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pagewraith's reviews
32 reviews
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon
I wish every fantasy book was like A Day of Fallen Night!
How refreshing to spend time in a world full of magic and dragons with matriarchal societies and queer characters. Over and over again I caught myself assuming certain kinds of characters, like guards and knights, were men, and was so pleasantly surprised when they weren’t. I love how Shannon is able to balance the normalization of gender, sexual, and racial diversity in the Roots of Chaos world with the critique and exploration of issues like patriarchy and xenophobia.
Shannon writes about pregnancy, birth, and motherhood with such tenderness. I found it almost sacred, and I appreciate the way these characters think about, long for, fear, mourn, and experience these things alongside a feminist criticism that emphasizes a person’s choice and inherent worth, separate from their ability to conceive. The imagery and metaphor of birth as a war or battle coexisted nicely alongside birth as a natural and mysterious experience.
A Day of Fallen Night is also ripe for an ecocritical read - I love the way Shannon explores balance, and suggests the wyrms are part of a necessary cycle, even if they represent the corruption and imbalance of heat or industry. I loved reading the wyrms as a metaphor for climate crisis and an industrial relationship with nature contrasted against dragons as harmony with nature.
I truly loved all of the narrators, and was especially pleased to find how much I cared for and was invested in the characters who are much older than I am. As I get older, I appreciate middle-aged characters more and more.
4.0
“It was laying eyes upon the world, being part of it, that made me appreciate the importance of protecting it.”
I wish every fantasy book was like A Day of Fallen Night!
How refreshing to spend time in a world full of magic and dragons with matriarchal societies and queer characters. Over and over again I caught myself assuming certain kinds of characters, like guards and knights, were men, and was so pleasantly surprised when they weren’t. I love how Shannon is able to balance the normalization of gender, sexual, and racial diversity in the Roots of Chaos world with the critique and exploration of issues like patriarchy and xenophobia.
Shannon writes about pregnancy, birth, and motherhood with such tenderness. I found it almost sacred, and I appreciate the way these characters think about, long for, fear, mourn, and experience these things alongside a feminist criticism that emphasizes a person’s choice and inherent worth, separate from their ability to conceive. The imagery and metaphor of birth as a war or battle coexisted nicely alongside birth as a natural and mysterious experience.
A Day of Fallen Night is also ripe for an ecocritical read - I love the way Shannon explores balance, and suggests the wyrms are part of a necessary cycle, even if they represent the corruption and imbalance of heat or industry. I loved reading the wyrms as a metaphor for climate crisis and an industrial relationship with nature contrasted against dragons as harmony with nature.
I truly loved all of the narrators, and was especially pleased to find how much I cared for and was invested in the characters who are much older than I am. As I get older, I appreciate middle-aged characters more and more.
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
Tender is the Flesh is such a rich text - it’s one of those books that makes me wish I was still in academia so I could teach it or write an essay about it. The use of repeating ideas to build up themes (like the obscuring and illuminating power of words, for example) and the way different human spaces are subtly compared to the slaughterhouse is brilliant.
Maybe I’m a little biased - as a vegetarian, posthuman animist, I’m always thinking about human relationships with non-humans, our culture’s pervasive speciesism, and how our relationships with and ideas about non-humans spill over into our relationships with and ideas about our fellow humans. But truly, the way Tender is the Flesh considers how these things apply to us today by imagining how they might apply to us in a dystopian future is thoughtful, intelligent, emotional, and horrifying.
One of the novel’s true horrors is the way it performs what it describes on the reader. Particularly in the beginning, the use of obscuring words enacts the very issue of the power of language - when the terminology of breeding and butchery draws on the already objectifying language we use to refer to non-human animals raised for meat today, the reader has to work hard to remember and visualize human beings in these atrocious conditions. Tender is the Flesh toes the line between disgust and normalization, allowing the reader to feel both over the course of the novel, ingeniously and horrifyingly performing the novel’s dystopia.
dark
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“One can get used to almost anything, except the death of a child”
Tender is the Flesh is such a rich text - it’s one of those books that makes me wish I was still in academia so I could teach it or write an essay about it. The use of repeating ideas to build up themes (like the obscuring and illuminating power of words, for example) and the way different human spaces are subtly compared to the slaughterhouse is brilliant.
Maybe I’m a little biased - as a vegetarian, posthuman animist, I’m always thinking about human relationships with non-humans, our culture’s pervasive speciesism, and how our relationships with and ideas about non-humans spill over into our relationships with and ideas about our fellow humans. But truly, the way Tender is the Flesh considers how these things apply to us today by imagining how they might apply to us in a dystopian future is thoughtful, intelligent, emotional, and horrifying.
One of the novel’s true horrors is the way it performs what it describes on the reader. Particularly in the beginning, the use of obscuring words enacts the very issue of the power of language - when the terminology of breeding and butchery draws on the already objectifying language we use to refer to non-human animals raised for meat today, the reader has to work hard to remember and visualize human beings in these atrocious conditions. Tender is the Flesh toes the line between disgust and normalization, allowing the reader to feel both over the course of the novel, ingeniously and horrifyingly performing the novel’s dystopia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Grief, Cannibalism, and Murder
Moderate: Child death, Infertility, and Pregnancy
Minor: Rape and Pandemic/Epidemic
Babel by R.F. Kuang
Generally, what I look for in a good novel is a story that develops its core messages, values, and thesis through its themes. I want books with subtlety. If this had been any other novel, I would have found it heavy-handed - but Babel is so fundamentally about empire and revolution, it’s fitting that it deals with these issues so directly.
And how refreshing to read a historical fantasy set during such a popular time in such a popular place for the genre that doesn’t glorify the British Empire! Kuang’s approach feels like a fresh take, a new perspective in the genre, and one I need to seek out more often.
Babel is heartbreaking, inspiring, convicting, and smart, academic, and thoughtful. I loved Kuang’s use of footnotes, and how they balanced providing true academic and historical context, and fictional context that made the characters feel real.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
“That’s just what translation is, I think. That’s all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they’re trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.”
Generally, what I look for in a good novel is a story that develops its core messages, values, and thesis through its themes. I want books with subtlety. If this had been any other novel, I would have found it heavy-handed - but Babel is so fundamentally about empire and revolution, it’s fitting that it deals with these issues so directly.
And how refreshing to read a historical fantasy set during such a popular time in such a popular place for the genre that doesn’t glorify the British Empire! Kuang’s approach feels like a fresh take, a new perspective in the genre, and one I need to seek out more often.
Babel is heartbreaking, inspiring, convicting, and smart, academic, and thoughtful. I loved Kuang’s use of footnotes, and how they balanced providing true academic and historical context, and fictional context that made the characters feel real.
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
It took me a little while to get into The Atlas Six, especially considering how beloved this book is; it begins with a lot of character introductions, and the dialogue often reads a little more YA than I’m looking for these days. However, once the plot thickened and I became more familiar with the world-building, I really enjoyed it! The themes are well built upon, with lots of small references in the prose that drew me back to previous moments in the book; for me, this is always the mark of a good book. I so immediately fell in love with Gideon, and grew to love — or at least appreciate — even the characters that I disliked at the start.
I love when a book plays with time, and I appreciate the way time appears in this novel. There's a lot of interesting exploration of the intersection between magic, science, and philosophy. The character “powers” are a unique take on magic as well.
3.0
“But why should they, who had done so much and come so far, limit themselves to the possible?”
It took me a little while to get into The Atlas Six, especially considering how beloved this book is; it begins with a lot of character introductions, and the dialogue often reads a little more YA than I’m looking for these days. However, once the plot thickened and I became more familiar with the world-building, I really enjoyed it! The themes are well built upon, with lots of small references in the prose that drew me back to previous moments in the book; for me, this is always the mark of a good book. I so immediately fell in love with Gideon, and grew to love — or at least appreciate — even the characters that I disliked at the start.
I love when a book plays with time, and I appreciate the way time appears in this novel. There's a lot of interesting exploration of the intersection between magic, science, and philosophy. The character “powers” are a unique take on magic as well.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Since graduating from my Master’s and saying goodbye to being a student, I’ve missed learning and reading essays. When I was young, I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to read non-fiction, but now I’m looking forward to exploring more theory on my own time instead of because it was assigned reading.
I loved Braiding Sweetgrass very much. I find so much hope and truth in writings about our relationships with non-humans, and post-humanism, and animism, and ecocriticism. What a gift it is to learn more about these perspectives and approaches from Indigenous scholars!
4.0
“Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.”
Since graduating from my Master’s and saying goodbye to being a student, I’ve missed learning and reading essays. When I was young, I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to read non-fiction, but now I’m looking forward to exploring more theory on my own time instead of because it was assigned reading.
I loved Braiding Sweetgrass very much. I find so much hope and truth in writings about our relationships with non-humans, and post-humanism, and animism, and ecocriticism. What a gift it is to learn more about these perspectives and approaches from Indigenous scholars!
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
3.5
“The marsh did not confine them but defined them and, like any sacred ground, kept their secrets deep.”
A story about loneliness, finding family among non-humans, and the difference between living and merely surviving.
Where the Crawdads Sing is a little outside my comfort zone - more contemporary and less magical than my usual reads. My favourite parts were those that explored its sense of place, the character of the marsh, and Kya’s relationship with and knowledge of it. The marriage of poetry and biology.
I prefer how some other novels—like Susanna Clarke's Piranesi—explore these ideas, but I still quite liked this book!
Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater
How do you sum up the beautiful conclusion to so many of your favourite books and characters? To so many years of reading?
Lovely, lovely, lovely.
I love that I get to imagine more adventurous and tender futures for these characters, even now that the books are done. The perfect ending for some of my favourite books and characters.
5.0
“How long had he been asking: Tell me what I am? Never once had he simply decided for himself.”
How do you sum up the beautiful conclusion to so many of your favourite books and characters? To so many years of reading?
Lovely, lovely, lovely.
I love that I get to imagine more adventurous and tender futures for these characters, even now that the books are done. The perfect ending for some of my favourite books and characters.
Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
4.0
On this reread I was so struck by just how much the characters are coming of age in this one. Over and over again the Gangsey are realizing that they don't really know each other or themselves as much as they thought, and are relearning each other. So lovely!
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
4.5
Had such a great time rereading this one! Made so many annotations (I can't believe how little I annotated it the first time!) and noticed so much clever foreshadowing and good character work. Maggie does it again!