January Wrap-Up & Haul

Happy end of January friends! How was the start of your reading year? Was it a nice slow start, or did you dive right in for a double digit month?

According to Goodreads I’ve read 7 books this month, technically I’ve read 10 but I’m willing to settle on 8. Let me explain below:

Chaos Awakens by Carys Mainprize

The first novel i read this year has not yet been published so Goodreads can’t count it. It is the second novel in my best friends fantasy series that features Gods and angels, demons, and a whole host of other supernatural beings all fighting to save, or destroy, the three worlds. It was a beta read and one day I will review this damn series on this blog.

Black Girl Magic: A Poem by Mahogany L. Brown

I don’t know if this should count towards my Goodreads goal but Goodreads counts it making it my first Goodreads read of 2018. This is a beautiful, and powerful poem about being a Black girl/woman and how no matter what anyone else says we are full of magic. I cried reading this poem, in the middle of a bookstore i sat down and cried. I gave this one a 5/5 stars and highly recommend it for any library.

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Harry Potter #5-#8 by J.K. Rowling

Next, in quick succession, I finished up the Harry Potter series which I started just before Solstice. Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, Deathly Hallows, and Cursed Child took up the majority of my reading time this month and you can see all my thoughts on them right here. All together these 4 books rated 3.75/5 stars.

The Hogwarts Library by J.K. Rowling

This little companion set to the Harry Potter Series is three books total: The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Quidditch Throughout the Ages, but Goodreads counts the set as one book. This is a bit frustrating but I’ll let it slide since they are quite little and I read them all in a sitting. I gave them 3/5 stars and I talk about these in my Harry Potter Series Chat as well.

 

The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed by Pat Rothfuss

This is not a book for children. That’s really the only thing that needs to be said of it; it looks like it’s for children but it’s really just not. It’s cute and fun and makes you do a double take. 4.5/5 stars.

Know Your Beholder by Adam Rapp

This is one of those books that I can’t quite describe. The best i can do is to say that it is about a man named Francis Falbo who is suffering from a period of severe agoraphobia who is writing a memoir of sorts about not only his shit show of a life but the lives of his tenants, who live in the 5 apartment units he’s split his old family home into. Among other things he tells us about his divorce, his old band, his tenants whose daughter has gone missing, and his tenant who is drawing nudes of middle aged Black men. A lot happens. It’s hilarious and bizarre and i gave it a 3.5/5 stars.

Nine Pines by August Birch

It’s currently January 29th so i’m starting this short story collection as soon as I’m finished typing this and will update this post accordingly before the 1st of february. I discovered August Birch through his Instagram @August.Birch.Writer and I just got his book so i want to get to it before I get bogged down with moving and such. It’s crime thriller (?) so i’m not sure how I will like it. We shall see.

 

So about 8 books. 3,254 pages (not including the beta read). A good month if you ask me, and I still have 2 days left

Teeny Tiny Book Haul

I didn’t buy a single book this month….I did get 2 though!

The first thing I got was Nine Pines by August Birch, a collection of short stories (I did have to install a Kindle App on my phone for this so I hope it’s worth it.).

Then my best friend gifted me this beautiful signed edition of The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle by Patrick Rothfuss and I DIED. Dead. Gone. I am super in love and count this month as a win.

 

And that’s all she wrote ( actually I wrote about 10,000 words of my novel this month too). How big, or tiny, was your book haul? Let me know and I’ll see you next week with some Black History Month celebrations.

 

 

 

 

Book Chat: Harry Potter by J.K.Rowling

 

The year is 2018 and the last millennial has finally read Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling; a series that has made more fans and more money than god. I’ve done it. I’ve read it.

If you’ve been here before, or you follow my Bookstagram (and you should) then you know that I never wanted to read this series.It’s a natural prejudice against things that become insanely popular; they don’t tend to be all that good, just easily consumed. So I went into this expecting to have a little fun but not to *like* it all that much.

Let’s see how that worked out. Now below is a spoiler free (in case anyone else has been living under that rock with me. I wouldn’t know. It was dark and cozy and full of other great books to read), and is just brief thoughts on each book accompanied by a cute little quote.

Sorcerers Stone– 3 stars

“ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?”

This book is quite clearly a young children’s book (a bit on the young side of middle grade). It introduces us to the Wizarding World and from what I hear a lot of people have fond memories of it. I really didn’t like it. It was painful. The ending was irritating and predictable. I simply did not have that much fun reading this. Had I not already committed to reading the entire series I wouldn’t in anyway felt inspired to pick up the next book.

Chamber of Secrets– 2.75 stars

“When in doubt, go to the

This book, for me at least, was completely forgettable. I was just annoyed by the entire thing and it, even more than the first, made me not want to keep reading. This book seemed to just be Harry not communicating and leading to every problem in the plot. That turned out to be my main issue with the entire series; Harry withholding information for no other reason than to further the plot.

Prisoner of Azkaban– 4 stars

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

The third book in the series wasn’t just the first book I enjoyed but I really fucking loved it. In this book we are introduced to some fun and complex characters, there was a plot capable of a twist and also holding my interest, and it was the first time I started to really like our Golden trio. It’s not the best book in the series but I had a lot of fun reading it.

Goblet of Fire– 4

“Just because it’s taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn’t mean no one else has spotted I’m a girl”

This one was a better book than the previous one but I liked Prisoner of Azkaban just a tad bit more. i still loved this one though. Again there were some interesting characters and a plot twist that caught me completely off my guard. If looked at by itself this would probably have been a 3 star book but I really liked it as an addition to the series.

Order of the Phoenix– 3 stars

“Give her hell from us.”

This. Book. Dragged. I hated it, I hated Harry,I hated the story, I hated having to read it. This one was another that overused Harry having a shitty and illogical personality just to further the plot and there were several times that I wanted nothing more than to DNF it. The only thing that saved this from being a 2 star was that around page 400 t kind of caught my attention. The story picked up a bit and I found myself actually *wanting* to read it. Fred and George Weasley were my favorite arc in this book and they made it enjoyable. The ending was pretty forgettable but I stayed up until 4am twice for it so it has to get at least a 3.

Half-Blood Prince– 4 stars

Harry was left to ponder in silence the depths to which girls would sink to get revenge.

I flew through this book. Not just in comparison to the 10 or so days it took me to read the previous one but I genuinely finished it in about 2 days. This was fast paced, all of the characters were interesting, and fun, I absolutely loved it. This was the one where i truly started to be a Harry Potter Fan. it’s also the book where I became Ron and Hermoine trash. I have loved them for quite a bit up until this point but this was the book where I started getting so anxious about their relationship and wondering just WHEN they were going to finally get together. My only complaint about this book is that the ending, which I feel is supposed be emotional, just didn’t do much for me. I think Rowling has a hard time making me feel things when she wants me to.

Deathly Hallows– 5 stars

“ARE YOU A WIZARD OR WHAT?”

This is by far the best book in the series. It veers off of the standard story line that the other books have been following and es us on a wild and emotional adventure (emotional for the characters, not for the reader). The characters arcs in this book are great and had me obsessed (Ron & Hermoinie killed me). It was climactic and a fitting end to the journey. Except for the epilogue. It was unnecessary fan service and it ruined the end of the story for me. It took away that satisfaction of the end of a journey.

The Cursed Child– 3 stars

“My geekiness is a-quivering”

This is the 8th installment of the franchise written as a play set 2 decades after the Battle of Hogwarts. It read like fanfiction and I have decided to treat it as such. It adds nothing to the story and was only mildly enjoyable; the best part of the whole thing for me was adding Scorpious to my view of the world. That doesn’t mean I don’t think you should read it, it’s a journey. Just an unnecessary one.

Hogwarts Library– 3 stars

A compilation of “Fantastic Beasts and Wear to Find Them”, “The Tales of Beedle the Bard”, and “Quidditch Throughout the Ages”, this is a cute addition to the Wizarding World. Maybe not something you’d want to read unless you, like me, get giddy about world building.

 

The world is by far my favorite thing about the Harry Potter series. I said above that Rowling didn’t do a great job making anything all that impactful for me so there wasn’t much attachment to the characters so much as the story itself. If these books hadn’t been part of a massive series or if i hadn’t binged it over the course of a month i don’t know that I’d have had such strong feelings about it.

Though I will say that for the lack of emotional impact this series somehow had one of the best romances I’ve ever read. I know Rowling herself says she regrets Ron and Hermoine’s romance and I can’t for the life of me think why. It was amazing to read and I adore them.

In all my rating for the entire series comes to 3.52 stars out of 5 and I’d say that’s pretty accurate. I wouldn’t be opposed to rounding up to an even 4 stars and calling it a day. So yes, I admit it, I *liked* it. Hell didn’t freeze over but the government did shut down.

 

 

 

Book/Movie Chat: Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly is, in a word, beautiful. In a few words it is a masterpiece of storytelling, weaving an accurate history of the machine that is the American aeronautics industry with the true stories of the Black women who made that machine run, the marriage of which ultimately lead America to the moon, into a narrative that is informative, entertaining, inspirational, and heartbreaking.

This book is first and foremost an accurate history; there is no dialogue and no plot, but there is plenty of detailed information about the mathematical problems that the West Computers were tasked with solving each day. Shetterly does not want to bore us though and the subject matter hops about from maths, to race relations, to the womans personal lives, and back again. The flow of the narrative is perfect; never sitting on one topic for too long without being jumpy, never letting the reader grow bored but never letting us notice when the shifts occur. Shetterly does a phenomenal job letting us know this is not just an isolated bit of history, no, the math, the racism and sexism, the political climate, the women themselves do not exist in bubbles; Black history is not a month, it is American History and we need to hear it all or we aren’t getting the full story.

“Sometimes, she knew, the most important battles for dignity, pride, and progress were fought with the simplest of actions.”

And what a story it is. I started Hidden Figures with a roll of blue tabs to mark every time I cried. By the seventh marker I realized there were too many too frequently; I had cried, settled myself,then cried again over a different incident later on on the same page! I wasn’t just tearing up either, I was full on, have to sit the book down and collect myself, sobbing.
It isn’t that this book is “sad”; this book is inspiring. This book is powerful. This book is the story of the foundation of my very existence; the names and stories that led our country to the moon, led women into STEM, and ultimately led me to a world where I would never have to be one of the “girls”.

This is the reason I was so disappointed with the movie.
Now we all know the movie can never be as in depth as the book, this is the downside to any transmedia adaptations, and I was willing to accept the inaccuracies I saw that were made for times sake. I get it; you can’t adequately cover the period from WWII to the Moon landing in two hours and its best to rearrange some things to make a good story. It is annoying. It is not a deal breaker.
My deal breaker came with the realization that the East Computing pool had been retconned into existence, well past the time they had been dissolved, so that a made up white woman could be a featured role in the film. It came when I noticed that every incident of segregation, every microaggression, every bit of blatant racism was fixed with hard work or the help of a white man. It came when I realized that this movie was made for white people.
In the book the women featured take down “Colored Girls” signs to preserve their own dignity; they use the “Whites Only” bathrooms and dare someone to stop them; they pester the white men to join meeting daily until eventually they just give up and let them in. In the the movie the not racist White Knight character fixes all of these problems for the women allowing a white man to take the spotlight for “saving” the day.
The racism depicted in this movie is the glossy, G-rated racism that doesn’t make white people uncomfortable to look at because they know that in the end it will all be set to rights by the white characters who aren’t really racist if you give then a chance.
If I look past the fact that the movie adaptation completely undermines the entire point of the story then, yeah, sure, it was a good movie. The acting on almost all fronts was superb, the sets were glorious, and they did an alright job squeezing the book down into a film. Its okay. I hate that it blunts the sharp edges of racism while trying to act as if its showing you racism. I hate that it undermines the accomplishments of the West Computers by giving them to a white man. I hate that it can’t hope to portray the emotion of the book. But as a stand alone experience it’s okay.

Hidden Figure by Margot Lee Shetterly is a solid 5/5 stars.
Hidden Figures directed by Theodore Melfi is a weak 3/5 stars. Maybe even 2.5, I am just that disappointed.

Book Chat: The Kingkiller Chronicles

“I have stolen princess back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during the day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written song that make the minstrels weep.
You may have heard of me.”

And thus begins a tale as old as time; a tale of revenge, magic, stupidity, and a young man fumbling to understand women. Our narrator is right, you’ve probably heard it.

The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss is one of those stories that attracts a following, a cult if you will. It is a story that inspires artists, fan theorists, and fan fiction writers. It is the perfect story, so much so it makes me want to rip my hair out.

The tale begins with The Name of the Wind and is told as a story being recited by Kote, the innkeeper in Newarre, and recorded by the Chronicler, who collects true stories. Each novel comprises one day in the present time allowing us to see the troubling events of today as well as hear the story of the man who claims responsibility for it all. The war, the demons, the poverty, Kote says it is all the fault of the man he used to be, the legend who is said to be dead; Kvothe Kingkiller.

If you go looking for reviews of these books you are going to find one of two attitudes; it is a “classic” or “cliche” depending on who you ask. It is convoluted; it is clever. The narrator is unreliable giving the story depth, flavor, and mystery. The narrator is a typical humble brag twat who is too good at everything and is designed to make you hate-love him. Rothfuss is building to the plot twist of an age, or Rothfuss is capitalizing on an age old, well worn story model. The only things everyone seems to agree on for sure is the The Doors of Stone is never. Coming. Out.

Personally I love the novels, novella, and short story that make up the Chronicles. I think the story-telling framing devise that Rothfuss uses is perfect for creating just enough uncertainty among readers that we can enjoy the story for what it is while still never truly trusting that we are getting an accurate depiction of events. This slight mistrust add depth like you wouldn’t believe, I honestly hate it. Not because it’s bad but because it’s so good you almost don’t see it. I want to rant and rave about the shallowness of some aspects of the plot but if I think about it for more than a minute I start to see that maybe this isn’t all it appears to be. Fan theories add to this convoluted overthinking of every detail, and spending a bit of time discussing “clues” with others always opens my eyes to things I had over looked, or things I hadn’t quite connected before.

Basically these books are the definition of a humble-brag.

Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t perfect. There is clever and then there is trying to hard to be clever and I think Rothfuss crosses that line a few times. There are several places were I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and go “But of course.” and shout “Unreliable narrator” at me all you want if I’m not enjoying to story because of something, that’s more an excuse than a plot devise. I also adore the way Rothfuss writes. To a point. When I say there are whole sections of The Wise Mans Fear that are written in rhyme I fucking mean that there are whole sections of The Wise Mans Fear that are written. In. Rhyme. Rothfuss writes pure poetic word porn but he also has a hard time not using adverbs every single line. I’m with Stephen King on this one; “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” Not only are they lazy when overused but they don’t sound great. They are like one sour note in an otherwise perfect harmony.

The second book in the series, The Wise Mans Fear, has one of the worst cases of Middle Book Syndrome I’ve seen in a while. It’s not that Rothfuss seems to be rambling or is even a little unsure of himself; it’s more that he has X, Y, and Z that need to be accomplished but they are in no way related so he has to play Connect The Dots with various plot points. The result is me having to take a minute part way through the book to go “And this is where he ran out of ideas and went ‘Fuck it!'”

While the two novels tell us the story of Kvothe and events surrounding the telling of the tale itself the other two additions to the series are focused on two mysterious and well loved side characters. I say “side characters” but what I mean is they are life itself. Plain and simple. They are beautiful fae children and Kvothe does not deserve their love. (This is me warning you about my bias)

The first is Auri, the enigmatic (gods I can’t ever use that word without thinking of Aysl) young woman Kvothe finds living underneath the University. In the novella The Slow Regard of Silent Things we follow Auri for a seven day period in her solitary life in the Underthing. This book made 3# in my Top Books of 2016 because of the beautiful word porn and unique, single character plot…if you can call it a plot. I didn’t mention in that post that Auri, our only character, exhibits signs of severe mental illness, namely Obsessive Compulsive Disorder brought on, in theory, by the same stresses of University that cause a few students each term to “crack”. Rothfuss himself says it is not a book for everyone, it is a book for the broken people. It makes a lot of things about Auri clear though so if you are even a little bit interested it’s worth knuckling through.

The second is Bast, Kotes fae student and the only person in any of the books that is good enough for Kvothe. Even if Kvothe doesn’t deserve it. His story is told in The Lightning Tree, a short story that appears in the Rouges anthology. His story is also pretty Day-in-the-Life, showing how a fae princling amuses himself in the middle of Newarre. It does give a good look at the type of person Bast is but not much more that you’d get from his actions in the second novel. It is, if I’m being honest, a story of no consequence but if you love Bast, and you should, it is well worth your time.

Then there is The Doors of Stone; the novel that is never coming out (I’ve gone on about this before). If you want to get into this series I wouldn’t blame you if you waited for the last book before diving in. That being said not having an ending and being able to get caught up in discussion and fan theories is half of the fun of these books.

If you love fantasy, if you love to hate your protagonist, if you love a book written in poetry and rhyme, and most of all, if you want to hear a good story The Kingkiller Chronicles is for you.

All told I give the whole lot 5/5 stars. Have you read Kingkiller? What did you think of it?

Book Chat: Heartless

“How is a raven like a writing desk?”

At this start of 2016 I had 3 books that I was anticipating more than anything else; A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir, Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory, and Heartless by Marissa Meyer. Three Sisters, Three Queens was like have a tooth pulled, and ATAtN was nothing short of terrible, so when I finally held Heartless just before Christmas I begged the books gods to prove the old adage  “Third times the charm.”

Spoiler alert; they did.

You have probably seen Heartless called an Alice in Wonderland retelling but it’s not; it’s a prequel to events of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. It’s an origin story for the Queen of Hearts, you know the OFF WITH HER HEAD one?

I haven’t much to say about the story honestly; it’s YA but cleverly crafted, funny, the characters don’t make me want to claw my eyes out and one of them even manages to be genuinely deep. I won’t tell you who but it hits right in the feels at the end there. My biggest complaint about the story as a whole is this one section near the end that completely ruined the pacing for me. It was as if the story had been building up and up to a predictable but nonetheless exciting ending when all the sudden everything stopped for a few chapters so Meyer could, and I wish I were joking, tell you exactly what’s going to happen. It was all the things we had been building towards and I could feel the inevitability of some of the outcomes but it wasn’t boring predictability it was more dread at seeing where this is heading and hoping you’re wrong. I guess Meyer didn’t trust her ability to lay that groundwork though so she went with blatant foreshadowing a scene before the big climax when all of the things come to a head and it ruined the impact for me. Not just a little either, my excitement level plunged and I read the big climax without interest or emotion.

Even with all of that I loved the story, I loved how she wove each of the characters into the narrative in a way that did not feel forced and set the backdrop for events from the Alice books perfectly. Prequels written by other people are a difficult thing but this feels like a natural extension and I couldn’t be happier.

Now. The meat of this review.

I am a huge Alice fan. I have read both books 4 times, I can recite the poem Jabberwocky by heart and I have seen several of the movie adaptation enough to tell you exactly why they are wrong. I am an Alice snob. I take my Wonderland seriously. Going into this book I did not have high expectations for the world building. I haven’t enjoyed a Wonderland adaptation yet and I didn’t expect that to change. The Disney cartoon was nice, it captured the whimsy but fell into the trap of creating a Frankenstein’s monster out of bits of two separate novels; something the Tim Burton adaptation did with stunning disregard for any piece of the original story. I applaud it really.

Meyer is amazing at building complex yet story accurate fairy tale worlds and she built her Wonderland with attention to fine detail. She understands that the world down the rabbit hole and the world through the looking glass are separate. She understands that the fanciful nature of these worlds is normal for the residence so she doesn’t make a big deal out of any of them but makes sure we understand that there are rules to this reality as well. Because she understands these things she is able to create a Wonderland that makes sense while maintaining the accuracy of the source material AND the whimsical feel of the world.

Other adapters look at what Lewis said of Wonderland and try to paint us a picture of it; Meyer looked at Wonderland itself and painted her own picture. Now I understand many other adapters are not trying to recreate the original story they are trying to write their own, loosely based on the original. That’s well and good, they can do as they please but keep in mind I’m a snob. I won’t apologize for being happy to finally get the accuracy I have been dying for.

I highly recommend if you love fairy tales, or Alice and I think even other Alice snobs will adore it.

4 stars.

Best and Worst Books of 2016!

Book Chat: Ophelia by Lisa Klein

You know those books you read that leave you speechless? That completely alter your way of thinking, and leave a lasting imprint on your life? That was the kind of book Ophelia was for me, if only because, before reading it, I had assumed the ending to a novel had to have anything to do with the anything that had happened up until that point. I was wrong it seems.

Ophelia by Lisa Klein is a retelling of Shakespeares Hamlet that reads like shoddy fan fiction. It is clear that Klein had, at least, an interesting twist on the classic tale which she tells through the point of view of Ophelia; but the scope of her story and character alterations far exceeded the bounds of the original play. So, like Cinderella’s wicked stepmother, she began to hack away at her child until its bloody remains fit inside the glass slipper she so coveted. Throughout the book bits and pieces of what could have been a great story were seen weighed down by scenes all but plagiarized from the original play. Direct quotes or paraphrased quotes are sprinkled on every page in a way that couldn’t feel less organic if they tried. It was as if Klein was name dropping recognizable tidbits to remind us of the greatness she was spitting on.

The story flows like cold honey. Major plot points seem to be crow barred in because they’re “supposed” to be there and not because it made any sense at all. All of the characters, too, behaved in ways that made absolutely no sense whatsoever other than their actions were needed to progress to the next scene of the play. Horatio is the only character with an organic personality and motives that are understandable. Hamlet makes absolutely no sense the entire book; does he love Ophelia? Is he mad, or faking it? Does he have a personality at all? No one knows! I can live with unanswered questions but at least don’t leave them unanswered because the character is a different person, with different motives, and different desires every. Time. we see him.

Ophelia is our main character and the book is 1st person, yet she has as much personality as a sponge. She, too, just kind of does stuff because somehow Klein had to shoehorn her own story into the original play. The book begins with Ophelias early life, long before the events of the play and our main character is the typical “Insert modern ideas into an historical setting” type of girl. She is a rough and tumble tomboy, who has a thorough education in language, maths ,sciences, etc. even though her father is a poor courtier. I didn’t like her then but once the events of the play start full speed she loses even those cliche personality traits and I genuinely hate everything she does.

Every scene from the play is included in this book; the ones Ophelia isn’t present for have been helpfully recounted to her by someone sure to paraphrase all the recognizable speeches and go into neurotic details about action. Most of the time there is no need for this. We don’t really need to know everything since this is Ophelias story. Yet Ophelia does know everything that has happened; at one point she is the only person privy to all of the details of every plot point and even warns Horatio that the King is planning to turn Laertes and Hamlet against one another to end them both.

Okay but you’ve been asleep for days so how do you know this? Oh. I forgot. Horatio just told you EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN THOSE TWO DAYS, and you are fucking Sherlock. Except she’s not because even though she can pick up on the tiniest details of the plot, making wild leaps to work out exactly what is happening and then going “But I’m probably wrong.”, she can’t see how OBVIOUSLY in love with her Horatio is.

From the moment she first meets Hamlet and Horatio she is head over heels for the Prince and their romance is the main theme of the book yet the love between them is so forced that at no point do either of them seem to have any reason to want this relationship other than that’s what the plot says. We never see them have any organic interaction; we are told it happens somewhere off screen but we never see it. What we do see is how much Horatio loves Ophelia, which she remains blind to until the last page. That love comes across as genuine, it makes sense, hell they TALK! A lot. It’s cute but not cutesy. It feels right. At first I was hopeful that that would be something we explored throughout the book HA.HA. NOPE.

I’m sure you’ve noticed I’m trying not to leave spoilers but please trust me when I say that the moment the events of the play end they cease to matter. Ophelia, who isn’t dead, just begins living this new life. And its great. From page 243 forward the story stops being a knockoff Hamlet and starts being the story of a young *spoilers* pregnant girl with no living family finding sanctuary in a convent. She is trying to come to grips with the scope of her loss and her situation; she pleads with God to absolve her of whatever sins she has committed to find herself in this place. She is running from her past and then she is running towards a future. It’s honestly an interesting and well written story. There is character growth and development; Ophelia doesn’t feel anything like the girl I’d been reading about up until this point. In fact, I feel as if the last 85 pages of this book are a completely different story with only a vague connection to the rest of it.

Had I read only that as a short story I would have thoroughly enjoyed it. Unfortunately it comes packaged with whatever the beginning parts were trying to be and so I’m just confused. The fact that the ending of a book could be so different from the rest I kept mistaking the main character for someone else is enough, on its own, to a condemn a book for me. That is sloppy. Don’t do that. Its clear that once Klein stopped forcing herself to rewrite the play her own creativity shone through and it was genuinely great. That’s not enough though. You can’t make a reader dig through 242 pages of shit to find gold. 2/5 stars.

Book Chat: Symptomatic by Danzy Senna

Have you ever read a book and thought; “I love what this wants to be but not so much what it is.”? That’s how I feel about Symptomatic by Danzy Senna; I love the themes in this book, and I connect with the main character on several levels but the story itself was nothing that spectacular.

We follow a young reporter who has just left her unconventional home and family in California and moved to New York for a job. She is lonely, bad at relationships, and determined to prove herself to a family that thinks her dreams of an office job at a magazine are ludicrous. It’s very much the type of story I enjoy where we just sort of see a person existing in life. If you know anything about Danzy Senna you will know going into this book that our protagonist is half black and half white though you wouldn’t know it looking at her; this is how Senna herself appears and it makes sense that that is the experience of her protagonists. Write what you know, and all that. This means that race, racism, and the struggles of not appearing to be who you are all come up and play a significant part on the overall plot. And we do get an overall plot eventually, it sneaks up on us and before you know it everything is very Single White Female. I caught that about halfway in and I’ve only ever seen bits of that movie once so it is that obvious.

The book goes from walking simulator with a nameless protagonist to thriller at the blink of an eye and then it’s over. Nothing too special about it honestly, but because I connected with the main character I did love it.

Telling the story of a biracial person is why I adore Sennas work, I feel she writes books about my life, the little everyday struggles of being biracial without writing a book about race. My life isn’t about race, but race comes up quite a damn bit, if that makes sense. That is what some people don’t seem to like. With each book of hers I read I see “tragic mulatto” all over the reviews, and yes, that is a trope that is present in her books. Tropes aren’t inherently bad, they are just things that are used and seen often; they become negative when paired with the words “overused”, “cliche”, “been done before”. For the people who have described Sennas work in such a manner I think they need to reevaluate what the tragic mulatto trope is; it is the story of a mixed person who doesn’t fit in, may be sad or depressed because of it, struggles to find their place, etc. It was used a lot in anti-interracial marriage propaganda as a “think of the children” ploy. Now I see it every time a multiracial protagonist feels disphoia, or loneliness, etc. I see the words “tragic mulatto” thrown out in ways that suggest and eye roll. It’s a bit insulting. These are stories written by people about their real experiences so calling those experiences cliche, to me, sounds like you’re just complaining that you can’t relate and so they must just be whining.

I won’t harp about this any longer though. After I finished reading I gave this book 4 stars because i had devoured it in a sitting and had not stopped being entertained but after letting it stew I’m thinking it’s more of a 3.5. Without the race issues the books isn’t all that interesting once you realize it’s Single White Female (I’ve heard more people compare it to Passing but I’ve never read that). The nameless protagonist is interesting, but in hindsight she’s just like the faceless protagonists in video games, bland because giving her a stronger personality would break the player/reader immersion. So while I love the writing, and the experience was fun it’s not something I’m going to rave about.

The City at the Center of Forever

The hardest part about reviewing books, for me, is placing them on a sliding scale of “Worst” to”Best”. It can be paralyzing. I have avoided reviewing books simply because I didn’t know where it fell on a 1-5 scale. I think the problem stems from the fact that since I judge every book as an individual there are weird inconsistencies in my ranking over all; for example why are both Island of the Blue Dolphins and The Three Musketeers marked five stars? That’s not right. Comparing the two Island might be lucky with a 3 to Musketeers 5. But that’s like comparing a kitten to a goose.

Best Google search I’ve ever done

Sure, you may have a preference and be able to compare them on some scale but that doesn’t take into account that each is unique, designed for different purposes. Cats can’t fly, and geese aren’t grace and majesty personified; they both lose points! But that’s silly because cats shouldn’t fly, that wouldn’t serve them any good. First off because they would still just sleep all day, but also because they are perfect for what their role in the food chain is. Okay, this metaphor is becoming its own thing and its time to stop. Point is; books are designed to different ends, with different audiences in mind and different goals for the impact of the story. You can’t judge it by another books goals. Island of the Blue Dolphins does exactly what Scott O’Dell set out to do with that book, just as The Three Musketeers does just what its meant to and they both do these things well.

So now that that extended explanation is out of the way I can tell you why I subjected you to it in the first place; indie books. Self published book. Books written by my friends. These are really really REALLY hard to place on the scale because most of the time they are quite good, great even but how do I know that since I’m judging this book with only itself as a meter that I’m not biased in some way? Am I judging them fairly? Am I overlooking flaws I wouldn’t overlook in a mainstream book?

I don’t know.

But I will keep those questions in mind as I tell you about The City at the Center of Forever by James T. Witten. You remember him, I reviewed his book The Maijikal Chronicles earlier this fall. This new book is also a National Novel Writing Month book from several years ago and I am so happy to have read it this month because its great motivation.

The book opens up with us meeting our main character, Aolden Blackwood, at his gig as a taproom magician. He sets shit on fire, makes people disappear, and catches the eye of a young girl who couldn’t be happier to be there. I’m sorry for what I’m about to say but there is really no other way; one thing led to another *gags* and Aolden finds himself in a gang of merry misfits, led by a girl who is described as “enigmatic” so many times I want to physically harm the author, on a quest for. . . something? Maybe? No one is quite sure at first.

The story is fast paced, with not much down time. That can be a point against it for some people but I enjoyed it. There were scenes that were just hilarious because the whole time I was thinking “Is this really happening right now? Of course this is happening right now.” There are a few near death experiences, some strange interrogations, some hopeless yet frantic rides to freedom. It’s a fantasy novel, you know the deal. It is also quite funny, and the plot is gripping enough that I felt real anxiety to continue reading every time I put it down.

It isn’t perfect though, not by a long shot. As much as I loved our “enigmatic” token female character, Aysil, I couldn’t stop myself from realizing she was just another YA “most specialist girl in the world!” She has zero flaws, her differences only serve to make her more extra special, and she has some unexplained mystic abilities that I still have no understanding of. Witten goes a step farther to make sure she is just the most specialist snowflake that ever did flutter by describing our “enigmatic” lead female as having a strange “Aysilness” about her.

On top of that I am not satisfied with the explanation for the reason for the entire quest. You can speculate on it for sure, I certainly have and filled in the gaps to my own satisfaction, but the book isn’t going to tell you. It’s not gonna tell you a lot of things

Look at those sexy page numbers

actually. Not all of this is a bad thing, I hate authors that feel the need to tell us every little thing. I think a bit of ambiguity and mystery at the end leaves the reader so much freedom to create what they would like to imagine as the ending, or as character motivation, or as explanation for something that happened. That is the reason why no two people can read the same book. That opens room for discussion and speculation and, at least for me in this particular case, fan fiction.Witten introduces us to his band of merry misfits in a way that leaves much to the imagination. We get a good idea of who these people are and why they are here but not much about where they came from or where they’re going next. I like this. It’s a snapshot in their lives. I wouldn’t want him to change it.

This review is becoming a novel in and of itself. Sorry. Now is the hard part; how many stars? Compared to The Three Musketeers it’s a solid 1.5. If you pit it against, say, The Lunar Chronicles its on par. 4-5 stars. I chose to weigh it against Wittens other book, which in the comparison was bumped down to a 2.75 so that The City at the Center of Forever can have a solid 4 stars: it does what I think Witten intended for it to do, and was enjoyable while doing it.

You can help support this wonderful indie author by grabbing a copy of the book HERE! I recommend it. If for no other reason that to support self published works and small authors.

October Wrap-Up

October went by quick didn’t it? I feel like I just made my TBR and then suddenly it was Halloween and then BAM NaNoWriMo. Somehow during the two minutes this month seemed to take up I read 10 books, and hauled 7.

Let’s start with the haul shall we?

Most of my haul are Little Free Library finds, some of which will be put back but others I will hoard like the a man eating dragon.

• Island of The Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell, a childhood favorite of mine which I’d lost. It is loosely based on the true story of a Native woman who lives alone on an island off the coast of California for 18 years.
• The Ballad of Lucy Whipple by Karen Cushman, I loved Karen Cushmans The Midwifes Apprentice but this book, about a young girl named California Morning Whipple whose family moves to California in search of adventure, bored me to tears and I put it down.
• 4000 Years of Uppity Woman by Vicki León This is a nonfiction book about “uppity” woman throughout history
• Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen A retelling of Peter Pan from the point of view of Captain Hook

Also this month I bought all three existing books of The Gentleman Bastards Sequence by Scott Lynch.

What I Read:
I picked a TBR of 9 books earlier this month and of those I finished 8 so go me.

I finished The Lies of Locke Lamora on the 3rd but I didn’t count that towards my total for this month since I started it in September.
Then I read

• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros a coming of age tale told in vignettes 3/5
• Tales From The Kingdom trilogy by Sarah Pinborough a twisted, and very much R rated, mash up of all your favorite fairy tales. 2.75/5
• The Doula Book by Marshall H. Klaus This is a book that discusses the benefits of having a trained labor companion which I read because I’m studying to be a doula. 3/5
• Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory. Another in her Plantagenet series; this time Gregory tells the story of Margaret Tudor who becomes the Queen of Scotland and lives a life of passion, treason, and war to get her son on his throne. Interestingly enough she somehow made this boring. 2.75/5
• Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch book 2 in the Gentleman Bastards Sequence. I’m madly in love with Jean Tannen 5/5
• The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch. Book 3 in the Gentleman Bastards Sequence. Ugh. 3/5.
• The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin, an in depth look at all of the stages of labor and delivery as well as what a birth partner can do to be there physically and emotionally for the laboring mom. 4/5
• The Lightning Tree by Patrick Rothfuss. A short story following a day in the life of Bast. 4/5
• Taking Charge of your Fertility by Toni Wechsler. This book goes in depth about female reproduction and as I joked with my friends “The wonders of the menstrual cycle!”, it teaches woman how to understand and track their cycles giving them the freedom to understand when something is wrong, as well as learning the best times to try to get pregnant and how not to get pregnant without the dangers of hormonal birth control or the guess work and chance of barrier methods. 5/5 this should be a text book in every high school.

In all it was an informative and highly emotional reading month for me. I just need more Jean Tannen in my life…