Books read in May 2021
Tuesday, 15 June 2021 21:16![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhatsPacking for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void - Mary Roach
Echo and Narcissus - Tansy Rayner Roberts
The Undefeated - Una McCormack
The Starless Sea - Erin Morgenstern
The House of Always - Jenn Lyons
Firebreak - Nicole Kornher-Stace
What Abigail Did That Summer - Ben Aaronovitch
The Starless Sea
This book kept teetering on the edge of being too precious for me, but always just about managed to stay on the right side. I feel like the protagonist really helped here - he's a queer grad student studying story in video games, and his point of view as he muddled through felt like a refreshing complement to the rest of the novel, without being annoyingly meta, leaving me free to enjoy the lyrical prose without getting eye-rolly. (He was out of his depth but trying his best, always something I enjoy in a character.) I also really liked how the secondary world felt like it had both a history and a future outside of the part of it we were seeing.
Firebreak
This book is one long howl of rage against capitalism, and I loved it. It's brutal and intense, but that's not all it is: it loves friendship and community as much as it hates capitalism. The protagonist, Mal, is wonderful: aroace, spiky, endearingly bad at knowing how to people, and with a strong moral core that won't allow her to turn away when someone needs her help. Highly recommended.
What Abigail Did That Summer
Extremely charming Rivers of London novella set on and around Hampstead Heath. The non-Peter Grant entries in this series haven't always worked for me, but I'm really enjoying the Abigail ones (her voice is distinctively her own while still being just as rich and fun to read as Peter's) and I hope we get many more.
Didn't finish: Hench
(this is actually from last month, but I forgot to include it at the time)
This is about a woman who works as a low level temp for supervillains before getting injured by a superhero. It was well written, but having looked at reviews it's basically just about the main character spiralling into villainy via self-justification, and that's not something I'm really that into reading about.
Seven Devils
Found family + queers in space sounds like my jam, but this book just didn't really come alive for me. Plus I feel like it made a major structural error in revealing Eris's backstory so early (and, as it turns out, in the blurb, which I must have read ages ago when I added it to my tbr but not since) - there just wasn't enough build up for it to have the impact it should have, and it made it really hard for me to connect with the book.
Echo and Narcissus - Tansy Rayner Roberts
The Undefeated - Una McCormack
The Starless Sea - Erin Morgenstern
The House of Always - Jenn Lyons
Firebreak - Nicole Kornher-Stace
What Abigail Did That Summer - Ben Aaronovitch
The Starless Sea
This book kept teetering on the edge of being too precious for me, but always just about managed to stay on the right side. I feel like the protagonist really helped here - he's a queer grad student studying story in video games, and his point of view as he muddled through felt like a refreshing complement to the rest of the novel, without being annoyingly meta, leaving me free to enjoy the lyrical prose without getting eye-rolly. (He was out of his depth but trying his best, always something I enjoy in a character.) I also really liked how the secondary world felt like it had both a history and a future outside of the part of it we were seeing.
Firebreak
This book is one long howl of rage against capitalism, and I loved it. It's brutal and intense, but that's not all it is: it loves friendship and community as much as it hates capitalism. The protagonist, Mal, is wonderful: aroace, spiky, endearingly bad at knowing how to people, and with a strong moral core that won't allow her to turn away when someone needs her help. Highly recommended.
What Abigail Did That Summer
Extremely charming Rivers of London novella set on and around Hampstead Heath. The non-Peter Grant entries in this series haven't always worked for me, but I'm really enjoying the Abigail ones (her voice is distinctively her own while still being just as rich and fun to read as Peter's) and I hope we get many more.
Didn't finish: Hench
(this is actually from last month, but I forgot to include it at the time)
This is about a woman who works as a low level temp for supervillains before getting injured by a superhero. It was well written, but having looked at reviews it's basically just about the main character spiralling into villainy via self-justification, and that's not something I'm really that into reading about.
Seven Devils
Found family + queers in space sounds like my jam, but this book just didn't really come alive for me. Plus I feel like it made a major structural error in revealing Eris's backstory so early (and, as it turns out, in the blurb, which I must have read ages ago when I added it to my tbr but not since) - there just wasn't enough build up for it to have the impact it should have, and it made it really hard for me to connect with the book.
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Date: 16 Jun 2021 00:03 (UTC)no subject
Date: 24 Jun 2021 13:28 (UTC)I think I stopped before the worst of the body horror, which I'm very grateful for!
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Date: 1 Jul 2021 05:17 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2 Jul 2021 20:21 (UTC)