Eight Book Minimum: January 2023

[spindizzy]

I read books! More than I did during the main brunt of the pandemic, but fewer than I did before 2020 and the great burnout. Instead of recapping all of my 2022 reading, I figured I'd do a quick recap of the highlights!

1. Kaleidoscope of Death by Xī Zǐxù — So it turns out that what I really wanted was 149 chapters of queer portal/survival horror! The protagonists are thrown through magical doorways into worlds based on folklore, urban legends, or horror stories, and have to try to navigate the rules and puzzles to find the exit and escape. No, they don't usually get told the rules at any point. Yes, they do have to do some trickery to get around those rules, which means that there's so many opportunities for the characters to be competent.
   
   The horror elements are fantastic. Kaleidoscope of Death draws on urban legends and pop culture from all sorts of places – one of the levels is based on a real life board game, and that arc is creepy enough that I never want to play the game – and the descriptions and set pieces are so vivid and haunting. Plus, by making the influences explicit in the text, the narrative gets to play with the tropes attached to them, and the characters get to use that to bend the rules of the worlds they're in – it's so creative and compelling, I loved it. And it does a good job of giving the tertiary characters enough of a presence that I actually cared when horrible things started happening! Speaking of terrible things happening, I respect how much the narrative dug into the themes of sacrifice; self-sacrifice, sacrificing others, willing sacrifices, distinctly unwilling sacrifices, the impact on those who survive.
   
   It's not perfect. 1) The pacing when the characters are in the other worlds: snappy. On point. The pacing when the characters are in the real world: a mess. Maybe I'm being unfair, maybe glossing over six months in a few paragraphs is fine, but it's still a bit off-putting. 2) The emotional beats didn't quite hit for me all the time. I think some of it's deliberate, because the protagonist is supposed to be unnaturally chill, but some of it just missed me completely. 3) There was a surprising amount of gender essentialism for a story involving quite this many men in skirts.
   
   Overall, it was exactly the sort of nonsense I wanted to read! I just want someone else to read it now so I can shriek about the extras with someone who understand.
   
   [Caution warnings: ALL OF THEM. Major ones are gore, murder, suicide, mutilation, death of children, bullying, body horror, but that is not a comprehensive list.]



2. Truth and Measure by Roslyn Sinclair — I co-reviewed Truth and Measure with Tara at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, so you can get the full look there, but it's a rewritten version of the 200k post-canon Devil Wears Prada fanfic, and it's so good. It's got the same beats that I recognise from the fic version, but the melody around them is different enough that it feels new and exciting. If you want a more specific comparison how the versions differ, I went into it for The Lesbrary; tldr is that I enjoyed it immensely.
   
   [Caution warnings: boss/subordinate relationship, age gap romance, pregnancy, mentions of homophobia and infidelity, ]



3. Still Sick by Akashi — The premise of this is that a woman who draws f/f doujinshi gets found out by one of her colleagues, and based on that I was prepared to writhe out of my own skin in second-hand embarrassment. But I'm glad I stuck with it, because Still Sick ended up being a really thoughtful look at creating even when it's hard, and the difference between creating for fun and creating for work. It's really good! And I love the depth that Maekawa reveals in bits and pieces as the story goes on. It didn't go anywhere I expected based on the initial summary I read, but I'm glad I stuck with it.


4. Ghost Reaper Girl by Akissa Saiké — Listen, I didn't know I needed a B-movie themed magical girl in my life, but here we are. Chloé Love is an actress having trouble getting work, until there's a supernatural jail break and she contracts with a handsome weirdo to become a magical girl. It's got characters willing to risk everything to support each other, it's got horrors from beyond the stars being won over through friendship, it's got some gorgeous fight scenes, Chloé is fantastic and I love her. My biggest complaint about it is that the first chapter has some skeevy lolicon jokes, but those get dropped immediately never to return!
   
   When I say Ghost Reaper Girl is B-movie themed, I'm not exaggerating by the way. Dr Herbert West, re-animator, shows up with his pet zombie assassin/cosmic horror Shoggoth. Nyarlhotep is a cosplayer who will absolutely murder people. And Chloé gets different powers and costumes depending on who she teamed up with, which: yesssssssssssssss. Absolutely what I wanted. It's silly and fun, and I adore it.


5. Sailor's Delight by Rose Lerner — Me picking up Sailor's Delight: I sure hope this historical romance about a very tired, overworked Jewish accountant crushing on a hot sailor has a lot of thirsty pining!
   Me finishing Sailor's Delight: How was there that much pining when everyone is very blatantly in love?!
   
   What I'm saying is that I love everyone in this bar. Everyone is trying to do right by each other, even when that goes directly against their own wants! In a believable way! And Elie's family is such a nosy and loud and loving part of this story! It's funny and wholesome and affectionate, despite the historical anti-semitism and the central drama being "I need to stop crushing on this engaged man before his fiancée shows up – what do you mean she's already here?" But yes, there was enough pining that even my slow-burn hungry heart was satisfied, so excellent work all round.
   
   [Caution warnings: anti-semitism and bigotry]


6. Hither, Page and The Missing Page by Cat Sebastian — My official notes are that The Missing Page has some the most romantic fucking scenes in it that I've ever read, so take that for what it's worth. "Very tired spy attempts to solve murders, is mortified to discover he has Feelings for the handsome country doctor with PTSD" was always going to be my jam and we all know it. I think I have similar feelings about Hither, Page as I do about Sailor's Delight; yes, there's a plot and serious things going on over there, but what I'm actually here for is the way that these characters get folded into a family and a community like it's the only place they could be. Yes, excellent, I anticipate rereading them a fourth time.
   
   [Caution warnings: homophobia, PTSD, murder, medical abuse]


7. The Fire Never Goes Out by ND Stevenson — Reading The Fire Never Goes Out as a burned out mentally ill creative was an experience. It collects the yearly summaries that ND Stevenson used to do on his tumblr, along with his art and reflections on his career. It gave me the same feeling as reading shame – a shared vulnerability, maybe. The art is very good, the story telling is great, but the emotions left me staring into space for a while afterwards as I wrapped my head around them.


8. The Ancient Magus' Bride Vols 1-6 by Kore Yamazaki — Reading The Ancient Magus' Bridge always takes longer than I think it should, just because I want to linger over each panel. It's not just that the art is gorgeous, although to be clear: it's gorgeous. It's that the whole series has this aura of melancholy and hope, and I just get very in my feelings about every character. Especially Chise! The story isn't just Chise discovering the world of magic, it's her discovering life as well. A life with friends and family, where she actively cares about things! Like, I really enjoy the world building of magic and fae, but Chise growing a sense of self is what keeps me reading.
   
   [Caution warnings: depression, murder, suicide, neglect, body horror, animal death]

... If you think you see any commonalities between my favourites this year: no you do not.

I don't have any big plans for 2023 on the media front. I'm honestly a little too scared of making any – three years of trying and failing will do that to you, I guess. The closest I've got to a plan is "read things you like," which seems like a good place to start. Hope 2023 treats you and your reading gently! ♥

Comments

[shadaras]

Kaleidoscope of Death is a very good story! I want to reread it with the contextual knowledge of the ending/extras, because I think that'll add some extra flavor, especially to the beginning. But yeah, I just sighed around all the gender essentialism; it's something sadly common to cnovels, so I could ignore it, but it's never fun.