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Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
5.0
I really had a tremendous time reading this book. I read it as a part of a book club I am in (hello bookclub people) and I do think I would have read this book either way but I would have probably read it later.
I wrote a general outline for my review of this book literally months ago and am just now actually filling it out.
This book is about Wallace who has recently died, he is essentially being held in an on earth purgatory where a very small group of alive people and ghosts can see him for a limited period of time before he is expected to go on into the next stage of the afterlife. Hugo, the reaper/coffee shop owner, is the person tasked with caring for the dead he encounters.
The thing that I loved the most about this book was that it is a really loving and reflective path through grief. Wallace is grieving his own death obviously, and that is a really interesting exploration, but we also get to see other ghosts handling grief in very different ways than Wallace, Hugo is grieving his dead grandfather whose ghost is still around, and a mother who is grieving the many years old death of her child. Following these different experiences with grief surrounding death was really affecting and engaging.
This book has a lot of legal frameworks and proceedings in the way that death is presented to be working. We see the beings in charge of death as presiding over a really punitive system, they occasionally claim helplessness to the unfeeling nature of their judgments of the dead. This is contrasted with Hugo's restorative and compassionate approach to the dead. It is really interesting to look at this book as a reflection on righting harm done to those around us, seeing the ways that unnuanced punishment fails not only the person being punished but also their community including the people they hurt. I think this concept is really well explored with both the afterlife bureaucracy and Wallace's ex-wife.
Hugo is a true romance hero. He is dynamic and romantic and going through emotional turmoil. I just absolutely was swept away by the love story presented in this book. The other supporting characters to this story are an excellent grumpy old (dead) man, and a sardonic young woman training to be involved with death. I just fell for every character one by one.
I particularly liked that this book is so much about a journey from being the central player to being an active community member. Wallace learns over the course of this book how to truly care for those around him. We see him struggling to see outside of his own experience, to show the compassion he want to receive, and we see him seek to make this right. He takes real action to repair the harm he has done. I think that this is very deftly and thoughtfully done.
I wrote a general outline for my review of this book literally months ago and am just now actually filling it out.
This book is about Wallace who has recently died, he is essentially being held in an on earth purgatory where a very small group of alive people and ghosts can see him for a limited period of time before he is expected to go on into the next stage of the afterlife. Hugo, the reaper/coffee shop owner, is the person tasked with caring for the dead he encounters.
The thing that I loved the most about this book was that it is a really loving and reflective path through grief. Wallace is grieving his own death obviously, and that is a really interesting exploration, but we also get to see other ghosts handling grief in very different ways than Wallace, Hugo is grieving his dead grandfather whose ghost is still around, and a mother who is grieving the many years old death of her child. Following these different experiences with grief surrounding death was really affecting and engaging.
This book has a lot of legal frameworks and proceedings in the way that death is presented to be working. We see the beings in charge of death as presiding over a really punitive system, they occasionally claim helplessness to the unfeeling nature of their judgments of the dead. This is contrasted with Hugo's restorative and compassionate approach to the dead. It is really interesting to look at this book as a reflection on righting harm done to those around us, seeing the ways that unnuanced punishment fails not only the person being punished but also their community including the people they hurt. I think this concept is really well explored with both the afterlife bureaucracy and Wallace's ex-wife.
Hugo is a true romance hero. He is dynamic and romantic and going through emotional turmoil. I just absolutely was swept away by the love story presented in this book. The other supporting characters to this story are an excellent grumpy old (dead) man, and a sardonic young woman training to be involved with death. I just fell for every character one by one.
I particularly liked that this book is so much about a journey from being the central player to being an active community member. Wallace learns over the course of this book how to truly care for those around him. We see him struggling to see outside of his own experience, to show the compassion he want to receive, and we see him seek to make this right. He takes real action to repair the harm he has done. I think that this is very deftly and thoughtfully done.
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
3.0
Felix Ever After follows 17-year-old Felix, a trans boy who is attending a summer art program at his high school. We are introduced to Felix's family, his father, and his friend group, including his best friend, Ezra. The plot takes off when someone puts up pictures of Felix pretransition, and he becomes dedicated to finding out who did it and enacting revenge.
I listened to most of this book in audio. The narrator is Logan Rozos, and he does an excellent job narrating this book! His voice is so wonderful to listen to, and he emotes the exact amount I want audiobook narrates to. Also, if you speed up books, his voice works very well speed up.
There were many things I really enjoyed about this book, but I do think that I would have loved this book much more if I had read it as a much younger person, which is obviously not a flaw in the book; it is YA fiction, and I am fully 28. A lot of this book has a slightly afterschool special on prejudice and tensions within the queer community vibe. It is a very attentive guide to different dynamics between queer people who occupy different marginalization. I think this is very well done for people learning about queer community, but for people familiar with these ideas, it did occasionally just feel like I was reading Twitter threads on how to reply when people are ignorant. Which is totally fine; I think 'lesson' books are obviously very common in YA and that this is not a bad thing. It just is a thing that some older readers might bump against.
Something that is very much also a me problem is that I tend to not like books that use a lot of pop culture references. It occasionally does work for me, and I do see how it grounds the story in time (especially when it is a book by a trans author full of Harry Potter references) and gives characters tangible connections to the real world they are meant to be inhabiting. But I don't want to lie and say that I didn't bump against the way pop culture references were used in this story.
This story also would have made a bit more sense for me if it had taken place at a boarding school or in college. Obviously, the applying to college storyline would not have fit if the school was set in college, but at the very least, boarding school would have made so much more sense. There are so many adults giving children alcohol in this book. Which adults do, but it felt weird that it wasn't ever remarked upon. Obviously, children do drink alcohol; I am not taking umbrage with that plot point. But if this had at least been at a boarding school, than the amount of time these children were away from their parents would have made so much more sense. So many of these kids lived independently or semi-independently. I just kept thinking, 'why are all these parents so uninvolved with their children's lives.' Some of it is explained in the book, but some of it is very YA hand waving.
Speaking of adults, I did really love the relationship between Felix and his father. It made me cry, which is obviously the best thing a book can do. I thought Callender did an excellent job making this relationship tense and also incredibly loving. Felix is frustrated and hurt by some of his father's actions, and the reader can see that his father is struggling with some aspects of having a trans child, but overall it is clear that he is willing to change and try to be the best parent he can be to Felix. This relationship is so excellently done.
Another aspect I loved about this story was Felix. He is a fantastic main character. He makes mistakes, and bad choices, and is shown to be kind of floundering in his life. But Callender really does an excellent job of having Felix grow and change and develop a clear sense of who he wants to be. I really thought his character arc was very well done.
I did think that the romance needed a bit more page time. I kind of felt like I had a bit of whiplash over what I was meant to feel about certain characters and wanted a bit more time where Felix was aware of his romantic feelings for the character he ends up with at the end of the book. It also ended with a grand gesture which is very hit or miss for me. They did talk after the grand gesture, but I wanted more of that conversation.
I really think this book is important and that it is excellent for teens or people who want to read more contemporary queer and trans literature. It is also just a really great character-focused story.
I listened to most of this book in audio. The narrator is Logan Rozos, and he does an excellent job narrating this book! His voice is so wonderful to listen to, and he emotes the exact amount I want audiobook narrates to. Also, if you speed up books, his voice works very well speed up.
There were many things I really enjoyed about this book, but I do think that I would have loved this book much more if I had read it as a much younger person, which is obviously not a flaw in the book; it is YA fiction, and I am fully 28. A lot of this book has a slightly afterschool special on prejudice and tensions within the queer community vibe. It is a very attentive guide to different dynamics between queer people who occupy different marginalization. I think this is very well done for people learning about queer community, but for people familiar with these ideas, it did occasionally just feel like I was reading Twitter threads on how to reply when people are ignorant. Which is totally fine; I think 'lesson' books are obviously very common in YA and that this is not a bad thing. It just is a thing that some older readers might bump against.
Something that is very much also a me problem is that I tend to not like books that use a lot of pop culture references. It occasionally does work for me, and I do see how it grounds the story in time (especially when it is a book by a trans author full of Harry Potter references) and gives characters tangible connections to the real world they are meant to be inhabiting. But I don't want to lie and say that I didn't bump against the way pop culture references were used in this story.
This story also would have made a bit more sense for me if it had taken place at a boarding school or in college. Obviously, the applying to college storyline would not have fit if the school was set in college, but at the very least, boarding school would have made so much more sense. There are so many adults giving children alcohol in this book. Which adults do, but it felt weird that it wasn't ever remarked upon. Obviously, children do drink alcohol; I am not taking umbrage with that plot point. But if this had at least been at a boarding school, than the amount of time these children were away from their parents would have made so much more sense. So many of these kids lived independently or semi-independently. I just kept thinking, 'why are all these parents so uninvolved with their children's lives.' Some of it is explained in the book, but some of it is very YA hand waving.
Speaking of adults, I did really love the relationship between Felix and his father. It made me cry, which is obviously the best thing a book can do. I thought Callender did an excellent job making this relationship tense and also incredibly loving. Felix is frustrated and hurt by some of his father's actions, and the reader can see that his father is struggling with some aspects of having a trans child, but overall it is clear that he is willing to change and try to be the best parent he can be to Felix. This relationship is so excellently done.
Another aspect I loved about this story was Felix. He is a fantastic main character. He makes mistakes, and bad choices, and is shown to be kind of floundering in his life. But Callender really does an excellent job of having Felix grow and change and develop a clear sense of who he wants to be. I really thought his character arc was very well done.
I did think that the romance needed a bit more page time. I kind of felt like I had a bit of whiplash over what I was meant to feel about certain characters and wanted a bit more time where Felix was aware of his romantic feelings for the character he ends up with at the end of the book. It also ended with a grand gesture which is very hit or miss for me. They did talk after the grand gesture, but I wanted more of that conversation.
I really think this book is important and that it is excellent for teens or people who want to read more contemporary queer and trans literature. It is also just a really great character-focused story.
Chemistry by Weike Wang
5.0
I have never read a book like this book. It is absolutely enthralling.
This book follows a PhD candidate studying chemistry. When her boyfriend proposes to her, she begins a process of evaluating her life and trying to determine what she wants from the future and why things need to change. The book is part frenetic unraveling, part dissection of her life.
I recently realized how much I love an unnamed narrator and was delighted to read this book as the first since I realized this about my reading taste. This book is very stream of consciousness; we get so deep into this character's thought process and her history, and the way she thinks about her own life and experiences that it was really interesting to have such an incredibly clear picture but not know her name. This choice could have been to further emphasize the way the main character had separated herself from her own emotions, to add to the confusion and indecision of the novel, or just to keep this one detail private. Whatever the reason, I found it very compelling.
This book spends a lot of its time focusing on the relationship the narrator has with her boyfriend, Eric, and her parents. Starting with Eric. His proposal is what kind of tips the narrator over the edge into a spiral of questioning every aspect of her life. This really has a wonderful tension between wondering if it is a post-mortem analysis of their relationship or if the story is headed towards a more functional relationship. I was riveted. I think this relationship is really well done in the book.
Her relationship with her parents is fascinating. In addition to Eric, Joy, her mother, is one of the few named characters in the story. These two characters being named really focused the relationships the narrator had with both characters as central to how she now thought about her life. I really liked how the reader experienced the narrator's relationship with her parents. In the beginning, we get a slightly hostile sort of detached view of her parent's relationship with her. We hear negative aspects of their relationship in a way that is pretty clear that no pushback will be tolerated. As the story goes on, these relationships become more and more layered, going through two narrative tone shifts.
I think if you have a no-contact relationship with your parents, this might not be the book for you (same with if you are triggered by toxic eating patterns), but I could be wrong. Mostly the relationship with her parents was just so incredible. I loved the way this narrative really lets you see the shock waves her parents sent through her life, then slowly zooms in on the events that continue to echo in her life. It is truly masterful. I was really moved by the combination of love and protectiveness and resentment and admiration and frustration. It is really explored so incredibly well.
This book also almost perfectly lays out why I might not even be capable of having a long-term relationship.
I loved the writing style of this book. As mentioned before, it is a little stream of consciousness. We get short snippets of thought or interaction. The narrator jumps around between feeling and fact and science anecdote. All these asides come together to illustrate what her brain is processing and how. To show the reader how her thoughts are producing her action or inaction.
I listened to the audiobook of this novel, which is really excellent, but I am excited to reread so I can highlight and annotate this book. It is incredibly thought-provoking. It also has prose that is capable of both making you laugh and of punching you in the gut. It is so incredibly impressive.
I loved this book. I am so glad a TikTok about it ended up on my fyp. I am going to be thinking about this book for a very long time.
This book follows a PhD candidate studying chemistry. When her boyfriend proposes to her, she begins a process of evaluating her life and trying to determine what she wants from the future and why things need to change. The book is part frenetic unraveling, part dissection of her life.
I recently realized how much I love an unnamed narrator and was delighted to read this book as the first since I realized this about my reading taste. This book is very stream of consciousness; we get so deep into this character's thought process and her history, and the way she thinks about her own life and experiences that it was really interesting to have such an incredibly clear picture but not know her name. This choice could have been to further emphasize the way the main character had separated herself from her own emotions, to add to the confusion and indecision of the novel, or just to keep this one detail private. Whatever the reason, I found it very compelling.
This book spends a lot of its time focusing on the relationship the narrator has with her boyfriend, Eric, and her parents. Starting with Eric. His proposal is what kind of tips the narrator over the edge into a spiral of questioning every aspect of her life. This really has a wonderful tension between wondering if it is a post-mortem analysis of their relationship or if the story is headed towards a more functional relationship. I was riveted. I think this relationship is really well done in the book.
Her relationship with her parents is fascinating. In addition to Eric, Joy, her mother, is one of the few named characters in the story. These two characters being named really focused the relationships the narrator had with both characters as central to how she now thought about her life. I really liked how the reader experienced the narrator's relationship with her parents. In the beginning, we get a slightly hostile sort of detached view of her parent's relationship with her. We hear negative aspects of their relationship in a way that is pretty clear that no pushback will be tolerated. As the story goes on, these relationships become more and more layered, going through two narrative tone shifts.
I think if you have a no-contact relationship with your parents, this might not be the book for you (same with if you are triggered by toxic eating patterns), but I could be wrong. Mostly the relationship with her parents was just so incredible. I loved the way this narrative really lets you see the shock waves her parents sent through her life, then slowly zooms in on the events that continue to echo in her life. It is truly masterful. I was really moved by the combination of love and protectiveness and resentment and admiration and frustration. It is really explored so incredibly well.
This book also almost perfectly lays out why I might not even be capable of having a long-term relationship.
I loved the writing style of this book. As mentioned before, it is a little stream of consciousness. We get short snippets of thought or interaction. The narrator jumps around between feeling and fact and science anecdote. All these asides come together to illustrate what her brain is processing and how. To show the reader how her thoughts are producing her action or inaction.
I listened to the audiobook of this novel, which is really excellent, but I am excited to reread so I can highlight and annotate this book. It is incredibly thought-provoking. It also has prose that is capable of both making you laugh and of punching you in the gut. It is so incredibly impressive.
I loved this book. I am so glad a TikTok about it ended up on my fyp. I am going to be thinking about this book for a very long time.
Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
5.0
I really love Nghi Vo.
Siren Queen is the story of Luli Wei, a girl who grows up in Hungarian Hill, an area frequently used by filmmakers to shoot movies. As our main character grows up, she falls in love with film; once she sees her first movie, she is almost desperate to see more. She eventually is able to gain a foothold as an occasional extra and begins the journey of chasing a film career. This book is full of magic and commentary and is just a delightful and attentive character study.
This was a book that I enjoyed as I was reading it; it made me think and kept my attention throughout. But I didn't realize how invested I was until I finished the book and instantly burst into tears. I am normally a crying while reading person and not a crying after reading one.
This is a fantasy novel, but this is in line with what someone would call soft magic; the rules are never really defined. This is not a bad thing; Vo clearly has an excellent handle on her world. It is under-explained intentionally; the magic of this world just is. It is up to the reader to decide where metaphor and evocative writing end and where the magic begins. Vo makes sure the reader has all the information about the magic you need for the story; you know what to be worried about, and you know how Wei can respond. Which are really all the important things.
This way of building the world is very apparent in the Hollywood studio executives. You hear about their magic, which is very fae or demonic; they are mostly literal monsters, which maps onto the real history of these men being figurative monsters. Vo is able to show how these men take power and life and beauty and hope from young people desperate to achieve a very long-shot dream. Making these men powerful in his almost unknowable way felt very apt. But with this, she also wrote resistance to them in a very similar way. I just really love it when an author trusts the reader to keep up with a story when they are not handheld through the story. Vo is really talented, and if you go on this journey, you will just have to trust her to give you all the pieces you need.
I also loved the ways in which this story felt like memoir. We get brief mentions of Luli's future after the main narrative is over; little moments of her future coming in and coloring the past is a really delightful way. I think this was used in a way that was really compassionate to the reader. So much of this book makes you worried about Luli and the people around her. This book is, at times, quite tense and dark. There is racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism; we are given period accurate politics. But this book shows the reader these queer people, these people of color, these people who are being exploited, and shows us these same people carving out a happy life for themselves. Queer stories can be dark and sad and still let queer people find happiness, let them preside over their own fires, and creating their own community.
I really love being in a story where you don't know the main character's name. The book's description calls the main character Luli, but when we meet her, Luli is the name of her sister. The reader never gets to know for sure what her name had been before she was given the name Luli. I think this name being hidden was a really lovely way for Vo to talk about the way society took Luli's identity from her in some ways. They wanted her detached from her background; they wanted her to be shining and perfect but also completely divorced from her reality. From her culture, from the working-class reality she came from, and from her queerness. This is all so beautifully illustrated throughout this book, but especially with her name being hidden from the reader.
I also loved the way Vo addresses the queer villain trope. Also, the not white villain. Luli is very clear that she will not be made to do roles that are demeaning or reinforce racist stereotypes about her community. But because of her refusal to do these roles, the people in power have no idea what to do with her. They refuse to give her leading lady roles, and Luli has moments where she mourns this fantasy of being the benevolent heroine of a film. But Luli finds a voice playing a monster. She is surrounded by actual monsters who wield their power against Luli, but she is able to gain her own power by positioning herself as a monster. I found Vo's exploration of this theme incredibly well done.
Another aspect of this story I loved was the way Vo didn't villainize other queer people in this book. There are a wide array of different queer folks in this story, and not all of them choose to live their life in the same way that Luli does. These people, especially people who are sort of choosing to stay closeted, are not looked down on by this narrative. These people are given full lives and are treated with the same nuance as the rest of the characters in this story.
I just love the intentionality of Vo's work. The way her writing is so lush and incisive and her narratives are so multifaceted while following her characters lives. I will continue to read everything Vo writes.
Siren Queen is the story of Luli Wei, a girl who grows up in Hungarian Hill, an area frequently used by filmmakers to shoot movies. As our main character grows up, she falls in love with film; once she sees her first movie, she is almost desperate to see more. She eventually is able to gain a foothold as an occasional extra and begins the journey of chasing a film career. This book is full of magic and commentary and is just a delightful and attentive character study.
This was a book that I enjoyed as I was reading it; it made me think and kept my attention throughout. But I didn't realize how invested I was until I finished the book and instantly burst into tears. I am normally a crying while reading person and not a crying after reading one.
This is a fantasy novel, but this is in line with what someone would call soft magic; the rules are never really defined. This is not a bad thing; Vo clearly has an excellent handle on her world. It is under-explained intentionally; the magic of this world just is. It is up to the reader to decide where metaphor and evocative writing end and where the magic begins. Vo makes sure the reader has all the information about the magic you need for the story; you know what to be worried about, and you know how Wei can respond. Which are really all the important things.
This way of building the world is very apparent in the Hollywood studio executives. You hear about their magic, which is very fae or demonic; they are mostly literal monsters, which maps onto the real history of these men being figurative monsters. Vo is able to show how these men take power and life and beauty and hope from young people desperate to achieve a very long-shot dream. Making these men powerful in his almost unknowable way felt very apt. But with this, she also wrote resistance to them in a very similar way. I just really love it when an author trusts the reader to keep up with a story when they are not handheld through the story. Vo is really talented, and if you go on this journey, you will just have to trust her to give you all the pieces you need.
I also loved the ways in which this story felt like memoir. We get brief mentions of Luli's future after the main narrative is over; little moments of her future coming in and coloring the past is a really delightful way. I think this was used in a way that was really compassionate to the reader. So much of this book makes you worried about Luli and the people around her. This book is, at times, quite tense and dark. There is racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism; we are given period accurate politics. But this book shows the reader these queer people, these people of color, these people who are being exploited, and shows us these same people carving out a happy life for themselves. Queer stories can be dark and sad and still let queer people find happiness, let them preside over their own fires, and creating their own community.
I really love being in a story where you don't know the main character's name. The book's description calls the main character Luli, but when we meet her, Luli is the name of her sister. The reader never gets to know for sure what her name had been before she was given the name Luli. I think this name being hidden was a really lovely way for Vo to talk about the way society took Luli's identity from her in some ways. They wanted her detached from her background; they wanted her to be shining and perfect but also completely divorced from her reality. From her culture, from the working-class reality she came from, and from her queerness. This is all so beautifully illustrated throughout this book, but especially with her name being hidden from the reader.
I also loved the way Vo addresses the queer villain trope. Also, the not white villain. Luli is very clear that she will not be made to do roles that are demeaning or reinforce racist stereotypes about her community. But because of her refusal to do these roles, the people in power have no idea what to do with her. They refuse to give her leading lady roles, and Luli has moments where she mourns this fantasy of being the benevolent heroine of a film. But Luli finds a voice playing a monster. She is surrounded by actual monsters who wield their power against Luli, but she is able to gain her own power by positioning herself as a monster. I found Vo's exploration of this theme incredibly well done.
Another aspect of this story I loved was the way Vo didn't villainize other queer people in this book. There are a wide array of different queer folks in this story, and not all of them choose to live their life in the same way that Luli does. These people, especially people who are sort of choosing to stay closeted, are not looked down on by this narrative. These people are given full lives and are treated with the same nuance as the rest of the characters in this story.
I just love the intentionality of Vo's work. The way her writing is so lush and incisive and her narratives are so multifaceted while following her characters lives. I will continue to read everything Vo writes.
Obviously: Stories from My Timeline by Akilah Hughes
3.0
I’ve been following Hughes for years and years on the j Ferber for years. As soon as I heard about her book I was jazzed to finally be able to read it. It eventually faded from my mind but I remembered it today and hopped to it immediately.
I do sort of think some parts of this book might be better for people who are less familiar with Akilah. Many of these stories I had already heard in various forms on the internet elsewhere, which is always the case with memoirs by internet people. Despite this Hughes is hilarious and charming through out the book. I laughed really really hard once, and particularly enjoyed the way Hughes talked about her mother.
This is an incredibly easy to read conversational book. Which is exactly what I want from memoir. The book is largely funny, with occasional moments of seriousness, and is engaging throughout.
The book doesn’t have an overarching narrative or a strict structure. It very much is a collection of essays connected by little joking vignettes. The vignettes don’t work that well in audiobook because they seem like the start to a new essay and feel like a let down once you realize it is just a quipped one liner. But I assume that is very much not the case in the actual physical novel so I just pushed past that feeling.
I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone looking to read a funny memoir, especially for internet people.
I do sort of think some parts of this book might be better for people who are less familiar with Akilah. Many of these stories I had already heard in various forms on the internet elsewhere, which is always the case with memoirs by internet people. Despite this Hughes is hilarious and charming through out the book. I laughed really really hard once, and particularly enjoyed the way Hughes talked about her mother.
This is an incredibly easy to read conversational book. Which is exactly what I want from memoir. The book is largely funny, with occasional moments of seriousness, and is engaging throughout.
The book doesn’t have an overarching narrative or a strict structure. It very much is a collection of essays connected by little joking vignettes. The vignettes don’t work that well in audiobook because they seem like the start to a new essay and feel like a let down once you realize it is just a quipped one liner. But I assume that is very much not the case in the actual physical novel so I just pushed past that feeling.
I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone looking to read a funny memoir, especially for internet people.
What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon
4.0
I've followed Aubrey Gordon on the internet for years, first as Your Fat Friend (Yr Fat Friend?), and then adding her wonderful podcast Maintenance Phase to the list of shows I always listen to on drop day. I've been meaning to read this book since it came out, and I finally decided to grab the audiobook and was glued to it. The narrator, Samara Naeymi, does an excellent job but I was disappointed that Gordon didn't narrate her own book.
This book is a really unflinching portrayal of the harm that anti-fat bias has on fat people. It is a methodical and well-reasoned dismantling of the arguments that are often used against fat people. She appeals to the reader's emotions, logic, and desire for justice. I did come into this book already agreeing with Gordon, I've been following her for years, and I had already been exposed to the harms of anti-fat bias by ED recovery spaces on the internet. And I am not an asshole.
The part of this book that I think most not fat people need to read is the repeated addressing of the line of anti-fatness that follows a concern for the health of fat people. Gordon lays out the ways in which this behavior is not at all helpful and, in fact, leads to unhealthy behaviors, lack of medical care, and overall worse physical and mental wellbeing.
Gordon's writing is approachable and easily digestible. She is truly such an engaging lady. Throughout the book, she highlights the ways other marginalizations compound anti-fat bias, addressing race, sexuality, and the intersection of being fat and transgender.
I also appreciated the way she talked about the failings of the body positivity movement and the way body neutrality and fat acceptance don't actually make the social and political room for fat people to truly be included and centered in a fight that impacts them the most.
There is one part of this book where Gordon is talking about someone else's research and mentions the myth of vibrators being a treatment for hysteria, I am almost 100% certain she addresses this inaccuracy on her podcast, but I still wanted to note for anyone who reads the book and reads this review that that is untrue and was made up years later.
I would absolutely recommend this book; I think this is a good introduction to Gordon's work and a really excellent primer on how to actively fight against anti-fat bias.
This book is a really unflinching portrayal of the harm that anti-fat bias has on fat people. It is a methodical and well-reasoned dismantling of the arguments that are often used against fat people. She appeals to the reader's emotions, logic, and desire for justice. I did come into this book already agreeing with Gordon, I've been following her for years, and I had already been exposed to the harms of anti-fat bias by ED recovery spaces on the internet. And I am not an asshole.
The part of this book that I think most not fat people need to read is the repeated addressing of the line of anti-fatness that follows a concern for the health of fat people. Gordon lays out the ways in which this behavior is not at all helpful and, in fact, leads to unhealthy behaviors, lack of medical care, and overall worse physical and mental wellbeing.
Gordon's writing is approachable and easily digestible. She is truly such an engaging lady. Throughout the book, she highlights the ways other marginalizations compound anti-fat bias, addressing race, sexuality, and the intersection of being fat and transgender.
I also appreciated the way she talked about the failings of the body positivity movement and the way body neutrality and fat acceptance don't actually make the social and political room for fat people to truly be included and centered in a fight that impacts them the most.
There is one part of this book where Gordon is talking about someone else's research and mentions the myth of vibrators being a treatment for hysteria, I am almost 100% certain she addresses this inaccuracy on her podcast, but I still wanted to note for anyone who reads the book and reads this review that that is untrue and was made up years later.
I would absolutely recommend this book; I think this is a good introduction to Gordon's work and a really excellent primer on how to actively fight against anti-fat bias.
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
2.0
I had begun this book a few months ago and only made it partly through the first chapter; I was reading with a friend who read about a hundred pages and DNFed, so I just put it down and decided to read it later. My book club picked this for this month so later became today!
Starting out with what I liked about this story. I really loved the setting. Gong does an excellent job of rooting the reader in place and really bringing Shanghai to life on the page. I was so in love with the way she describes place throughout this book. I found this to be one of the most consistent aspects of this story.
I also really loved the way Gong writes action. Every time we came across an action scene, I was absolutely glued to the page. She really does an excellent job of writing physicality in general, but especially chase or fight scenes. There is one in particular (it is part chase, part fight) that really immerses the reader in a very clear, very high-energy action sequence. I was so excited while reading; if I had been in a chair, I would have been on the edge.
I also loved when the book would cut away from our two main characters and put the reader in the heads of some of the side characters. I really thought the side characters had well-developed and immediately identifiable voices. I was especially glued to Kathleen's scenes. Really just if Kathleen was on the page, I was interested. I did, at times, wish I was reading this book from Kathleen's perspective entirely.
Transitioning into something I felt more conflicted about, Rosalind. At first, I thought Rosalind's character was being used to set up a really interesting character journey for her and Juliette. I thought that through Rosalind, Juliette was going to realize that she is working to uphold a patriarchal power structure that is almost certain to leave behind women like Rosalind, her sister, and the other women of the Scarlett Gang. And there is a chance that this was being set up by Gong, and it continues on in the next book, but Rosalind isn't in much of the last third of the book, and Juliette, at the end of the book, has not analyzed her relationship to power or to Rosalind. I am just worried that Rosalind will be more of a villain than a foil, but I would be delighted to be incorrect!
This brings me to the fact that I don't think I will be finding out if I am incorrect. I don't think I am going to read book two. I might read the spin-off series. But I asked some folks a yes or no question about book two, and the answer to that question popped my interest in reading further.
One of the first things that didn't work for me in this book was Juliette and Roma's character voices. I found while reading the first half of this book, there were many times where I wasn't sure whose point of view I was meant to be in. This was not an issue I had with any of the side characters weirdly. But when the leads were narrating, I just found them so similar. There was finally a moment about halfway through the book where I started to be able to differentiate Roma from Juliette.
Another early thing I didn't like was that Juliette and Roma already had a history as a couple that we didn't see. I thought maybe we would get flashbacks, but instead, we just waited for the characters to relay details about their past. Some of the most interesting things that happened in this story happened in their initial courtship, and it was all past tense and really lacked immediacy. I do like romance books that are 'second chance' romances, and they obviously start the reader in a place where the characters have history.
I just felt so disappointed when I would hear about something that had happened when I would have adored that moment being visceral and in the present. It felt like I was being told over and over that these two people had chemistry, that they had history, and that they had tension, but I didn't really get the chance to feel those things. The two also just don't have that much page time actually together, especially in the first half of the book. I just didn't think they spent enough time as a couple actually building the tension of their relationship.
I also wanted more of the fantasy element of this story. I was really interested in seeing a power originating in Shanghai to counteract the nefarious invading magical force. Throughout this book, I just kept feeling like the magic was almost unnecessary due to its underuse. With a few tweaks, most of this story could stay exactly the same and have zero fantasy elements.
Another thing I didn't like about their dynamic is a place where Gong diverged from the original. Obviously, it is totally fine for Gong to pick what of the original she wants to include; I just think she and I find different aspects of the original story interesting. In this telling, Roma and Juliette are very active in the cyclical violence of the story. They are, in part, the orchestrators of the strife coming in the story. In the original, Romeo and Juliet are being tossed around by fate, the stars themselves have it our for the couple. I really like retellings that maintain the tension of this pair doing everything they can to separate themselves from this cycle, to stop it by ending it in their own actions. I do think there are some interesting things Gong does with them being active participants, particularly with Juliette. But it wasn't enough for me to like this choice generally.
I just really love the tension in a narrative of people grappling with fate. Of characters hurtling toward a fate that the reader can see but the characters are blind to. I think it is really powerful when down well, and I really missed this while reading this book.
Another thing that I didn't like was a good chunk of the culmination of this book relies on the reader needing to want the wealthy powerful gangs to maintain control at the expense of working-class people who have explicitly been established as being underpaid and literally dying in droves. I was very much on the side of the working class people here.
In general, I just really hated the way this book was paced. There is so much information in the first 3/4 of this book that is repeated to the reader; we spend so much time rehashing and reestablishing every time we get a new piece of information. It was a really frustrating reading experience where I felt like Gong didn't trust her readers to keep up. I normally adore a book most people call too long, but truly I would fight the person who edited this book. There was so much in here that I think was interesting and well done, but it was smothered by near-constant repetition.
I know the author was very young when she wrote this book, so I tried to pay extra attention to reading this story generously, but I just could not enjoy the way this story was slowly metered out. It was such an inconsistent experience for me. Gong writes action so well, and she wrote the final revels in such an engaging way I didn't even care that I had known for over a hundred pages. But the book dragged on so much (which I guess one could say about my review, but no one is paying me for this, and my readership is much smaller, haha). There were just so many instances where the reader was told about really interesting events but didn't get to actually experience them happen.
Now, the thing that maybe I hated the most about this reading experience: Mercutio. Mercutio in this story is Marshall. and he does not die. Twice. TWICE. The reason this upset me was it really felt like Gong was pulling her punches. Mercutio's death in the original play is what shows the characters and the audience the true price of cyclical violence. In the play and in this book, there had been other deaths, but seeing a character who we had grown to care about die of preventable violence is one of the most powerful assertions of the predominate lesson of the play. That violent delights have violent ends.
It just felt like Gong was engaging with so much about this story, but not with this lynchpin scene. I felt like she set up this violent world like she was taking the reader on this journey to show the violence of the place and time, the violence of being colonized, and not being able to have stable self-government. But she backed off the immediate heart wrenching consequences. Side characters died almost constantly in this book, but if you were alive when this book started and you are important to Juliette or Roma, you ended this book alive.
When we got to the end of this book, and Juliette shoots Marshall, I immediately felt like I had misjudged Gong, like she wasn't afraid of real gut wrenching consequences for her characters and the reader. And then no. He was alive and now in hiding with Juliette. I did kind of expect this; if there hadn't been an epilogue, I would have searched reviews of book two for Marshall's name. Because once I realized that we weren't going to see his dead body, I knew that that was because he was alive. Off-page deaths are obviously never to be trusted. The way he didn't die is clever; Gong uses a very similar plan as Juliet does in the play to fake her own death. I did think that was clever.
But overall, if I hadn't been reading this book for my book club, I might have DNFed this book the first time she pulled this punch. I truly think these emotional consequences are core to the reason Romeo and Juliet works. Omitting this really showed me that what I was interested in about this story and what Gong was interested in really diverged. Which is fine; obviously, I don't need every book I read to be a book I like. It is just always a bummer when you go into a book assuming you are going to love it only to have that slowly chipped away.
Starting out with what I liked about this story. I really loved the setting. Gong does an excellent job of rooting the reader in place and really bringing Shanghai to life on the page. I was so in love with the way she describes place throughout this book. I found this to be one of the most consistent aspects of this story.
I also really loved the way Gong writes action. Every time we came across an action scene, I was absolutely glued to the page. She really does an excellent job of writing physicality in general, but especially chase or fight scenes. There is one in particular (it is part chase, part fight) that really immerses the reader in a very clear, very high-energy action sequence. I was so excited while reading; if I had been in a chair, I would have been on the edge.
I also loved when the book would cut away from our two main characters and put the reader in the heads of some of the side characters. I really thought the side characters had well-developed and immediately identifiable voices. I was especially glued to Kathleen's scenes. Really just if Kathleen was on the page, I was interested. I did, at times, wish I was reading this book from Kathleen's perspective entirely.
Transitioning into something I felt more conflicted about, Rosalind. At first, I thought Rosalind's character was being used to set up a really interesting character journey for her and Juliette. I thought that through Rosalind, Juliette was going to realize that she is working to uphold a patriarchal power structure that is almost certain to leave behind women like Rosalind, her sister, and the other women of the Scarlett Gang. And there is a chance that this was being set up by Gong, and it continues on in the next book, but Rosalind isn't in much of the last third of the book, and Juliette, at the end of the book, has not analyzed her relationship to power or to Rosalind. I am just worried that Rosalind will be more of a villain than a foil, but I would be delighted to be incorrect!
This brings me to the fact that I don't think I will be finding out if I am incorrect. I don't think I am going to read book two. I might read the spin-off series. But I asked some folks a yes or no question about book two, and the answer to that question popped my interest in reading further.
One of the first things that didn't work for me in this book was Juliette and Roma's character voices. I found while reading the first half of this book, there were many times where I wasn't sure whose point of view I was meant to be in. This was not an issue I had with any of the side characters weirdly. But when the leads were narrating, I just found them so similar. There was finally a moment about halfway through the book where I started to be able to differentiate Roma from Juliette.
Another early thing I didn't like was that Juliette and Roma already had a history as a couple that we didn't see. I thought maybe we would get flashbacks, but instead, we just waited for the characters to relay details about their past. Some of the most interesting things that happened in this story happened in their initial courtship, and it was all past tense and really lacked immediacy. I do like romance books that are 'second chance' romances, and they obviously start the reader in a place where the characters have history.
I just felt so disappointed when I would hear about something that had happened when I would have adored that moment being visceral and in the present. It felt like I was being told over and over that these two people had chemistry, that they had history, and that they had tension, but I didn't really get the chance to feel those things. The two also just don't have that much page time actually together, especially in the first half of the book. I just didn't think they spent enough time as a couple actually building the tension of their relationship.
I also wanted more of the fantasy element of this story. I was really interested in seeing a power originating in Shanghai to counteract the nefarious invading magical force. Throughout this book, I just kept feeling like the magic was almost unnecessary due to its underuse. With a few tweaks, most of this story could stay exactly the same and have zero fantasy elements.
Another thing I didn't like about their dynamic is a place where Gong diverged from the original. Obviously, it is totally fine for Gong to pick what of the original she wants to include; I just think she and I find different aspects of the original story interesting. In this telling, Roma and Juliette are very active in the cyclical violence of the story. They are, in part, the orchestrators of the strife coming in the story. In the original, Romeo and Juliet are being tossed around by fate, the stars themselves have it our for the couple. I really like retellings that maintain the tension of this pair doing everything they can to separate themselves from this cycle, to stop it by ending it in their own actions. I do think there are some interesting things Gong does with them being active participants, particularly with Juliette. But it wasn't enough for me to like this choice generally.
I just really love the tension in a narrative of people grappling with fate. Of characters hurtling toward a fate that the reader can see but the characters are blind to. I think it is really powerful when down well, and I really missed this while reading this book.
Another thing that I didn't like was a good chunk of the culmination of this book relies on the reader needing to want the wealthy powerful gangs to maintain control at the expense of working-class people who have explicitly been established as being underpaid and literally dying in droves. I was very much on the side of the working class people here.
In general, I just really hated the way this book was paced. There is so much information in the first 3/4 of this book that is repeated to the reader; we spend so much time rehashing and reestablishing every time we get a new piece of information. It was a really frustrating reading experience where I felt like Gong didn't trust her readers to keep up. I normally adore a book most people call too long, but truly I would fight the person who edited this book. There was so much in here that I think was interesting and well done, but it was smothered by near-constant repetition.
I know the author was very young when she wrote this book, so I tried to pay extra attention to reading this story generously, but I just could not enjoy the way this story was slowly metered out. It was such an inconsistent experience for me. Gong writes action so well, and she wrote the final revels in such an engaging way I didn't even care that I had known for over a hundred pages. But the book dragged on so much (which I guess one could say about my review, but no one is paying me for this, and my readership is much smaller, haha). There were just so many instances where the reader was told about really interesting events but didn't get to actually experience them happen.
Now, the thing that maybe I hated the most about this reading experience: Mercutio. Mercutio in this story is Marshall. and he does not die. Twice. TWICE. The reason this upset me was it really felt like Gong was pulling her punches. Mercutio's death in the original play is what shows the characters and the audience the true price of cyclical violence. In the play and in this book, there had been other deaths, but seeing a character who we had grown to care about die of preventable violence is one of the most powerful assertions of the predominate lesson of the play. That violent delights have violent ends.
It just felt like Gong was engaging with so much about this story, but not with this lynchpin scene. I felt like she set up this violent world like she was taking the reader on this journey to show the violence of the place and time, the violence of being colonized, and not being able to have stable self-government. But she backed off the immediate heart wrenching consequences. Side characters died almost constantly in this book, but if you were alive when this book started and you are important to Juliette or Roma, you ended this book alive.
When we got to the end of this book, and Juliette shoots Marshall, I immediately felt like I had misjudged Gong, like she wasn't afraid of real gut wrenching consequences for her characters and the reader. And then no. He was alive and now in hiding with Juliette. I did kind of expect this; if there hadn't been an epilogue, I would have searched reviews of book two for Marshall's name. Because once I realized that we weren't going to see his dead body, I knew that that was because he was alive. Off-page deaths are obviously never to be trusted. The way he didn't die is clever; Gong uses a very similar plan as Juliet does in the play to fake her own death. I did think that was clever.
But overall, if I hadn't been reading this book for my book club, I might have DNFed this book the first time she pulled this punch. I truly think these emotional consequences are core to the reason Romeo and Juliet works. Omitting this really showed me that what I was interested in about this story and what Gong was interested in really diverged. Which is fine; obviously, I don't need every book I read to be a book I like. It is just always a bummer when you go into a book assuming you are going to love it only to have that slowly chipped away.
We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
3.0
I took a slightly over nine-month break after I read 48% of this book. But it only took like 30 pages to get back into the story after that break.
I really liked the setup portion of this story. I was really interested in the character relationships that were beautifully built around Zafira. I also was really invested in the corrupt and dangerous world Nasir was entrenched in. So once the two of them met and were given a mission to go to a third location to retrieve a magic item for competing reasons, a lot of the things I was invested in suddenly were not the focal point.
I did find a lot of this book very predictable. So much of this book drew my mind back to other book series (or to Pirates of the Caribbean), not necessarily in a bad way, just in a way that I kind of kept expecting to be subverted but just never really was. But I fully expect it to be subverted in book two.
This book also has so many fight scenes that are very similar to each other, and quite a few of them were one after another without much in the interim. I just didn't like this; the pacing of the fight scenes really should have made me want to keep reading, but it just kind of made me space out. It was basically a race to the end of the book to see if I would be sparked to continue with the series.
I did really enjoy this books ending. I had guessed two of the big plot reveals, but there was a third that I really did like and was surprised by. What really got me at the end of the book was the emotional stakes that suddenly ratcheted up in the last 50 ish pages. I was hooked.
I really liked the setup portion of this story. I was really interested in the character relationships that were beautifully built around Zafira. I also was really invested in the corrupt and dangerous world Nasir was entrenched in. So once the two of them met and were given a mission to go to a third location to retrieve a magic item for competing reasons, a lot of the things I was invested in suddenly were not the focal point.
I did find a lot of this book very predictable. So much of this book drew my mind back to other book series (or to Pirates of the Caribbean), not necessarily in a bad way, just in a way that I kind of kept expecting to be subverted but just never really was. But I fully expect it to be subverted in book two.
This book also has so many fight scenes that are very similar to each other, and quite a few of them were one after another without much in the interim. I just didn't like this; the pacing of the fight scenes really should have made me want to keep reading, but it just kind of made me space out. It was basically a race to the end of the book to see if I would be sparked to continue with the series.
I did really enjoy this books ending. I had guessed two of the big plot reveals, but there was a third that I really did like and was surprised by. What really got me at the end of the book was the emotional stakes that suddenly ratcheted up in the last 50 ish pages. I was hooked.
The Bronzed Beasts by Roshani Chokshi
3.0
I am very torn about how I feel regarding this series. Overall I do think it is an enjoyable, fun story; I think Chokshi takes on lots of really big and interesting questions throughout the story. She writes a really engaging adventure that anyone with basic history knowledge can puzzle out at least some of the clues.
I love the way Chokshi clearly envokes colonialism and the harm that is caused. I loved the thoughtful way she picked out each of her main characters. Séverin, Laila, Enrique, Hypnos, and Zofia each sit at their own unique intersection with power, privilege, religion, race, and wealth. These different positionings allow Chokshi to tell a nuanced and wide-reaching tale regarding the impacts of settler colonialism.
Something really fundamental about this story that does not make much sense to me is the choice to write this as a YA and not an adult. I cannot remember exactly how old these characters are meant to be, but however old they are canonically, they read as minimum 25, with the exception of Zofia, who I will be addressing later. I think so much that is core to this story would have fit beautifully into a story written for adults.
Chokshi is heavy-handed with foreshadowing and is quite a bit more explicit with some things than I think is always required; she gives the reader the same piece of information multiple times or allows the reader too much time between when they are given information and when the characters actually are able to put clues together. I assume this is more a feature of her writing for a YA audience and that if she had wanted this to be adult, this would have been different. I do think she slightly underestimates the intelligence of her younger audience, and I wish she were a bit more subtle, but by book three, this no longer really bothered me; I expected the way it was written to match the first two books.
Another thing that frustrated me a little in the earlier books was the lack of explanation of the magic system. I just did not understand what was and what was not possible in this world, which makes it easy for the magic to seem very Deux ex Machina when it is used to solve big plot problems. I did just decide to roll with it while I was reading this book; I accepted that I was not going to really know what limitations magic had in this world. The big central thing that happens with the plot was solved by magic, which was a touch annoying, but I did fully expect it.
There was a twist with the way the divine was handled in this book. I did guess it slightly before the midpoint of the story. But I really think this could have been written as a choice that would have made Séverin's character development make way more sense. If this thing had been an active choice and not due to the mystical nature of the divine, I would have been delighted. It really seemed like the story was building to this big choice, a choice that was never made, and instead, Séverin just changed anyway?
Part of the emotional development of this series has relied on a character who died in book one named Tristan. I truly do not think that character got anywhere near the amount of page time or character development he needed to be playing such a central role in this book. I literally knew he was going to die in his first interaction with another character, and then kind of out of nowhere, at the end of book one, it is revealed that he was torturing birds. I just think he needed more page time before he died. And it is absolutely bizarre that the book ends with a bird rehabilitation facility in his honor. I truly am baffled by where I am meant to have developed all this nostalgia for this character that was barely on the page.
Getting into more neutral territory, there is an extended scene in a cave that has very strong Half-Blood Prince vibes. It came right after the slightly evil magical artifact started showing signs of living, which obviously gives echoes of Horcruxes. I am in no way implying that this is direct mimicry, or even really bad, just that other people who have this story kind of hardwired into their storytelling brain might also see these echos!
Now I want to talk about Zofia. I have talked about her being maybe my favorite character in my previous reviews of this series, and I absolutely still agree with everything I have said about her being a good character. But I do still have some aspects of her development that bother me. The first is that Zofia reads as a child a lot of the time, which is really weird with her being the only neurodivergent character in this story. The way her romance is written is infinitely more chaste than any other relationship, I think it is fine to have a more chaste romance, but it does play into the pervasive idea that ND people are childlike.
My other big complaint about Zofia is how her Jewishness is handled. It is barely on the page except when it is connected to discrimination. The one time her Jewishness is mentioned outside of the harm it is causing her seemed very very much out of line with Jewish theology. It seems like Chokshi researched what would have been happening to a Jewish girl at this time but was not very thorough with how her religion and culture would have impacted her. The instance her religion and culture were brought up was with Zofia thinking about the divine; she thinks "God was not a being whose expressions she could study and put into context." This does directly contradict the way rabbis have discussed their religion for centuries. The idea that it would be bad for a Jewish person to question their religion is so divorced from any research into Jewish religious practice. Chokshi also could have very easily written Zofia as a Jewish atheist in a way that was just as rooted in her cultural background. This paired with Zofia having features that are not typical Jewish features and having her only mention Hanukkah and not any of the major Jewish holidays just makes it seem like Chokshi didn't really research this very deeply.
On the topic of her Jewishness, earlier books in this series seemed to be alluding to growing violence towards Jewish people during this time period, but it is never mentioned again, and we are just told she lives a happy life, which is excellent, but she's living in Paris in the late 1800s and we assume her long and happy life would mean she lives through the early 1900s. I am kind of just confused why Chokshi would introduce this story line then have antisemitism disappear with no mention of how or why. Especially because she specifically has religious unrest at the end of the book.
This all being said, I actually did like the ending, even if I feel like Séverin's character growth wasn't really earned. I do think he ended up kind of paying penance by way of time, and I am always very pro-longing. The ending was a beautiful vignette of longing.
The way Zofia, Enrique, and Hypnos ended, I liked as well. I did expect some sort of poly relationship with how book two went, but I did hope that Chokshi would use book three to flesh out Zofia and Hypnos's relationship. By the end of the book, I literally have zero idea if they are romantically tied to each other or if they are just both friends and fine with having separate relationships with Enrique. This was a pretty big character development thing that I just think needed a little bit more page time. I truly think this got enough foreshadowing but not enough build-up. I understand Enrique's connection to both of the others so well; I wish we had a similar level of development between Zofia and Hypnos.
It was sometimes frustrating throughout this series to see Chokshi play into some bisexual stereotypes that just aren't really challenged. I specifically continue to think she wrote Hypnos's sexuality with less care than the character deserved. He just didn't get the page time required to give him a more fleshed-out presence. He didn't have the time needed for Chokshi to develop his character in a way that either pushed back against the stereotypical representation or developed him much beyond this.
Despite my continued complicated feelings about this book, I am glad I finished this series.
I love the way Chokshi clearly envokes colonialism and the harm that is caused. I loved the thoughtful way she picked out each of her main characters. Séverin, Laila, Enrique, Hypnos, and Zofia each sit at their own unique intersection with power, privilege, religion, race, and wealth. These different positionings allow Chokshi to tell a nuanced and wide-reaching tale regarding the impacts of settler colonialism.
Something really fundamental about this story that does not make much sense to me is the choice to write this as a YA and not an adult. I cannot remember exactly how old these characters are meant to be, but however old they are canonically, they read as minimum 25, with the exception of Zofia, who I will be addressing later. I think so much that is core to this story would have fit beautifully into a story written for adults.
Chokshi is heavy-handed with foreshadowing and is quite a bit more explicit with some things than I think is always required; she gives the reader the same piece of information multiple times or allows the reader too much time between when they are given information and when the characters actually are able to put clues together. I assume this is more a feature of her writing for a YA audience and that if she had wanted this to be adult, this would have been different. I do think she slightly underestimates the intelligence of her younger audience, and I wish she were a bit more subtle, but by book three, this no longer really bothered me; I expected the way it was written to match the first two books.
Another thing that frustrated me a little in the earlier books was the lack of explanation of the magic system. I just did not understand what was and what was not possible in this world, which makes it easy for the magic to seem very Deux ex Machina when it is used to solve big plot problems. I did just decide to roll with it while I was reading this book; I accepted that I was not going to really know what limitations magic had in this world. The big central thing that happens with the plot was solved by magic, which was a touch annoying, but I did fully expect it.
There was a twist with the way the divine was handled in this book. I did guess it slightly before the midpoint of the story. But I really think this could have been written as a choice that would have made Séverin's character development make way more sense. If this thing had been an active choice and not due to the mystical nature of the divine, I would have been delighted. It really seemed like the story was building to this big choice, a choice that was never made, and instead, Séverin just changed anyway?
Part of the emotional development of this series has relied on a character who died in book one named Tristan. I truly do not think that character got anywhere near the amount of page time or character development he needed to be playing such a central role in this book. I literally knew he was going to die in his first interaction with another character, and then kind of out of nowhere, at the end of book one, it is revealed that he was torturing birds. I just think he needed more page time before he died. And it is absolutely bizarre that the book ends with a bird rehabilitation facility in his honor. I truly am baffled by where I am meant to have developed all this nostalgia for this character that was barely on the page.
Getting into more neutral territory, there is an extended scene in a cave that has very strong Half-Blood Prince vibes. It came right after the slightly evil magical artifact started showing signs of living, which obviously gives echoes of Horcruxes. I am in no way implying that this is direct mimicry, or even really bad, just that other people who have this story kind of hardwired into their storytelling brain might also see these echos!
Now I want to talk about Zofia. I have talked about her being maybe my favorite character in my previous reviews of this series, and I absolutely still agree with everything I have said about her being a good character. But I do still have some aspects of her development that bother me. The first is that Zofia reads as a child a lot of the time, which is really weird with her being the only neurodivergent character in this story. The way her romance is written is infinitely more chaste than any other relationship, I think it is fine to have a more chaste romance, but it does play into the pervasive idea that ND people are childlike.
My other big complaint about Zofia is how her Jewishness is handled. It is barely on the page except when it is connected to discrimination. The one time her Jewishness is mentioned outside of the harm it is causing her seemed very very much out of line with Jewish theology. It seems like Chokshi researched what would have been happening to a Jewish girl at this time but was not very thorough with how her religion and culture would have impacted her. The instance her religion and culture were brought up was with Zofia thinking about the divine; she thinks "God was not a being whose expressions she could study and put into context." This does directly contradict the way rabbis have discussed their religion for centuries. The idea that it would be bad for a Jewish person to question their religion is so divorced from any research into Jewish religious practice. Chokshi also could have very easily written Zofia as a Jewish atheist in a way that was just as rooted in her cultural background. This paired with Zofia having features that are not typical Jewish features and having her only mention Hanukkah and not any of the major Jewish holidays just makes it seem like Chokshi didn't really research this very deeply.
On the topic of her Jewishness, earlier books in this series seemed to be alluding to growing violence towards Jewish people during this time period, but it is never mentioned again, and we are just told she lives a happy life, which is excellent, but she's living in Paris in the late 1800s and we assume her long and happy life would mean she lives through the early 1900s. I am kind of just confused why Chokshi would introduce this story line then have antisemitism disappear with no mention of how or why. Especially because she specifically has religious unrest at the end of the book.
This all being said, I actually did like the ending, even if I feel like Séverin's character growth wasn't really earned. I do think he ended up kind of paying penance by way of time, and I am always very pro-longing. The ending was a beautiful vignette of longing.
The way Zofia, Enrique, and Hypnos ended, I liked as well. I did expect some sort of poly relationship with how book two went, but I did hope that Chokshi would use book three to flesh out Zofia and Hypnos's relationship. By the end of the book, I literally have zero idea if they are romantically tied to each other or if they are just both friends and fine with having separate relationships with Enrique. This was a pretty big character development thing that I just think needed a little bit more page time. I truly think this got enough foreshadowing but not enough build-up. I understand Enrique's connection to both of the others so well; I wish we had a similar level of development between Zofia and Hypnos.
It was sometimes frustrating throughout this series to see Chokshi play into some bisexual stereotypes that just aren't really challenged. I specifically continue to think she wrote Hypnos's sexuality with less care than the character deserved. He just didn't get the page time required to give him a more fleshed-out presence. He didn't have the time needed for Chokshi to develop his character in a way that either pushed back against the stereotypical representation or developed him much beyond this.
Despite my continued complicated feelings about this book, I am glad I finished this series.
Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison
3.0
I am pretty torn about this book.
Good Girls Lie is a murder mystery surrounding an American boarding school called Goode; we open on the death of a girl named Ash and then go back in time to Ash arriving at Goode from England. Ash is recently orphaned in a set of events that are mired by scandal, so she is excited to have a new life far away from people who know her.
I did really like the setup of this book, all the moments of the story being set up, and the slow layering of mysteries in the beginning of the book. I was really interested while Ellison was opening all these questions; my mind was very engaged with the text. But as I read, and as I got more answers, I started questioning parts of the narrative that were not meant to be in question.
Ash's engagement with coding was a bit odd; I don't know a ton about it, but she worked in Java and on a mac, and those two things just don't mesh well with what I've been told by other computer-ish people. This was a very minor detail, and the narrative does just skate over these things, so it isn't a huge deal. The bigger things that bothered me were the technology rules around the school were bizarre. I just cannot believe that these kids and their parents would be okay with a complete no personal technology rule. And the fact that this extended to no tech-based security measure was bananas. These two factors just seemed like they were the case because the author wanted to set this story in the past but didn't fully commit. I think, in general, this story would have been better suited to being set in the past with very, very minimal changes.
Once we started getting answers to questions, I began to like the writing style less and less. Little things started distracting me. I didn't inherently dislike the plot and character reveals, a lot of the time, I liked them, but I just didn't always think they were done very well. Or at least they were done in a way that didn't always work for me, even when I liked what it was intellectually. Some of the secondary points of view did not feel like they were wrapped up, specifically the detective. I can imagine the end being a little bothersome to some folks, but I actually really liked the very end.
I think I will be giving this book three stars, but I am not entirely sure if that is accurate. I mostly just felt very odd about this book. I might read another book by this author to see if it is her writing style or this book.
Good Girls Lie is a murder mystery surrounding an American boarding school called Goode; we open on the death of a girl named Ash and then go back in time to Ash arriving at Goode from England. Ash is recently orphaned in a set of events that are mired by scandal, so she is excited to have a new life far away from people who know her.
I did really like the setup of this book, all the moments of the story being set up, and the slow layering of mysteries in the beginning of the book. I was really interested while Ellison was opening all these questions; my mind was very engaged with the text. But as I read, and as I got more answers, I started questioning parts of the narrative that were not meant to be in question.
Ash's engagement with coding was a bit odd; I don't know a ton about it, but she worked in Java and on a mac, and those two things just don't mesh well with what I've been told by other computer-ish people. This was a very minor detail, and the narrative does just skate over these things, so it isn't a huge deal. The bigger things that bothered me were the technology rules around the school were bizarre. I just cannot believe that these kids and their parents would be okay with a complete no personal technology rule. And the fact that this extended to no tech-based security measure was bananas. These two factors just seemed like they were the case because the author wanted to set this story in the past but didn't fully commit. I think, in general, this story would have been better suited to being set in the past with very, very minimal changes.
Once we started getting answers to questions, I began to like the writing style less and less. Little things started distracting me. I didn't inherently dislike the plot and character reveals, a lot of the time, I liked them, but I just didn't always think they were done very well. Or at least they were done in a way that didn't always work for me, even when I liked what it was intellectually. Some of the secondary points of view did not feel like they were wrapped up, specifically the detective. I can imagine the end being a little bothersome to some folks, but I actually really liked the very end.
I think I will be giving this book three stars, but I am not entirely sure if that is accurate. I mostly just felt very odd about this book. I might read another book by this author to see if it is her writing style or this book.