mbmartin42's reviews
329 reviews

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The first half was straightforward and had all the makings of a good mix of isolation and grief horror. But for me, the second half jumped the tracks just a bit and felt like a confusing fever dream where the ending was cut a bit short. And although it left me wondering “What the hell was that?”, I haven’t been able to get this one out of my head all day.

Read if you want a quick story that’s dark, tense, unsettling and atmospheric (I felt the cold the entire way through), with themes of loss, grief and guilt.

But reader beware the cat does not survive (and it is brutal).

Content Warnings

Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“Stories are valuable here. They are what we brought when we came here; they are what cannot be taken away from us.”

Blackfish City takes us into the not so distant future where climate change has left large swaths of the world either flooded or burned to rubble. The rich have fled, constructing massive floating cities in the Arctic, to which refugees flock from all over the fallen world. This story takes us into the heart of Qaanaaq, one such city constructed with eight arms like a giant asterisk. And truth be told, Qaanaaq might not be as idyllic for some as the settlement is bustling with corruption; strife between classes, organized crime, amazingly advanced technology that sometimes has a mind of its own, and a new disease ravaging the city’s population. But “when a strange new visitor arrives—a woman riding an orca, with a polar bear at her side—the city is entranced.”

Why has she come to Qaanaaq, and how will she affect the lives of the people there?

That central mystery keeps the pages turning as we follow four main characters, each with distinct voices and perspectives, all living seemingly unconnected lives in different sectors of the city along different points on the wealth and status spectrum. Through this and City Without A Map, a mysterious and anonymous news service, we are given a panoramic view of the city through individual experiences.

Because of this the story is a little slow to start but bit by bit things start coming together and just as I started to suspect certain things, the connections are made and BAM! Everything starts falling into place piece by piece as these characters lives come crashing together. The pages began to absolutely fly by. Like being caught in a brutal, dizzying whirlwind that culminated in a story of human connections, resilience and resistance.

In the end, I loved everything about this book. And even though it was a bit bittersweet, it left me feeling hopeful for the City and these people that I had come to fall in love with, faults and all.

“We are stories. We are the stories of not only our lives but also those that came before us, those of the lives that have touched ours, the loved ones we carry with us.”

Literary Cats by Scott Pack, Judith Robinson

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informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Native Fear by C.F. Page

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I pulled this one off my shelf while working on my book organization spreadsheets and decided to read it right then and there as it’s the only Gaiman book I own that I haven’t read.
And it was exactly the hit of dopamine I needed this morning. Just a lighthearted, fun, quirky story about a father going out to get his kids milk and of course featuring pirates, dinosaurs, pink ponies, a volcano god and goopy aliens.
Gaiman may be a disposable human but damn his stories are just so good.

Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis

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challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced