Eight Book Minimum: Penultimate installment for 2017!

[spindizzy]

OKAY, I have started my 2018 reading, but to be honest I've not finished writing up my 2017 reading and for once I am actually close enough to being done that I can taste it. So please excuse this and the next post as me wrapping up last year a little late, and then we can get on with the new on a sensible schedule!

1. Sunshine by Robin McKinley [Jump]


2. Pandora Hearts Volume Twelve by Jun Mochizuki [Jump]


3. Think of England by KJ Charles [Jump]


4. Song For a Viking by KJ Charles [Jump]


5. A Fashionable Indulgence by KJ Charles [Jump]


6. The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley [Jump]


7. White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi [Jump]


8. The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian [Jump]


9. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood [Jump] *


10. Jackdaw by KJ Charles [Jump] *


11. Avi Cantor Has Six Months To Live by Sacha Lamb [Jump]


12. When We Die On Mars by Cassandra Khaw [Jump]


13. My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Nagata Kabi [Jump]


14. The Soldier's Scoundrel by Cat Sebastian [Jump]

1. Sunshine by Robin McKinley [Top]
(I've read this before, but I am seriously marveling at how much I forgot about the plot. Literally anything before the final confrontation was just gone, and replaced with this fic that I legit was convinced was canon. I am great at this. But on re-reading? Sunshine is the prose equivalent of sitting on your doorstep in the sun and it is great.

The book follows Sunshine, a baker, through her working out the truth of what she is and also the repercussions of her being kidnapped by vampires that one time. It's very much a character study; it feels like someone sitting down and telling their own story, weaving back and forwards through bits of their life that seems relevant, and the focus is entirely on Sunshine's story. There is an entire magic-based apocalypse told in Sunshine's asides, but never explicitly laid out because that's just not what the story's about. That's great and I adore it, because the world building that we do get is woven into Sunshine's narration so well. Especially because of Sunshine's choices – her reluctance to talk to her mother, for example, we never actually get confirmation that any of her theories about who or what she is or how the world works are actually right! That's such an interesting choice and I'm fascinated by it. I really enjoy the relationships Sunshine has and the way they change over the book, and the that her understanding of the entire world changes.

The only downside for me is that the last few chapters are a bit of a muddle, but that could be because every Robin McKinley book I've read ends in a muddle, so I kind of expect it? But I still love Sunshine so much, it's great.

2. Pandora Hearts Volume Twelve by Jun Mochizuki [Top]
In this volume: Uncle Oscar throws a lovely tea party for everyone, and then everyone goes to a fancy ball to snoop around the host's house to find out What He Knows About The Baskervilles, and nothing is terrible and everyone has a lovely time.

... LOOK AT THIS. LOOK AT THIS LAST VOLUME WHERE ANYTHING GOOD AT ALL HAPPENS FOR ANYONE. ENJOY THIS BRIEF RESPITE FROM PAIN AND MISERY WHILE WE HAVE IT BECAUSE IT'S NOT GOING TO LAST.

Like, seriously, this volume goes hard into things being lovely and silly. Ada reveals her secrets, and they come from such an utterly benign, innocent place that even though I'm kinda like "Oh Ada, honey no," about every single part of them (except for Vincent's reaction, which just made me laugh because I absolutely approve of his day being ruined), I'm also super charmed? It has the obligatory maid costume scene, which is just... Odd in every particular! Every scene with Yura in is strange and bizarre because even for a manga his anatomy does not work! Alice can dance! There are people in this manga who think Vincent looks kind because they apparently don't pay attention!

But beneath all the silliness, there's some serious things and some blatant feels-giving Oscar and his camera are a heartbreaking bit of backstory that explains why he values the family that he has so much? Oz and Elliott agreeing to be friends makes me shriek a little because I'm happy? But also I find the world-building here to be fascinating! It genuinely never occurred to me that there would be other countries in Pandora Hearts, so seeing what the rest of the world thinks is going on in Sablier is really interesting to me, even if the one person we meet who isn't from Sablier is a shady dude whose anatomy doesn't work. But I really enjoy that he's also the first one to ask Oz if he's actually just making the whole "Jack Vessalius" thing up, because you'd think someone would have asked this before. (Oz's solution to this is impressive and horrifying in equal measure aaaaah.)

(I really can't shake the idea that the book wants me to ship Sharon and Break, when actually what I'm here for is them having a super fractious family relationship. I know that canonically Sharon is maybe only a year younger than Raven, and I will allow her having an unreciprocated crush if you must, but I am still not here for this ship! Or how happy she looks about Break's secret! ... I am here for Sharon's reaction to the women her age that she can't be like because she's frozen in time. That was fine.)

BASICALLY, this volume was a really good balance of happiness and setting up the plot for future volumes, which I'm sure means that everything will be fine and nothing tragic is about to happen. ... NOW WHY ARE THOSE KIDS THERE?!

3. Think of England by KJ Charles [Top]
Think of England is a spy mystery set in the early 1900s following a former army captain, Archie Curtis, as he attempts to find out whether the deaths of all of his friends were due to deliberate sabotage! Except that he unwittingly falls into an active investigation

I think Daniel was my favourite character in this. KJ Charles said in an interview that he was written in deliberate opposition to the turn of the century adventure books with Portuguese Jewish villains, which I've not read so I couldn't say for certain whether she's succeeded, but if that's a thing that would interest you: there you go! I really enjoy competent spies, so I was kinda delighted by seeing Daniel problem-solve throughout the book. Especially because he's a poet and very deliberately constructed in universe? As a character who is deliberately playing roles and being very good at them? Especially when contrasted against Curtis, who is very good at his skill set, but that skill set does not involve subterfuge, spying, or basic investigations. I thought that the mystery, such as it was, was interesting, and while I was a bit "Hmmm" about how the relationship started, by the end of it I was super invested.

... I really liked this one. It was probably my favourite KJ Charles book until Spectred Isle came out, so make of that what you will! I am just a little heartbroken that KJ Charles has said that she's not going to write a sequel because she can't get the tone that she wants due to, y'know, impending World War I. I would just like the explanation of WHY Curtis has a Viking Berseker mode! And more of Daniel's general existence! *cue wailing and gnashing of teeth*

[Caution warning: blackmail, anti-semitism from antagonists; I think there are some other warnings but they're spoilers so if anyone wants them I am happy to



4. Song For a Viking by KJ Charles [Top]
So it turns out that once upon a time KJ Charles wrote a free short story set during the ending of Think of England and I am so happy with this? It's ridiculous and Daniel is the most dramatic of spies, but I genuinely enjoyed it and getting his point of view.

5. A Fashionable Indulgence by KJ Charles [Top]
Oh. Hm. Mm. I'm not sure about this one, I'm not sure at all. I liked the love interest (Julius is pretty great?), but... Honestly this spent too much time poking at my embarrassment squick for me to enjoy it. It's absolutely better than I expected! I thought it would be kinda like My Fair Lady and would linger on Harry embarrassing himself, which fortunately it didn't! But it does have him constantly making the absolute worst choice in every situation, so it cancels out. And I feel like Julian's issues with his family came a little out of nowhere for me? But I really enjoyed Julian's character and how waspish he was, so in general it worked for me.

I think that it did a really good job with setting up the politics and poverty that Harry is deliberately choosing to turn away from, and I delighted in Harry's cousin Verona being inspired by feminists of the time, but the book as a whole fell a little flat for me.

6. The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley [Top]
I actually had really long thoughts about this one that boil down to "This has a lot of cool ideas but is not for me!



7. White Is For Witching by Helen Oyeyemi [Top]
I picked White Is For Witching up for an episode of Fangirl Happy Hour where renay and readingtheend were going to read it, so I would understand the episode, and if you listen to the episode Nay actually specifically says "It’s just not a Susan book. I just would not have ever recommended her that book."

This was a very strange book, not my usual thing at all, and to be honest Nay's assessment is correct! It is not a me book at all! It is a very beautiful, lyrical book; the story follows generations of women haunted by their racist, xenophobic house, which somehow wants to keep all of these women inside its wall forever (in one case literally), and the story loops forwards and backwards through time to tell their story. Even when they make it away from the house, it still lures them back!

It's a very surreal story, with beautiful images and language, and the relationships are as much in the things that are unspoken as the things that are spoken – especially between Ore and Miranda, and Elliot and Miranda, and if anyone wants to confirm or refute my suspicions regarding how he felt about her I am all ears. There are lots of things left in the gaps between scenes, that you can see the shape of but aren't confirmed, which works really well for the story being told, because that's basically what happens with everything else.

(Ore's point of view is refreshingly normal when she shows up, and I feel so sorry that she gets dragged into this mess.)

But yes, it's one of those stories where I can understand and appreciate that it is beautiful and clever and strange, but it's not the sort of thing I would have picked out for myself, and it's not really for me? But if you like surreal horror, this is absolutely one that I would recommend.

[Caution warning: eating disorders, specifically pica; racism; xenophobia; children in danger]

8. The Lawrence Brown Affair by Cat Sebastian [Top]
This is going to sound very strange, but this reminded me a lot of Duet For Tenor and Transradial Orthosis for reasons that I'm not sure I can articulate beyond "A very nice young man who pretends not to be goes to turn an inventor's life upside and eventually they fall in love!" In The Lawrence Browne Affair, Georgie Turner goes on the run from his former criminal associates, and ends up posing as a secretary for a so-called Mad Earl. Cue mysteries and falling in love!

This was mostly charming! Georgie has a great voice, and I am immensely fond of Lawrence and his inventions (I read him as having anxiety and being on the autism spectrum, which the author has since confirmed). But I also found parts of this INCREDIBLY STRESSFUL, especially the part where Simon shows up! I had to BRACE MYSELF for every part of that visit to go wrong, I can't even tell you! The way all of the story threads wove together was satisfying, and I really enjoyed Lawrence's arc through the book and how supportive Georgie was? It was my first Cat Sebastian book, and I can definitely see why everyone was yelling about it.



9. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood [Top]
It's very strange to realise that a book has become part of your internal landscape when you have no memory of it doing that. I've read it before way back in 2008, and thought the language use was excellent at the time, but the apparently little phrases like "I feel like the word shatter" have found their way into me and stayed there long after I'd forgotten the source.

For those who don't know the story: America is taken over by religious fundamentalists, who enforce military rule, and then some bastardised Christian law – particularly restricting the rights of women and essentially reducing them to property, suitable for only as wives, daughters, servants, or forced surrogates. Offred, our main character, is the property of a commander (hence the name – she is Of Fred), and her main role is to serve as a surrogate for him and his wife, and the book is her (possibly unreliable!) narration of how things reached that point, and what happens to her in that house.

... When I was eighteen I was like "This is horrifying and ew misogyny, but it could never happen!" and I miss those halcyon days of innocence. I think what gets me, apart from reading it and going "Well fuck, this is more plausible than I remember" was the number of people who are complicit in it – or at least did not oppose what happened until it was too late. Offred's husband isn't as terrified as he should be by the fact that his wife can no longer have a bank balance or a job! Neither of them go to the marches or demonstrations against it! (Offred in her life before apparently thought that her mother's active feminism was outdated and unnecessary, and that her friend Moira CHOSE to be a lesbian, which SURE SAYS A LOT about pre-Gilead Offred.) The people who break Offred down and train her as a handmaid are other women – hell, Serena Joy, the Commander's wife, was one of the driving forces behind the subjugation of women right up until it took her out too.

(I think bonjourcass was going to talk about Moira and her role as a plot device, but I'm not sure if she did yet!)

Plus, the sheer ease that the events happened was horrifying. I know it's supposed to be, but wow.

I... Don't like The Handmaid's Tale. I know it's a thought experiment and you're not supposed to like it, but it does mean that it's a struggle to read. Everything feels... Claustrophobic? Offred's world is deliberately restricted, she is not allowed to DO anything, so there are points in the book where everything feels still. It's horrible. It's worth reading if you want to see the eighties (White) anti-feminist dystopia, but... It's not gonna be fun!

[Caution warnings: rape, misogyny, sex slavery, forced pregnancy, homophobia, suicide, racism and anti-semitism... Everything you would expect from a dystopia, okay.]

10. Jackdaw by KJ Charles [Top]
I'm honestly a little sad about this one, because thief with a heart of gold and the law-enforcer that loves them is one of my favourite tropes. But this one presents a probably more realistic (certainly more conflicted) depiction of that trope where everyone is heartbroken and betrayed for like three-quarters of the book and auuuuuugh this is not what I wanteeeeed...

(True story: renay mentioned she wanted to start it before she went to bed and I was just like "NOPE, NO, DO NOT DO THAT THING, IT WILL MAKE YOU SAD.")

But I liked all of the characters, especially when we got to the second half of the book and got to actually meet them properly. I liked how they got to know each other as they actually were, I liked the scenes in the last quarter, even if it was somewhat predictable... And it's honestly interesting to see the cast of The Magpie Lord presented as antagonists! Especially when they're not exactly wrong? But there is at least one sexual assault and some really horrible confrontations between the start of the book and the point where it starts actually being enjoyable, with only daring escapes and bittersweet flashbacks to lighten it.

I don't knoooooooow, it probably suffers for not being The Specific Interpretation of Tropes That I Wanted, it might be good for people who weren't expecting a marginally happier book!

[Caution warning: sexual assault]

11. Avi Cantor Has Six Month To Live by Sacha Lamb [Top]

Avi walks into the school bathroom one day to find a threat – or a curse? Or a prediction? – against him, made out to a name no one should know, because he's not even out to his mother yet. And somehow, this brings him Ian.

Avi Cantor Has Six Month's To Live is not an easy story to read. Avi is bullied, depressed, and suicidal – and pretty frank about this in his narration, much to his boyfriend's horror when it actually gets spoken out loud. But there is still a lot of warmth and family, especially from Ian – and if you've been following this column at all, you know that Happy Sunshiney Optimist/Grumpy Suspicious Pessimist is one of my favourite pairing types, so I was always going to be here for the romance – and Ian's family, and the way that they welcome Avi in. Avi's own mother and her reaction to Avi's coming out is perfect, and the way that neither of them can acknowledge that they're not okay hurts but feels realistic. I feel like the depiction of Avi's mental illness was heartbreaking and realistic, especially because love on its own doesn't make him better – and the way that Avi and Ian resolve the prediction warms me right through.

If you want a story about finding family and keeping it, or trans boys in love, or finding enough hope to keep you alive, and don't mind that it's a rough road to get there, I recommend this one because it's good.

[Caution warning: bullying, depression, discussion/jokes about suicide. Connection disclaimer: This is published by The Book Smugglers, who I know outside of their publishing, and the cover was drawn by our own justira.]



12. When We Die On Mars by Cassandra Khaw [Top]
When We Die On Mars is Cassandra Khaw's short story about a group of people preparing to go to Mars as initial colonisers, in the three years they have to spend in training to be sure they want to go. The story doesn't shy away from how hard it's going to be for them, or suggest that the people choosing to go or choosing to stay are making a better choice than the others, which I appreciate, and it manages to weave so many backstories and found-family dynamics into such little space with beautifully spare prose. It's lovely.

13. My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Nagata Kabi [Top]
My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness is about a young queer Japanese woman with depression, who decides that the best way to resolve her struggle to make connections with people and her understanding of her sexuality is to hire an escort.

It's a really fascinating look at the artist, and the way she talks about her depression is extremely relatable (she talks about how she couldn't love herself, so she always treated herself and her accomplishments like crap, and how once she started actually looking after herself people started treating her better, which are both traps my ridiculous brain falls into!), and her resolution ("If this is how it is, I've got nothing to lose! I'll claw my way out of bed with my last dying breath!") made me laugh even as I could relate. It's funny, even though it's talking about serious things, and her frankness about her problems is really relatable.

(I was somewhat weirded out by the way she spoke about her mother, but I was also weirded out by the way Alison Bechdel spoke about hers in Are You My Mother? so perhaps just disregard me entirely when it comes to memoirs where women talk about their parents in very Freudian terms?)

The art style is very minimal and sketchy, which works for the narrative it's telling and keeps things on the side of funny and bearable! It especially works for the scenes at the love hotel, because it's not titillating? It's a minor disaster, but it's not presented as a sexy one, if that makes sense? It's nice to see a story about sex workers that isn't male-gazey and gross. (I especially liked the follow-up where she mentions that having people know her from her manga about hiring an escort makes talking to people so much easier, because "it was like I'd submitted material about my personality in advance.")

Basically, this was an entertaining manga that talks frankly about the creators depression and recovery, and the way that hiring a sex-worker changed how they thought about themself. It was really cool, and I enjoyed it a lot!

[Caution warning: depression, eating disorders]

14. The Soldier's Scoundrel by Cat Sebastian [Top]
Oh no, this one is definitely relevant to my interests. A former crook turned private investigator and a former soldier accidentally team up to solve a case! They fall in love! And occasionally commit crime! This is my kryptonite, help!

... No, seriously, this pushed all the same buttons for me that Think of England did, but in a more sensible manner. There are complex family relationships! Including siblings that love each other but can't talk to each other! A slow-building romance that at least one of the characters fights every step of the way! Characters learning to meet each other in the middle! And layers to the mystery at the heart of it! Help, it delighted me, I want twelve more exactly like it.

[Caution warning: off-screen abusive relationships]

Currently Reading

Manga Dogs Volume 3 by Ema Toyama — It's so cute and the last volume! And all of the stories are super short so really I should be getting through it much faster than I am, I just haven't had time.

Reading Goals

Reading goal: 168/150 (13 new this post) Prose: 94/50 (12 new this post)
New-to-me female authors: 47/50 (Helen Oyeyemi, Cat Sebastian, Nagata Kabi; also it turns out that Kamo Syuhei is actually a female mangaka, so my count is one higher than I thought!)
#getouttamydamnhouse: 46/80 (4 gone this post)
#unofficialqueerasfuckbookclub: 60/168

Comments

[dipping_sauce]

The Lawrence Brown Affair also reminded me of an s2b2 story, but not the same as you. The one it made me think of was Your Cover's Blown, though I doubt it was intentional.

I did like it, but I think I liked the Soldier's Scoundrel more.

[amihan]

I've only read one of the books in this list, and there's another one that I wanted to read (My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Nagata Kabi). Thanks for sharing, and warnings on the stories are also much appreciated.