beforeviolets's reviews
431 reviews

Nicked by M.T. Anderson

At times profound, at times gloriously adventurous, at times macroscopic, and at other times so goddamn ridiculous with its humor I had to throw the book down and bury my face in my hands and say "I can not believe this", NICKED is a bizarre little historical heist story.

I'm not sure if I'm moved or satisfied – I am certainly still reeling over the whiplash of reading "taut body" in a titillating tone followed by the most unhinged dick joke I've heard in my life followed by the poetic closing moral observations of the narrative within the span of literally a page – but I had a good time.

CW: violence, death, character death, illness, fire, dead bodies, sexual content (not graphic), xenophobia, racism

The Wonder of Women; Or, the Tragedie of Sophonisba, as It Hath Beene Sundry Times Acted at the Blacke Friers by John Marston

This play very much is discussed as an early modern play about witchcraft, but I’d argue this play has muuuuch more to say about virginity, about gendered perceptions of sex and sexual urges, about fame, about conquest, and about national pride. The witch character shows up for all of one scene.

Also I actually have no idea how I feel about the play itself. I feel like I need to reread it with the right expectations in mind.

The Witch by Thomas Middleton

Middleton writes such brilliantly convoluted and disjointed bizarre plays. They sometimes don't really work for me and sometimes really do.

Whereas Shakespeare (sorry to compare, but he's of course the touchstone for early modern drama) ties his many plots together, Middleton pieces together plots that are seemingly incongruent. But somehow, sometimes, it works. This one really interestingly turns some trends on its head, and I think is the play that is most accurately titled a tragicomedy that I've read. Maybe because the genres occur in that order, whereas they often start with comedy and end with tragedy. 

I definitely would love to see a production of this, it was a blast, with the proper amount of emotional stakes that a tragedy delivers and the absurdity and deus ex machinas that a comedy delivers. 

Cymbeline: The Oxford Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

a classmate of mine said this is essentially just shrek 2 and you know what? yeah. I see it.

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

Give me medieval queer cannibalistic fever dreams forever. Caitlin Starling truly understands the power of slow, eerie, mindfuckery as a horror genre, and though it may not be for everyone, her approach is definitely for me.

All types of horror have their value, but the thing I love about Starling’s books is that they function in individual and particular narrative pockets. Though there is plenty of moral discussion to be had about meaning or metaphor, they’re almost less profound and reflective and more somewhat escapist in their contained scope and vibe. They feel truly like dreams, not only in their confused what-the-fuck logic but in the way they feel like leaving the world behind to go exist in some super specific crafted reality. They aren’t neat or tidy and they aren’t especially linear or purposeful in terms of impact. But they are an absolute weird ass vibe and I love them for it.

And I loved getting to dream away the time in this world of bacchanalian madness in a claustrophobic castle with bees, trickster beings, nuns, cannibalism, and fucked up complicated lesbian yearning. I had been craving this exact concoction of honey and wine and blood.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

CW: cannibalism, blood & gore, violence, dismemberment, mutilation, dead bodies, murder, death, character death, claustrophobia, alcohol, death of father (past), grief, drowning, emesis

Greenteeth by Molly O'Neill

*I read a slightly early version of this book!

GREENTEETH is a folkloric fantasy story that I think will appeal to the cozy fantasy readers with its eclectic cast, small-scale world building, and quest-like journey. 

I do want to briefly mention I was rubbed the wrong way by the character who is a money-obsessed goblin peddler. It was clear the author just wanted him to be some kind of generic low fae, but these specific associations hit too close to home with English antisemitic imagery and stereotypes, especially medieval and early modern ones. If I had read this as a sensitivity reader, I probably would’ve suggested making him some kind of general trickster fae peddler, which would have worked better in crafting the folkloric world the author was wanting while also avoiding this specific collection of ideas that build an unfortunate negative parallel. (He does end up becoming a main character and is only really money-obsessed in the first scene, and is never described as having stereotypical features that often connected goblins to Jews such as a hooked nose, so this wasn’t particularly abrasive, but still worth mentioning!)

I say this not in the interest of “cancelling” this book or this author, or even in deterring folks away from this book! As I said, I don’t think it’s especially harmful considering the lack of caricatured features and the dimensionality of the character (personally! though other folks may disagree with me and I do not claim to speak for all Jewish folks here). In my opinion, with a problem of this scale and circumstance, it is worth critiquing and saying that it shouldn’t be repeated without discarding the media that makes the mistake. I want people to be aware of this problem and call it out and make sure they’re not internalizing these associations without awareness or replicating them in future works.

For a beginning look on the history of Jews and goblins, I highly recommend a read through this well-researched article by Jewitches: https://jewitches.com/blogs/blog/goblins-jews-and-antisemitism-1?srsltid=AfmBOooQM69vJmWeAkc2azD0fs5JZB_rxVVImgOimozVeoX4D4nKZWNj 

A Guest in the House by E.M. Carroll

I'm drowning in my adoring fascination for this book. My jaw dropped from the artwork on page 2. And it only got more meaty and gorgeous from there. A graphic novel gothic complete with ghosts, sexual repression, hallucinations, and the most complex and open-to-interpretation ending I've perhaps ever come across in my life, Emily Carroll has created my newest obsession. I immediately ran to go purchase a copy so I can use post-it notes to annotate and try to connect all the strings of this intricate spider web of a tale.

If anyone wants to join in a riveting discussion of this book's themes of grief and homosexuality and motherhood and daughterhood and loneliness and try with all their might to try to make some sense of this, please hit me up.

CW: suicide (past), death of mother (past), death of sibling (past), murder, drowning, derealization/unreality, hallucinations, sexual content (vague, brief), blood & gore, violence

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

A really fascinating horror novella that unexpectedly reimagines The Little Mermaid as a sanitized and rewritten history of a mermaid’s capture and torture, following her and her unlikely companion after her escape. Khaw explores the way men of power turn their violence into tools of control through easy to digest narratives, convincing the masses that their acts of harm are acts of benevolence and generosity. I think this will speak to folks with religious or medical trauma, or folks interested in questioning narratives of history written by those in charge.

The prose is perhaps the most purple I have ever seen, and at times finds itself eclipsing the storytelling. It has its moments of benefit (loved it with the gore and body horror) but also had its moments of egregious obfuscation to the story. I did learn a lot of new words from it though so that was fun!

CW: blood & gore, violence, body horror, cannibalism, auto cannibalism, medical torture, medical content, torture, confinement, animal death, child death, grief, character death, fire, trauma, childbirth (past)

The Well by Jake Wyatt

The artwork in this was so so so gorgeous. Any time I pick up a First Second graphic novel, I just know the art is going to be top tier, and this was no exception. From the character design to the grand atmosphere, it was just stunning.

I also really loved the story at hand. It felt very much like a myth or fable in the style of oral storytelling for the sake of passion on generational lessons in its structure. It had a moral without being a lecture.

But as other reviews have mentioned, there was some unnecessary antisemitism. This book has greedy trickster goblins that are in control of an island of money and eat the people who try to take it. There were definitely plenty of alternatives to this as a plot beat. And frankly, the fact that this side quest plot beat was about greed was a little redundant as money plays so much into the main storyline as it is. (Why have I been reading/seeing so many books with antisemitic goblins this year?)

CW: violence, death of loved ones, grief, kidnapping, blood, fire, illness

The Witch of Edmonton by Thomas Dekker, John Ford, William Rowley

I have not seen the word "Bow-wow" written out in earnest since I was probably five years old.

This was a decently fun tragicomedy and I would absolutely love to see this staged–it would be such a fucking blast if treated as the campy piece it's meant to be.

In terms of rhetoric: I really enjoyed and was frankly impressed by the way this play confronts the construction of biases in the system of witch hunts–who gets labelled as a witch and who gets condemned as a witch. I was not really expecting it to go that hard with the social commentary. Very convenient as a historical account of the early modern view of witches! Thanks guys!

As a piece of entertainment, oh boy am I obsessed with this little slippery prankster demon Dog. He felt like a cool and dark twist on the fool archetype mixed with Puck from Midsummer and he just was such a delicious character. I can only imagine how much of a joy he would be to play. I want him to be in every play actually.

I do wish the actual witch of Edmonton herself had more to do with the main events of the story; she seemed to kind of exist to rant about misogyny and class (and eloquently so, but) or to justify the presence of the Dog, and I think she should've been allowed to have some fun in the plot, goddamnit!