Christine

The cover blurb says “Unbearably beautiful,” which kind of scared me! But rest assured, it's emotionally engaging and (as advertised) beautiful, but not so poignant, sad, or tragic that it's “unbearable.”

I mean.

If you're like me, you might want to check Does the Dog Die before proceeding. Or check this spoiler: Bad is reported to be dead, but turns out to be beaten and possibly disabled, but recovers and is a faithful friend for the rest of the story!

Anyway, this is dynamite. It's SF/F with a literary spin. The prose is gorgeous enough to merit a mention without distracting from the story. The characters are my best friends. I got So Inspired, and So Angry, and So Anxious, and So Relieved, and So Joyful!

Read this.

This was a great reading year for me. My average rating across all my 2019 reads was 3.6, and my average for the Popsugar challenge was 3.8.

Lessons learned:
- I reinforced that I shouldn't force myself to read something I'm not enjoying
- Using a challenge to slightly expand my scope is good, but so is bending prompts to fit things I already want to read
- Anthologies are usually uneven, but the best stories are worth reading the book for
- In addition to Weird Fiction and Science Fiction, my genre jams include Gothic Fiction, Reimagined Folktales, Feminist Comic Books, and the admittedly narrow Post-Apocalypse Reconstruction Murder Mystery
- If in doubt, re-read Jane Austen

Five-Star Books:
Fingersmith
All Systems Red
Artificial Condition
The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Supernatural Enhancements
The Visible Filth
Pride & Prejudice
The Language of Thorns
Bitch Planet #2
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Papergirls, vol 1-6

You can't really world-build a high concept time travel war narrative using lyrical Sapphic free verse - who would have guessed?

To the extent this fails, it's due to great ambition. I highly recommend checking it out. It is unique - in the true sense of the word.

I think I'll let it all fade from my mind, and then revisit it, reading only the letters. I'm intrigued what effect that would have. My instinct is that it might be more alluring with LESS explanation. I feel like this tried to straddle lush poetry and intricate time travel plotting, and they didn't work so well together. My dissatisfaction with the plot I was given distracted me from just enjoying the language and emotion.

I also feel like the voices of the characters converged over time - weird, given the dual authorship, and disappointing because the characters are from such drastically different civilizations! Again, maybe a more patient re-read of their letters will give me a different impression.

All in all, highly weird and beautiful, and takes a big swing at being different.

I liked this, and I was rooting for S.T. and laughing at his blunt comments and colorful descriptions. However, I felt like I continuously lost momentum as the story went on, due to a few factors.

First, Buxton attempts the incredibly difficult maneuver of combining silly, lowbrow humor with deep sadness and loss. Two authors I've seen pull this off are Douglas Adams and David Wong (Jason Pargin), and they definitely went far heavier on the goofy humor, allowing the background pathos to exist quietly, only occasionally coming to the fore. Buxton showcases grief and heartache much more heavily, and that made this more difficult for me to read.

Second, S.T. lacks a coherent quest. He and Dennis sort of wander around wondering what to do, which takes all the wind out of the narrative sails. The establishment of a Purpose and a Big Bad comes very late. I can see that this may be a choice - S.T.'s disillusionment with the world serving up possible quests like Lucy holding the football is definitely meant as part of his psychological development. I just personally didn't feel invested in following that journey.

Finally, the whole driver for the plot and source of the Big Bad (zombie virus-ish thing) fell really flat for me. The social commentary was both tired (hello 1978's Dawn of the Dead) and insultingly reminiscent of “kids these days” grumbling about Millennials. Plus when the mechanism is explained and further impact realized, it just doesn't make any sense. I feel like this honestly would have been a better story if the zombie plague remained totally mysterious and just set up the need for S.T. to rebuild a life outside of being a pet.

Really 3.5 stars, but rounding up because I did compulsively read it over 2 days, and THAT COVER!This definitely owes a lot to Annihilation - both the book and the movie adaptation. It also has a few echoes of Lord of the Flies, a bit of the feel of Hunger Games (though really no plot similarities), and of course plenty of tropes from body horror / plague narratives. The one that leaps to mind is the TV show Helix.For most of its duration, the story deftly balances secrets and disclosure - learning about the tox but wondering what The Authorities are keeping hidden kept me fully engaged. However, I felt like this balance was lost toward the end, with the rather ham-fisted expedient of the Navy doctors running away, and the two adults at the school excused from any explanations of their actions, knowledge, or motivations by one killing herself and the other losing her mind. The upshot is there isn't much pay-off to the mysteries. There are a couple developments that lead to guessed-at explanations, but I didn't find it satisfying. Meanwhile, the mystery/horror/adventure story was woven with interpersonal mechanics that were mostly reasonable character development, though sometimes had me rolling my eyes at the adolescent drama (I acknowledge that I'm not the target age bracket by a mile!). Then towards the end, the driving issue for me (the mystery) was relegated and the interpersonal drama became the point of the exercise. I can see the potential in that approach, but the execution fell flat for me. (For a much better example, check out [b:My Best Friend's Exorcism 41015038 My Best Friend's Exorcism Grady Hendrix https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1533059241l/41015038.SY75.jpg 46065002].)This is definitely worth picking up at the library and bingeing your way through. Not only is the mystery and horror compelling, it was also lovely to see such a female-centered story, and very matter-of-fact LGBTQ+ representation! Just know that the ending may not deliver everything one might hope.(A note about the audio book: I'm glad I got it because I needed to know what happened next, and it really helped me get more reading in. However, I didn't much care for the Hetty reader, and the Byatt reader annoyed me like hell. Also, I don't think you can hear Byatt in the Audible sample. So caveat emptor.)

For people who enjoy memoirs, I think this would be more of a 4-star book. Memoirs are not really my thing, but I wanted to check this out because I love Nick and Megan as performers so much, and I adored their live show, “Summer of 69 (No Apostrophe).”

This was cute and enjoyable and definitely made me laugh out loud more than once. Sometimes it did just feel like a couple sitting together remembering anecdotes, but what more entertaining couple could you pick? Not everything was hilarious and riveting, but it was sweet and fun.

There's an extra “secret chapter” at the end about their likes and dislikes which didn't seem really promising - it drags a bit and isn't particularly original. But stick around for the part where they discuss (how do I phrase this with no spoilers) a memorable movie scene that stars a prominent member of the Lord of the Rings cast.

One to pick up from the library, I think. It started out strong for me, but consistently lost momentum and logical structure. I literally had to make myself an outline to make sure I hadn't missed some major ideas meant to tie things together.

The bit describing really concrete stuff you can do to purge a stress response from your body was great. It's also super helpful to be reminded that one must deal with the stress separately from dealing with the stressor - they don't necessarily have the same solutions.

The stuff about expectations, frustration, positive reappraisal, and generally dealing with the stressors (as distinct from the stress) was pretty good. Also having content about deciding when to quit - helpful.

Then the structure of the book kind of petered out and we got a mix of chapters about stuff that's generally good for people: Meaning, rest, human connection. I feel like pretty much everyone knows this stuff.

I felt personally similar during the chapters about how the patriarchy causes extra stress for women. Some revolutionary content here for women who haven't gone over this ground, but I'm pretty confident now in my relationship to Human Giver Syndrome and the Bikini Industrial Complex, so while I nodded along, it didn't add a lot for me.

Finally, we get a section about how everyone has a personal Mrs. Rochester in her head and you have to make friends with her or feel compassion for her. I didn't understand this or connect with it at all. The meaning was really foggy to me, not well explained.

I also have to give a demerit for over-the-top cutesiness expressed in constant references to Disney movies (CONSTANT), and silly made-up words that seemed to have little to do with sincere communication and all to do with ostentatious quirkiness.

Still, I'm glad I read it just for the first few chapters, and the occasionally gems thereafter!

I feel like an apostate, but I just didn't like this much. (Even #1 didn't wow me that much, and this didn't come up to that level.) It's just a collection of short stories with Dream shoehorned in. The art ranges from mediocre to dreadful (Calliope looks like she has 150% of the normal allotment of vertebrae, and I'm pretty sure it's not a deliberate attempt to make her look inhuman).

So. Yeah, not my favorite.

This was fun and compelling in an easy-reading kind of way. Just what I was in the mood for - far from Literary Fiction, you know there's going to be a twist or two, (and there's enough information to figure some stuff out and feel smart), and compulsively readable. I even got the audiobook so I could read while doing other stuff. The narrator is fantastic!

One thing I really liked was the protagonist wasn't just making bad decisions for no reason, or because she's an alcoholic or something. She's being deprived of sleep, which is a very relatable reason for not having all brain cells functioning! Also, she realizes when something is creeping her out at 3am, but she can't really TELL anyone or call the police, because those 3am fears sound very explicable and unthreatening when described in words to someone who wasn't there.

I will say I found the very end to be a letdown. It didn't really deliver on the twisty turny, mysterious and spine-tingling setup, for me. I figured out The Big Twist at about 45% of the way in, so that revelation didn't have a huge kick for me, and the final answers about who did what were just kind of sad, rather than thrilling or deliciously Gothic.

Still, it was a lot of fun getting there!

What if two women took standard women-in-prison exploitation tropes and upended them to satirize all that is misogynistic in our culture? You wind up with something that makes you laugh, and cringe, and pause and say “that is so over the top,” only to realize that there's a real-life analog that is actually way too close to the exaggerated depiction for comfort. You get women kicking ass and refusing to comply. You get shower scenes that start just as one would expect from the exploitation movies, and end up in a very different place!

It's all I can do to stop myself from buying the next collection and finding out immediately what the deal is with President Bitch!

I'm really not sure how to rate this. I enjoyed reading it, but it also took me a long time to finish. It has lots of intriguing ideas, but it takes its time setting them up. The chief characters are memorable and I formed some attachments, but too much of the main relationship is told instead of shown. Gideon is hilarious and snarky, but her lingo can also disrupt the tone.This book is inventive and confusing, textured and conflicting. It's like a Brian Lumley novel and an Agatha Christie novel had a baby, and occasionally John Scalzi babysat, and the baby's ambition is to be [b:The Final Empire 68428 The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1) Brandon Sanderson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1480717416l/68428.SY75.jpg 66322] when it grows up.I think I can only give this three stars, despite having a ton of quotable lines and being incredibly bold and interesting. Three main problems: pacing, the central relationship, and unsatisfying mysteries.First, it is a bit slow, taking a long interval to set up both a totally unfamiliar setting and a huge cast of characters/suspects. I was happy to read a bit each night, but rarely felt like I needed to know what would happen next.Second, the current state of the central relationship is very clearly drawn through real-time interactions. Such as, “Nonagesimus,” she said slowly, “the only job I'd do for you would be if you wanted someone to hold the sword as you fell on it. The only job I'd do for you would be if you wanted your ass kicked so hard, the Locked Tomb opened and a parade came out to sing, ‘Lo! A destructed ass.' The only job I'd do would be if you wanted me to spot you while you backflipped off the top tier into Drearburh.” “That's three jobs,” said Harrowhark.But the backstory of how they came to hate each other, and the final development of their relationship, are both quickly told (not shown) in the midst of a bunch of action, and compared to the robust view of their real-time interactions, seem pretty thin and unconvincing. Third, the world building and central story raise many tantalizing questions, wafting the promise of revelations to come by story's end, that will make things fit together in a satisfying way. Here is a spoilered list of “ooh, what about . . .?” questions I was looking forward to learning the answer to (or at least some further, revealing clues about), which are ALL just left dangling:-they fight with swords and write with nubs of old pencils on salvaged paper, but they use words like "pizza" and "doughnuts," use modern-American slang, and have spaceships. Why the weird mix of technological prowess?- the Emperor is "the Supreme Necrolord" who saved the world 10,000 years ago and has been resurrected and become immortal, and the whole society is based around death magic/religion - wait, is this a view of Christianity off kilter by a few degrees?- nine houses; nine planets; weirdly modern references but tons of decrepit tech; is this our solar system in the far, far future?- what was Cytherea's deal? How did she relate to the stuff they discovered in the labs? There were some tantalizing hints that she was part of a team that created Teacher, but why? What did she do between then and now? What is she trying to accomplish at this point?- Who is the girl in the Locked Tomb and why is she there and what is her relationship to the Necrolord and what does Harrowhark think about all that?- Gideon has a mysterious origin. Maybe she's someone special! Her name is in an old note! Cytherea says she . . . knew someone else with the same name in the olden days. But then implies there is more of a connection! But the final answer for the reader is . . . go fuck yourself. I guess we're meant to assume there will be revelations about this stuff in the sequel, but given how little satisfaction we got in this book, I'm not feeling confident in that. It would have been more alluring to get a couple things more definitively tied up from this plot, which then opened up further questions to be explored later.

Sort of just a truckload of weird stories dumped in a pile, but done with such style that I thoroughly enjoyed it. This didn't have much of a throughline plot, but what there was intrigued me - I would like to know more since it wasn't remotely wrapped up in this volume.This is very reminiscent of David Wong/Jason Pargin's [b:John Dies at the End 1857440 John Dies at the End (John Dies at the End, #1) David Wong https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1189289716s/1857440.jpg 1858059] novels, and evidently it has a similar origin story - online tales connected and published as a book. I found Jack's stories less compelling than Dave & John's weird, gross, hilarious, and oddly philosophical romps, but they scratch the same itch. I'll definitely be tuning in to the YouTube stories to see what additional fun is in store!

This was very readable and compelling; the writing was adroit and drew me in. However, the whole thing doesn't make much sense in the end. I'm strongly reminded of my experience watching the movie Malice. Incredible ride, delivered by talented actors, with some dialog that has gone down in history as one of the best speeches in movie-dom, culminating with “I AM God.” Alec Baldwin is really memorable and convincing as a smart, dangerous sociopath there.

Similarly, the slow reveal of a truly disturbing personality is fascinating here. Unfortunately, this is like Malice in another way: it suffers from a bad case of Fridge Logic. You walk away feeling exhilarated and surprised, but then start trying to piece together how . . . that all . . . actually worked, and it doesn't add up.

Still a fun ride, and it was the perfect “trashy concept, talented writing” story for my mental state right now!

The only way I got through this was to have Vincent Price read it to me. I feel like this is for angsty teens. I'm 45 and by now I'm like, “Yep, we're all gonna die and it's meaningless. Anyone want waffles?”

This was instantly absorbing, and delivers a quick, efficient gutpunch of unvarnished social satire. It's over the top, which can be a strength and a weakness. Much like [b:The Power 29751398 The Power Naomi Alderman https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462814013s/29751398.jpg 50108451], this sometimes came across as too bluntly political. But then again, the hyperbolic quest to appease The Ideal Person rings quite true as a skewering of MAGA culture. And as in The Power, there are notes that made me say “wow, that is just too exaggerated,” only to realize that it's closer to a description of our reality than is comfortable. We literally already ARE accepting children's routine slaughter as an acceptable price of gun ownership. Old white dudes' xenophobia is literally getting people killed. We regularly trade away our privacy for convenience. It's not that crazy to posit that we don't even need bread with our circuses - just just give us enough vicarious violence to gawk at, and Americans might accept no end of injustices.Yup, I definitely need some jolly children's literature after this one.

This was quite entertaining and did creep me out at least once. I'd say it's not so much “horror” as “weird fiction.” There isn't really a climax, and (thank goodness) no expository explanation at the end. I'm so glad Hand resisted the opportunity to have Nancy provide a tidy bow on the story, with her psychic powers and occult knowledge.

No, what makes this good is that Nancy doesn't know what happened. Lesley doesn't know what happened. No one knows what happened. Nancy was sensitive enough to feel that something was seriously wrong in this place, but that's all. And that feeds the weirdness. Hand gives us feather-soft brushes of the eldritch to put us in the right head space, and then, Julian just vanishes. No monster chase scene, no thunder and lightning, just absence. And Lesley's vision of tiny blood spots on the walls and birds smashing themselves on the bedroom window.

The bits and pieces of horror are woven subtly throughout, from photos of a pre-Christian ritual that has somehow survived in the village longer than elsewhere* to someone singing in a dark room, whom no one can quite identify, to the stairway in the Tudor wing that may not exist entirely in our three dimensions, you can pick up these off notes if you're patient. If you're looking for a spooky ghost or slavering monster, this isn't going to work for you. But it does have a good dose of dread, and plenty of atmosphere.

One warning - I wouldn't do the audio book, because the actor voicing Lesley was really irritating. I think she's a Brit putting on an American accent, and it just came out overly drawly and drawn out, like she's thinking way too hard about every word. Distracting and it prevented her from showing appropriate emotion based on what she was talking about.

*Apparently Hunting the Wren is still celebrated in Ireland today!

Such a strong start, and such a compelling idea! Aliens come to Lagos for first contact. As Okorafor says, other places might have had an organized, government-led response. But in Lagos, the aliens can reach out to regular people, mix among them, and both wonder and chaos ensue.But then, this devolved into just more and more chaos. The closest thing to a plot is that the main characters think the alien ambassador needs to talk to the president of Nigeria. This involves uploading YouTube videos of the alien doing alien things, wading through unrest in the streets, sitting in traffic jams, etc. It's all very quotidian. Presumably if aliens wanted to talk to the president, they could have just raised their ship out of the ocean, broadcast a message, and sat back and waited.There's no in-world explanation of why they don't do that. I'm guessing the real explanation is that Okorafor wants the opportunity to show readers the tapestry of life in Lagos. And actually, I did like learning about Lagos and Nigeria from someone with strong ties and firsthand knowledge of the place.I would even have enjoyed the introduction of Nigerian gods and folklore figures, if it had felt like an organic, meaningful part of the story. Instead, it was like Okorafor crammed in a hasty pastiche of [b:American Gods 30165203 American Gods (American Gods, #1) Neil Gaiman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1462924585l/30165203.SY75.jpg 1970226]. It's too bad, because I'd love to read a full novel by a writer of African descent using that idea! But here it's just a few sentences here and there, and doesn't connect much with the rest of the story.I saw enough cool stuff here that I want to check out her other books. I just don't think this came together as a story. It's a sci-fi excuse for a love letter to Lagos.

I find self-consciously artistic prose like this very wearing. I felt like there were too many nonsensical analogies and metaphors that just felt distracting. I may need to come back to this when I'm in a different frame of mind. If I can love HP Lovecraft and his over-the-top style, why do I stumble over this?

On reflection, this story winds up being rather silly and implausible, but it's a fun read in the meantime. And it epitomizes the “cozy” mystery. I found myself really yearning to eat “real muffins” and old-fashioned seed cake at proper afternoon tea and then accompany Miss Marple to shop for crisp bed linens and non-tacky kitchen towels.

This was a fun read - perfect for a confusing, stressful time in real life. The outlines are a typical Hero's Journey, but the characters, the rich (yet accessible) worldbuilding, and a couple unexpected turns make it rise above a cookie-cutter approach.

Superstition, folklore, religion, nature spirits, dreams, mania, guilt, demons, possession, Jesus, Satan, and depictions of the End Times - all of these elements swirl together in the murky backstory of a decades-old murder. It appears that Edmund Algernon Montague Stearne committed a murder by a notably odd method, witnessed only by his daughter Maud. What led to this killing? Mere madness? Religious mania? Or was he trying to destroy a witch? Is it possible that his actions were rational responses to true supernatural influences? This is Maud's tale, revealing her father's character and history as she tells the story of her coming of age, and her evolving relationship with her father during those years. But this isn't simply a bildungsroman - it's a thriller and a horror story, deliciously gothic and creepy, and with plenty of homages to classic tales of terror.Surely Edmund's name gives a nod to the wilderness horror of [b:Algernon Blackwood 17675395 Algernon Blackwood Algernon Blackwood https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1364864833l/17675395.SY75.jpg 24679132] (for here we have the ever-present fen, dangerous, untamable and full of pre-Christian magical energy), and [a:M.R. James 2995925 M.R. James https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1254798756p2/2995925.jpg]'s tales of medieval clerical treasures that bring more curse than fortune (an unexpected find in an old church - initially a great academic opportunity, but eventually a source of relentless haunting).I was also strongly reminded of [b:The Turn of the Screw 12948 The Turn of the Screw Henry James https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567172392l/12948.SY75.jpg 990886] and sections of [b:Fingersmith 8913370 Fingersmith Sarah Waters https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545241494l/8913370.SY75.jpg 1014113], which both present a girl trapped in an ancient pile of a house, with an undercurrent of sexuality that is repressed to the point of perversion. The former also lends its “supernatural events or unreliable narrator” elements, and the latter its juxtaposition of academic master and confined assistant.Finally, this certainly echoes [b:The Thirteenth Tale 40440 The Thirteenth Tale Diane Setterfield https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1346267826l/40440.SX50.jpg 849453], with its aged dame finally divulging unguessed family secrets to an inquiring outsider, against the backdrop of a creepy manse that may or may not have some supernatural inhabitants.Over and above the wonderfully gothic feel and the compelling mystery, this was un-put-down-able because Maud is so engaging and sympathetic. When she starts waking up to the adult world around her and trying to navigate using the paltry freedoms she's allowed, we can't help rooting for her.

This was really fun, and for once I figured out a tiny bit of a Christie mystery before the very end. But just a tiny bit - I was still on the edge of my seat until Poirot explained everything!

The nice thing is you can just enjoy reading the story, meeting the characters, and laughing at the friendly barbs between Hastings and Poirot, and not worry about trying to puzzle out the mystery, and it's still a great read.

I picked this up after watching the HBO series Chernobyl and being so fascinated I wanted to know more. This book does an excellent job of giving the details and the real facts, filling in and correcting the condensed and dramatized version from the TV show.

For a fairly long book filled with facts, this does an amazing job of telling a relatable, human story. The context about Soviet nuclear history and ambitions, the political influences, and the historical forces were illuminating. The personal stories underlined the danger and the costs, but also demonstrated the resiliency of so many of those affected. Most compelling was the illustration of the blame/cover-up culture that was the true genesis for every thread of cause, from the design of the reactor, to the actions of the controllers, to the horrifying lag in understanding what had happened.

At times this did devolve a bit into a numbing litany of names and numbers. Sometimes people are introduced who disappear after one paragraph, while others are introduced in similar ways and wind up being key players. The information about the levels of radiation were usually gripping; the catalog of building materials and dimensions as the containment was built were less so.

But that's a small gripe - this is riveting and dramatic. It tells the systemic, scientific, and human stories well. It even acknowledges the threat of radiophobia (the number of people killed and injured by conventional coal plants is far greater than victims of nuclear incidents) and some hope for a future that better balances risk through scientific advances and refocusing away from nuclear weapons.

I really enjoyed this - the prose is nicely crafted without being overly self-conscious, and the story is creepy and unusual. The narrators are vividly drawn, and even if you don't like one as a person, you get their perspective and sympathize with their plight.

This falls short of a fifth star because it's a little too eager to explain everything that's happening. Norah and Jonah seem to have a compulsion to drop exposition in every conversation. I feel this would have been scarier and a bit more engaging if the reader had the opportunity to work things out, rather than having it dropped in your lap.

Still, I hit “critical mass” with this one about 50% of the way in. So if it had been more engaging, I might have had to take vacation days from work and neglect my children until I was done! Definitely recommended.

DNF at about 1/3 of the way through. Perhaps the most telling thing is I quit just as we got to the murder scene. If you've been bored for the run of the book, and you're still bored while reading about someone being stabbed, it's time to give up.

Evidently this author is a big fat liar and awful person, but the real reason not to read this is it's desperately tedious, with no one to root for. Not only is the main character stupid and dull, with a main character trait of “drinks enough to kill an elephant” (note: not actually a character trait!), we also get treated to a classic “male author describing female character” passage, plus the “hero” of the story going way out of her way to fat-shame her 8-year-old daughter - what? (Also, it turns out that the daughter is actually DEAD, which takes the obsession with preventing her from being chubby to new levels of psychopathic shallowness - must be this author showing his psychological cards, huh?)

The only good thing about this book is it reminds readers to go watch some Hitchcock films.