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ladybusinessHello my darlings! I feel like my Mount TBR has suffered a landslide and buried me under it, but don't worry! I've started digging my way out, and hopefully I'll see daylight by the end of the year. I've realised that the ADHD does in fact affect my reading (like, say, how hard it is for me to be motivated to read prose!), so that's making the bookshelf weeding I'm doing this month into a fun and interesting exercise of "Do I really think I'm going to get around to reading this?" ... Sometimes the answer is no, and it turns out that I'm okay with that! CHARACTER GROWTH!
1. Out of the Ashes by MJ James [Top]
I reviewed this for Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, but the long and the short of it is that I really wanted to like Out of the Ashes; a fire marshall is called in to investigate the burning down of a bookshop, and falls in love with the owner! I am always here for queer mysteries, and I was really hopeful that I was going to find a new author whose work I could follow, but it hit a couple of my squicks (At the point where I'm yelling "STOP WANKING IN A HOSPITAL BED!" and "LUBE EXISTS!" at a book, we've possibly gone too far), and the writing had really basic errors like referring back to conversations that had never happened and abandoning plot threads halfway through. I don't recommend it.
[Caution warnings: abusive/neglectful family members, references to infidelity and attempted suicide, poor depiction of mental health issues.] [This review is based on an ARC from Netgalley.]
2. Fuku Fuku Volume 1 by Kanata Konami, Marlaina McElheny (Translator), Ed Chavez (Translator) [Top]
For everyone who found Chii's Sweet Home too distressing: it's okay, there's a DIFFERENT cute manga about cats with no storyline about a kitten getting lost and forgetting about their family! It is entirely cute kitten antics and a middle-aged woman learning how to look after a very active kitten that has strong opinions about being warm and what it should be scratching. It's cute, it's light, it's fluffy; if you need something brainless but with kittens, this isn't a bad place to go!
3. The Rat-Catcher's Daughter by KJ Charles [Top]
The Rat-Catcher's Daughter is set before the events of Any Old Diamond, and follows Miss Christiana, a music hall singer in debt to a very dangerous man who is willing to disfigure her as a warning to others, as she's rescued by the Lilywhite Boys on their fence's behalf.
I liked a lot of it! The romance is very sweet (although as other people have pointed out before, KJ Charles' non-m/m relationships seem to be much less emotionally messy than her m/m one), in contrast to the horrible things going off around them and the horrible things that Christiana suspects of Stan after his rescue. The characters manage to have (respectful!) conversations about their mutual asexuality and Christiana being trans, and I am always here for laughing at allosexuals. It just felt like it was mostly set-up for Gilded Cage, rather than a story that stands on its own merits. So not bad, and I liked the action and romance! It just felt a little uneven.
[Caution warnings: misgendering, threats of violence and torture]
4. Gilded Cage by KJ Charles [Top]
The long-form version of this review is up over here, but the short form of it is that the actual mystery is a little too straightforward for my tastes (and makes more sense if you've read The Rat-Catcher's Daughter), but I did enjoy watching Susan sweep around being incredibly competent. And while I'm not sure I ever understood Templeton Lane, I understood his admiration for her quite well. I approved of how angry the story was, and how unapologetic Susan was in her choices and politics, I think I just feel a bit surprised by how easily some of the problems were resolved.
[Caution warnings: off-screen miscarriage, kidnapping, child abuse, threats of torture, mentions of spousal abuse] [This review is based off a review copy provided by the author.]
5. Bobbins by John Allan [Top]
Bobbins is a collection of sidestories and missing scenes for John Allison's original early 2000s webcomic Bobbins, although you don't need to have read any of it to make sense of this collection and in fact he specifically advises that you don't. It felt comfortably familiar in its topic and tropes, both as an old-school webcomic and as early 2000s British comedies, but I think it's going to be mainly of interest to people who already like John Allison's particular flavours of "young adults making mistakes" like Giant Days.
6. Hellbound Lifestyle by Alabaster Pizzo and Kaeleigh Forsyth [Top]
Hellbound Lifestyle appears to be a depressed woman's observations on the world recorded in her phone and then illustrated in comic form, which is an interesting concept that doesn't quite work for me in execution. It's hard for me to put my finger on exactly why I'm so neutral about this, because I do like "surreal depressed #relatable content" as a genre, but I think it might be the particular combination of art style and the explicit acknowledgement of the separation between idea and comic? It's not bad, but it wasn't my thing.
7. Stumptown Volume 1 by Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth [Top]
Stumptown Volume 1 is Greg Rucka doing exactly what I read him for: hard-boiled disaster women fighting crime. Dex Parios is a private detective with a gambling addiction and debts that need paying, debts that are called in by Sue-Lynne, the owner of the local casino whose granddaughter has gone missing. I like Dex a lot; she's as irreverent as she is competent and unlucky, which means that it's fun to see her crashing around trying to solve cases. The story feels like it's a glimpse into a community; the people Dex meets know each other, acknowledging acquaintances and asking about Dex's brother (who she loves dearly, but is also referred to with an ablist slur at one point) in a way that doesn't take up much space but still feels like it's rooting the story in its characters. I also liked that Dex is explicitly questioning her sexuality, although fair warning: there are a couple of explicitly homophobic characters.
The art is mostly fine, the colour palettes are mostly muted and flat, which I've mentioned before is my thing, but sometimes it's hard to tell the characters apart when they've changed hairstyles, and sometimes there are really basic continuity errors like bandages disappearing between panels.
Stumptown has the same feeling as the run of Kate Bishop being Hawkeye/an LA PI, just with fewer superpowers, which means that it's perfectly enjoyable, but not necessarily going to stand out if you read a lot of pulp detective stories. I enjoyed it though, so if you wanted an example of the genre, this is pretty good!
[Caution warning: ableist slurs, homophobia]
8. Rat Catcher by Andy Diggle and Victor Ibanez [Top]
Rat Catcher: I think it says a lot about how memorable this book is that it took me half the book to be sure that I had read it before and forgotten pretty much everything about it. The premise is that an FBI safe-house goes up in flames, taking three agents and a witness with it. This is conveniently before the witness can give away the identity of a mob boss' mythical "rat catcher," a hitman who kills witnesses before they can testify. And... It's not for me. I don't like the art; I found the characters' sometimes unrecognisable between panels, especially because half the background characters are white guys in suits. I don't like the writing much either, because it feels... Too calculated, perhaps? Too deliberately "edgy" in giving its racist characters a voice, in its character motivations, in the attempts to use the disability of a character who is never shown on the page as character motivation, in the wink-nudge tone the ending has about extrajudicial murder. Like, there might be a competently told thriller under all of this, but if there was it wasn't for me.
[Caution warnings: murder, racism and ableism, off-screen torture, police corruption, on-screen murder and animal death]
9. Apple Cider Slaying by Julie Anne Lindsey [Top]
I really liked Apple Cider Slaying! It had all of the beats that I expect of a cosy mystery: a young woman trying to start her own business, a warm and loving family, a town where everyone knows everyone else's business, the prioritising of normality over the details of investigating a murder, and inexplicable heteronormativity.
In this case, the young woman in question is Winnie Montgomery, full of ideas to save her grandmother's near-bankrupt apple orchard, as long as she can convince the bank manager to give her business loan! Which it looks like he might not, considering that on his professional tour of the business, he and Winnie find her grandmother's nemesis dead in the apple press. Winnie, horrified that the town's new sheriff won't immediately rule her grandmother out as a suspect, immediately starts snooping.
I was very fond of Winnie and her grandmother, and of the people that Winnie loves; there's a lot of sweetness and support going on, and there's enough smattering of history that the characters feel rooted in their home. The constant circling of gossip alternates between feeling realistic for a small town, and incredibly convenient for the plot, especially when the narrative expects me to believe no one gossipped about a very public break-up. But I did like that Winnie's reaction to threats and attempts on her life feels very realistic: utter terror, and then phoning the police, instead of hiding it in some way like a lot of amateur sleuths end up doing.
I do not, by the way, understand the trend in cosy mysteries to have the female lead talk about how beautiful and amazing and talented all the women she meets are, and then have the love interest be some guy who intimidates her! Like, I say this as someone who quite liked the sheriff once he found his chill: I don't know why he's the love interest. Nor do I feel entirely sure about Winnie's ex-boyfriend showing back up at the end of the book, because that particular thread of drama felt very pasted on at the end. I'm also not sure about the level of affection between the Sheriff and Winnie; it makes more sense when it's revealed that they've met before, but the fact that she doesn't remember it and he does means that the thread of it feels weird.
But on the whole, it was mostly sweet and fun, and I liked Winnie a lot! I'm looking forward to the next one coming out.
[Caution warning: threats of violence and stalking, off-screen murder, references to neglectful parents, off-screen animal death and on-screen animal peril] [This review is based on an ARC from Netgalley.]
Part of the problem with clearing out my bookcases is that I've been hopping between books without any real ability to commit!
Reading goal: 107/200 (9 new this post) Prose: 37/100 (4 new this post) (24/37 short stories)
Nonfiction: 5/12 (0 new this post)
#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: 39/100 (3 read this post)
#unofficialqueerafbookclub: 43/75 (Out of the Ashes, The Rat-Catcher's Daughter, Gilded Cage, Stumptown)
- Out of the Ashes by MJ James [Jump]
- Fuku Fuku Volume 1 by Kanata Konami, Marlaina McElheny (Translator), Ed Chavez (Translator) [Jump]
- The Rat-Catcher's Daughter by KJ Charles [Jump]
- Gilded Cage by KJ Charles [Jump]
- Bobbins by John Allan [Jump]
- Hellbound Lifestyle by Alabaster Pizzo and Kaeleigh Forsyth [Jump]
- Stumptown Volume 1 by Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth [Jump]
- Rat Catcher by Andy Diggle and Victor Ibanez [Jump]
- Apple Cider Slaying by Julie Ann Lindsey [Jump]
1. Out of the Ashes by MJ James [Top]
I reviewed this for Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, but the long and the short of it is that I really wanted to like Out of the Ashes; a fire marshall is called in to investigate the burning down of a bookshop, and falls in love with the owner! I am always here for queer mysteries, and I was really hopeful that I was going to find a new author whose work I could follow, but it hit a couple of my squicks (At the point where I'm yelling "STOP WANKING IN A HOSPITAL BED!" and "LUBE EXISTS!" at a book, we've possibly gone too far), and the writing had really basic errors like referring back to conversations that had never happened and abandoning plot threads halfway through. I don't recommend it.
[Caution warnings: abusive/neglectful family members, references to infidelity and attempted suicide, poor depiction of mental health issues.] [This review is based on an ARC from Netgalley.]
2. Fuku Fuku Volume 1 by Kanata Konami, Marlaina McElheny (Translator), Ed Chavez (Translator) [Top]
For everyone who found Chii's Sweet Home too distressing: it's okay, there's a DIFFERENT cute manga about cats with no storyline about a kitten getting lost and forgetting about their family! It is entirely cute kitten antics and a middle-aged woman learning how to look after a very active kitten that has strong opinions about being warm and what it should be scratching. It's cute, it's light, it's fluffy; if you need something brainless but with kittens, this isn't a bad place to go!
3. The Rat-Catcher's Daughter by KJ Charles [Top]
The Rat-Catcher's Daughter is set before the events of Any Old Diamond, and follows Miss Christiana, a music hall singer in debt to a very dangerous man who is willing to disfigure her as a warning to others, as she's rescued by the Lilywhite Boys on their fence's behalf.
I liked a lot of it! The romance is very sweet (although as other people have pointed out before, KJ Charles' non-m/m relationships seem to be much less emotionally messy than her m/m one), in contrast to the horrible things going off around them and the horrible things that Christiana suspects of Stan after his rescue. The characters manage to have (respectful!) conversations about their mutual asexuality and Christiana being trans, and I am always here for laughing at allosexuals. It just felt like it was mostly set-up for Gilded Cage, rather than a story that stands on its own merits. So not bad, and I liked the action and romance! It just felt a little uneven.
[Caution warnings: misgendering, threats of violence and torture]
4. Gilded Cage by KJ Charles [Top]
The long-form version of this review is up over here, but the short form of it is that the actual mystery is a little too straightforward for my tastes (and makes more sense if you've read The Rat-Catcher's Daughter), but I did enjoy watching Susan sweep around being incredibly competent. And while I'm not sure I ever understood Templeton Lane, I understood his admiration for her quite well. I approved of how angry the story was, and how unapologetic Susan was in her choices and politics, I think I just feel a bit surprised by how easily some of the problems were resolved.
[Caution warnings: off-screen miscarriage, kidnapping, child abuse, threats of torture, mentions of spousal abuse] [This review is based off a review copy provided by the author.]
5. Bobbins by John Allan [Top]
Bobbins is a collection of sidestories and missing scenes for John Allison's original early 2000s webcomic Bobbins, although you don't need to have read any of it to make sense of this collection and in fact he specifically advises that you don't. It felt comfortably familiar in its topic and tropes, both as an old-school webcomic and as early 2000s British comedies, but I think it's going to be mainly of interest to people who already like John Allison's particular flavours of "young adults making mistakes" like Giant Days.
6. Hellbound Lifestyle by Alabaster Pizzo and Kaeleigh Forsyth [Top]
Hellbound Lifestyle appears to be a depressed woman's observations on the world recorded in her phone and then illustrated in comic form, which is an interesting concept that doesn't quite work for me in execution. It's hard for me to put my finger on exactly why I'm so neutral about this, because I do like "surreal depressed #relatable content" as a genre, but I think it might be the particular combination of art style and the explicit acknowledgement of the separation between idea and comic? It's not bad, but it wasn't my thing.
7. Stumptown Volume 1 by Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth [Top]
Stumptown Volume 1 is Greg Rucka doing exactly what I read him for: hard-boiled disaster women fighting crime. Dex Parios is a private detective with a gambling addiction and debts that need paying, debts that are called in by Sue-Lynne, the owner of the local casino whose granddaughter has gone missing. I like Dex a lot; she's as irreverent as she is competent and unlucky, which means that it's fun to see her crashing around trying to solve cases. The story feels like it's a glimpse into a community; the people Dex meets know each other, acknowledging acquaintances and asking about Dex's brother (who she loves dearly, but is also referred to with an ablist slur at one point) in a way that doesn't take up much space but still feels like it's rooting the story in its characters. I also liked that Dex is explicitly questioning her sexuality, although fair warning: there are a couple of explicitly homophobic characters.
The art is mostly fine, the colour palettes are mostly muted and flat, which I've mentioned before is my thing, but sometimes it's hard to tell the characters apart when they've changed hairstyles, and sometimes there are really basic continuity errors like bandages disappearing between panels.
Stumptown has the same feeling as the run of Kate Bishop being Hawkeye/an LA PI, just with fewer superpowers, which means that it's perfectly enjoyable, but not necessarily going to stand out if you read a lot of pulp detective stories. I enjoyed it though, so if you wanted an example of the genre, this is pretty good!
[Caution warning: ableist slurs, homophobia]
8. Rat Catcher by Andy Diggle and Victor Ibanez [Top]
Rat Catcher: I think it says a lot about how memorable this book is that it took me half the book to be sure that I had read it before and forgotten pretty much everything about it. The premise is that an FBI safe-house goes up in flames, taking three agents and a witness with it. This is conveniently before the witness can give away the identity of a mob boss' mythical "rat catcher," a hitman who kills witnesses before they can testify. And... It's not for me. I don't like the art; I found the characters' sometimes unrecognisable between panels, especially because half the background characters are white guys in suits. I don't like the writing much either, because it feels... Too calculated, perhaps? Too deliberately "edgy" in giving its racist characters a voice, in its character motivations, in the attempts to use the disability of a character who is never shown on the page as character motivation, in the wink-nudge tone the ending has about extrajudicial murder. Like, there might be a competently told thriller under all of this, but if there was it wasn't for me.
[Caution warnings: murder, racism and ableism, off-screen torture, police corruption, on-screen murder and animal death]
9. Apple Cider Slaying by Julie Anne Lindsey [Top]
I really liked Apple Cider Slaying! It had all of the beats that I expect of a cosy mystery: a young woman trying to start her own business, a warm and loving family, a town where everyone knows everyone else's business, the prioritising of normality over the details of investigating a murder, and inexplicable heteronormativity.
In this case, the young woman in question is Winnie Montgomery, full of ideas to save her grandmother's near-bankrupt apple orchard, as long as she can convince the bank manager to give her business loan! Which it looks like he might not, considering that on his professional tour of the business, he and Winnie find her grandmother's nemesis dead in the apple press. Winnie, horrified that the town's new sheriff won't immediately rule her grandmother out as a suspect, immediately starts snooping.
I was very fond of Winnie and her grandmother, and of the people that Winnie loves; there's a lot of sweetness and support going on, and there's enough smattering of history that the characters feel rooted in their home. The constant circling of gossip alternates between feeling realistic for a small town, and incredibly convenient for the plot, especially when the narrative expects me to believe no one gossipped about a very public break-up. But I did like that Winnie's reaction to threats and attempts on her life feels very realistic: utter terror, and then phoning the police, instead of hiding it in some way like a lot of amateur sleuths end up doing.
I do not, by the way, understand the trend in cosy mysteries to have the female lead talk about how beautiful and amazing and talented all the women she meets are, and then have the love interest be some guy who intimidates her! Like, I say this as someone who quite liked the sheriff once he found his chill: I don't know why he's the love interest. Nor do I feel entirely sure about Winnie's ex-boyfriend showing back up at the end of the book, because that particular thread of drama felt very pasted on at the end. I'm also not sure about the level of affection between the Sheriff and Winnie; it makes more sense when it's revealed that they've met before, but the fact that she doesn't remember it and he does means that the thread of it feels weird.
But on the whole, it was mostly sweet and fun, and I liked Winnie a lot! I'm looking forward to the next one coming out.
[Caution warning: threats of violence and stalking, off-screen murder, references to neglectful parents, off-screen animal death and on-screen animal peril] [This review is based on an ARC from Netgalley.]
Currently Reading
Part of the problem with clearing out my bookcases is that I've been hopping between books without any real ability to commit!
- Livestock — I feel like this one thinks it's more clever than it actually is, but that could just be because I find the art style to be a bit off and automatically distrust anything with "modern parable" on the cover.
- Moth & Whisper Volume 1 — I am tentatively excited about a story with a genderfluid thief committing heists! I'm a bit worried by the author note that's just like "I know I'm an allo/cis/het/white man, but I really want my genderqueer friends to have stories that represent them!" but maybe it'll be okay?
- The Princess Plan by Julia London — I'm a bit "ugh" about royalty as a premise and I don't like the male lead at all, but I'm invested in Eliza, who is so practical and sensible that it rolls all the way back round to eccentricity.
- Changing Course by Brey Willows — I'm only a few chapters in, but so far it feels like generic sf with queer characters in the most restful way it can when the opening chapter is a ship exploding. I like the protagonists! I hope that this keeps up once they actually meet!
- Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey — I got this as a birthday present, and apparently this week is just my week for disasterous PIs with alcohol problems! (Ivy is shaping up to be the sort of unreliable narrator I actually like, where the external stuff is reported accurately and the internal stuff is not. She is DEFINITELY fine.)
Reading Goals
Reading goal: 107/200 (9 new this post) Prose: 37/100 (4 new this post) (24/37 short stories)
Nonfiction: 5/12 (0 new this post)
#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: 39/100 (3 read this post)
#unofficialqueerafbookclub: 43/75 (Out of the Ashes, The Rat-Catcher's Daughter, Gilded Cage, Stumptown)
