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christinecc's reviews
956 reviews
Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Ok, truth time for "Truth of the Divine."
- The bad news is that I was super nervous about reading this sequel because the first book left me confused (entertained, but confused).
- The good news is that reading "Truth of the Divine" felt like eating a bucket of popcorn at the movies, and I got hooked in spite of my better judgment. (Much sleep was sacrificed to this book. Just one more chapter...)
"Truth of the Divine" is the second installment of the Noumena series and picks up right where "Axiom's End," well, ends. Main character Cora is recovering (poorly) from the ordeal of the first book's finale, Ampersand the extraterrestrial is somehow more comforting and less trustworthy than when she met him in the back of a van, and a minor character makes a big, big comeback in the form of Kaveh Mazandarani, journalist & globe-trotter extraordinaire (complete with bad jokes and many internal narration exclamation points). Plus we keep Sol Kaplan, CIA agent and resident Sad & Frustrated Man (who gets some added depth this time around!).
The story starts off slow and fairly rough: Cora's working for the government now, interpreting for the ETs (or ETIs, as they go by here), and having, as the kids say, a Straight-Up Bad Time. She can't turn to anyone but Ampersand, which isn't great considering she barely knows him and he's not terribly thrilled about being mind-connected to a human he can't begin to understand. (Not that this isn't his fault, it's totally his fault.) And then we meet Kaveh, and more aliens, and suddenly the ball gets rolling like a boulder chasing after an 80s action hero. As a bonus, author Lindsay Ellis gives us more repulsive glimpses of Cora's manipulative father Nils (from afar) and some good old American political circus adventures to boot.
If you read "Axiom's End" and feel ambivalent about picking this up: squash that feeling. Seriously. This is a great time. Darker, with some content warnings for trauma and suicide, but it grabs you with earnest emotions and a boost in energy that was missing from the first installment.
Recommended for anyone who likes a summer-popcorn adventure that isn't afraid to delve into the bad consequences of living through the previous summer-popcorn movie. Also good for anyone who wants to laugh one second and tear up the next.
One more warning: if you know any elderly people who speak Farsi,,, maybe don't ask them what "Jendeh" means when used as a greeting. Just google it.
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for granting me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
- The bad news is that I was super nervous about reading this sequel because the first book left me confused (entertained, but confused).
- The good news is that reading "Truth of the Divine" felt like eating a bucket of popcorn at the movies, and I got hooked in spite of my better judgment. (Much sleep was sacrificed to this book. Just one more chapter...)
"Truth of the Divine" is the second installment of the Noumena series and picks up right where "Axiom's End," well, ends. Main character Cora is recovering (poorly) from the ordeal of the first book's finale, Ampersand the extraterrestrial is somehow more comforting and less trustworthy than when she met him in the back of a van, and a minor character makes a big, big comeback in the form of Kaveh Mazandarani, journalist & globe-trotter extraordinaire (complete with bad jokes and many internal narration exclamation points). Plus we keep Sol Kaplan, CIA agent and resident Sad & Frustrated Man (who gets some added depth this time around!).
The story starts off slow and fairly rough: Cora's working for the government now, interpreting for the ETs (or ETIs, as they go by here), and having, as the kids say, a Straight-Up Bad Time. She can't turn to anyone but Ampersand, which isn't great considering she barely knows him and he's not terribly thrilled about being mind-connected to a human he can't begin to understand. (Not that this isn't his fault, it's totally his fault.) And then we meet Kaveh, and more aliens, and suddenly the ball gets rolling like a boulder chasing after an 80s action hero. As a bonus, author Lindsay Ellis gives us more repulsive glimpses of Cora's manipulative father Nils (from afar) and some good old American political circus adventures to boot.
If you read "Axiom's End" and feel ambivalent about picking this up: squash that feeling. Seriously. This is a great time. Darker, with some content warnings for trauma and suicide, but it grabs you with earnest emotions and a boost in energy that was missing from the first installment.
Recommended for anyone who likes a summer-popcorn adventure that isn't afraid to delve into the bad consequences of living through the previous summer-popcorn movie. Also good for anyone who wants to laugh one second and tear up the next.
One more warning: if you know any elderly people who speak Farsi,,, maybe don't ask them what "Jendeh" means when used as a greeting. Just google it.
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for granting me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Forced institutionalization
Muskets and Minuets by Lindsey S. Fera
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
medium-paced
4.0
American Revolutionaries, Patriots vs Loyalists, and girls with muskets and Mozart: a recipe for a fantastic piece of historical fiction.
Set in and around Boston, "Muskets and Minuets" stars a young cast of characters who want freedom at every level, starting with their life at home. Annalisa, second daughter of the Howlett family, yearns for more than ladylike talents and husband-hunting. Instead, she escapes into practicing music and, with the help of her older brother George, marksmanship. Incidentally, George is only a half-brother, so when George's cousin Jack Perkins turns up, we immediately see the chemistry bubbling between Jack & Annalisa. Not to mention tempers rising as the English Crown pushes its luck and the American opposition grows stronger.
What I loved about this adventure was the historical world it created. It's joyful and greasy and smells of gunpowder with perfume. There are shoot-outs, hideously painful tarring ordeals, crowds that go from invigorating to chaotic, and news from France about impending revolution and a new piece by Mozart. It's not polished or cleaned up for us, it feels lived-in. I especially appreciated the use of slang and the care put into better representation with Native American and African American people who were 100% present and actively involved in 18th century Boston. Fera's research payed off. Her book's world is as immersive and real as the best worldbuilding.
Plot-wise, look. It's got some romance, it's got a little twinge of "I'm not like Other Girls" with Annalisa, and the love triangle starts to wear thin after the halfway mark, but it's all entertaining. Maybe the second half suffered more from the plot contrivances than the first half did, and the American Revolution fades a little at the end so that we're mostly left with interpersonal drama. Ah well. I'd still read it again for a Fourth of July weekend.
Recommended for historical fiction fans, anyone curious about daily life circa the American Revolution, and romantic drama enthusiasts. (Also, Georgette Heyer readers might appreciate the slang with an American twist and familiar favorites a tad "disguised.")
Thank you to NetGalley and GenZ Publishing for granting me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Set in and around Boston, "Muskets and Minuets" stars a young cast of characters who want freedom at every level, starting with their life at home. Annalisa, second daughter of the Howlett family, yearns for more than ladylike talents and husband-hunting. Instead, she escapes into practicing music and, with the help of her older brother George, marksmanship. Incidentally, George is only a half-brother, so when George's cousin Jack Perkins turns up, we immediately see the chemistry bubbling between Jack & Annalisa. Not to mention tempers rising as the English Crown pushes its luck and the American opposition grows stronger.
What I loved about this adventure was the historical world it created. It's joyful and greasy and smells of gunpowder with perfume. There are shoot-outs, hideously painful tarring ordeals, crowds that go from invigorating to chaotic, and news from France about impending revolution and a new piece by Mozart. It's not polished or cleaned up for us, it feels lived-in. I especially appreciated the use of slang and the care put into better representation with Native American and African American people who were 100% present and actively involved in 18th century Boston. Fera's research payed off. Her book's world is as immersive and real as the best worldbuilding.
Plot-wise, look. It's got some romance, it's got a little twinge of "I'm not like Other Girls" with Annalisa, and the love triangle starts to wear thin after the halfway mark, but it's all entertaining. Maybe the second half suffered more from the plot contrivances than the first half did, and the American Revolution fades a little at the end so that we're mostly left with interpersonal drama. Ah well. I'd still read it again for a Fourth of July weekend.
Recommended for historical fiction fans, anyone curious about daily life circa the American Revolution, and romantic drama enthusiasts. (Also, Georgette Heyer readers might appreciate the slang with an American twist and familiar favorites a tad "disguised.")
Thank you to NetGalley and GenZ Publishing for granting me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault
The Writer's Crusade: Kurt Vonnegut and the Many Lives of Slaughterhouse-Five by Tom Roston
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Both an excellent analysis of and introduction to Kurt Vonnegut's renowned novel, "Slaughterhouse Five."
Now is probably as good a time as any to admit: no, I haven't read 'Slaughterhouse Five." Imagine my surprise when Tom Roston, with one of the punchiest beginnings to a nonfiction piece I've seen in years, lays out one of the key pieces of the novel: an account, based on Vonnegut's memory, of how he survived the Dresden bombing and its aftermath as a WWII POW. Powerful stuff. Which is why, fellow Vonnegut newbies, I recommend that you try picking this book up before reading the novel. Or at the very least, you shouldn't hesitate to do so.
Tom Roston does an incredible job discussing the life of the author and how his career and personal development led him to draft, rework, and eventually publish "Slaughterhouse." He places it in the context of other veteran accounts at the time (and even those long before Vonnegut was born) and how Vonnegut's style found its place among other authors (which is basically how Vonnegut made the leap from the oft-neglected science-fiction drawer to the esteemed literary bookshelf). Along the way, Roston recaps the treatment of PTSD, what exactly that diagnosis has signified over the years, the slow rise of WWII veteran accounts as America began to grapple with war and its trauma with every additional conflict. It's a history of Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse, and the anti-war veteran narrative all wrapped in one volume.
I particularly appreciated how Roston mostly shied away from easy answers to questions like "Did Vonnegut have PTSD?" and "Was Vonnegut anti-violence or even against guns?" There are a lot more issues covered, too, thanks to Roston's interviews with veterans from other military conflicts of various types.
Overall, this was a tough but interesting read. I don't think I realized what a punch it packed until I was dwelling on some of the stories of grief and death included, though they never seemed gratuitous. Maybe that's why they had such an impact.
Recommended for anyone interested in Vonnegut, how a famous author's publishing career developed in the late 20th century, and the history of how men have coped with and expressed (through writing) their experience during and after war.
Thank you to Abrams Press and Netgalley for sending me a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Now is probably as good a time as any to admit: no, I haven't read 'Slaughterhouse Five." Imagine my surprise when Tom Roston, with one of the punchiest beginnings to a nonfiction piece I've seen in years, lays out one of the key pieces of the novel: an account, based on Vonnegut's memory, of how he survived the Dresden bombing and its aftermath as a WWII POW. Powerful stuff. Which is why, fellow Vonnegut newbies, I recommend that you try picking this book up before reading the novel. Or at the very least, you shouldn't hesitate to do so.
Tom Roston does an incredible job discussing the life of the author and how his career and personal development led him to draft, rework, and eventually publish "Slaughterhouse." He places it in the context of other veteran accounts at the time (and even those long before Vonnegut was born) and how Vonnegut's style found its place among other authors (which is basically how Vonnegut made the leap from the oft-neglected science-fiction drawer to the esteemed literary bookshelf). Along the way, Roston recaps the treatment of PTSD, what exactly that diagnosis has signified over the years, the slow rise of WWII veteran accounts as America began to grapple with war and its trauma with every additional conflict. It's a history of Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse, and the anti-war veteran narrative all wrapped in one volume.
I particularly appreciated how Roston mostly shied away from easy answers to questions like "Did Vonnegut have PTSD?" and "Was Vonnegut anti-violence or even against guns?" There are a lot more issues covered, too, thanks to Roston's interviews with veterans from other military conflicts of various types.
Overall, this was a tough but interesting read. I don't think I realized what a punch it packed until I was dwelling on some of the stories of grief and death included, though they never seemed gratuitous. Maybe that's why they had such an impact.
Recommended for anyone interested in Vonnegut, how a famous author's publishing career developed in the late 20th century, and the history of how men have coped with and expressed (through writing) their experience during and after war.
Thank you to Abrams Press and Netgalley for sending me a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, and War
Sistersong by Lucy Holland
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A good fantasy retelling of the "Twa Sisters" ballad.
'Sistersong" is about three sisters in ancient Britain, right around the time when Christianity was beginning to take hold in the sisters' home. Over the course of the story, one sister comes into his own as a man and earns his family's respect and recognition, another sister is caught up in what promises to be an unfortunate love affair, and the youngest sister is the baby of the family, never given enough attention and somewhat angry at being sidelined.
The book has a serviceable plot and good twists, despite being predictable. The prose was good and sometimes really interesting, but I think what failed me a little bit was the characters and their voices. The sisters don't have drastically different voices in each of their point-of-view chapters, to the point where if I were dropped in the middle of a chapter I couldn't confidently say if it was a Riva chapter or a Sinne chapter, short of finding a plot reason to identify the speaker.
I also found the character relationships a little shallow, which is unfortunate considering the plot lives and dies on its main three characters and their closeness as siblings. We don't see them start in a great place, so when the story's conflict began to pull them apart I didn't have any relationship to mourn or worry about--there wasn't a particularly tight-knit bond to begin with.
Overall, I wish the story had found a better balance between the sisters' relationship and their individual adventures & growth. I don't mind if I see a plot twist coming, as long as I care about the characters and how they're going to make it to the end.
Recommended if you like fantasy set in the British Dark Ages (in the style of Elizabeth Wein's "The Winter Prince") with LGBT representation and compelling adventures.
Thank you to Redhook Books and Netgalley for giving me a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
'Sistersong" is about three sisters in ancient Britain, right around the time when Christianity was beginning to take hold in the sisters' home. Over the course of the story, one sister comes into his own as a man and earns his family's respect and recognition, another sister is caught up in what promises to be an unfortunate love affair, and the youngest sister is the baby of the family, never given enough attention and somewhat angry at being sidelined.
The book has a serviceable plot and good twists, despite being predictable. The prose was good and sometimes really interesting, but I think what failed me a little bit was the characters and their voices. The sisters don't have drastically different voices in each of their point-of-view chapters, to the point where if I were dropped in the middle of a chapter I couldn't confidently say if it was a Riva chapter or a Sinne chapter, short of finding a plot reason to identify the speaker.
I also found the character relationships a little shallow, which is unfortunate considering the plot lives and dies on its main three characters and their closeness as siblings. We don't see them start in a great place, so when the story's conflict began to pull them apart I didn't have any relationship to mourn or worry about--there wasn't a particularly tight-knit bond to begin with.
Overall, I wish the story had found a better balance between the sisters' relationship and their individual adventures & growth. I don't mind if I see a plot twist coming, as long as I care about the characters and how they're going to make it to the end.
Recommended if you like fantasy set in the British Dark Ages (in the style of Elizabeth Wein's "The Winter Prince") with LGBT representation and compelling adventures.
Thank you to Redhook Books and Netgalley for giving me a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Italian Rapier Combat: Ridolfo Capo Ferro by Capo Ferro, Jared Kirby
informative
medium-paced
4.25
Have you ever watched a swashbuckling period piece and wondered about the techniques of rapier fighting?
Ridolfo Capo Ferro's "Italian Rapier Combat" is a re-release of a 17th century rapier manual, complete with the original Italian and a modernized English translation (i.e, it's user-friendly for modern English speakers as opposed to contemporaneous English speakers, who would have used a lot of "thees" and "thous").
It's probably a dry read if you don't care about sword-fighting even a little bit, but anyone who's seen a cool sword fight will find this reprint fascinating. Not being sporty or familiar with rapiers, I can't opine on whether it's useful as a teaching tool. Maybe someone with more expertise could weigh in on that.
As things stand, it's a neat piece of history and an esteemed primary source, so if you're researching rapier combat for a paper, historical reenactment, or historical fiction writing purposes, this is a great resource to find those extra tidbits you won't see in the Three Musketeers or The Princess Bride.
Recommended for history research and generally curious minds. One warning: some of the illustrations are a little graphic with their depictions of sword injuries.
Thank you to Netgalley and Pen & Sword for granting me a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Ridolfo Capo Ferro's "Italian Rapier Combat" is a re-release of a 17th century rapier manual, complete with the original Italian and a modernized English translation (i.e, it's user-friendly for modern English speakers as opposed to contemporaneous English speakers, who would have used a lot of "thees" and "thous").
It's probably a dry read if you don't care about sword-fighting even a little bit, but anyone who's seen a cool sword fight will find this reprint fascinating. Not being sporty or familiar with rapiers, I can't opine on whether it's useful as a teaching tool. Maybe someone with more expertise could weigh in on that.
As things stand, it's a neat piece of history and an esteemed primary source, so if you're researching rapier combat for a paper, historical reenactment, or historical fiction writing purposes, this is a great resource to find those extra tidbits you won't see in the Three Musketeers or The Princess Bride.
Recommended for history research and generally curious minds. One warning: some of the illustrations are a little graphic with their depictions of sword injuries.
Thank you to Netgalley and Pen & Sword for granting me a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
Les Premières Enquêtes de Louis Fronsac by Jean D'Aillon
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Le funeste testament:
Un mystère bien construit mais un peu trop focalisé sur la trame au détriment des héros. Jean d’Aillon est très doué pour mettre en place une enquête intéressante. Son savoir historique est, comme d’habitude, au rendez-vous. Cependant, l’histoire est trop courte pour que nous puissions voir Louis et Gaston faire autre chose que mener l’enquête. Dommage, mais rien de très grave.
Vivement d’autres épisodes qui auront surement plus de place pour laisser respire les personnages.
Un mystère bien construit mais un peu trop focalisé sur la trame au détriment des héros. Jean d’Aillon est très doué pour mettre en place une enquête intéressante. Son savoir historique est, comme d’habitude, au rendez-vous. Cependant, l’histoire est trop courte pour que nous puissions voir Louis et Gaston faire autre chose que mener l’enquête. Dommage, mais rien de très grave.
Vivement d’autres épisodes qui auront surement plus de place pour laisser respire les personnages.
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes, Paula Rabinowitz
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
A must-read for noir enthusiasts. Dorothy B. Hughes is a master of the genre.
Dix Steele is back from flying planes in WWII. Now in California and living on his uncle's dime, he reaches out to one of his flyboy friends, Brub, who is now happily married and working as a detective in LA. Funny thing is, Dix doesn't feel like Brub's wife is happy to see him. Why would that be? And in the foggy summer of the City of Angels, there's a serial strangler on the loose. What's that all got to do with Dix?
Hughes paints this dark, tense portrait of characters hiding their true intentions, viscerally sensing danger, and playing with every possible detail to manipulate those around them. The murders loom over the story, and we just don't know who to suspect until it's all too clear and another death is on the way. Then we're strapped in for the ride and we can't stop until the last page (which is a shame because the story ends kind of abruptly; it's strong about 99% of the way before screeching to a halt).
Recommended for mystery lovers, anyone who enjoys character writing with a psychological bent, and noir fans who can't miss a classic of the genre.
Dix Steele is back from flying planes in WWII. Now in California and living on his uncle's dime, he reaches out to one of his flyboy friends, Brub, who is now happily married and working as a detective in LA. Funny thing is, Dix doesn't feel like Brub's wife is happy to see him. Why would that be? And in the foggy summer of the City of Angels, there's a serial strangler on the loose. What's that all got to do with Dix?
Hughes paints this dark, tense portrait of characters hiding their true intentions, viscerally sensing danger, and playing with every possible detail to manipulate those around them. The murders loom over the story, and we just don't know who to suspect until it's all too clear and another death is on the way. Then we're strapped in for the ride and we can't stop until the last page (which is a shame because the story ends kind of abruptly; it's strong about 99% of the way before screeching to a halt).
Recommended for mystery lovers, anyone who enjoys character writing with a psychological bent, and noir fans who can't miss a classic of the genre.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny
Minor: Murder
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This would have been three stars because of some stuff I'll get into below, but I shed way too many tears in the second half to withhold the fourth star.
The book's premise is as follows: this is a look at the family of how a young Latin tutor (unnamed) falls in loved with a slightly older young woman named Agnes, their different upbringings, their eventual marriage, their children (an eldest daughter and a set of twins, boy & girl), and how they lose one of the twins to the bubonic plague, followed by a heartrending depiction of grief.
Except said Latin tutor is, as many of you will guess, our own Bard of Avon: William Shakespeare. And the child who dies (this is on the first page, I'm not spoiling anything) is Shakespeare's son named Hamnet.
The writing is ridiculously good, as is the pacing and the decision to alternate between scenes in the "present" (where Bill is off in London being a theatre star and Agnes is raising the kids in Stratford) and the "past" (which shows us the younger years of the couple and their relationships with their parents, mixed in with their unusual courtship).
The family relationships are the real gold here, brought to life by O'Farrell's prose. I love how everyone feels connected and invested in the other characters' well-being. Agnes has a horrible stepmother (Joan) but a decent, heart-warming relationship with her brother and even her half-siblings.
Meanwhile, the Latin Tutor is slowly suffocating in his home, stuck in Startford, always under the weight of his abusive and malignant father, John the glover. We also get to see the tutor's relationship with his brothers and sisters, and his mother's perfectly reasonable if contrary views of his marriage and choice of wife. No one feels like a cartoon. The people are commonplace, the love and sadness appears by the fistful rather than the epic ton, and that's what brings the story to life.
Ok so my main complaint is about Agnes, more commonly known as Anne Hathaway (Mrs. Shakespeare). She gets the "I'm not like Other Medieval Women" treatment, as if she's the only woman in the world to use herbal remedies or... (checks notes) give birth in the woods? Alone? (That wasn't in the herbal manual, what are you doing, Agnes??) (To be fair, the woods episode comes back and makes more sense during her second pregnancy, and it packs more of a punch than it deserves. Quite a punch, in fact.)
Look, all I'm saying is, I'm not a big believer in underestimating the past, and the Victorians really did a number on how we perceive the middle ages. Medieval people were smart, they had some unexpectedly useful remedies, and they did know how to give birth relatively safely... more safely than wandering into the woods alone, at any rate. No need to make Agnes "the fey woman," she's already interesting enough as it is. And lucky for O'Farrell, her prose carries the overused trope to safety.
The second half is devastating. I cried a lot. I can only ask that you steel yourself for the heartbreaking image of a family crumbling under the weight of a child's death. It is not easy. It is, however, masterfully written. And somehow, keeping Shakespeare nameless throughout was the perfect choice. The Bard has never been more human.
Recommended if you enjoy stories about family, grief, and the need to keep living.
The book's premise is as follows: this is a look at the family of how a young Latin tutor (unnamed) falls in loved with a slightly older young woman named Agnes, their different upbringings, their eventual marriage, their children (an eldest daughter and a set of twins, boy & girl), and how they lose one of the twins to the bubonic plague, followed by a heartrending depiction of grief.
Except said Latin tutor is, as many of you will guess, our own Bard of Avon: William Shakespeare. And the child who dies (this is on the first page, I'm not spoiling anything) is Shakespeare's son named Hamnet.
The writing is ridiculously good, as is the pacing and the decision to alternate between scenes in the "present" (where Bill is off in London being a theatre star and Agnes is raising the kids in Stratford) and the "past" (which shows us the younger years of the couple and their relationships with their parents, mixed in with their unusual courtship).
The family relationships are the real gold here, brought to life by O'Farrell's prose. I love how everyone feels connected and invested in the other characters' well-being. Agnes has a horrible stepmother (Joan) but a decent, heart-warming relationship with her brother and even her half-siblings.
Meanwhile, the Latin Tutor is slowly suffocating in his home, stuck in Startford, always under the weight of his abusive and malignant father, John the glover. We also get to see the tutor's relationship with his brothers and sisters, and his mother's perfectly reasonable if contrary views of his marriage and choice of wife. No one feels like a cartoon. The people are commonplace, the love and sadness appears by the fistful rather than the epic ton, and that's what brings the story to life.
Ok so my main complaint is about Agnes, more commonly known as Anne Hathaway (Mrs. Shakespeare). She gets the "I'm not like Other Medieval Women" treatment, as if she's the only woman in the world to use herbal remedies or... (checks notes) give birth in the woods? Alone? (That wasn't in the herbal manual, what are you doing, Agnes??) (To be fair, the woods episode comes back and makes more sense during her second pregnancy, and it packs more of a punch than it deserves. Quite a punch, in fact.)
Look, all I'm saying is, I'm not a big believer in underestimating the past, and the Victorians really did a number on how we perceive the middle ages. Medieval people were smart, they had some unexpectedly useful remedies, and they did know how to give birth relatively safely... more safely than wandering into the woods alone, at any rate. No need to make Agnes "the fey woman," she's already interesting enough as it is. And lucky for O'Farrell, her prose carries the overused trope to safety.
The second half is devastating. I cried a lot. I can only ask that you steel yourself for the heartbreaking image of a family crumbling under the weight of a child's death. It is not easy. It is, however, masterfully written. And somehow, keeping Shakespeare nameless throughout was the perfect choice. The Bard has never been more human.
Recommended if you enjoy stories about family, grief, and the need to keep living.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Child abuse and Domestic abuse
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
sad
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
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
"Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" is only inspired by author Jeanette Winterson's childhood and teenage years, but its title reminds me of the title for Winterson's more explicitly biographical work, the memoir "Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?"
And if I were a smarter person, I could maybe parse the fruit imagery in this book. It warrants a reread, but for a first-time reader, "Oranges" is still incredibly powerful if sometimes opaque. I love how she depicts the main character's relationship with her family and her highly religious community (which kind of feels like a bubble cut off from the outside world). I especially love the layers of bubbles: what is the norm? Where is the "normal" world and how do we find it? The main character's dynamic at home is not the dynamic in the church, nor is it the dynamic she finds when she eventually leaves home altogether.
I'm not sure how to review this book. It's about getting to know yourself and realizing that things you took for granted were actually irreconcilable elements to the outside world. The main character is gay and religious, but she doesn't see how her love is any different from straight love. It's only when other people call her unnatural that she becomes aware of the issue. If I had to sum the book up, it's about a young girl who comes of age, but it's less about her discovering who she is and more about her hanging on to who she's always been.
The part where she comes back at the end was the most heartbreaking, I think. It's as if nothing's changed, but everything has changed, and her mother (who threw her out) acts as if everything is fine. It should be comforting, but it's not: it feels like someone has papered over the parts they don't like, and the main character can feel the discomfort everywhere. It's both conditional and unconditional love. The main character is home, but she will never be home.
Recommended to anyone who likes to read stories about insular families with a slightly dysfunctional bent (although I have to assume every family is dysfunctional in its own way), stories about growing up, and stories about coming out. This is the third book of Winterson's that has moved me and I absolutely intend to read more of her work.
Slight trigger warning for homophobia, which isn't much of a spoiler, and also the following, which is a spoiler and fairly distressing, so be warned before reading: I'm pretty sure that when the main character is first outed and goes to stay at a friend's house, that friend sexually assaults her. But it's couched in the main character saying she and the friend make love and she hates it the whole time, and the "friend" is a grown-ass woman while the main character is a teen in major emotional distress, so... it felt non-consensual or borderline iffy to me. But like I said, it's not very clear. Take from it what you will.
And if I were a smarter person, I could maybe parse the fruit imagery in this book. It warrants a reread, but for a first-time reader, "Oranges" is still incredibly powerful if sometimes opaque. I love how she depicts the main character's relationship with her family and her highly religious community (which kind of feels like a bubble cut off from the outside world). I especially love the layers of bubbles: what is the norm? Where is the "normal" world and how do we find it? The main character's dynamic at home is not the dynamic in the church, nor is it the dynamic she finds when she eventually leaves home altogether.
I'm not sure how to review this book. It's about getting to know yourself and realizing that things you took for granted were actually irreconcilable elements to the outside world. The main character is gay and religious, but she doesn't see how her love is any different from straight love. It's only when other people call her unnatural that she becomes aware of the issue. If I had to sum the book up, it's about a young girl who comes of age, but it's less about her discovering who she is and more about her hanging on to who she's always been.
The part where she comes back at the end was the most heartbreaking, I think. It's as if nothing's changed, but everything has changed, and her mother (who threw her out) acts as if everything is fine. It should be comforting, but it's not: it feels like someone has papered over the parts they don't like, and the main character can feel the discomfort everywhere. It's both conditional and unconditional love. The main character is home, but she will never be home.
Recommended to anyone who likes to read stories about insular families with a slightly dysfunctional bent (although I have to assume every family is dysfunctional in its own way), stories about growing up, and stories about coming out. This is the third book of Winterson's that has moved me and I absolutely intend to read more of her work.
Slight trigger warning for homophobia, which isn't much of a spoiler, and also the following, which is a spoiler and fairly distressing, so be warned before reading:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Emotional abuse and Sexual assault
Kageki Shojo!! Vol. 1 by Kumiko Saiki
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Guaranteed feel-good, wholesome content about young girls at a professional theatre academy.
The Kouka Acting Troupe school is dedicated to training the next class of professional Takarazuka, all-women theatre actors--basically a particular style of Japanese musical theatre. (I recommend looking up the Rose of Versailles musical as a reference.)
And here we meet our two protagonists in a much, much larger cast of characters: Ai is a former teen idol jaded by her career as the object of affection & creepy obsession of faceless, possessive fans, and Sarasa is a super tall super nerd who loves (LOVES) Kouka theatre and dreams of playing the star role of Oscar in the Rose of Versailles show someday (see why I recommended it?).
What I love about the series so far is that (1) it's basically a continuation of its prequel series ("Kageki Shoujo! The Curtain Rises" aka the one with a single exclamation point instead of two) about Ai and Sarasa's growing friendship in spite of vastly different personalities, (2) the campus setting is perfect because it gives us a large cast of characters who each feel like real teens with different upbringings, personalities, and approaches to new challenges, and (3) we get to see the girls work through problems and band together so they can grow and become fast friends! What more can I ask for?
The "cliffhanger" at the end of this volume isn't so much a cliffhanger as a twist we should have seen coming. Without spoiling too much, it's a note about one of the characters' approaches to acting and showmanship, and it tells us that she's going to have to dig deep in a real way if she wants to reach her goals. I loved how it didn't feel contrived and made perfect sense, but also the fact that this challenge stems from a perfectly valid approach to acting being unsuited to another. There's no wrong answer. We just have to see if our protagonist can make the switch... unless she finds a secret third option?
Highly recommended as a series I've been looking forward to for a year now. Perfect for fans of campus stories, coming-of-age stories starring girls, and theatre enthusiasts who want to see a refreshing and practical take on how much work and passion goes into becoming a triple threat (acting, singing, and dancing).
The Kouka Acting Troupe school is dedicated to training the next class of professional Takarazuka, all-women theatre actors--basically a particular style of Japanese musical theatre. (I recommend looking up the Rose of Versailles musical as a reference.)
And here we meet our two protagonists in a much, much larger cast of characters: Ai is a former teen idol jaded by her career as the object of affection & creepy obsession of faceless, possessive fans, and Sarasa is a super tall super nerd who loves (LOVES) Kouka theatre and dreams of playing the star role of Oscar in the Rose of Versailles show someday (see why I recommended it?).
What I love about the series so far is that (1) it's basically a continuation of its prequel series ("Kageki Shoujo! The Curtain Rises" aka the one with a single exclamation point instead of two) about Ai and Sarasa's growing friendship in spite of vastly different personalities, (2) the campus setting is perfect because it gives us a large cast of characters who each feel like real teens with different upbringings, personalities, and approaches to new challenges, and (3) we get to see the girls work through problems and band together so they can grow and become fast friends! What more can I ask for?
The "cliffhanger" at the end of this volume isn't so much a cliffhanger as a twist we should have seen coming. Without spoiling too much, it's a note about one of the characters' approaches to acting and showmanship, and it tells us that she's going to have to dig deep in a real way if she wants to reach her goals. I loved how it didn't feel contrived and made perfect sense, but also the fact that this challenge stems from a perfectly valid approach to acting being unsuited to another. There's no wrong answer. We just have to see if our protagonist can make the switch... unless she finds a secret third option?
Highly recommended as a series I've been looking forward to for a year now. Perfect for fans of campus stories, coming-of-age stories starring girls, and theatre enthusiasts who want to see a refreshing and practical take on how much work and passion goes into becoming a triple threat (acting, singing, and dancing).