Wow. If this book doesn't become a classic... this book shoul become part of literature history for the blunt, raw, poetic and tender exploration of aWow. If this book doesn't become a classic... this book shoul become part of literature history for the blunt, raw, poetic and tender exploration of a forgotten (ignored, written out) history, a hidden present... There's going to be many people who will be able to explain why this book is as good as it is, but this book will leave you feeling full of tender sorrow and anger because while this is a fictional world... there's so many girls like Solenne in history, now, and in the future.
Who knew a story about a stranded alien who eats humans could be so... human? The book deals with ideas on what makes a human, what makes a gender, whWho knew a story about a stranded alien who eats humans could be so... human? The book deals with ideas on what makes a human, what makes a gender, what makes a woman or man, and the longing for belonging. The alien reads like a physcially disabled (and autistic) nonbinary person who is trying to conform and minimize themselves to not put themself in danger, while also navigating a world that is incredibly inaccessible without making anyone see them struggle. Dolki Min really pushes home why the horror genre is a queer genre.
One star knocked off for an unsatisfactory ending. ...more
This will be a big contender for my favorite book read in 2022. AHHH! Is the emotion I feel as I finished the book. So unique and a marvelous feat. WiThis will be a big contender for my favorite book read in 2022. AHHH! Is the emotion I feel as I finished the book. So unique and a marvelous feat. Will write more as I've processed it....more
Assembly by Natasha Brown is a stream-of-conciousness story following an unnamed Black British woman as she prepares to spend the weekend at her boyfrAssembly by Natasha Brown is a stream-of-conciousness story following an unnamed Black British woman as she prepares to spend the weekend at her boyfriend's parents home in the country side. As she prepares for this get together she considers her life, the people and world within it.
"My thoughts, my ideas - even my identity - can only exist as a response to the partygoers' words and actions. Articulated along the perimeters of their form. Reinforcing both their selfhood, and its centrality to mine. How else can they be certain who they are, and what they aren't? Delineation requires a sharp, black outline."
In a world requiring Black excellence to even try to compete, Brown lays bare the narrator as they feel they are requiring an assimilation in a way of annihilation of her selfhood to become what White people demand. Yet no matter how successful she is she is still constantly on the recieving end of racism through microaggressions, aggressions, and comments from people around her trying to both make her out to be the One Good Black Person while also doubting her skills and competence because of her skin tone.
"Transcends race, they say of exceptional, dead black people. As if relentless overcoming, when taken to the limits, as time stretches on to infinity, itself overcomes even limits, even infinity, even this place"
The book weaves through seamless references to texts and history, like Operation Legacy."The erasure itself was erased" the narrator says, and goes on to ponder about how people can have discussions in a post-colonial lens when the knowledge of colonial rule cannot be shared or substantiated in the documents that were destroyed.
While much of the book is about being Black in the UK, there's parts of the text that even I can relate to, like the crushing weight of capitalism and the requirement of having to preform and how personal professional success is seen as antithetical to moral and societal progess. The narrator experiences this divide between the extremely hard work she's put in to get where she is (and her inability to enjoy the fruits of her labor), the protests outside of her place of work (and the shame that brings to cross the picket lines), when she holds speeches to inspire youth to follow in her steps (and feeling of sadness that the hard and painful work goes on in seemingly perpetuity), and her little sister that is following her footsteps.
Assembly is a short book that is full of feeling and thoughts. It's thought-provoking, intense, and beautiful. It has a unique composition where poems, annecdotes, literary and historical references mingle together in the stream-of-conciousness that is ambitious and well crafted without being confusing and overly dense....more
A hazy horror that is primarily about loss, grief, and letting go. It’s about people missing and not returning, but also an allegory for progressive iA hazy horror that is primarily about loss, grief, and letting go. It’s about people missing and not returning, but also an allegory for progressive illnesses that slowly chip away at a person’s sense of self, memory, and ability to sustain oneself. It’s also about the loneliness in being a caretaker, that inability to connect to people around you, even your own support network, because of how difficult it is to explain and your desire to protect the person you care for from judgment.
The story itself, at surface level, is beautiful but doesn’t provide answers or a clear story. It is when you dive behind the story, to the story that is behind it, that you get the truly breathtaking and achingly tragic love story. ...more
What do you get when you cross If We Were Villains with The Atlas Six and add ghosts? Something that kind of looks*recension av översättning i slutet*
What do you get when you cross If We Were Villains with The Atlas Six and add ghosts? Something that kind of looks like Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo.
The protagonist Galaxy (Alex) Stern is a prickly and distrustful main character that doesn't really belong at Yale, having stopped going to school sometime around middle shool and spent all of her teens drifting and taking drugs. After being the sole survivor in a horrific murder of multiple people she is offered a spot at Yale because she can do something others need heavy and dangerous drugs to do; she can see the Gray, otherwise known as ghosts. She is tasked with monitoring the eight societies at Yale as they preform magical rituals, and the activities of the Gray.
Everything gets more and more sinister in the wake of a magical disappearance and a murder of a girl that might not be what it first appears to be.
“Darlington liked to say that dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.”
A magical crime-esque book that utilizes the Outsider character well by her observations that frames the behavior of the societies as Other while also providing introductions and a guide to the world. This is a storytelling device I pretty much always enjoy as it provides a lot more meat and ability to criticize and Mull Over otherwise standard behavior apart of the Status Quo.
Alex Stern isn't particularly likable as a character, but she is astute in observations even when they're going to sting. She's painfully aware that she isn't very likable, smart, or anything but her ability to most people around her. She's a pain in the ass, but that's also part of her strength. Overall, she is a very believable character.
“All you children playing with fire, looking surprised when the house burns down.”
What I didn't like about the story is more about my own preferences in stories I read rather than the story itself lacking.* I'm not much of a crime fan, and I felt at times it was a tad too much crime than fantasy.
4.5/5 stars
*Den svenska översättningen var bristfällig. Fel person som attribuerades till dialoger, klumpig översättning av fraser där jag var tvungen att tänka efter vad det skulle stå på originalspråket. Översättning av svordomar var alldeles för tama för att passa reaktioner andra hade, och det kändes som att boken översatts utan mycket tanke på att översätta berättelsens ton och känsla....more
The past days I've told everyone around me "this book I'm reading is so good, you should read it too!"
It might be Middle Grade, but this adult had sucThe past days I've told everyone around me "this book I'm reading is so good, you should read it too!"
It might be Middle Grade, but this adult had such a fun time reading it. It brought me back to the feeling of reading when I was a child, a sort of cozy adventure that is silly, thrilling, and lovely (reminds me of how it was reading Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism!). There is one major plot hole in the book, but I don't think it detracts from the story, and I don't think it's one the target audience would get too hung-up on.
This is a book I just want to push into so many children's hands, and adults who are interested in getting children to read and escape into the world of books. ...more
This book is my happy place. It features beautiful descriptions and absolutely ridiculous situations that I just cannot help but love. Usually I am noThis book is my happy place. It features beautiful descriptions and absolutely ridiculous situations that I just cannot help but love. Usually I am not a visual reader - I don't see things happening in front of me as I read them, but with this book I was thrust into the world.
Ophelia and Thorn as characters are the type of flawed character that you want to slap and hug at the same time. The progression of their relationship in A Winter's Promise, and now in The Missing of Clairdelune, feels organic to who they are as characters.
There were times where I yelled at the book, happy-stimmed so much I couldn't keep on reading, and at the end... almost throwing the book at the wall. Don't worry though, I care too much about the structural integrity of the book so I can read it again. The last chapter helped, a lot, too.
Try your darlings, it's time for the third book!...more
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