Date	October 1, 2021
Publisher	Self-published
Content Warnings	Gore, violence, death, sexism, racism, ableism
Did I receive an ARC?	Yes
Links	Amazon \| Goodreads

Shells is Joshua Radburn’s first novel, and is an homage to the gritty noir films of the seventies. While many authors would seek to modernize the genre or subvert old tropes, that isn’t Radburn’s intention: this is a love letter to the genre, in all its glory and all its pitfalls. Our favorite books and favorite genres—especially with heydays past—aren’t always perfect. Radburn acknowledges that there are many imperfections with the noir genre, but doesn’t let that stop him from crafting his own narrative.

I admit that I am often hesitant going into independently published novels. That’s not to say that they’re all bad; rather, there’s no standard of effort. There are self-published authors who write six drafts, bring their manuscripts to workshops, and hire multiple editors. And there are authors who write a single draft and throw it out there for people to see.* I am happy to inform you that this is one of the higher-quality self-published books. Sure, there are some things I might’ve edited further, but they’re things that really come down to a personal preference. For the most part, the quality of this book on a basic level is pretty top-notch.

It is certainly an ambitious project. Clocking in at almost 600 pages, this is a brick of a novel, and there are a lot of story threads that Radburn is pulling together. There are multiple murders on the loose, a gang, a personal assistant doing the work of a detective, the actual detective being a loose cannon, and various other odds and ends that make it into the narrative. There are flashbacks, there is a bit of head-hopping. And the entire book takes place over only four days. There are times when the threads aren’t weaved together perfectly and the reader falls through the holes, but for the most part, Radburn does a good job tying in all the loose ends and creating a cohesive narrative, although mildly confusing.

I’ll admit that I don’t have a ton of experience with the noir genre as a whole. It is a genre that devotes itself primarily to film, and unfortunately, I just don’t watch a ton of TV. As such, I have a limited repertoire to compare Shells to, but I’ll endeavor to do so nonetheless: at many times, this book reminded me distinctly of Brian Evenson’s Brotherhood of Mutilation and Last Days. The sections of Shells that really shined were the parts with Mick and Clive, a pair of buffoonish gangsters who introduce the book by fighting over a bag of crisps at a stakeout. The humor amidst the gore and dark themes really reminded me of the Evenson I’ve read (God, I need to read more), and were also some of my favorite parts. Really, one of my complaints is that I’d rather have more Mick and Clive—by the end they managed to become central characters, but for the most part they were just in the background. I wish their characters had been developed more fully earlier on in the book.

As I said, it’s an ambitious book, and I do think it was a bit too long-winded. Perhaps this is an aspect of the noir genre Radburn was trying to emulate that I’m not familiar with, but I think the book would have worked better as a whole if some of the length had been cut and the storylines had been more focused. By spreading the plot out to three distinct trains of thought, a little something was lost for all three. Some reader comprehension falls through the cracks when there are so many moving pieces to fit together, especially when parts are only alluded to instead of outright explained. It is a mistake that I can forgive while reading, especially since I don’t particularly mind when I don’t fully understand something, but I do think attachment to the characters and all the different plot points was a pitfall while preparing the book for print. Some things just need to be series, rather than squeezed into one standalone book.

Nonetheless, I did, on the whole, enjoy this book. If you’re a fan of noir fiction, especially classic noir, I think this is absolutely worth picking up. If you’re looking for a gritty detective novel with a lot of gore, Shells will be right up your grimy London alley. If neither of those are particularly your thing, some outdated tropes might bother you. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this to everyone, but I do think that many readers will enjoy.

*For the record, this is the kind of author I would be, so I get it. Editing sucks. But that’s why I’m not an author.

August Favorites

This post was fun to make last month, so I figured I’d do it again! The only problem is… I just didn’t read as much short fiction this month. Or at least, I didn’t read as much short fiction that’s available to read for free online. I read tons of short stories this month—I finished up Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti and Howls From Hell, and read all of The Secret of Ventriloquism by Jon Padgett, The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies by Clark Ashton Smith, and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez. Technically, most of the stories from The Dark Eidolon are available on the web, since they’re in the public domain… I just didn’t enjoy most of them. Hopefully in September I’ll find the time to read some more selections from the oodles upon oodles of quality short fiction online.

Fiction

“Worldless” by Indrapramit Das

This story about a worker at a space station with no home planet dreams of an Earth they aren’t allowed to visit broke my heart. I read The Devourers by this author toward the beginning of the month, and I’m totally in love. Expect to see more of his work on these favorite lists because I want to read all of it.

“The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington” by P. Djèlí Clark

What, you haven’t heard me gush over P. Djèlí Clark already? I’m working through his entire collection of works, because I don’t think there’s anything he can write that I won’t love. This is probably his most well-known short story, a fantastic account of the slaves and other black men and women whose teeth were part of George Washington’s dentures.

“Phoenix” by Clark Ashton Smith

This is the one story in The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies that I genuinely enjoyed. The above links to a text version of the story, but I actually listened to this audio recording because I struggled to focus on Smith’s prose in written form. It’s a pretty standard sci-fi premise—the sun is going out, and a mission takes off in a spaceship to try to reverse the damage—but it’s the only story in the whole collection that truly tugged on my heartstrings.

Articles, Listicles, and More

“Why Be A Critic? Laura Miller on Reading, Listening to, and Writing About Books” from fiction/non/fiction

In this podcast episode, Laura Miller of Slate talks about her job as a book critic, and what spoke to me especially was what she said about having negative reviews of books, and how she deals with that—although she admits that she doesn’t write a lot of negative reviews anymore, since Slate wants to hear what she is enthusiastic about, not what she hates.

“Queer Bookstores Are Lit” by S. Bear Bergman

This Vice article talks about the importance of queer bookstores, their history in the LGBTQ+ movement, and how they’re making a resurgence today.

“Maybe You Can Have Too Many Books in Your TBR Pile” by Molly Templeton

We all have a TBR pile, be it big or small. Are there books on yours that have floundered there for years? In this Tor.com article, Templeton opens with confessing that she’s had one book on her TBR pile for almost twenty years. So when does a TBR pile get too big? When do you admit that you’re never actually going to read that book?

“The Ugliness of Comic Sans Has a Practical Use” by Jonah Lehrer

I’m a graphic designer, so of course I’m drawn to the font articles. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t hate Comic Sans—I hate the misuse of Comic Sans. One time I saw a bar use Comic Sans for their name on their building. That’s inexcusable. But this LitHub article does a good job of pointing out what Comic Sans does right.

“The Endless Life Cycle of Book Cover Trends” by Alana Pockros

One more design article for y’all today, this time from AIGA. My friends can tell you that I love book cover design, especially tearing it apart when it doesn’t work. This is a fun little article about some of the trends in book cover design today, although it does skew more toward literary fiction than genre.

“7 Scary Stories from School” by Julie Sevens

This is my monthly pick from the HOWLS listicles, and Julie totally crushed it. Nearly every book on this list made it to my TBR, and I read two in August—Whisper Down the Lane, which was our book club pick, and Dread Nation, which was a delightful YA alternate history with zombies.

What have you seen floating around the internet that caught your eye? Read any good short stories lately? Let me know in the comments below!

CERTAIN DARK THINGS by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

After finding her mother’s decapitated head at the entrance to their compound, Atl takes deadly revenge on a neighboring vampire gang. In retribution, they murder her entire family and she barely escapes with her life, fleeing to Mexico City—the one place in Mexico that is supposedly vampire-free. Holed up in an apartment, refraining from food so not to draw attention to herself, Atl desperately tries to make arrangements to flee the country, and then meets an unlikely friend: Domingo, a street kid who collects garbage.

Release Date	September 7, 2021
Publisher	Tor Nightfire (reprint)
Content Warnings	Violence/gore, animal abuse
Did I receive an ARC?	Yes
Links	Indiebound \| Bookshop \| Kobo \| Libro.fm

Originally published in 2016, Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is getting a fresh paint job this year as Tor Nightfire’s first publication (alongside The Living Dead by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus). Atl and Domingo’s story has a lot of Moreno-Garcia’s trademarks: a passion for noir fiction, the slow build to the finale, and a Mexican setting complete with Aztec folklore. For readers fresh off last year’s Mexican Gothic, it may not be quite what you’re expecting—it’s much grittier and with more fantasy elements.

Certain Dark Things does struggle to get off the ground; the beginning is highly specific factoids about the various species of vampires living in Mexico and the rest of the world, as well as how they kill their victims or what they look like. Although this serves mainly to flesh out the world and set the scene, the information is clumsily inserted, making the reader feel like they have to keep notes because there’ll be a test at the end of the book (there’s not, so don’t stress yourself out). Perhaps Moreno-Garcia is setting herself up to write more books in this universe, but even then I prefer information to be spread out as needed.

Once it gets going, though, Certain Dark Things is worth the ride. I liked all of the characters, but I especially loved Domingo—I have a soft spot for soft characters. I liked watching him grow and change even in the short timeline of the book, and I liked seeing how other characters interacted with him. It really felt like a crime novel or a noir novel with fantasy elements, and that’s something I’ve been really enjoying. Plus, I think Moreno-Garcia pulled that concept off better than a lot of other examples that I’ve read.

If you’ve tried Silvia Moreno-Garcia before, I do think this book is worth picking up, but definitely go in with an open mind. Although Moreno-Garcia has a very distinct style, all of her books are different and will appeal to different readers. That being said, I thought this was a fun book and I’m glad I read it.

THE DEVOURERS by Indra Das

Release Date	2005
Publisher	Bloomsbury
Content Warnings	Sexual Assault, violence, body horror, transphobia, homophobia, excrement/bodily fluids
Links	Indiebound \| Bookshop \| Kobo \| Libro.fm

On the present-day streets of Kolkata, a middle-aged history professor meets a stranger who claims he is half-werewolf. In the days of the Mughal Empire, three companions cross India as they traverse the world, and a young Persian woman seeks the monster who wronged her. Memories and stories intertwine as the characters discover what makes one human, and what makes one a demon.

I was consumed by The Devourers from start to finish. There were stories within stories, wrapping around each other and creating an ouroboros of identity. There are many words that I’d like to use to describe this book: spellbinding, disgusting, beautiful, pungent, transcendent, gruesome, captivating, delirious, magical, monstrous, decadent, repugnant. Yet, at the same time, there are no words to describe this tale. It is unlike any other book I’ve read.

Going into this book, I knew it was about werewolves, that the author was Indian, and what the cover looked like. From there, I drew my own conclusions about what the book must be like; it defied all of these pre-conceived notions. I have seen several comparisons to Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice, but since I haven’t read this, I don’t know if those comparisons are only because of the format, or also because of the content. In any case, for me, it was fresh and unique.

Das has pretty dense, evocative prose. It is beautiful and descriptive, but it’s also vulgar—trust me, if for any reason the word “piss” pisses you off, whether it’s because you think it’s too vulgar or whether you just don’t like the sound of it, you should skip this one. Seriously, there’s a whole Goodreads review complaining about its use. When I used the word “repugnant” to describe this book, I meant it. Das does an excellent job of crafting his prose to reflect the themes of the book, and it can be beautifully ugly, and it’s incredibly complex and intricate. To be completely honest, I don’t know if this book would have hooked me if I hadn’t listened to it on audio; I have a habit of allowing myself to skip over long sections of prose, but in this book those were my favorite sections. Although I can’t be certain since I’ll never be able to read this for the first time again, I suspect that I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much if I hadn’t been reading it as closely.

I won’t say this book was perfect; its greatest fault is that the plot slows in the middle and makes it difficult to push through to the ending. Besides that, though, this was absolutely one of my favorite books of the year. I immediately want to flip back to the beginning and read it again. That being said, though, I don’t know who to recommend it to. I am certain that there are a great number of people who would give this a try and hate it, although I am equally confident that there are those who would love it as much as I do. They are utterly dissimilar, but the nearest experience I can equate this to is reading Comemadre by Roque Larraquy—which felt like a book I should hate but inexplicably loved. I don’t feel like I ought to hate The Devourers, it isn’t quite like that; but there’s a lot of aspects that I feel like I’d normally dislike, and ended up loving. I guess it boils down to the vibe I get from both of these.

If it wasn’t clear, I love this book. I’m obsessed with it. You should read it, but don’t tell me if you disagree, because there’s no room in my heart for disappointment right now.

ALL’S WELL by Mona Awad Review

After a career-ending fall from the stage as an actress, Miranda now grapples with devastating chronic pain and teaching uninspired student actors at an underfunded New England college theater program. For their Shakespeare production, Miranda is determined to put on a production of All’s Well That Ends Well, the unpopular problem play she once starred in—but her students are hellbent on performing Macbeth. As Miranda goes head to head with her mulish lead actress, she meets some men at the bar who offer an unorthodox solution.

Release Date	August 3, 2021
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Content Warnings	Depictions of chronic pain, medical discrimination, sex scenes, sexism, alcoholism
Did I receive an ARC?	Yes
Links	Indiebound \| Bookshop \| Kobo \| Libro.fm

After a career-ending fall from the stage as an actress, Miranda now grapples with devastating chronic pain and teaching uninspired student actors at an underfunded New England college theater program. For their Shakespeare production, Miranda is determined to put on a production of All’s Well That Ends Well, the unpopular problem play she once starred in—but her students are hellbent on performing Macbeth. As Miranda goes head to head with her mulish lead actress, she meets some men at the bar who offer an unorthodox solution.

All’s Well is Mona Awad’s third novel, and contains more of the weird dark academia vibes that readers loved from her award-winning Bunny. This time, we approach academia from the professor’s point of view, and Awad doesn’t dip quite as far into the weird as she has in the past (though there’s still fever dream-like writing galore!). Dark academia fans will enjoy this fresh perspective in the genre—although I’m sure having a professor as a narrator has been done and I simply haven’t read it, the world of academic theater is a welcome diversion from the usual classics and literature, without forsaking a certain level of pretentiousness that seems requisite for dark academia.

I’ve read Macbeth many a time, so didn’t refresh myself before this read, but I wasn’t familiar with All’s Well That Ends Well, so I gave it a read. Certainly not the Bard’s best piece, the play follows our heroine, Helen, who is in love with Bertram, a noble. This love is unrequited, and Bertram is in the employ of the French king, who is deathly ill. Helen tells the king she can heal him, and miraculously succeeds; when promised a reward, she asks for Bertram’s hand in marriage. Unhappy Bertram refuses and flees to Italy, where Helen pursues him and uses a case of mistaken identity to become pregnant by him and take his ring, and when all is revealed at the end, Bertram agrees to the marriage.

You can see why it’s a “problem play”.

To her credit, Awad takes the problematic themes of the play and runs with it. There are echoes of it throughout the novel, and when one reaches the finishing line and looks back, Awad’s attention to detail stands out. One of my favorite gimmicks that Awad uses is how she used four-letter names for almost all the male characters in the novel. With names like Paul, John, Mark, Todd, it’s clear that the men in Miranda’s life are interchangeable—echoing Helen’s case of mistaken identity—and that small detail goes a long way in the narrative.

Ultimately, All’s Well is a spectacularly put together novel, technically. Awad expertly weaves together threads that culminate in a feverish finale, and it’s intriguing to watch Miranda’s descent. This dynamism is really what I look for in an unlikable narrator like Miranda, and the pacing is on point. The risk that Awad has taken here is that she takes very few risks at all. Yes, All’s Well is too weird to be considered mainstream, but a rigorous attention to structure and theme leaves little room for heart. In the end, I didn’t end up connecting with the story as much as I’d prefer. It was a good book, but for me there was something missing that I can’t quite put my finger on.

July Favorites

In June, I encountered it: the dreaded reading slump. I was still reading more than the average American, but my six June books was a significant drop from more than twice that in both May and April. Although I’m back to reading voraciously at the end of July, I’m still facing my second hurdle—a complete lack of motivation to write reviews, which of course means that this blog has been sorely neglected the past few months.

So unfortunately, I don’t have the All’s Well review that I meant to post today. It’s in the works, so you’ll probably see it sometime in the next week. Today, though, I wanted to spotlight some stuff I’ve been reading and listening to around the internet, because I liked them and want to share them.

Fiction

“Faith” by Sayaka Murata

In this Shirley Jackson Award-nominated novelette, the narrator meets up with an acquaintance from high school who wants to start a cult business. I loved Convenience Store Woman by this author, and am eating up everything I can find that she writes—Earthlings is on the TBR for August (happy Women in Translation month!). Check out the rest of the Shirley Jackson nominees here.

The Caine Prize Shortlist

In 2020, on a whim, I read all of the short story nominees for the Caine Prize for African Fiction award, and I decided to continue that tradition this year. I love that the Caine Prize provides each short story to read for free online, which makes it super accessible. My favorite from this year’s batch is “A Separation” by Iryn Tushabe, and I hope she wins!

“The Best Medicine” by Priyank Mathur

Jaggery Lit is a Desi Arts & Literature journal that I discovered recently that has been publishing work three times a year since 2013. This story from the Spring 2021 edition depicts a young boy who turns to comedy to anger and domestic violence in his village.

“Eating Bitterness” by Hannah Yang

“Eating Bitterness,” in which a mother swallows her family’s negative feelings with her second mouth, is Hannah Yang’s first foray into horror writing, and it’s a knockout debut. Beautifully innovative and horrifically poignant, this is one you just have to read.

Articles, Listicles, and More

Weird Women: The Forgotten Female Horror Writers of the 19th Century and Beyond

This is an excerpt from the introduction to Weird Women: Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Authors: 1852-1923 edited by Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger. This anthology is on my list to read after I finish the Vandermeers’ Weird, especially since I’m a bit disappointed with the curation of that collection (so far). This gives a great sneak peek and overview of the history of women in horror fiction.

Queer readings of The Lord of the Rings are not accidents

Molly Ostertag is a fantastic queer comic artist, although she might be a bit overshadowed by her popular wife, She-Ra creator Noelle Stevenson. She’s been a Frodo/Sam fangirl on Twitter for awhile now, and posted a deeply moving post-series fan comic that seems to be deleted now. I adored this article about queerness in The Lord of the Rings, and Ostertag’s illustrations are a welcome bonus.

How Marginalized Authors are Transforming Gothic Fiction

Mexican Gothic dominated the best-of-horror lists in 2020, but Silvia Moreno-Garcia isn’t the only author challenging eurocentric Gothic tropes. Check out this article to see where the new Gothic has come from, and where it might be going in the future.

How Much of This is Autobiography?

Rémy Ngamije, a talented writer and editor-in-chief of Doek! Literary Magazine, weighs in on writing and how writing has shaped him. I especially loved the section about how writing is a dance and the reader is one’s dance partner.

6 Jewish Horror Novels

My favorite HOWLS listicle of the month, this book list features a demographic that doesn’t usually find its way into my horror reading. I’m excited not only to read the HOWLS book club pick, The Tribe by Bari Wood, but also a few more on this list!

Although this is a deviance from my regular content, I hope you find something you enjoy in this batch of readings from across the web! Let me know in the comments what you think of them, and how you like this kind of post.

Review: THE GHOST FINDERS by Adam McOmber

Henry Coxton, along with his friends Christopher and Violet, has recently taken over his mentor’s ghost finding business in Victorian London when he receives a strange summons to commune with a woman’s dead husband. When the friends arrive at the dilapidated mansion, they find themselves unwilling pawns of a scheme with cosmic implications.

Release Date	June 4, 2021
Publisher	JournalStone
Content Warnings	Child abuse, cults, homophobia, gore/violence, character death
Did I receive an ARC?	Yes
Links	Indiebound \| Bookshop

I would class The Ghost Finders by Adam McOmber as part of the ever-elusive cozy horror subgenre. It was a delightful palate cleanser for a lot of my darker reads, but even though it was about friendships and had a very light-hearted vibe, it didn’t skimp on the horror and gore. I think it will be an acquired taste for some, because it is a historical fiction, toes the line between young adult and adult, and it is told in first person from each main character’s point of view, and these are often drawbacks for horror readers. I am a fan of pushing people out of their comfort zones, so I think you should give it a go anyway—but I think it best to be upfront about such things!

I often associate “Victorian setting” with a slow pace (I read Affinity by Sarah Waters a couple weeks ago, which totally proves my point), but this kept up the pace by rotating between the characters and having a lot of action to keep us moving. Each character has a relatively unique voice, so they’re easy to keep straight, and more importantly, each has their own journey and character arc to follow. In a lot of ways, this book is three distinct stories that start in the same place, meet up a few times in the middle, and end in the same place, which is a really fascinating way to frame a book.

All in all, this was a delightful read, and I spent the whole time thinking it was the first in a series, but the ending makes me think it may remain a standalone. I’d be happy either way; it’s a wonderful story that holds up on its own, but I’d be thrilled to read more about Henry, Christopher, and Violet.

Thank you to the author for providing a free ebook for review.

Mid-Year Freak Out Tag and Book Stats for the first half of 2021

It’s been a hot minute since I did a book tag, but I wanted to make a post reflecting on my year so far and I figured it’d be the perfect time to do one. I’ll also be looking at some of my stats for the year so far, but I’m going to stick those at the end and start out with the tag! Stats and some of my favorite short stories that I’ve read this year will be at the very end of the post.

Mid-Year Freak Out Tag

Best Book You’ve Read so Far in 2021

Only halfway through 2021 and I can tell that I’m going to have a hell of a time picking my top books of the year in a few months. But so far this year, The Memory Police is gracing the top of my list. In it, an author lives on an island where people forget items that were once ubiquitous in their lives, and the author chooses to hide her editor in her house, who never forgets items and is on the run from the titular Memory Police. Although it sounds like a thriller, it’s really not; it’s a very quiet, subdued tale, but carries such heavy philosophical questions and is a really thought-provoking book.

Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2021

This one is easily Defekt by Nino Cipri, soundly beating Dead Astronauts and Ouran High School Host Club Vol. 2. I guess you could also count A Master of Djinn in my meager sequel category, but I personally don’t. Defekt is the follow up to Finna, and follows “fucking Derek” the day after he calls out of work and a wormhole appears in their furniture store. This is delightfully zany and has all the good good found family feels you’re looking for—and can be read even if you haven’t read Finna.

New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To

For this one I’ll have to go with The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris, about a black employee who starts receiving threatening notes shortly after the only other black girl in the office starts working there. This has been the subject of a pretty strong marketing campaign, which is probably why it’s on my radar, but oh well! I too am a victim of marketing!

Most Anticipated Release for the Second Half of the Year

It feels like a cop-out to pick a book that’s coming out in like two weeks, but I have been looking forward to The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass for ages! Another story with the theme of being one of the only black people in a primarily-white community, but this time, our main character can see ghosts! And one of them is bent on taking revenge… But since that comes out so soon, I’ll throw in another upcoming release I’m looking forward to, which is The Storm of Echoes by Christelle Dabos, the final entry in The Mirror Visitor quartet.

Biggest Disappointment

I’m inclined to the point the finger at I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid, about a woman driving through a blizzard to meet her boyfriend’s parents for the first time. This is an extremely popular book in horror circles, so not only was I let down by the hype, I was just let down by the ending. I won’t go into details, but the trope that Reid uses is one of my least favorites and it was super disappointing. Not the worst book I’ve read this year (hello, Maynard’s House), but for sure the most disappointing.

Biggest Surprise

The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi was a book club read with HOWLS, and I was originally going to skip it. I’ve heard mixed reviews about Oyeyemi’s White is for Witching, and I wasn’t particularly keen on picking her up, but I decided to give The Icarus Girl a go (I don’t remember what made me change my mind). In it, a young Nigerian-British girl visits her family in Nigeria, and meets a new playmate, who she soon discovers isn’t quite human. It was a total delight and so much fun to read with HOWLS, and now I want to read Oyeyemi’s entire catalog.

New Favorite Author (Debut or New to You)

Although technically I started on my P. Djèlí Clark binge at the very tail-end of last year (literally on December 31), he’s the obvious answer for this question. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve read all of the stories set in the Alternate Cairo universe, and I just fell in love with this world of steampunk magic. Clark is now on my autobuy list, and I can’t wait to get to my last book by him, The Black God’s Drums.

Underrated Gems You’ve Discovered Recently

Comemadre by Roque Larraquy is… weird. The book is split into two novellas, the first about a team of doctors running a less-than-ethical experiment, and the second about an artist pushing art to its limits. I feel like even amongst fans of translated literature, this has mostly flown under the radar, but I absolutely loved it and need more people to read it. It’s perfect if you like weird, unsettling, translated fiction.

Rereads This Year

I love rereading, even though I don’t get around to it often! This year so far, I’ve reread the following: Ouran High School Host Club Vol. 1 and 2 by Bisco Hatori, a popular manga series; Revenge by Yoko Ogawa, my favorite short story collection; and Confessions by Kanae Minato, about a teacher who gets revenge. Yup, all Japanese… I swear that wasn’t on purpose.

Book That Made You Cry

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo just hit different. This is a coming-of-age story about a young Chinese-American teen has she realizes that she is attracted to other girls, while also dealing with all the other stresses of her life, including the fact that her father is at risk of being deported. There was one line in this book that hit me so hard, and it’s stayed with me since I read it.

Book That Made You Happy

This was kind of tough because I don’t read a lot of happy or light-hearted books, but Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake was delightful. It was a super interesting deep dive about fungi and their place in the world, and I love listening about people’s special interests. It’s so cool to me that there are people who take so much joy in things that I know very little about, and take the time to share that knowledge with others.

Favorite Post You Have Done This Year

I haven’t been doing a lot of creative posts this year and have been sticking mostly to book reviews, but my favorite review I posted this year was for The Unwelcome by Jacob Steven Mohr. This was a book sent to me by the author, rather than via Netgalley, and I always feel a little more pressure with those because I know my review is likely to cross paths with the author. It ended up being a wonderful book and I was thrilled to not only post a positive review for it, but also to recommend it to tons of my friends.

Book Stats: January-June 2021

Surprising no one, I lean toward reading novels over other fiction. Novellas are the runner up, but everything else is slim. Format was about what I expected—I lean toward physical books when they’re available, but due to book club reads and ARCs, I do end up reading a fair amount of ebooks.

I’d like to read some more translated lit in the second half of the year. I feel like I always love translated lit, and many of my favorites are in translation, but looking at this graphic it’s clear that it doesn’t actually take up much space on my shelf!

Although my white:nonwhite author ratio isn’t quite where I want it to be yet, it’s moving in the right direction. My apologies that some of the nonwhite races are a bit vague; race is a really nuanced subject and is a whole can of worms. However, I do it this way to keep an eye on where my reading is lacking (this year, for example, it’s in South Asian literature).

Author gender is pretty much where I like it to be. Skewing a little more toward female than male, but it’s about even with a smaller number of nonbinary authors thrown in.

And a few regular book stats. My strongest genres are horror and fantasy, as expected, and the two romance books would be shocking if I didn’t know they were Ouran High School Host Club. Manga romance just hits different than prose, you know? Unsurprisingly, I tend toward new books, with 2021 claiming more books than 2020 or any other decade. The 90’s made a strong showing though!

I tend toward mid-sized books, which, again, I’m not surprised by. I don’t often have the attention span for long books. My average page count, so far, is almost exactly 300.

Short Stories

New for me, I’ve read a lot of short stories this year. The count isn’t quite exact, since I’m in the middle of a couple anthologies, but so far I’ve read 158 short stories this year. Here are a few of my favorites, linked when available.

“Stanislav in Foxtown” by Dan Coxon, Only the Broken Remain

“No One’s Child” by Dan Coxon, Only the Broken Remain

“White Rabbits” by Leonora Carrington, The Weird

“The Angel of Khan el-Khalili” by P. Djèlí Clark, Tor.com

“A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World” by A.C. Wise, Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation

“The Crack in the Ceiling” by Patrick Barb, Dread Stone Press

“A Separation” by Iryn Tushabe, EXILE Quarterly

“Faith” by Sayaka Murata, Granta