|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
my rating |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 150672812X
| 9781506728124
| 150672812X
| 3.61
| 1,379
| Mar 05, 2024
| Mar 05, 2024
|
liked it
|
With her kingdom in financial disarray, pirates on the assault and potential war on the horizon, Princess Amelia must give herself in marriage to a sm
With her kingdom in financial disarray, pirates on the assault and potential war on the horizon, Princess Amelia must give herself in marriage to a smart, political alliance to protect her family and homeland. But instead of a prince, Amelia finds herself betrothed to the recently coronated Queen of a mysterious nation, the very woman Amelia finds herself unable to look away from. Unfortunately, with the pacing and underwhelming but convoluted storyline, The Marble Queen is one from which you might find yourself too easily able to look away. A rather promising graphic novel from author Anna Kopp and illustrator Gabrielle Kari, there’s still a lot to enjoy with the sapphic tale filled with swordplay, swooning, and betrayal by the bucketload. While rather bland in terms of art and story, The Marble Queen is still a worthwhile read with a constantly twisting tale of palace intrigue and a rather adorable romance. [image] This may have been a better novel to give all the elements room to breathe and coalesce, though that said this reads as a bit overly long still. There’s a lot of moving pieces and players in this, and unfortunately the artwork often doesn’t quite uphold the narrative and occasionally some of the characters are difficult to distinguish from each other. There are several nations in the political mix and a lot of plotting, secrets and backstabbing which is rather fun however. Though the pacing just never finds a groove and it goes from being a bit of a slog to suddenly being action-packed but then rushing through those scenes into rather cumbersome info dumping. And the art, which is often flat background or low-detail, just never quite lives up to the cover and the rather gorgeous scenes are few and far between. Still, one can’t be too disappointed as it does feature some awesome women doing awesome swordplay, so don’t be too quick to dismiss it. [image] I rather enjoyed the love story here, which also came with many twists and turns. Amelia has feelings for Salira right away, but represses them and is uncomfortable with the concept of marrying a woman. But she knows it is what she wants. I liked how the kingdom of Iliad was shown as being a very accepting nation in terms of sexuality and there were many queer pairings amongst the people. An aspect of the artwork I really enjoyed was the representation of anxiety, with Amelia having anxiety attacks depicted as thorny roots reaching for her and mocking her. While Salira is also shown to be haunted by her anxiety, this plot line sort of fizzles out and is never actually addressed despite being rather important early on and leading to one of the major plot twists. It’s frustrating it just gets discarded after that. [image] Ultimately, this feels disjointed and trying to juggle too many elements. The part about the magic of Iliad was cool, but under utilized other than convenience to the narrative. It probably would have been better in prose honestly, which I usually find the combination of art to be a lovely added element but here it just didn’t do much. I still enjoyed it well enough though and I would recommend giving it a read if it interests you. The Marble Queen is flawed, but still good sapphic fun. 2.5/5 [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
not set
|
Jun 15, 2024
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0698408152
| 9780698408159
| B015NTIXS8
| 3.57
| 22,161
| Jan 26, 2016
| Jan 26, 2016
|
liked it
|
Had the young Emily Henry, writing this story about time travel, been able herself to travel in time to the future, she’d see herself now dubbed “Quee
Had the young Emily Henry, writing this story about time travel, been able herself to travel in time to the future, she’d see herself now dubbed “Queen of the Romcom” and a staple of bestseller shelves and beach reads. That’s right, The Love that Split the World is the first novel by Emily Henry from back when she wrote YAs and it is a fun debut. Being told ‘there’s nothing scarier than loving someone’ in a book where a rift in reality opens up a parallel universe that sends our protagonist time-traveling makes love sounds pretty damn scary, but in this aptly titled novel love not only splits but also heals. This is a heartwarming story on family and the power of love and being loved that tries to pack a lot into the story and mostly pulls it off. Indigenous histories and myths weave into the present as Natalie, sent by “Grandmother” who’s unexplained appearance at night makes her and the reader question if this is a supernatural or psychological journey, must team up insta-love companion Beau to solve the mysteries of the past before time runs out. An ambitious debut that feels very indicative of the time it was written but manages to stick the landing, The Love That Split the World is cute and ponderous enough to overcome its own shortcomings. ‘Every moment you live, every darkness you face, they’ll all feel worth it when you’re staring light in the face.’ An aspect of Emily Henry's writing that I feel has been a constant thread through her works is how connected to a sense of place they are. I don't just bring this up because I enjoy that, having went to college in my town, she tends to include the vibes of Holland in a lot of her novels (Beach Read shouts out to our downtown donut shop, for instance). Place is very important to Henry and she has discussed in interiews how she feels place influences the people who are there. 'I want my characters to feel like they grew up in the place where [my books are] set,' she says. Henry spent her childhood in Kentucky and Natalie's sense of place in Kentucky really informs the story beyond her emotions about soon leaving it behind to go to college just like Henry herself experienced. It is also integrated in the magic and slow, steady pace of the story: 'I think that with setting, when I really have a deep love for a place, it’s so easy for me to imagine the magic of that specific place. Kentucky is very humid and it gets very hot in the summer and everything is very lush and sticky. I think the magic in a place like that is going to be a slower magic, a warm, sensuous dripping thing, and I think with time travel it works so perfectly. When you’re in a small humid town like that, you feel like time is moving differently and it really is moving differently than different places.' This comes across quite effectively in the book, and I really enjoyed how in her later YA novel, A Million Junes, she captures the feeling of West Michigan so well too because ' I do think that June is Michigan as a person.' She even set out to write a novel for all the places she had lived and I think that nostalgia and love for location really helps give a lovely texture to her stories. I enjoyed how much Emily Henry’s YAs tend to dive into a lot of social issues around race and racism—the legacy of racial violence sparks the paranormal aspects of A Million Junes—with The Love That Split the World having big discussions on indigenous cultural heritage and stories as well as a look at issues surrounding adoption. This latter aspect touched off a bit of a twitter discussion at the time of publication (you can read about that here) and reading this I couldn’t help but notice how the book seemed very indicative of its time as a moment in the maturation of this type of discourse. Stories often serve as cultural artifacts that give a unique vantage point into a period of time, which isn’t to say that The Love That Split the World has aged poorly but just that it is a fascinating look at what publishing in 2016 look like. It feels very much of the era when paranormal romance was the Big Thing in teen publishing (when I worked at a Barnes and Noble Paranormal Romance was its own section, curious if that will come back with the success of books like Hazelwood’s Bride) because this fun blend of time-travel, parallel worlds and other elements of magical realism along with the large romance plot felt natural under that umbrella term. It is very different than the current “romantacy” label which already has authors offering critiques that the umbrella term can be harmful as a marketing term because fans of Fantasy or fans of Romance have very different genre expectations or that it seems like a diminutive label mostly applied to works from women as if they aren’t “serious fantasy”. Personally I don’t find having labels with strict genre guidelines to be very helpful aside from making library book lists and see it mostly as product marketing terms that center the commodity aspect of a book. Which brings me back to the first point because this book coming out in 2016 probably felt a lot more progressive at the time than it does now. It is cool to see indigenous histories centered in a book, but then its a reminder this came out before the big discourse on who can profit off of who’s stories (we all remember American Dirt and the largely unfulfilled promises of major publishers to be more inclusive) and the #OwnVoices movement that was later criticized for forced-outing authors like Becky Albertalli or making authors feel they had to prove their own identities as marketing pitches. This was a major theme in the novel Yellowface where author Kuang makes the argument that for-profit publishing turns identity into a product and largely leads to tokenism and forcing authors of color into genre boxes instead of being true inclusivity. During a recent talk when an audience member admitted they are stressed their own stories “aren’t queer enough,” Kuang said “there’s no such thing as ‘not queer enough’ because your sexuality isn’t a capitalist commodity driven by scarcity and people who gatekeep that are making identity a marketing pitch not an authentic self.” To be clear, this isn’t a criticism of this book at all. more the train of thought I had reading it as I found it interesting to be able to see the way ideas are discussed in novels and how they can be indicative of a certain moment along the growth of discourse around social issues. ‘Sometimes the most beautiful moments in our lives are things that hurt badly at the time. We only see them for what they really were when we stand at the very end and look back.’ But on to the book. It’s really cute though the romance aspect relies on insta-love that grafts deep emotions onto thin air and relies on it to propel the story. How you choose to process or trust the romance will likely make or break this book for readers, though personally I enjoyed being pulled along with it. Beau is kind of bland as a character so the fact that he is hot and has massive biceps and ‘a mouth that somehow manages to look like a shy kid’s one minute and a virile Greek god’s the next,’ does a lot of heavy lifting in making you believe he’s a romantic interest. Though as someone that values being able to have chunks of solitude lines like ‘being with him feels like a better version of being alone,’ made me think “yea, sure, he seems cool.” What helps is that Natalie is an extremely likable and well-done character. She’s quick, she’s snarky, but she also has a big heart and open mind. There are a lot of strong friendships between women who support each other (Natalie being very supportive of her ex’s girlfriend was rather charming despite him being a bit cartoonishly shitty) and the writing really pulls you along. For a debut, Henry rocks some great lines and solid narrative. Its no surprise she would go on to become a Big Deal. I’m happy for her. ‘No story is truer than any other story that has the truth in its heart.’ I did really enjoy how much indigenous myths are central to this book and I thought Henry did a wonderful job balancing the question if the happenings were paranormal or psychological. I like the stories told and how it shows that life and culture are made up of stories and bind us all together. ‘The thing threaded through all the world and refusing to be reduced to a name or a set of rules and instead winding itself through millions of stories, true and made up, connecting all breathing things.’ It does get very “lets explain the Myers-Briggs” at one point that made me chuckle because Henry had just graduated college and being very “lets talk about the Myers-Briggs” was HUGE in all my classes at the very same time (INFP by the way) and just something people around Holland, MI loved to talk about (she attended Hope College here in Holland, for the record and I could feel it in every page of this book, but in a cool way). It does get fairly dependent on the plot going through an elaborate series of twists like a high-thrill roller coaster, but she pulls them off effectively and it makes for a fun read. ‘No story is truer than any other story that has the truth in its heart.’ Emily Henry has had an impressive career and The Love That Split the World is a lovely debut that kicked it all off. It is interesting to see how much her stories have shifted as she shaped her style so its fun to see the early days. A lovely little story full of a lot of heart that, while imperfect, still manages to be a success. 3.5/5 ‘the world's going to keep right on being terrible and beautiful all at once’ ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
not set
|
Apr 06, 2024
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 1250857430
| 9781250857439
| 1250857430
| 4.19
| 513,425
| Apr 04, 2023
| Apr 04, 2023
|
really liked it
|
I have endless love and respect for the written word. It’s why we are all here, isn’t it? To celebrate language and the way words can tell a story, ho
I have endless love and respect for the written word. It’s why we are all here, isn’t it? To celebrate language and the way words can tell a story, how it can be made malleable to capture abstract ideas, can transform and transcend images and emotions and pass them from one person to another. I love the way a sentence can celebrate an idea, become a symbol dressed in finery of poetic phrases like a christmas tree with each word twinkling in the dark. ‘I Want my words to be like a line, cast out into the darkness,’ professes Iris Winnow in Rebecca Ross’ Divine Rivals. It is an honorable goal, and one that illuminates another power of the written word: to reach one another across vast spaces, be it kilometers, the distance of decades to read the words of a life now only a memory, or the immeasurable distance between two hearts. In a war torn world just adjacent to WWI Europe but infused with magic and monsters, war correspondent Iris Winnow wields words as her weapon to bear witness to bloodshed and reconnect soldiers with their loved ones while also looking for her brother who is hopefully still alive in the mess. Yet her words are somehow reaching another, a secret pen-pal with whom their respective letters mysteriously arrive upon the other’s floor and the written word becomes the catalyst for a blossoming love that might give each the strength to carry on as ‘war creeps like a shadow’ across the land leaving sorrow in its wake. It is a moving novel and while there are certainly criticisms to be had, I find it to be greater than the sum of its occasionally flawed details. An epic, epistolary YA novel that is more magical realism than fantasy, Divine Rivals manages to be a charmingly cozy read while still descending into the devastation of war as two rival journalists leave their world behind to not only look war in the face but to look inside themselves and find that amidst all the bravery to and battles they must also learn ‘it takes courage to let down your armor, to welcome people to see you as you are.’ Reader: I loved it. ‘Keep writing. You will find the words you need to share. They are already within you, even in the shadows, hiding like jewels.’ The focus on writing and the epistolary romance really charmed me here. I enjoy how they come to love one another through their words like a line directly to pure consciousness shorn of physical features and only the mannerisms of thought. But this is not only about love for another born through language but the idea of finding oneself in your own words too, using language to dig inside oneself and confront what it is you truly feel. ‘I think I was always writing for myself, to sort through my loss and worry and tangled ambitions. Even now, I think about how effortless it is to lose oneself in words, and yet also find out who you are.’ I find this quite beautiful and also find language and poetry and even writing book reviews to be an exercise in understanding myself and trying to fumble together a thought that hopefully can be understood by others. It makes for a lovely theme in this book and the way they find their voices. How ‘even in the silence, I hope you will find the words you need to share,’ and I truly adore how writing and all the imagery around it becomes the vibes on which this book really thrives. Typewriters and letters by candlelight, the creek of wooden floorboards, half remembered legends and mystical lore scrawled on old parchment, people bundled up in scarves and tweed against the crisp spring rain winding through cobblestone streets—Divine Rivals has old European academia aesthetics at its most cozy. This novel is a feast of vibes, moving into idyllic rolling hills and pastures and then confronting natural beauty with the beastly as the landscape cracks into the chaos of bombs and bloodshed. Ross excels at juxtaposing innocence with the inhumanity of war to emphasize its tragedy and trauma. While Oath and this war exists in its own reality where magic is real and the old gods have awoken and drawn nations under their influence for the purpose of war (Dacre and Enva feel very much inspired by Haded and Persephone), it also feels very akin to WWI era Europe of the 1910s. It does well in capturing the awfulness of the trenches and bombardments and while the waiting under silence shredded by sirens warning Dacre’s flying demons dropping bombs from the sky does have a strong London Blitz WWII feel however, the amalgamation works as the story doesn’t seem to be trying to function as an analogy but merely a familiar framework. It does seem to romanticize the aesthetics of the time but thankfully it manages to avoid romanticizing the war. And quite the opposite as the horrors and sadness are on full display. ‘I don’t want to wake up when I’m seventy-four only to realize I haven’t lived.’ This is a very character driver story and the first half moves at a bit of a slow pace, though I enjoyed this and found it quite cozy. It helps that the characters are rather charming. Iris Winnow is absolutely fantastic and I enjoyed seeing the novel lead by a tough young woman that is able to hold her own, be self-driven and take action. I just adored her and how she deal with her struggles and grief, the latter of which makes up a big portion of this novel and within the opening hundred pages of this book she loses pretty much everything she has and just picks herself up and keeps going. Her story moves through moments both heartwrenching and heartwarming as she must learn 'You are worthy of love,' but also 'worthy to feel joy right now, even in the darkness.' Iris deserves it all honesty. Roman C. Kitt is a shit. I say that out of love as he did grow on me quite a bit and I do love how much he loves Iris but there were moments when I debated starting an ao3 account to write fan-fiction about slapping him. While it is explained why he is apprehensive to reveal his true self to Iris, his excuses are still pretty eye rolling and frustrating that he hides behind the unfamiliar name. ‘Let us make our names exactly what we want them to be…’ NO “CARVER” you tell that lovely young woman who you are! I did like when she's kind of mean to him, and their respective snark and banter really worked for me. It’s cute, especially when they move from frustration to lines like 'you deserve all the happiness in the world. And I intend to see that you have it.' Its just endlessly endearing. There is an undercurrent of class issues acting upon the novel, from Iris being working class and frowned upon by the Kitt family especially when he bridges class relations in his interest in her. But it also plays into the war and the journalism narrative with the wealth families of Oath insisting on a false neutrality that is shattered when Iris experiences the realities of the war. 'I hear that you're to be neutral reporters, but I also don't think that's quite possible, if I'm frank...I think the best piece of advice, Miss Winnow, is to write what you see happening and what you feel and who we are and why it's vital that the people in Oath and the cities beyond join our effort. Is that something you think is possible?' Her job is to remain neutral but is this even possible when she sees what is happening, knowing that taking a stance will be dismissed as sensationalism by those in power back Oath. Those in power seem to all have secret goals of business dealings with Dacre, assuming he will win the war and using their influence to help achieve this goal. Such is the case with the family to whom Kitt's father wished him to marry into: they have developed what is essentially mustard gas and are providing it to Dacre's army even knowing it will be used on soldiers from Oath. It all makes for an intriguing look at how the idea of "neutrality" is usually just lip service to shame anyone who would take a side against their unspoken beliefs. All of this is fairly secondary, at least in this novel, but it seems to be setting the stage for the next. ‘Grief is a long, difficult process, especially when it is so racked by guilt.’ Their coming together and the fear that is mistaken as self-preservation makes for an interesting exploration here. It is a book about finding oneself and being willing to let others find you. I like how, for a book about war it isn’t a book about powerful force, but something far more vulnerable and empowering: ‘Sometimes strength isn't swords and steel and fire, as we are so often made to believe. Sometimes it's found in quiet, gentle places.’ So much of their grief comes hand in hand with guilt and it keeps them from being able to openly go hand in hand with each other. ‘I am so afraid,’ Iris admits, ‘and yet how I long to be vulnerable and brave when it comes to my own heart.’ its a good lesson to learn. ‘ I think we all wear armor. I think those who don't are fools, risking the pain of being wounded by the sharp edges of the world, over and over again. But if I've learned anything from those fools, it is that to be vulnerable is a strength most of us fear. It takes courage to let down your armor, to welcome people to see you as you are.’ It’s what makes their letters so freeing–they are able to be themselves and hide behind their words while at the same time use their words to expose their hearts to one another. It is quite magical. Speaking of magic, the magic in this book is honestly a bit hit or miss and sometimes it feels like it forgets it is a magical land with small tidbits of magic popping up almost as an afterthought. I didn't mind though, it was kind of fun I thought. Those who desire robust worldbuilding will find this novel wanting, though truthfully if you just say “this is how this shit is” I’m like “oh okay cool” and can just roll with it without really needing context but I see how that might be frustrating for some. I do really like the lore and the mysteries of the old gods—which I assume will be explained more in part 2—but until the very end I wasn’t sure if it was going to mostly be a metaphor. ‘You are worthy to feel joy right now, even in the darkness.’ Through all the sorrow and violence it is ableak time for love, but sometimes one needs to watch something beautiful bloom—like a war-time garden—to feel ‘I grew something living in a season of death.’ We see creation and joy as a repudiation of death and destruction and their love stands in opposition of all the loss around them. I did feel their coming together happened a bit too quickly knowing there is a second book, but thats okay. I did really enjoy the aspect of her putting Roman in his place however and having more of that would be nice. ‘You remove a piece of armor for them; you let the light stream in, even if it makes you wince. Perhaps that is how you learn to be soft yet strong, even in fear and uncertainty.’ I really enjoyed Divine Rivals and found it to be quite cute and cozy even though it gets rather intense and devastating. I’m certainly looking forward to part two and raced out to pick it up as soon as I finished this one. The aesthetics in this are on point, Iris is an incredible character, I love the cast and side characters and queer representation and just really loved reading this. Reading this just gave me nonstop joy and even if it had some flaws, the overall effect of enjoyment overrides it all. Thanks to everyone who recommended this, can’t wait for more! 4/5 ‘Because you are not alone. Not in your fear or your grief or your hopes or your dreams. You are not alone.’ ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 04, 2024
|
Apr 15, 2024
|
Apr 04, 2024
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| Oh, Axie
*
| 0063025019
| 9780063025011
| 3.82
| 36,891
| Jul 13, 2021
| Jul 13, 2021
|
it was ok
|
Well, I should have listened to adira so I have nobody to blame but myself. But first, can we just appreciate that Axie Oh titled a book XOXO which fee Well, I should have listened to adira so I have nobody to blame but myself. But first, can we just appreciate that Axie Oh titled a book XOXO which feels like wordplay on her own name. Class move, I love that. XOXO is adorable and sweet and as fluffy as…picture the biggest, fluffiest cinematically perfect cloud above a prairie on a sweetly warm summer’s day. Do not edit that first image, and that’s about as fluffy as this was. Cotton candy fluffy, the kind that sort of makes your teeth hurt when you bite it. Saccharine as shit. Having seen the movie Nope I should have known to not trust a cloud that big and fluffy but here we are (I also should have know to trust adira and also mitra). ANYWAYS, XOXO plunges us into the world of K-Pop idols and boarding schools for some romantic fun that has its charms and some really interesting cultural context but reads rather flat and flimsy with a plot seemingly in search of itself. ‘I promise you can get the life you want now, if you just live in it.’ An aspect that really worked for me here was the immersion in South Korean culture, particularly the lifestyles of K-Pop idols and the trainees who hope to one day become them. Which, it turns out, is full of restrictions that make you more or less property of your label. ‘As an idol, you agreed to share your whole life with your fans, so that they can love you without fear that you'll disappoint or hurt them,’ we learn, which sends the budding romance between Jenny and Jaewoo into a secret relationship trope as Jaewoo is not allowed to date. I’ve seen claims this began as BTS fan fiction (they do get a namedrop) so Jaewoo may have some inspiration in global hearthrob Jungkook, so that is pretty fun. But I can’t mention BTS without a shoutout to their memoir translator, Anton Hur, and how you should most definitely read any book they translate. ‘even after the scandal, even after the accusations and the heartbreak and the pain. he was my first love. I wouldn't give that up for the world.’ The catch is, Jenny and Jaewoo are pretty flavorless as characters. Its all cutesy and they clearly are very into each other but the plot meanders through episodes that you assume will add up to something but just sort of don’t until finally you want to ask “do either of you have any convictions or just statements about them?” And sure there’s scandals but none that would last more than a mid-afternoon on twitter and then suddenly everyone makes up and yay. Also, its meant as endearing that they toss anything to the side in order to spend as much time together as possible but it gets red flag-y even to friends: ‘you're not his beck and call girl, you know? you don't have to drop everything just because he comes around,’ and Jaewoo’s contract restrictions sometimes just felt like carte blanche to be a dick. Sori was the character that actually shines in this story and she’s always sort of elbowed out to the peripheries (thankfully I hear the sequel, ASAP, is about her and Nathaniel). ‘People who live for tomorrow should fear the people who live for today. Because the people who live for tomorrow don't take risks. They're afraid of the consequences. While the people who live for today have nothing to lose, so they fight tooth and nail.’ There are some positive messages, with ideas about following your dreams and doing it for you not others such as ‘you can’t be there for other people if you’re not first there for yourself,’ but overall the story was mostly just the fluffy romance. It doesn't help that the writing was really bland. Which surprised me as I quite enjoyed The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea and though that had some good gripping writing and plot, but here it so hyper focused on the main characters in a way that just talks at you instead of shows you. Even the mother and grandmother relationships felt undercooked and there wasn’t much of an actual story to support the romance so it just kind of all mushed together on the floor in a mass of sweetness and fluff. Like the ground at a carnival. 2.5/5 ‘People do strange things to protect their hearts. But when you’re afraid, your heart is closed, and it’s never the right time, but when your heart is open, and you’re willing to be brave enough to take a chance, the time is always right.’ ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
not set
|
Mar 13, 2024
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 1408728915
| 9781408728918
| B0CHKK5QQL
| 3.67
| 133,483
| Jun 11, 2024
| Jun 11, 2024
|
liked it
|
Yea I know I said that I'm done with Ali Hazelwood books, but guess what? I fuckin lied. I’m glad I did, too, not because I condone lying or anything—t Yea I know I said that I'm done with Ali Hazelwood books, but guess what? I fuckin lied. I’m glad I did, too, not because I condone lying or anything—trust me—but because despite my negativity towards the book in the first half by the end it more or less won me over. Like a romance should do—wait was I involved in an enemies to lovers trope with this book!?!? Anyways, like the title, I’m not in love with this one and it feels very rushed and unpolished but I also didn’t hate it and I appreciate that Ali Hazelwood has been continuing to try new things, with a YA and a paranormal romance in the past year and while this is sort of a return to her STEM-style it is less romcom, more grit, way more spice and a lot more nuance and complex characters. So, alright, no more lies, lets talk about the book which is straightforward with its title because Rue and Eli are very much Not in Love. [image] Okay, fine, maybe love is up for discussion in the boardroom here but Not in Love launches us into the story of one-night-stands-only Rue wakes up from a lovely time with Eli to discover themselves on opposite sides of company finance issues. And so we begin an enemies-with-benefits to lovers narrative with Eli working to take possession of the food nanotech company Rue has fought through misogynistic university and STEM programs to work for. And I know what you are all wondering—is it once again a tiny gal with a huge hulking beast of man meat and tameable fury? Well, this time no! [image] Okay fine, she is actually a tall woman this time but yea, he’s fucking huge. And a hockey player with some hockey stuff that feels very tacked on. But also a finance bro trying to take over a company which is pretty thumbs down on his record and at first when I realized it was going to be all “but he’s actually a good person” I thought “sounds unlikely, Ali” but hell she pulled it off and by the end they work. It helps he’s absolutely into Rue even if he doesn’t want to admit it and Hazelwood throws some twists into the narrative that make the initial plot much more palatable. Then again, so much of this is still just capitalism-as-kink but I appreciate Hazelwood really pushing her own boundaries here. There’s a lot of Eli pushing into Rue too which like…I’m fairly under versed in the genre but I don’t feel like Hazelwood is necessarily stellar at spicy scenes? I mean, maybe its just me but lines like ‘are you anticipating curing me with your magic cock?’ are a bit clumsy at best, though I suppose sex between people trying to hate each other is always going to be clumsy. Also apparently Rue has space boobs that defy gravity. [image] No, Hazelwood said so, look: ‘Her breasts bounced—a masterpiece of gravity.’ TOLD YA. But…like, why? Why, Ali? In all fairness you don’t necessarily read romance for the plot per say, so that’s more on me, I just thought this struggled a bit to push itself along and here the amount of space given to them feels unjustified by a relatively thin plot that is straining to uphold them. But that bed was also straining so good for them even if they are caught up in a “I want your job to collapse” financial battle, though for all my hand wringing over that being annoying at least its real life and ends on a good note where I actually found the plotline about that to be handled alright. ‘If i were able to love someone, i would choose you. In that timeline, I would want it to be you.’ I was intending to make this a short review but I’d like to quickly touch upon some thoughts I had regarding the characters. I LOVE messy characters, morally grey characters, characters that do well by reminding us people contain multitudes and the notion of people just being good or bad doesn’t hold up beyond Disney animations. Which I also love but that’s not my point. Hazelwood crafts some complex characters here where we see how their past traumas integrate with their present day personalities and interpersonal communications. Now, in terms of 2024 romances, I think this was all done more effectively by Emily Henry in Funny Story (which I discuss at length HERE) but I liked the ways we get into how growing up in poverty and food insecurity has haunted Rue and a childhood marked by the failure of a trusted adult lingers in big, beefy, “I’m into being dominant to the point of it being weird, have I mentioned my Ex-Fiance enough yet?” Eli. The characterizations do, however, make them rather cold and stand-offish (Eli is super into that about Rue) which undercuts a lot of the emotion in this book and makes them feel like knocking blocks of wood against each other. Its a satisfying clang of their bang but also, its a bit lifeless? Authors like Sally Rooney, for instance, have had great success in navigating this but Hazelwood just…never really brings it to life here and while they are complex it still feels like 2D characters with backstories tacked on and also the friendships with other characters felt more like NPCs added into the plot rather than productively-explored relationships. But Florence is cool at least. [image] Shhhh! Anyways, I did enjoy the rotation between Rue and Eli’s perspectives, something that seems to be more common and was also a characteristic of Lynn Painter's recent Happily Never After, and gave a first person perspective of what Rue was thinking in her mind and a third-person perspective of Eli that allowed the narrative to sort of info-dump the board room aspects of the plot. Though with Rue there’s this aspect she has a Big Secret that, when it comes out, doesn’t actually seem like that big of a deal but also…if we are trying to stream-of-conscious her mind it feels awkward that she never ever actually thinks about it? In many ways it feels a bit contrived and like, I get that this is a book in service for the plot, but it just felt a bit underwhelming. Also the whole aspect of Eli being all like “oh I just really like inflicting pain on women to show im in charge” being played off as just some orgasmic fun felt weird in a novel that also addresses the rampant abuse and oppression of women in STEM fields. Maybe those things are systemic Enjoy what you like though, I don’t care and it was implied it was always consensual but it just felt like some eye rolling straight man in finance needing to feel like CEO of the bedroom and like... lol. Whatever. ‘If you still want me to love you, I really think I can love you back. Because I already do.” Two tears streaked her cheekbones…and if you don’t, I guess I’ll be loving you anyway.’ At the end of the day, this wasn’t my favorite but I enjoyed it well enough and don’t regret reading it. It feels like a bit of a bridge between her lighter, romcom STEM books and a future in more gritty and complex relationship novels so theres a few stumbling blocks along the way but it is cool to see an author I have a soft spot for progressing. Gotta admit the whole “we don’t believe in love” then actually do felt a little tired, and as Julia Armfield writes in Private Rites there’s ‘nothing more tedious than a person who wears their aversion to commitment as a blazon of their own originality.’ Cute enough, a bit frustrating as it seems trying to force itself a bit and reads as if the writing was rather rushed, but altogether…it was a book? Though, maybe its time, I think this will be my last Hazelwood. [image] 2.5/5 ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jun 11, 2024
|
Jun 22, 2024
|
Feb 19, 2024
|
ebook
| ||||||||||||||
| 1912688158
| 9781912688159
| 4.04
| 12,262
| May 13, 2020
| May 13, 2020
|
really liked it
|
‘Between greed and fanaticism people can justify anything.’ Secret documents, spies, and plenty of spice, Slippery Creatures from KJ Charles is a seduc ‘Between greed and fanaticism people can justify anything.’ Secret documents, spies, and plenty of spice, Slippery Creatures from KJ Charles is a seductive little novel about a man who just wanted to organize his books. After inheriting his late Uncle’s bookshop following his return from the war, Will Darling was expecting a quiet life amongst the pages of novels but instead discovered he has also inherited a slippery little secret document men would kill for. Now he’s caught between tattooed henchmen, the British War Office and the dreamy yet possibly dangerous Kim Secretan. Moving at breakneck speed through a plot just as full of snarky humor and snappy dialogue as it is knife-fights, betrayal, shadowy intrigue, and a slow-burn romance, KJ Charles delivers an incredible period-piece spy drama that is nearly impossible to put down. Slippery Creatures is certainly a book you’ll want to get your hands on. “You’re a bit of a mess, aren’t you?” “My friend, you have no idea.” First, a hearty thank you to Annaka and her review for not only getting me to read KJ Charles but pretty much half our library staff. I’m in my romance read era and Charles is certainly one of the best, being quite an effective period drama with a high-energy plot full of effective tension and twists while also delivering a romance story that is easy to root for and with as much action as the spy parts. I listened to this one on audio and Cornell Collins does an exceptional job as the reader, with plenty of excellent variations of British accents and a good growly voice that makes the spicy scenes extra spicy. I mean, I listened to this walking my dogs and this was spicy enough to melt the snow along the sidewalk, so thanks for looking out for us, Charles! ‘My dear chap, this is a bookshop. There’s never anywhere better to be.’ Slippery Creatures truly is a great deal of fun. It felt like an excellent BBC murder mystery series, being able to be just slightly over-the-top for maximum fun but never feeling foolish. The characters are outstanding. We have the endlessly lovable Will Darling who feels a bit like a John Watson character returned home from the war to discover there were no jobs and the people being thanked as heroes are begging for change on streetcorners. Luckily he was able to inherit the bookshop because ‘all he was good at now was killing people, which was discouraged,’ though these skills certainly come in handy when some tough guys and the government come demanding “The Information.” Unfortunately Will doesn’t know what The Information is (it is not, alas, an early copy of Beck’s 2006 album The Information) but he’s determined to find it first and take matters into his own hands. Enter Kim—full name Arthur Aloysius Kimberley de Brabazon Secretan—a complex character who’s assistance and eagerness in bed might be hiding his own set of secrets… ‘Calling it honour is putting ribbons on a pile of shit. It might look good, but it still stinks.’ I love that the characters are able to be flawed yet fully lovable. I love Will and even despite it all, it’s easy to love Kim. I mean, Will does so how can you not. ‘Suffice to say I love Kim dearly, but ‘love’ means an awful lot of things,’ he tells us. I also love how completely 1920’s British this is, with Charles really leaning into a lot of great lines and humor with that. ‘He had no idea what civilians, or civilised people, would say in these circumstances. Thanks for that, old chap, much obliged, perhaps? Ought he apologise for coming in his mouth? Would this be a good moment to restart the conversation about where Kim had learned to use a knife? Thank God they were British. He took a deep breath. “Cup of tea?”’ This was just a pure joy of a book that keeps you guessing and holding your breath as the walls are closing in for Will and keeps you rooting for our heroes. It is all so delightfully gay and riotously fun. And very Sherlock Holmes adjacent (did I occasionally imagine it in the world of The Great Mouse Detective? Perhaps.) Charles really has some great writing chops and Slippery Creatures is a lovely little read. I’m so glad this is the start of a trilogy because I will certainly be back for more and suspect I’ll be reading many more KJ Charles in the future. 4.5/5 ‘Sorry, I’ve no time for a knife fight in the street on Thursday, could you make it Friday?’ ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 19, 2024
|
Feb 19, 2024
|
Feb 19, 2024
|
ebook
| |||||||||||||||
| 3.94
| 119,442
| Nov 15, 2022
| Nov 15, 2022
|
really liked it
|
I’m in my rom-com era (aka living my best life) and Lynn Painter’s The Do-Over made for a sugary sweet dose of joy that warmed my heart in these chill
I’m in my rom-com era (aka living my best life) and Lynn Painter’s The Do-Over made for a sugary sweet dose of joy that warmed my heart in these chilly winter months. When a perfectly planned Valentine’s Day descends into a heartbreaking mess of car wrecks, crushed dreams and cheating boyfriends, Emilie Hornby just wants to go to sleep and start the next day fresh. But when she awakens she discovers that it is Valentine’s Day…over and over and over again like death by a thousand cuts with her dreams repeatedly dashed despite her daily attempts to avoid disaster. Filled with a lot of charm, Taylor Swift references and perhaps an overabundance of cuteness, The Do-Over is a delightful time-loop story that manages to mostly balance out the over-caffeinated plot and underdeveloped supporting cast with its exploration into heavier themes of fractured families, and the pressures of expectations from society one’s own self. It gleefully charges into chaos but it polishes up real nice in this touching story about confronting your own life and living for yourself as well as a romantic collision with love where you least expect it. ‘This wasn't about boys and girls and love and attraction, this was about a human soul needing to feel seen.’ I have a soft spot for rom coms and while I think I still preferred Painter’s Better Than the Movies which still lingers like a tattoo kiss, this made for a perfectly cute Valentine’s Day read. Its cozy like a warm embrace of like an old cardigan under someone’s bed. The Do-Over reads like an adorable time-loop blend of Groundhog’s Day meets Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with the casting budget of a teenage after-school special so don’t expect too much from the side characters. I did enjoy the brief subplot about her friend trying to get with the boy from his cross country team but most of the cast is fairly ornamental since you can’t have too much character development in a time-loop story. Even the main cast is a bit flat, though we do see some growth with Emilie as she goes from the rather stereotypical follow-the-rules teen to embracing her own destiny. Emilie has seen this story before and she didn’t like the ending, but each day she keeps trying to avert the inevitable to no avail, yet her morning car-wreck with Nick each day seems to point towards another path her life could take, even if he is a bit of a prick (but a prick with a devilish smile, that James Dean, daydream look in his eye and scent of..*checks notes* clean soap). I found Nick frustrating but I did enjoy that he has only been pretending to not know Em out of a shyness and his fear of vulnerability makes him rather thorny, something my former teenage self can certainly empathize with. ‘Josh was the perfect boyfriend for me on paper…but I didn’t realize until I watched him kiss Macy that the paper didn’t always translate.’ I enjoy that, like Better Than the Movies, this story explores how life can’t be perfectly packaged and planned because life will always throw the unexpected. And while these surprises can bring heartache—her parents divorce, the recinded program, Nick’s grief over his brother—they can also open doors to greater joys than we ever imagined. Em lives by checklists and checking boxes but the road not taken looks real good now that she’s caught in an endless loop of downfall. ‘No matter how it turns out—good or bad—I’m going to start living for me and what I want, instead of for other people and what I think they want me to do.’ This is a story about accepting the unexpected and living for you. I do have to admit the Day of No Concequenses being referred to as DONC in the text and speech (do they say the letters or pronounce it “donk”?) was irritating, but I liked the idea that Em decided to rip the Band-Aid off and skip But also. Painter does something with names in her book. Em Hornby + Nick seems a reference to rom-com writer Nick Hornby much like how in Better than the Movies the couple adds up to a reference to Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. While a bit more a great romantic concept than actual execution, The Do-Over is a heartwarming, cuddly good time with lots of laughs. I felt the relationship was well orchestrated even with the aspect that Nick never remembered the previous runs through the recurring day and they remain to each other a stranger whose laugh they could recognize anywhere. I also really loved the insertion of confessions at the start of each chapter that gave hints into the loneliness Em tries to swallow down. But i suppose if this story is over why am i still writing pages, so in conclusion, this is a cute book full of fun. 3.5/5 ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 14, 2024
|
Feb 14, 2024
|
Feb 14, 2024
|
Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||||
| 1250908264
| 9781250908261
| 4.41
| 4,311
| Jan 09, 2024
| Jan 09, 2024
|
it was amazing
|
Valentine's Day had long been the favorite holiday for Valentina. Named after the day and annually visited by an adorable cupid only she can see, Vale
Valentine's Day had long been the favorite holiday for Valentina. Named after the day and annually visited by an adorable cupid only she can see, Valentina spent her childhood bringing love to everyone on Valentine’s Day until one year the day brings nothing but stressful surprises that completely upends her life. Now she has one year to prove she can find true love or she must give her heart away to never feel either the joys or pains of love in a faustian deal not with the devil but the ghost of St. Valentine himself. So begins Lunar New Year Love Story, the sweepingly gorgeous and emotional graphic novel from Gene Luen Yang (of American Born Chinese fame) and brought to life through eye-popping illustrations from LeUyen Pham. This is a beautiful, multi-faceted story that explores much more than romantic love as Valentina confronts family and cultural identity in a story rife with symbolism and dualities. With mesmerizing artwork and a story that is as heartbreaking as it can be heartwarming, Lunar New Year Love Story is an incredible YA coming-of-age graphic novel that will steal your heart (they let me have mine back, don’t worry). [image] I didn’t always hate Valentine’s Day One thing I really appreciate in a good graphic novel is when the story is given the room to breathe. This is on the longer side for a YA but it really lets all the nuances and textures of the story have space to flourish and the slower pace lets each frame squeeze out every drop of emotional intensity. There is a large set-up that completely grabbed me and I enjoyed the way it shows how the things we love in childhood start to fade or become a source of embarrassment in teenage years. The shift from loving Valentine’s Day is really heartbreaking here as it descends into a bleakness about the realization opening oneself to love also means being vulnerable to heartbreak and betrayal, perfectly rendered in the eerie moment when her cute cherubic companion melts into a ghastly ghoul of St. Valentine. There is a really extraordinary blend of various cultural spiritualities and customs here showing the way an immigrant family, for instance, may contain multitudes and Val spends much of the story sifting through the interplay of her Vietnamese heritage and grandmother’s christianity. All of this in an attempt to understand herself through her history and hope to break the family curse of being unlucky in love. [image] Caption: “Our family is unlucky in love” The dualities here are wonderful, such as how Val’s involvement in the Korean Bukcheong lion dance juxtaposes with the story of christian martyrs facing down the lions, the way life is juxtaposed with death, or the way the two potential love interests—cousins Leslie and Jae—are all placed in proximity to examine the idea of yin and yang. [image] There is also a really adorable romance going on amidst all the self-discovery of her culture and (view spoiler)[the surprise that her mother never died but simply left (hide spoiler)]. We see how Les may make her happy but is not a source of stability or loyalty, a rather heartbreaking lesson to learn. And with Jae we see how grief can cast a long shadow over our lives, but that love can be a light in the darkness. It is a moving story full of both sadness and laughs while the deal over her heart is always haunting her every move. [image] ‘Lions roam the world…majesty and misery…there is no hiding. How good it is, then to find someone with whom you can become the lion.’ This was such an extraordinary graphic novel with a really lovely story, a lot of excellent exploration of culture and heritage, and a art style that was an absolute joy to get lost within. The colors are incredible, movement is wonderfully captured and the art beautifully and seamlessly flows between reality and the metaphysical aspects. Lunar New Years Love Story is a massive success. 5/5 [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
not set
|
Feb 14, 2024
|
Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1534467629
| 9781534467620
| 1534467629
| 4.29
| 468,373
| May 04, 2021
| May 04, 2021
|
really liked it
|
Gotta admit, I do love me some love. Don’t @ me, love haters, I’m not ashamed, this isn’t a guilty pleasure read this was just delightful fun and I’ll
Gotta admit, I do love me some love. Don’t @ me, love haters, I’m not ashamed, this isn’t a guilty pleasure read this was just delightful fun and I’ll shout it out and swear to be overdramatic and true! On goodreads mostly but still, it’s almost Valentine’s Day and Better That the Movies by Lynn Painter is an adorable little rom-com that celebrates the love of love. Leaning into all the tropes, Painter creates a rather witty commentary on the popular aesthetics of love stories, managing to both subvert them while falling right into them in a way that feels like a YA companion to Book Lovers by Emily Henry for its cute self-awareness. It is the story of a hopeless romantic teen plotting a perfect rom-com prom but when she finds her romantic chemistry reacting off-script it becomes an endearing lesson in finding a happy ending can come where you least expect it. Better Than the Movies hits maximum adorability with its mix of romantic tension and charming characters that will steal your heart away. ‘Sometimes we get so tied up in our idea of what we think we want that we miss out on the amazingness of what we could actually have.’ This is one for the helpless romantics. If you can name the film where this quote comes from, ‘But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all,’ this book is not only for you but you might just be Elizabeth Buxbaum about whom this story is written. Liz has an encyclopedic knowledge of rom-coms, something that her mother helped instill in her. ‘My mother bequeathed to me her unwavering belief in happily ever after,’ she tells us, ‘my inheritance was the knowledge that love is always in the air, always a possibility, and always worth it.’ Now that her mother has passed, this shared love of romance helps keep her memory close and a belief in happy endings is all the more important. Her grief is palpable throughout the novel and as much as this is a story of hearts adorably aligning this is also a story about processing loss and moving forward. It gives it just enough weight to keep the book from completely floating away or becoming overly saccharine. ‘you look best when you’re you’ But for real, this book is so cute. Like almost unbearably so. It hits as many tropes as possible but in a way that feels rather tongue-in-cheek, as both a joke and a tribute to all the rom-coms that came before and will continue to warm our hearts. The character dynamics really pop off and you’ll find yourself loving Wes even before Liz realizes she does because ‘for someone super into love and shit, you’re kind of clueless.’ Sure its almost too perfect of characters where the disputes almost feel forced because everyone is just too cute and fluffy and therefor Liz seems to carry the burden of having to be the one with flaws, but its all just pretty fun. And who doesn’t love an enemies to lovers romance. ‘It’s our trope, Buxbaum.’ Plus it is a girl named Elizabeth who realizes her pairing might be the neighbor she has always hated, Wes Bennet, but Austen fan’s will surely appreciate that with their powers (and names) combined…. Get it!? Better Than the Movies is simply sweet and happy and it makes you feel sweet and happy too. And that is what counts. Sure its pretty corny and almost too much, but thats also what you do into a book like this for. And a big thanks to adira and her review for recommending trying this one. Its a story of love, of being ‘brave enough to go big,’ but also learning to cope with grief and still believe in happy endings. So hurrah for love. I love love! 4/5 ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 02, 2024
|
Feb 02, 2024
|
Feb 02, 2024
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0593641035
| 9780593641033
| 0593641035
| 4.03
| 387,248
| Feb 06, 2024
| Feb 06, 2024
|
it was ok
|
This is Okay so Bride by Ali Hazelwood is going to lend itself to a lot of jokes and I applaud Hazelwood for leaning into them because at its heart this is a fun and rather bitingly funny novel that brings us back into the veins of paranormal romance that dominated the early 2000s. A forced wedding between a vampire and werewolf (a big, beefy, beast of a man-beast) in order to uphold an uneasy truce kick off this story of paranormal politicking and high-energy action paired with a slow-burn romance of an enemies-to-lovers plot (okay it’s not really EtL, it’s more like vaguely-distrustful to lovers) that puts a new meaning to the term “heavy petting” (pawing?). I tend to prefer romance stories that have a larger plot to hold them up, which is what we have here, though admittedly the plot is a bit lackluster and kind of conflates complicating the reveal of the politics and mysteries with actual complexity. Still this is a pretty fun read that highlights a lot of what Hazelwood does best in a very different scenario for her while also making it feel like a natural next step for her stories and I think this is one that if decide to bite in for some fun, you’ll get just that. Oh, have I mentioned the werewolf is huge yet? Big shocker in a Hazelwood book, right? I mean, when I saw werewolf man we all knew this was coming (and so is he…) but guess what? Misery (oh yea, she named her Misery lol) is tall, so I’d like to applaud Hazelwood for some character growth. Oh, wait, sorry, Werewolf Lowe is actually so huge he can’t even fit in their single king-sized bed (if you are playing Romance Tropes drinking game, take a shot for single bed) so you be the judge if its still her big man little woman trope (if yes, take another shot). But it is sort of fun to see a lot of Hazelwood’s signature elements here and I suppose this is the paranormal offshoot of her STEM stories as Misery happens to be a computer genius and that comes in handy (paw-y?) here. There’s a lot going on here and without spoiling much, due to some long feud and a lot of weird truces that tend to involve hostages and interspecies This felt fairly undercooked though to me. In part because the world building is mostly done through conversation between Misery and Lowe, which is something I love in theory and found books like The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet to brilliantly execute world building through picking up context in casual conversations between characters, but here the two are distrustful and all coy about revealing things. Its like pulling teeth because thats basically what they are doing to get answers out of each other and I found myself shaking the book screaming just fucking tell me already (take another shot, not for tropes but in solidarity). Actually, Lowe is kind of annoying at times to be honest, even with his whole “tough alpha” schtick masking that he’s really a sweet sensitive boy packing a donkey sized dick (drink), and his whole “want better than me” thing was eye rolling. But anyways, the bigger catch is…none of the elements feel particularly fresh? And nobody wants a stale body if you are going to suck it’s blood, am i right vampires? A lot of it felt rather cut-and-paste or “spot what this is inspired by” which sometimes made me realize I liked the techniques better in the other books. Theres definitely a BIG Underworld film vibe here, and the whole sucking blood being orgasmic has been done before. I didn’t dislike this book but it made me actually realize I might like Butler’s Fledgling more than I did before. It all works though, I just don’t think fantasy world building is Hazelwood’s greatest strength and a lot of the ambiguities work to ignore that a lot of it feels fairly flimsy. So will these two ‘live bitingly ever after’ or will the politics of their world crush them? It’s worth a read, and I did like the characters quite a bit. I do like Misery asserting herself against and “alpha” and him recognizing her as a strong woman with agency. The plot is pretty fun too with some good twists, and really I have nothing to complain about other than it just didn’t land as well for me as her YA book. It does seem to be both chasing a romantasy trend while also broadening and popularizing it so its sort of a publishing slam dunk and I think a lot of people will rightfully enjoy it. It’s left pretty open for a sequel, I’ll look forward to finding out from your reviews because I think one was more than enough for me. 2.5/5 ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 07, 2024
|
Feb 09, 2024
|
Dec 26, 2023
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| B0CCNBRNRQ
| 4.26
| 621,514
| Apr 23, 2024
| Apr 23, 2024
|
really liked it
|
UPDATE: I totally bought the Emily Henry merch shirt for this book. Worth it. [image] [Photo: Waning Bay Public Library Inaugural Overnight Read-A-T UPDATE: I totally bought the Emily Henry merch shirt for this book. Worth it. [image] [Photo: Waning Bay Public Library Inaugural Overnight Read-A-Thon] ‘If I had to be marooned, I’m glad it was with you.’ Bust out the tweed and toast your awkward roommate if you’ve got one, Emily Henry has a romcom for you. Sometimes, just when it feels like smooth sailing on the raft you call a life, an unexpected fucker of a wave smashes your plans to splinters and send you off course and adrift. Such is the case for Daphne in Emily Henry’s charming new novel, Funny Story, whose life has been shipwrecked upon the shores of a Lake Michigan vacation town with the ex of her ex’s new fiance. You read that right, and these mutual exes are such a smart match they are practically named after each other, Peter and Petra, so out with the tweed and in with the twee I suppose. But, as Daphne learns, sometimes a shipwreck can be a new start to something more beautiful. One of this books biggest strengths in allowing the narrative to wade through sorrows to create a portrait of adults discovering how to carry their own baggage and how their interactions with others are affected by it with a lot of the drama not being a miscommunication trope, per say, but more people tripping themselves up into confirmation bias based on their own personal traumas. It has some grit that grounds the otherwise breezy narrative and the real love story is learning to love oneself in order to love and be loved. It does wrap up a bit overly idyllic but honestly, I felt the biggest cracks in the veneer of the story was when it tried to make things happier than it probably needed to be but I understand why that is the case. With her signature witty banter, wry humor, and characters that are easy to fall in love with as they fall apart and into love themselves, Funny Story is a endearing tale about picking up the pieces only to discover oneself amidst the wreckage, learn to be yourself for yourself, and find a love where you least expect. ‘The same universe that dispassionately takes things away can bring you things you weren't imaginative enough to dream up.’ Alright let’s talk about love and stuff (surprise: the “stuff” is trauma!) I found Funny Story to read as a much quieter novel than most of Emily Henry’s works, but also found that, coupled with a slow-burn plot that lets scenes and character introspection really breathe, to be part of what made it so endearing for me. This will probably take some criticism for being slow but my favorite books are the sort that don’t exactly have what most people call a “plot” soooo this was fine for me. Funny Story reads more along the lines of the coziness in Book Lovers while also being more successful than I found Happy Place to be. Having just read Lynn Painter’s Happily Never After, I felt like this was a successful version of the many things that story tried to be (both books, however, have a thing about eating pizza being sexy which…ok…???) where the characters actually felt their age, the fake dating felt plausible, the third act drama was passably believable for the genre. It does try to tie up too many loose ends and solve all the issues and I don't think we needed that, but I suppose cliches are cliche for a reason and there are expectations in genres so thats more a Me thing. And like, sure there's a lot to pick at but also it’s aiming to be a fun book and it lands that aspect while also managing to have a dynamic look at how past hurts can haunt our self-esteem and hinder our vulnerability when trying to connect with others and that helped hold the story together. One person's breakdown is another person’s novel glue I guess? Wait, I think I just finally understood literature. ‘You can't force a person to show up, but you can learn a lesson when they don't.’ This is a fairly character driven narrative of self-discovery and trauma processing that just so happens to stumble into romance so having the characters be in their early 30s helped bring this to life. Also that everything sucks and they just keep having to go to work and smile because they work public facing jobs–I FELT THAT SO HARD. I’ve found in similar novels that the characters felt far too young for their ages whereas Funny Story captures being an adult but not having the stable career/family/housing/etc that would make one “feel adult.” It's a very Millennial narrative where jokes like ‘are we evil or just immature?’ to laugh off behavior felt very true to life and all these characters seemed to walk onto the page directly out of the sort of single, early 30s service industry folks I’ve known and been friends with. But it also positions the characters in the wreckage of their Round 1 attempt at adulthood where they can no longer pretend they aren’t a product of their past and have to weigh out how their past traumas and coping mechanisms have embedded into their personalities. Especially since both Miles and Daphne are still reeling from hurts caused by the actions of their parents and don’t have a healthy relationship to serve as a compass for their own (and Daphne’s father is still a source of constant disappointment). ‘I don’t want you to look at me like I’m broken,’ Miles says at one point and this cuts to the heart of how these character’s present themselves: eager to show they are alright while feeling far from fine inside and wanting to hide that. ’It’s easy to be loved by the ones who’ve never seen you fuck up. The ones you’ve never had to apologize to, and who still think all your ‘quirks’ are charming.’ Since so much of dating involves understanding each other’s defense mechanisms and unpacking how past traumas inform your interpersonal relationships, being able to be vulnerable is important to intimacy and Funny Story does well by showing how frustrating it can be to open yourself up at the same emotional places where you are currently bruised. Though, speaking of intimacy, readers should know Emily Henry is not a closed-door romance writer (as Ashleigh says it is ‘definitely not PG’) and while the sex scenes are fairly awkward here (I suspect the term “cringe” will get used in a lot of reviews) I think thats part of their charm as these are just…awkward people. Henry wrote a rather humorous article (read it HERE) on how to write sex scenes and the key detail she returns to several times is vulnerability and embracing the awkward, but also using the scenes to progress the characters. ‘The scene has to change things. Because every scene has to change things. While I’m not sure the scenes here really count as plot progression, I found the awkwardness that leaves the characters rather flustered and confused about their relationship to work as part of the character study that seems to be the focus of this book. Its a novel about finding yourself but thankfully its not white folks “finding themselves” by going to India or Joshua Tree listening to The Doors, its just getting high and watching action movies with your roommate and getting some “accidental” action of your own. ‘She’s a walking fantasy and I’m a librarian who actually does wear a lot of buttons and tweed.’ Learning to love oneself in all your faults and failures is difficult, but the joy in the discovery of what makes you “you” comes alive through Daphne quite well. The set up is pretty great and Henry launches you into it rather quickly. I do enjoy how it sort of mimics the set up in Book Lovers where she gets dumped in a very romcom ending “I realized my best friend was my love all along” way like Daphne is the discard fiance that barely gets any lines and seems lame anyways (so I guess shoutout to anyone who maybe identified with Mark Ruffalo’s fiance in 13 Going On 30?). This is just another incident in a long line of feeling not important in the lives of those who claim to love you, and having had an absentee father taught her a few self-defense mechanisms long ago: ‘Trust people’s actions, not their words. Being free from a relationship she thought would sail her happily from life has also made her reflect on how she never really formed a solid sense of self and instead allowed a relationship to fill in all the blanks for her. ‘I always cleaved to people I love and tried to orient my orbit around them,’ she realizes, which was an attempt to ‘make myself unleavable.’ And guess what? They all left. But now she has a new opportunity to find herself in it all. ‘Im not sure which parts of me are him and which parts are genuinely my own and I want to know. I want to know myself, to test my edges and see where I stop and the rest of the world begins.’ Having also ended up in a Michigan lakeshore vacation town only for my supposedly “got it together” lifeplans to go down like the Edmund Fitzgerald (if you are from Michigan you are required to love the Edmund Fitzgerald and think of the Great Lakes like some fierce god that gives life but takes it away. Any museum is like “Science/Art/History/etc is so cool!” Michigan museums are like “the Lake is a cruel mistress who will kill you and everyone you love!”), this all resonated with me. Too much maybe. But I loved seeing her come to love it and find her own place. ‘I feel embarrassing pride at having become a regular at someplace new all on my own,’ she thinks about becoming a familiar face in a coffee shop. Can confirm that is a cool feeling when you feel utterly alone in the world. Good for you, Daphne, find your place. ‘There’s no place on this earth like Waning Bay.’ Speaking of place, Emily Henry excels at capturing a sense of place and embedding it into her narratives as if the local community itself were a supporting cast character in her romcoms. It helps, too, that her locales tend to offer plenty of comedic relief along with their atmosphere. Henry has spoken at length about the importance of “place” in crafting her novels in interviews, stating that ‘I want my characters to feel like they grew up in the place where [my books are] set.’ In Funny Story, however, we watch Daphne as she has to learn a new place being stuck in a Northern Michigan vacation community, but it is less the way learning a place is about learning to better understand her love interest as it was in Book Lovers and more about learning to understand herself. Luckily she is aided by her new roommate, Miles, who also had to find his way amidst this community after shipwrecking there himself (can relate, buddy). Henry captures these Michigan communities in highly specific and humorous ways while making it still relatable to those unfamiliar with them. Maybe I’m biased and Daphne being a librarian and Miles being a bartender at a cherry themed wine bar is just something I’d enjoy because I work in a library after having myself been a wine bartender at a cherry themed establishment. But aspects of Michigan vacation towns felt so true to life. I laughed at the bar named “BARn” which is so eye-rollingly Michigan. But also aspects like seeing a young couple that are ‘on a first date which might somehow be an actual vacation,’ or everyone having their “corn guy, jam connection or cheesemonger, or someone saying things like being on the water is probably what church is to some folks. But for real, if you need amazing tomatoes, I know a guy. ‘A good librarian makes all the difference.’ The side characters are great as well, like the younger sister who brings in a lot of heartfelt discussions on family dynamics in response to family traumas, or the single-mom librarian. The library aspects are a bit kitschy but charming and I’m glad Henry presents the very real issues of how much blatant sexual harassment librarians face or the random moments of extreme anger or weirdness and how we just…deal with it and move along like a blip in the day. I usually hate when authors add libraries or librarians into plots because it's so stereotypically twee or inaccurate but Henry pulls it off well. Back to the sister for a moment, I thought the age gap between siblings was explored in a pretty comically-true-to-life way and how it wasn’t miscommunication between them but just…lack of communicating at all because you just assume what the other person is thinking. Which, okay real. That plays into the third act drama as well where its less a miscommunication and more falling victim to your own confirmation bias and assumptions. But Miles is sweet. I really liked Miles, guys. Miles feels like people I've met, especially in my bartending days. Also a coworker told me they think Miles is based on me. He’s not, I don’t own crocs (shoutout to the cover artist for including that). Did he do something sort of uncool at the end that Daphne is understandably upset about? Yes. Not great. But also did it feel like...well, something you'd hear a friend tell you about why their mad at a guy? Absolutely. I also don't know if this actually needed a successful romance? Maybe that's just me but the aspect about loving yourself and existing outside the circle of your partner was pretty great and we could have left it at that. ‘A second act I fell into, and the home that I chose, as much as it chose me. I can’t wait. I can’t wait for this whole world I’ve invited to surprise me.’ All in all, Funny Story is a sweet story of summer, libraries and finding joy in a new town and new friend. What I really loved about this book—even when it made me cry because I sobbed at the end—is how it just felt like people interacting with people and stumbling through their own issues instead of having some driving plot pushing people in directions. What I’m getting at is they felt like people instead of chess pieces for the sake of plot. The third act drama is done well too. Though when Henry tries to tell you that Michiganders refer to vacationers as “fudgies” for coming here to get our fudge (which is yum)...no we don’t. But the people from the Upper Peninsula DO in fact call the lower Peninsula “trolls.” Nobody in this novel says “ope” though, which is the Michigan noise for everything. Daphne should have said “ope” during a sex scene, I would have fallen over and then made this novel the State flag or something. Anyways, I enjoyed this and I hope you will too. 4/5 ‘Family. The real kind, who will always love you, even when your decisions make no sense to them.’ ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 09, 2024
|
Apr 17, 2024
|
Dec 21, 2023
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0593619919
| 9780593619919
| 0593619919
| 3.97
| 240,862
| Nov 07, 2023
| Nov 07, 2023
|
liked it
|
I think Ali Hazelwood would like me to begin by reminding you the love interest in this book is quite hulking and fit. It’ll come up a lot. Like massi
I think Ali Hazelwood would like me to begin by reminding you the love interest in this book is quite hulking and fit. It’ll come up a lot. Like massive arms and massive hands, which is how you know he is packing a massive…rook to knight combo. That’s how chess works, right? I’m not really sure but that is what is so great about Check & Mate because even if you previously had no interest in chess this book is so charming and energetic about the game that you’ll have a great time no matter what. I am absolute dog shit at chess—my phone app has beaten me enough to accept this—but I am delighted that Hazelwood said “you know what should be sexy? CHESS!” Hazelwood has made a name for herself with a wildly successful series of spicy adult novels featuring young women navigating fields typically gatekept by men and finding romance and here she enters the realm of YA where 18 year old Mallory returns to the world of chess, rusty from a long hiatus inflicted by shame and keeping her family afloat. Now she must face-off against misogynistic expectations and chess world champion slash thirst trap icon Nolan “I swear I’m not an Adam Driver Insert” Sawyer. The “Kingkiller”. The man with the big, meaty, sexy hands (remember this). But also the man she embarrassed by defeating in her first match, making her the new, hot topic about Chess World. Hazelwood writes with bubbly wit and while the constant corporate branding name drops might make one wonder if this book is collecting ad revenue, it's a fresh and fun rom-com that deals with themes of teen parentification, friendship anxieties and being thrust into a judgemental spotlight where the personal life you can barely keep from falling apart is suddenly the topic of social media speculation. Check & Mate is as corny as it is horny but, honestly, it's also just a good time that knows its audience well. ‘His movements, when he touches the pieces, are precise, economical, strong. I hate myself for noticing that.’ Girl, trust me, we all noticed that. Anyways, I found the premise of this to be quite promising and it lives up to it. It’s almost interesting enough to uphold the reluctant rivals to lovers engine that drives the story. While most realistic-fiction YA tends towards a high school setting, it was refreshing to see this being set in chess tournaments and libraries (‘God bless libraries.’ Agreed). Part of the premise is that chess is now the Big Thing thanks to Tiktok and Sawyer, the bad boy of chess, for inspiring a lot of content around his looks and temper tantrums (Kylo Ren behavior…), which, sure, I could believe that happening in this post-The Queen’s Gambit-fame, social media influenced world. And the youth getting really into chess is a super cool idea, I’d love that to happen. It also helps raise the stakes in this book because chess matches are covered like they are the Super Bowl and the cash prize is enormous. And so are Sawyer’s arms. The financial opportunities are key to our gal Mal’s motivations, and shd has more or less vanished from her own life in order to raise her aggressively-tween sisters and care for her sick mother. Hazelwood presents the hardships of a parentified teen who feels cornered by her own life that has been bent towards constant service of others to the point that taking time for herself is guilt-inducing. But all of chess is cloaked in a sense of shame for her and she hadn’t played in years, though the reason behind this is something Hazelwood only teases until the big reveal late in the novel (though its so hinted at I doubt the reason will come as a surprise to anyone after the first 20 pages). Hazelwood captures being burnt out and frustrated well while also making detangling all her insecurities a coming-of-age narrative nestled into the overall plot. ‘There’s lots to consider. My feelings about chess, for one, which I cannot disentangle from my feelings for Dad. They are twisted, knotted together. There’s pain. Regret. Nostalgia. Guilt. Hate. Above all, there’s anger. So much anger inside me. Mountains of it, entire blasing landscapes without a single furyless corner in them.’ The YA genre suits Hazelwood well, being able to turn on the firehose of emotions and make the more immature or quippy moments read as more age appropriate as it does in some of the adult novels Hazelwood often gets compared with. I enjoyed that the characters are older than most YA, being in that sort of anxiety-ridden purgatory between high school and “being an adult”. A great example of this is Mallory’s friendship with Easton and the interplay of Mallory feeling FOMO as Easton goes off to college while Easton worries she is being similarly phased out due to Mallory’s rising-star adventures. While Hazelwood is known for being pretty spicy she tones it back a lot here to suit a YA audience in ways that never feel like self-censorship. There’s still a lot of waistband grabbing (those big, manly hands…) and brief steamy moments though its mostly fade-to-black. Perhaps the lack of sex in the book also helped focus on ensuring the plot held up and was engaging. Truthfully, I couldn’t put this down. Still, I liked these characters—the dialog is fun and snarky without feeling like it needs to only be one-liners to the point of absurdity—and while Mal and Sawyer’s relationship sometimes seems to conveniently progress despite them really only talking about chess its all pretty cute. Sawyer’s character works well as an example of misconstrued perceptions on a person and behind the mystique he is actually quite a lovable person who treats Mallory well. He’s also possibly an Adam Driver-cast insert as both Driver and Star Wars get a call-out in text. This seems to be Hazelwood’s thing and The Love Hypothesis began as Star Wars Reylo fanfiction in a STEM field and minus Kylo Ren’s penchant for war crimes. Plus we have the whole Mallory as a sort of “chosen one” who defeats temper tantrum boy who has trained for years which isn’t NOT the plot of Force Awakens if you squint at it. Though Sawyer’s grandfather and his mental health issues come up, thankfully he wasn’t notable for having committed a genocide. Have I mentioned that this guy is hulking? ‘Most women in chess decide to skip these events and complete in women-only tournaments. I bet you’re wondering why.’ While Sawyer is supportive and sweet, the rest of the chess world is a minefield of misogyny for Mallory to navigate. Journalists love to ask her ‘how does it feel to be a women in chess?’ and her first experience with Koch—essentially the villain of the book—is him asking if she beat Sawyer by dressing evocatively. Good on Hazelwood for addressing the extra pressures and judgment on a woman in male-coded fields while inspiring young women to embrace their hobbies and strengths and achieve in whatever they want to do. But also good on her for making Koch so fun to hate. I mean, this guy is basically some teenage Ben Shapiro character twiddling his evil mustache (okay Koch doesn’t have a mustache but you get the idea) and being insufferable to everyone. You’ll want to punch him. A few times. There are a lot of complaints online about the use of slang and pop culture references here, which is whatever. Does it seem like a sort of eye rolling technique to be “this is how teens talk right?”, sure. But I do want to start a conspiracy theory that books will have product inserts as the new form of tv commercials because Hazelwood name-checks so many corporate brands and highly-specific product names that it feels weird. It’s like when the kid is sleep-talking brands in White Noise and I kept joking that this book is generating ad revenue to keep the publishing industry rolling. After having read Colleen Hoover and Emily Henry this year, I figured I should complete the trifecta and read an Ali Hazelwood and I’m pretty glad I did. Overall, this was pretty fun. It moves at a quick pace (shocking for a story about chess games, I know) and has some pretty fun ups-and-downs while following a fairly formulaic romance plotline. Sure I could probably nitpick stuff about plot holes or whatever, but at the end of the day that seems beside the point to me. I’m judging this based on my rule I’ve just now invented called the A Knights Tale Rule: believability is beside the point when you came to laugh along to a story about Heath Ledger looking great on a horse. This is fun and cute and I had a pleasant time reading it. It also achieves its main goal: making chess seem sexy. So excuse me, I’m going to go get my ass kicked by my chess app again and pretend I’m Gary Kasparov playing against Deep Blue. 3.5/5 “Chess is a bad idea.” “Why?” “Look where it got me.” “It got you here. To me.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Nov 15, 2023
|
Nov 15, 2023
|
Nov 07, 2023
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1534493794
| 9781534493797
| 1534493794
| 4.10
| 62,557
| Apr 05, 2022
| Apr 05, 2022
|
really liked it
|
SHE DOES INDEED! This was so cute. I laughed, I cried, I had a great time. And so shall you. I also loved that Rachael Lippincott wrote this along with SHE DOES INDEED! This was so cute. I laughed, I cried, I had a great time. And so shall you. I also loved that Rachael Lippincott wrote this along with her wife, Alyson Derrick so knowing that makes it extra adorable. This just made me feel good inside and I needed that. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
not set
|
Aug 29, 2023
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0823450104
| 9780823450107
| 0823450104
| 3.86
| 21,933
| May 31, 2022
| May 31, 2022
|
really liked it
|
My Mechanical Romance is all the right vibes and my heart is bursting with adorable goodness. I have to say this is an author who makes me want to rea
My Mechanical Romance is all the right vibes and my heart is bursting with adorable goodness. I have to say this is an author who makes me want to read romance, she has such a sharp and smart approach to it that captures your mind as much as your heart and just allows you to really, truly think about the emotional mechanics of blossoming relationships. You might know Alexene Farol Follmuth best by her pen name Olivie Blake, and after reading and loving her novel Alone With You in the Ether I knew I had to give her another read. My Mechanical Romance, published without the pen name, is an absolutely lovely YA that is a romance built within an engaging examination of the gender politics around women in STEM fields. Bel has been plunged into a new school for her senior year and persuaded to join the school’s robotics team where she meets team captain Teo who is as bright as he is beautiful and overbearing. Beset by rocky team dynamics, biases and frequent disputes, Bel is determined to prove she belongs and Farol Follmuth delivers a swoon-worthy good time that feels honest and insightful as well as heartwarmingly romantic. Picture me with cartoon hearts for eyes and that's basically how I was reading this whole thing. ‘I promise I'll still like you, even if I ever have a problem you can't fix.’ Farol Follmuth is exceptional at characters and I enjoy how in both of her books I’ve read the romance is really a vehicle for in-depth character studies of rather intellectual leads that pauses to reflect on issues of interpersonal frustrations, mental health and personality. Her stories are smart and make character flaws learning opportunities—I really enjoy how these characters develop through recognizing how their actions affect others and how trying to be better versions of themselves requires a lot of self-reflection as to why you are the way you are—that not only feel real but are good reminders to the reader about themselves. But this book also really addresses how our perceptions of others are often biased based on initial reactions to them and as we learn more about these characters our own perception of them changes. Teo comes across as rather arrogant at first and his whole quest to get himself into MIT can feel rather smug, but as the story progresses we discover a sweetness in him and as we learn more about him he becomes a rather endearing character. Same with many of the side characters, although they are a lot less developed and can occasionally feel a little flat. Though a big theme is about working together, recognizing that people can have a variety of strengths, that we can’t always solve every problem the way we solve math, and that being caring is much more productive than being cruel. ‘The world is not very helpful to a smart girl. More often it will try to force you inside a box. But I urge you not to listen.’ A big aspect of this book centers on how Bel is overlooked on the team and issues of misogyny lurk under a lot of the interactions. Even Neelam, the only other girl on the team, is instantly hostile to Bel in a way that seems to indicate underlying issues of internalized misogyny that pit women against each other by seeing the other as a threat. Not that Bel is exactly effective at being a team player, a lesson that everyone has to learn (especially as they all rely too heavinly on Teo). There is a big, bold message that women have a place in STEM and its done in a really lovely and empowering way. But what just really works for me is how much I love Farol Follmuth’s writing. While Alone With You in the Ether felt effectively geared towards a more adult audience, her writing here fits perfectly for a YA audience without feeling pandering and still being equally engaging to adults. She has such a good grasp on voice, you can practically hear these characters on the page and her dual perspective from Bel to Teo is nicely nuanced. Plus she is so funny. I love Bel’s quirkiness and snark and she can roll out some comical (and often self-depricating) humor that doesn’t feel forced and the pop culture references feel earned and honest (I kind of loved the teacher holding up a sign with a Beyonce reference as it feels sort of dated in a way that shows the age gap between the characters). The banter is great and while I found Emily Henry to have great one-liners it never felt like how people actually talk whereas the conversations here seem like you could actually be hearing them in a high school hallway. Plus the character dynamics really work and I feel a lot of this owes to her attention to getting down the character’s psychological moods quite well. ‘I’m at my best when I’m with you.’ Overall, My Mechanical Romance is a winner and I am fully on board with Alexene Farol Follmuth (aka Olive Blake) and will read anything she writes. She is just a delight and this book is so adorable while still being a rather smart and empowering look at feminist issues and the current conversations around STEM fields. Heartfelt and heartwarming, I loved this. 4.5/5 ‘And then I kiss him, in a moment that feels like all I’ll ever need.’ ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 10, 2023
|
Aug 10, 2023
|
Aug 10, 2023
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1728239826
| 9781728239828
| 1728239826
| 3.69
| 7,796
| Jun 04, 2020
| Oct 05, 2021
|
really liked it
|
‘Once upon a time…’ is the launchpad for so many fabulous stories that have won our hearts and minds and been told and retold until they have become a
‘Once upon a time…’ is the launchpad for so many fabulous stories that have won our hearts and minds and been told and retold until they have become a part of history themselves. And so, once more upon a time, Roshani Chokshi embarks us on a magical fairy tale on the powers of hope, love, and redemption in her charming and sweet novella aptly named Once More Upon a Time. Having been completely blown away by Chokshi’s dark, modern fairy tale-esque The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, I absolutely needed to read more of her work and I was thrilled by this delightful look at the lighter side of fairy tales. Drawing on many common tropes, Once More Upon a Time feels both familiar and fresh, told with a great deal of humor and adorable side-companions that almost made this feel like Disney fairy tales at their utmost best where both younger and older readers will find their hearts warmed. ‘You can wander the world and be beholden to no one, and still find yourself trapped.’ Something I’ve found Chokshi excels at is depictions of love and the anxieties that surround it. This is a tale of second-chances: to reverse the death of his new queen, Imelda, Ambrose agrees to have their love erased even though their rule requires them to be in love. As they venture on a quest together following the loss of their kingdom, new sparks begin to fly and all the awkwardness of rekindling romance comes pouring through the narrative. Plus the banter is utterly delightful and the side characters—notably a smartass honey badger—provide a lot of wonderful laughs. I really just sailed through this on waves of pure bliss. It’s short, sweet, and just a perfect escape read and shows Chokshi can land any fairy tale trope she sets out to perform. 4/5 ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
not set
|
Aug 01, 2023
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1250888166
| 9781250888167
| 1250888166
| 3.81
| 88,326
| Jun 20, 2020
| Nov 29, 2022
|
it was amazing
|
‘If this is what it is to burn, he thought, then I will be worth more as scattered ash than any of my unscathed pieces.’ There exists a maxim that love ‘If this is what it is to burn, he thought, then I will be worth more as scattered ash than any of my unscathed pieces.’ There exists a maxim that love transcends all, and Olivie Blake has finely crafted a fragile, fiery love affair that transcends even her characters to become a sensual romance between art and science. Alone With You in the Ether finds Regan and Aldo caught in each other’s gravitational attraction of love, a love that scorches through them and their physical selves to expose their very essences as forces navigating either by emotion or logic. As they come closer together, we must wonder is ‘it love between them or was it need?’ and are they a safe harbor where the other may flourish or will they run to ruin, dashed to pieces on the shoreline of the other. This is, ultimately, a literary romance, one with grit and uncomfortable explorations into themes of mental health, co-dependency, compulsive self-sabotage and the ways the veil of illusion begins to slip as relationships progress and we must decide to crack or embrace that ‘it is perilously wonderful to suffer so sweetly with you.’ These are flawed characters bruising themselves against the world. Told through prose that has passages so ethereally gorgeous it could only exist in service of love and with a dual narrative that threads their lives together, Alone With You in the Ether is a gorgeously interior and intimate portrait of difficult love that we can’t help but dive into even if it is destined to burn us down to ash as Blake’s storytelling beautifully cuts right into the troubled heart of matters as deeply as she cut into the heart of the reader. ‘There would be times, particularly at first, when Regan would attempt to identify the moment things had set themselves on a path to inevitable collision.’ Olivie Blake—a pen name of chosen through a name generator—began her career writing fan fiction and self-publishing novels until going viral on social media landed her a book deal with Tor and the recognition she certainly deserves. Best known for her dark academia fantasy series, The Atlas Six, here Blake writes in ways that feel magical without having to be magic beyond the sparks of love but still retains a very academic atmosphere to her characters and settings. Blake brings Chicago alive here, taking us through the streets, the classrooms of the University of Chicago where Aldo teaches and into the absolutely amazing Art Institute where Regan works as docent. I love that museum intensely and the pair having an affection for the Armory there as the place of their first meeting steals my heart. [image] The Art Institute of Chicago Blake delivers seemingly effortless storytelling that loops through exciting metafiction techniques, such as a whole host of narrators intruding in on the story in part 1, including an “overzealous Cubs fan,” or “an aging, arthritic man in possession of many books” as well as stage direction details. It ushers us into the narrative with a fun and frenetic cinematic energy. I would have enjoyed it if Blake continued this style more through the book as I missed it, but once the characters are established it instead turns more inward as they attempt to have more of a harness on their own narratives. The perspective rotates between Regan and Aldo, offering both internal and external perspectives on each other creating more dynamic characters but also allowing us to detect inconsistencies that show how a self-image is often a slight fiction. This is particularly true for Regan who ‘ was most comfortable when she was at her falsest. Regan did not enjoy honesty, she hated it, was repulsed by it and by her own truths especially,’ and the way the readers perceptions on Regan morph over the course of the book—and with new revelations on her life—emphasizes the way a person seems always in flux. But most notably, this sashaying of perspectives is like a needle threading the two together until, at the end, we witness them as a seamless whole viewed from the outside with a conversation entirely narrated of he said and she said instead of a duality of perspective. ‘Art is something we do to feel human, not because we are’ The prose is quite engaging and this is a much faster paced novel than I tend to read so I was gripped the whole way through. Blake aims for grand phrasing of emotions that land quite impactfully and, sure, it may be overwrought at times but that's exactly how obsessive love feels. I love the way it spirals through the stratosphere or seems to be tumbling out of control or even trails off mid-thought because it so lucidly captures untethered emotions (and intrusive thoughts, which are constantly present in this book). There is a musicality to it, but it is like every instrument in a band trying to all take a solo at once in the cacophony of feeling so much you aren’t sure if you can contain it. It is art, pure and simple. ‘You wouldn't make love with him, you'd make art.’ The premise is rather cute with Aldo and Regan agreeing to have six conversations to see what they learn about each other, something right in Aldo’s wheelhouse as ‘for Aldo, to love something was to study it; to devote every spare thought to understanding it.’ Yet there is a darkness lurking just beneath, something that might not be immediately evident in the blinding glare of meet-cutes and warm infatuation but still casts shadows they choose to find intriguing instead of alarming. Though Blake does capture the way in the falling-hard stage you tend to feel everything reminds you of that person, akin to learning a new word and seeing it everywhere: ‘When you learn a new word, you suddenly see it everywhere. The mind comforts itself by believing this to be coincidence but isn’t—it’s ignorance falling away. Your future self will always see what your present self is blind to. This is the problem with mortality, which is in fact a problem of time.’ Was their love for each other there even before them, existing out of time? Or is this a romanticized notion that might not be that healthy to cling to? There are clear mental health struggles with both of them, Regan is avoiding prison for white collar crime largely due to her wealthy parents, and both seem to struggle within society due to their own personalities. Plus Regan has a boyfriend, Mark, who can be cruelly perceptive at times despite being stock-market-wealth garbage. Perhaps the easiest to love character is Masso, Aldo’s charming, well-meaning father—a sharp juxtaposition from Regan’s mother who we see as highly judgemental through Regan’s perceptions—though even he warns Aldo that Regan is the type to burn someone up. ‘So this is what it is to love something you cannot control, he thought. It felt precisely like terror.’ The adorableness of the first half of the novel begins to give way to doubts and fears, and this makes a good case for how someone cannot be “fixed” by inserting another person into their lives and that emotional high and romantic monomania will eventually return to the difficulties of love. But in the blazing glory of their initial infatuations we see clear into them and the very essence of their beings, with Regan representative of art and Aldo representative of science. It is why they continuously say they love each other’s brains more than any other aspect of one another, they are trying to love the pure consciousness and essence of the other. Their looks, fears and flaws become just as ornamental as the time and art theories of their conversations that point like maps to their underlying feelings, and I find it a rather beautifully bittersweet theme to place art and science together as a romantic couple hoping their union is an eternal, cosmic force that can even bend time to its will. Aldo’s mind approaches life and love like a math problem, and with his bee obsession I just assume glimpsing in his mind is like looking at this book: [image] OMFG, BEES!: Bees Are So Amazing and You're About to Find Out Why Regan approaches life on whims of feelings, something she feels stifled by through her (view spoiler)[court-ordered (hide spoiler)] medications (‘even though she hates her feelings, she'd still rather have them than not’) and has a taste for darkness and self-destruction. ‘Art is loss,’ she muses, ‘it’s the fleeting breath of a foregone moment, the intimacy of things undone, the summer season that passes.’ What begins as romantic starts to look like a mental health spiral, and what comes easily at first is now fraught with fear and uncertainty, especially in Regan. ‘Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone,’ wrote Ursula K. Le Guin, ‘it has to be made,’ and through these trials will Aldo and Regan discover a way to make lasting love or will they burn up in each other’s atmosphere? ‘To love a person was to forfeit the need to place limits on them, and therefore to love was to exist in a constant, paralyzing threat.’ Regan is a fascinating character, one who is certainly flawed and can be rather frustrating at times but you want her to learn to love herself for herself and not because someone else does. She chases highs, she is assailed by intrusive thoughts (some violent), she is her own worst enemy and both she and Aldo fear she is using their relationship as a fix instead of truly working on herself. They are difficult characters but they still deserve to feel love and there were fleeting moments I felt this book was akin to Sally Rooney characters. Regan struggles to define herself for herself and even many of the bad-faith representations of her she rages against are mostly invented in her mind (Blake has a brilliant moment of narrative crafting when we discover the argument between Regan and her mother is all staged in her head though proceed to assume her fictionalized words are the truth of how she feels about Aldo and Regan). Her choice to abandon her meds is troubling, though Blake explains in the afterword that it is not meant as ‘perscriptive’ and is largely based on her own experiences and struggles with medication after a bi-polar diagnosis. It does touch close to the romanticization of mental health struggles being a gateway to good art, which is a troubling perspective, though that doesn’t seem the intent. As Jeanette Winterson writes in her memoir ‘creativity is on the side of health – it isn’t the thing that drives us mad; it is the capacity in us that tries to save us from madness.’ Blake does well by having the story reject any quick fix or certainty, showing mental health is a lifelong journey and encouraging therapy and repeated self-assessment to remain both productive and healthy. Though as the narrator notes ‘“healthy” for them will always be a relative term.’ ‘I want you to bet on me, Aldo. I want you to make investments, I want your future.’ People who are difficult to love still deserve to be loved, and that is captured so elegantly in Alone With You in the Ether. I really loved this book and had goosebumps at multiple moments, it is very moving and searingly gorgeous at times. I’m not one usually for a romance novel, but this feels rather different than what one would expect. It is certainly a literary work, and all the heady topics of time theory and reflections and analysis of art are handled in accessible yet ponderous ways that are folded productively into the larger themes of the book. This was my first Olivie Blake and I will certainly read others, it is a book without any fantastical elements though still is undeniably magical. 4.5/5 ‘Tell your mind to be kind to you today.’ ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
May 19, 2023
|
May 19, 2023
|
May 19, 2023
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 059335608X
| 9780593356081
| 059335608X
| 4.44
| 62,798
| Jul 05, 2022
| Jul 05, 2022
|
really liked it
|
Be still my heart!!!! Welcome back to Lore Olympus, the spicy modern retelling of Greek mythology that centers on an adorable Hades and Persephone roma Be still my heart!!!! Welcome back to Lore Olympus, the spicy modern retelling of Greek mythology that centers on an adorable Hades and Persephone romance. Volume 2 picks up where the last left off and covers episodes 26-47. You can read the entire Webtoon here, but also I do love having the physical copies of these as the art is stunning and really pops. [image] Volume 2 introduces us to some new characters, such as Hecate finally making an appearance and Thetis showing up for a delightfully snarky encounter with Minthe, but continues the ever-entangling plotline of the Gods with their desires and bad behaviors propelling the plotline. Pretty much everyone is a fuckboi and there are a lot of hurt feels going on in Vol 2., but the adorable connection between Hades and Persephone (with Hades usually acting all hard on the outside but on the inside is a big softie with a complicated history) being the sweetness that makes the story really stick. This is a big soap opera and does deal with some rather dark issues, such as the depiction of Apollo as quite the stalkery creep who gets violent when told no. This issue addresses the age difference between Hades and Persephone head on, and while the characters act in problematic ways (I mean, its the Greek Gods, what do you expect), Rachel Smyth leans into it for excellent results. The characters are very dynamic and experience a whole range of emotions, really bringing them to life beyond the traditional tales. [image] I also enjoy Persephone’s character a lot, being the young college girl who just needs to believe in herself despite knowing she is very booksmart. She deals with rumors about her floating around, and a major story arc is a tabloid paper accusing her of sleeping her way into the Royal Family, so theres a lot of drama to be had here. We also have Hera doing what Hera does best: testing people. So this is great fun and I just love the story. The art, however, might be the best part. The blues and pinks really pop and the character design is quite fun and allows for maximum expression of emotions. Lore Olympus is a blast, you won’t regret it. It’ll make you laugh, cringe, and cry. 4.5/4 [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jul 2022
|
Jul 2022
|
Jul 01, 2022
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0593440870
| 4.13
| 1,217,494
| May 03, 2022
| May 03, 2022
|
really liked it
|
It was a book about books, it was a book about lovers. It was a book about books about lovers, it was a book about lovers of books. But above all, Boo
It was a book about books, it was a book about lovers. It was a book about books about lovers, it was a book about lovers of books. But above all, Book Lovers was a lovely book. Emily Henry really charms here. She knows her audience and delivers with grace, harnessing the aesthetics of book love amidst the sexual tension of two publishing professionals with a tendency for ferocity. As a fellow book lover, what really resonated was the way Henry captures the tendency to find narratives in the world around us, though for Nora this sef-type casting has allowed her public life as ‘the villain in someone else's love story,’ to rule her romantic life ‘because people like me don’t get those endings.’ With a keen eye for the classic elements of a romantic comedy, Book Lovers delightfully both subverts and satirizes tropes while simultaneously leaning into them in surprising ways that makes this story as humorously engaging as it is endlessly adorable. ‘Sometimes, even when you start with the last page and you think you know everything, a book finds a way to surprise you,’ Nora thinks, and this book captures that feeling so effortlessly. It’s the anti-Hallmark film Hallmark film narrative that acknowledges, sure, its fun to mock the stereotypical cliches and feel like you are above them, but you know deep down you still enjoy watching them even if you don’t care to admit it. Besides, who doesn’t want to save a small business while also falling in love!? Now sprinkle in all the book lover joys of small town indie bookstores, enemies-to-lovers coming together while editing a riveting novel, metaphors about not wanting to finish books and endlessly referencing favorite books to better explain a situation, and you’ll see why it is nearly impossible to not fall in love with Book Lovers. ‘She wonders whether what comes next could ever live up to the expectations. She doesn’t know. You never can. She turns the page anyway.’ Seriously though, I really loved this. It’s such a feel-good book that I simply could not put down. I love the aspect of the novel of all the juxtapositions of people and places with their fictional counterparts. The adorable small town of a novel is lackluster and lame, though maybe a place that can be beautiful if you give it enough time. Or the fictional Nora, Nadine Winters, that shows up in Dusty’s newest novel and forces Nora to confront her own public persona. I also loved the characters. Charlie is so wonderful and I adored his full commitment to Nora, smitten and supportive every step of the way. He could certainly charm the pants off me, watch out Nora. But she was delightful too. It’s so easy to fall in love with them both. And I gotta say, Charlie running and indie bookstore while having a full time job really hit deep. Representation matters, thanks Henry. I also loved the discussion on book endings, especially the ones that are ‘a reminder that there are things in life so valuable that you must risk the pain of losing them for the joy of briefly having them,’ which warmed my heart as a fan of messy or sad endings. Granted, this book does run a big long and the ending starts to drag but overall this book just made me happy. ‘ Maybe love shouldn’t be built on a foundation of compromises, but maybe it can’t exist without them either.’ While I found Happy Place a bit underwhelming, I found that all of the elements of this one worked really well. The banter is funny and adorable and I liked the calm pace that really let the scenes and characters breathe. The tension builds quite well and I enjoyed that Henry could discuss heavier themes amidst a rather sweet story as the slow understanding about Nora and her sister’s relationship was one of the most endearing aspects of the book. And not just the cutesy vacation checklist which leads to some good gaffs, but the tension between Libby wanting to he her own self and Nora wanting to always show she can support people and be reliable. I think what really makes this work is that there is more than just a romance going on—in fact Nora find the romance to be stressful because it distracts from her other problems. It makes a good balance, especially with the sister narrative getting equal time as the romance narrative and Henry handling heavier subjects to counterbalance all the cuteness. Like a good mixed drink, gotta add a some bitters to balance the sweetness. ‘I still feel like a city person, through and through, but maybe it’s possible to have more than one home. Maybe it’s possible to belong in a hundred different ways to a hundred different people and places.’ All in all, Book Lovers stole my heart. But how can it not when it so marvelously plays with the tropes of person and place aligning to make you swoon. Henry excels at giving a sense of place that draws you in and feels as much a character as those walking around it and here I found myself full up in this small town romance and everything that came with it. Because this book has a lot: publishing, small town charm while also embracing big city charm, hot guys, hot cousins of the hot guys, family drama, saving a small business, bad local theater, scandalous backstories, Bigfoot erotica, and did I mention hot guys? Book Lovers is a winner, and yes Emily Henry, ‘the romance gods would be proud.’ ⅘ ‘The last-page ache. The deep breath in after you’ve set the book aside.’ ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jan 07, 2024
|
Jan 18, 2024
|
Mar 24, 2022
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||||
| 3.88
| 244,913
| Jul 16, 2019
| Jul 16, 2019
|
it was amazing
|
‘I want to be a context for you, and you for me.’ There is something uniquely affecting when love is painted against the backdrop of the limitlessness ‘I want to be a context for you, and you for me.’ There is something uniquely affecting when love is painted against the backdrop of the limitlessness of space and time. The effect has been done many times over but nothing can prepare you for the extraordinary beauty in which This is How You Lose the Time War allows you to experience love stretching out and weaving across time and dimensions to examine just how infinite it can possibly be. A spark of emotion that shines through galaxies reduced to dust, the countless rises and falls of mortal empires, the lifespans of all human feats and follies. Co-written by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, each writing one of the two protagonists, the novel is a soaring epistalatory sapphic romance between two rival time-traveling agents in a war between their respective societies to control and rewrite the multiverse in order to eradicate the other. Spawn by a private battlefield provocation, the two agents become caught in a maelstrom of self-discovery and romance corresponding by letters as they chase each other across time and space in a playful and imaginative novel so searingly beautiful the cosmos can barely contain it. These two authors have created something charmingly original in Time War, enhanced by the distinct dueling voices of the authors as their prose communicates and responds to each other along with their characters. Many of these letters, particularly in the novel’s latter half, blossom into pure ethereal poetry. On occasion it dips into purple prose, as one letter admits, however, what a clever sentiment for a profession of love between characters named Red and Blue to evolve into purple. The writing remains crisp, rotating between short narration and the correspondence between the two, allowing the narrative to progress as strongly on wings of emotion as it does the chain of events. What transpires is often intentionally vague as no time is wasted on much exposition or explanation, but fully immerses you in a world you won’t quite grasp or understand. It’s as if this gorgeous landscape of the multiverse were simply a blur as you are focused on the interaction between Red and Blue, much the way the world around you fades from focus in the first moments of love. Ultimately, any attempt at concreteness in a universe in a constant state of flux and revision would be beside the point, and the vagueness reflects that. It is only though the shared connection between Red and Blue that we can find a stable focal point as they pass through a kaleidoscope of time. Much like the way the pair gives context to one another, our only context is through them as well. They are each other’s only tether to stability in an unstable reality. ‘When did it happen? Or has it always happened? Like your victory, love spreads back through time.’ Entire multi-dimensions are shifted, burned or woven together on the battlefield of time between Garden, an organic and collectivist society from which Blue has grown, and Agency, a post-singularity mechanical society that created Red. They are locked in an eternal time-war of which the specifics and origins of are rarely addressed and even then are quite vague. The novel makes reference to Romeo and Juliet in narrative and thematically (the play, it is said, has different endings in each strand of time), and shares it’s notion of a long-standing feud where all existing players have forgotten why but continue to play it out to the point of extreme violence. What they are doing exactly is a bit elusive but strands are altered by, say, helping a city build a port or ensuring a mathematical formula survives the destruction of Atlantis: little things that add up over centuries to create wholly different versions of reality that are fought over. ‘In the war they wage through time, what lasting advantage comes from murdering ghosts, who, with a slight shift of threads, will return to life or live different lives that never bright them to the executioner’s blade?...No death sticks but the one that matters.’ ‘What a microcosm we are of the war as a whole, you and I,’ Blue writes to Red early on, ‘An action and an equal and opposite reaction.’ The two women--they identify as she/her and can take on human form though you’d be hard pressed to form a definite image of what they look like based on the various hints--who’s designation as Red and Blue help to impress an idea as mere players in a game, are equals of one another, rivals ever, which is the initial attraction between the them. ‘They were separate, they did not speak, but each shaped the other, even as they were shaped in turn.’ What begins as a game of hunter and hunted in boasting and taunting letters quickly gives way to deep conversations about the self that makes them aware they have an agency beyond their respective Agencies and despite being weapons of war have a taste for the finer and beautiful things in life. In those moments they realize there is a hole inside them that only the other can fill. And as their love grows, they begin to wonder--partly due to the millenia of time they criss-cross during their budding attraction--if perhaps the love didn’t just arrive but had always been there. As with any sci-fi involving time travel, there is the inevitable paradox of events and free-will within a shifting reality and the two authors harness this paradox into their novel towards an exquisite and emotional end. ‘There’s a kind of time travel in letters, isn’t there?’ ‘Letters are structures, not events,’ Red writes to Blue, ‘Yours give me a place to live inside.’ This beautiful refuge from war they’ve found in their secret correspondence also becomes a commentary on language and communication itself. In whimsical sci-fi nature, they write in abstract languages found in reading the structure of leaves on a plant or decoding rings on a tree (just let it happen, it’s super cool), which reflects the way the tools of writing shape how we write--a topic often written upon by philosopher Jacques Derrida. Their secret letters envelope the secrecy of their relationship and dangers they face even reading letters from the enemy, which is fascinating to think of considering a digital age where communication can occur through images (entire conversations can be had with emojis and memes) or other non-alphabetic communication. In our modern world we continue to embrace non-verbal communication that relationships can be built from, such as how with online dating many people exist only in messages to one another before meeting and form an attraction that way. It is a beautiful notion to consider how through just our words we can fall in love with the essence of another by showing an understanding, empathy and passion for the thoughts of each other (when I first met my partner we met in person only three times before she moved back to Ireland so for months we got to know each other through long late night texting and her sending me letters, so love across distance has always spoken to me pretty well). Messages written at one place in time, sent, and received in another transmitting emotions across time and space. ‘Books are letters in bottles,’ one letter reads, ‘cast into the waves of time, from one person trying to save the world to another.’ All books are love letters, if you think about it. One person sending out a message in hopes someone will understand and understand them in turn, an abstract connection that reaches even beyond the grave. There is a voyeuristic sense to this novel--reading their letters and all--but it reminds us of our primal instincts that desire connection and the fireworks of emotion that come from first contact with it. It is nearly impossible to not be swept up in their romance and feel their fears, pains, and needs standing naked and unafraid before one another, like a tree in winter unashamed of it’s gnarled limbs. ‘Love is what we have, against time and death, against all the powers ranged to crush us down.’ There is a subtle shadow of dread cast across their saga keeping the reader keenly aware that their taboo relationship is always threatened by the larger world in which they exist. Agency traces Blue’s exploits and wishes to set a trap for her, one Red will be used to ensure the success of the mission. Betrayal exists in the peripheries of this novel at all times, especially when they begin to open up hoping this isn’t just some long con. Poison is an important theme throughout the novel, with the women taunting each other that any letter could be laced with it and choosing to read forward anyways. It reminds us of how we remove our armor and open ourselves up to pain when we choose to love. War begets death and suffering, and the two players have entered into this affair knowing the risks but plunging on ahead regardless. ‘I want to meet you in every place I have loved.’ It is difficult to say much more without spoiling anything in this clever plotted novel. It is one that encourages an immediate reread, as clues and puzzle pieces are weaved into the novel much like the way our heroines weave space and time together for their purposes. It is an extraordinary little book that somehow manages to never feel like a gimmick despite it’s inventive and quirky nature. Time, place, love, and war all become a potent concoction for one of the most tender and vulnerable romances I’ve ever read. I could praise it all day long but, as is written in one of the cosmic letters, ‘I am the songbird running out of air, and I must breathe.’ 4.5/5 ‘I want to be a body for you. I want to chase you, find you, I want to be eluded and teased and adored; I want to be defeated and victorious—I want you to cut me, sharpen me. I want to drink tea beside you in ten years or a thousand. Flowers grow far away on a planet they’ll call Cephalus, and these flowers bloom once a century, when the living star and its black-hole binary enter conjunction.I want to fix you a bouquet of them, gathered across eight hundred thousand years, so you can draw our whole engagement in a single breath, all the ages we’ve shaped together.’ ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
not set
|
Sep 10, 2020
|
Paperback
| |||||||||||||||||
| 0802150268
| 9780802150264
| 0802150268
| 3.55
| 11,761
| 1928
| Jan 11, 1994
|
liked it
|
Be careful: everything fades, everything vanishes. Something must remain of us… What better way to see the essence of life fresh and anew than through Be careful: everything fades, everything vanishes. Something must remain of us… What better way to see the essence of life fresh and anew than through the eyes of a newfound friend. The world opens up as you turn down avenues you’ve walked by but never had reason to explore before, the language of life reveals new slangs and idioms of place and persons.Nadja by Andre Breton is the first surrealist romance novel and explores the surrealist movement through expression in the character Nadja’s unique way of existing in the word. Nadja—Léona Camile Ghislaine Delacourt (1902-1941)—is ‘the soul of limbo’ wandering through the streets of Paris in poverty like a leaf blown by the winds of chance, and becomes Breton’s muse over the course of their short-lived friendship. While Nadja will likely feel threadbare to a modern reader, it was a major work of early surrealist literature that gleefully captures the movement and passionately chronicles the night walk love affair between Breton and his muse. Breton wrote that Surrealism is a ‘pure state,’ by which one can channel through art ‘the actual functioning of thought...the superior reality.’ Nadja comes from Breton’s life experiences—though the validity of its heroine was once a topic of heated debate—and attempts to put forth his methodology. I insist on knowing the names, on being interested only in books left ajar, like doors; I will not go looking for keys.The novel has a very episodic feel, jumping through time on the platforms of anecdotes populated by friends of Breton. Robert Desnos¹, Paul Éluard and Man Ray (who also provides several of the many photographs in Nadja) frequently mingle in the text and Breton maps out his walks and outings through frequent mention of notable cafes and buildings to reinforce the reality of his tale by grounding it in the physical world through namedrop and photograph².The first portion of the novel is very diary-like, chronicling his average day to day activities working with his surrealist peers. The meetingi of the mysterious Nadja, however, is the explosive force that turns his world about and the catalyst of the novel’s heart. Nadja, as she names herself ‘because in Russian it’s the beginning of the word hope, and because it’s only the beginning’, is seen by Breton as a personification of his surrealist movement. Her lifestyle and actions that ‘approach the extreme limit of surrealist aspiration, its furthest determinant’ as she wanders about seemingly aimless but with a purpose of her own only accessible to her unique pattern of thought. She has incredible visions, extreme shifts in mood and what Breton sees as a free-spirited and unpredictable being. She unabashedly projects the essence of her being that pulls those around her into a surreal reality that shatters their conceptions of the world. Nadja reads like an early inspiration for the ‘manic-pixie-dreamgirl’ cliche that plagues twee coming-of-age novels and films. ‘Eccentricity’ could be a valid label for Nadja’s behavior, but also might bear a misleading connotation of negative aberration. True, her behavior does often position her in dangerous situations that land her in legal trouble, but mental instability and psychiatric investigation is not the intention of her character analysis. Breton does soon tire of her unpredictability and aloofness and after having a massive mental breakdown she is thrust into an asylum (the real Nadja died in the asylum, spending the last fourteen years of her life inside), but the impression of Nadja is one of beauty marvel. She sees the world for the magic in it, and if a consequence of this gift is to be socially inept ‘according to the imbecile code of good sense and good manners’ in the eyes of the masses, than Breton see’s it as worthwhile (if only a bit tiresome). ‘Unless you have been inside a sanitarium,’ he writes near the novel’s conclusion, ‘you do not know that madmen are made there.’ Her behavior and lifestyle is a rebellion against the code of the masses, a window into truth, and it is the resistance of such a pure truth by the masses that cages her into a label of insanity. To Breton, it is her removal from the life she both neglects and embraces that results in her downfall. It would be interesting to see a newer translation of this, or compare the translation to the original text. Perhaps it is the translator's work, or Breton’s himself, but the fluidity of prose is cumbersome. While lengthy sentences can ring like angelic melody with a careful streetlight system of punctuation, Breton’s sentences are overly punctuated and so stop-and-go with sentences within sentences offset with frequent comma usage that it feels like syntactical epilepsy. Breton did express an attempt at recreating the purity of realistic thought processing, but it seems overly clunky in its attempts. This, however, may be from having read authors writing much more recently (Joseph McElroy has a masterful control over stream-of-consciousness that replicates actual consciousness, for example) that have polished a more fluid prose. Reading Nadja for it’s historical value may very well be more rewarding than its poetic value, which is still quite a feat in and of itself. The novel flows a bit too much like a suffocating river, and is a bit bland, yet Breton still works magic on emotion and intellect. Nadja is alive and well through Breton’s work, ushering us with her intoxicating yet obfuscating behavior. While she is confirmed to have sprung from an actual person, perhaps the notion that she is more an embodiment of a way of being or a mood than flesh-and-blood is an equally rewarding viewpoint of the novel. Nadja is the sort of person that makes us smitten with characters in novels, knowing full well that they do not exist but falling in love with the essence of them, the constructs of ideas and ideals they represent. It is a pure love, one that exists by pushing reality to its extreme boundaries to enhance reality, much in keeping with Breton’s surrealism. Nadja is an important work, and one that also captures the reader’s heart. 3.5/5 ‘Beauty will be CONVULSIVE or will not be at all. ¹ To further highlight the essence of surrealism, there is a fantastic story of Robert Desnos during his imprisonment in the concentration camps that I discovered in an article about his life. One day Desnos is loaded onto a truck with other inmates and driven to the gas chambers. They depart the truck and begin walking in silent, single-file order when Desnos, as some sort of final surrealist joke, breaks from line, grabs the hand of a woman and starts reading her palm. Highly animated and jovial, Desnos declares she has a long life-line and evinces a joyful life full of good fortune. He goes from prisoner to prisoner bestowing each with the news of a long life-line and future success. His actions so disturb the guards as he so insistently and convincingly paints a new colorful reality of life and love onto the actual reality of drab and doom that the guards cannot continue with the execution and order the inmates back onto the truck. They head back to the camp and are never executed. ²Roberto Bolaño named Nadja as one of his sixteen favorite novels (published in Playboy Mexico) and the influence of Nadja is readily apparent through its anecdotal progression and insight into a reality of the essence of life found within the everyday reality. His novels use similar techniques where real experiences form the roots from which fiction is fed; Bolano also writes books like doors left ajar where a simple tracing of names and events reveals a room full of tangible history as an anchor for his fictional reality. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
not set
|
Nov 07, 2015
|
Paperback
|
Loading...
20 of 20 loaded
