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A review by quadrille
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
4.0
And then, oh, I loved this. I like road narratives when they're well-done, and I was riveted to this one thanks to its middle-aged female academic protagonist (with sidekick cat!!), plus interesting incidents and a fascinating world to traverse.
I feel like I should've read [b:The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath|722667|The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath|H.P. Lovecraft|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1293312354s/722667.jpg|926162] before this, to fully contextualise it and what Johnson was doing, but I could still absolutely appreciate this through the lens of ineffable horrors made commonplace, and a place in which our own Earth world is the alien one -- and yet in which women still have to face the familiar spectre of sexism ('To him, she had been landscape, an articulate crag he could ascend, a face to put to this place. When were women ever anything but footnotes to men's tales?').
It was a fascinating sideways look at Lovecraftian mythos. I've said this before about [b:The Litany of Earth|21943848|The Litany of Earth|Ruthanna Emrys|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398031519s/21943848.jpg|41247953], but I faintly suspect that I like Lovecraft's world & setting in the hands of other writers more than I like Lovecraft's writing itself. It's similar to the move that Mat Johnson pulled with [b:Pym|8501708|Pym|Mat Johnson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320435734s/8501708.jpg|13367639] wrt [b:The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket|766869|The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket|Edgar Allan Poe|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1341387331s/766869.jpg|44915222] (which, relatedly, inspired HP Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness) -- in the sense of female and POC authors backtracking to examine the blank spaces, the problematic gaps in the canon, taking their own more-diverse look at it. I'm always interested in seeing adaptations and retellings like this if they're well-done, and so The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe jots neatly into that.
I feel like I should've read [b:The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath|722667|The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath|H.P. Lovecraft|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1293312354s/722667.jpg|926162] before this, to fully contextualise it and what Johnson was doing, but I could still absolutely appreciate this through the lens of ineffable horrors made commonplace, and a place in which our own Earth world is the alien one -- and yet in which women still have to face the familiar spectre of sexism ('To him, she had been landscape, an articulate crag he could ascend, a face to put to this place. When were women ever anything but footnotes to men's tales?').
It was a fascinating sideways look at Lovecraftian mythos. I've said this before about [b:The Litany of Earth|21943848|The Litany of Earth|Ruthanna Emrys|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398031519s/21943848.jpg|41247953], but I faintly suspect that I like Lovecraft's world & setting in the hands of other writers more than I like Lovecraft's writing itself. It's similar to the move that Mat Johnson pulled with [b:Pym|8501708|Pym|Mat Johnson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320435734s/8501708.jpg|13367639] wrt [b:The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket|766869|The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket|Edgar Allan Poe|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1341387331s/766869.jpg|44915222] (which, relatedly, inspired HP Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness) -- in the sense of female and POC authors backtracking to examine the blank spaces, the problematic gaps in the canon, taking their own more-diverse look at it. I'm always interested in seeing adaptations and retellings like this if they're well-done, and so The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe jots neatly into that.