weeeeh! glad I made some of them sound interesting enough to give a read!
I’ve been reading The Girls I’ve Been, which I’m enjoying. Took me a little bit because the writing is very sort of clipped? Like, lots of short sentences, often sort of bordering on pithy. But once the main character sort of opens up, it really starts to come into its own. Also apparently getting a netflix adaptation starring Millie Bobby Brown, so that’s fun, I guess (in making sure i spelled her name right, i learned she’s married to Bon Jovi’s son, so that’s a fun TIL).
Holy hell Livesuit sure had an ending. Very very good, also entirely workable as a standalone short story (albeit one that’s very premise spoils one of the big mysteries of The Mercy of Gods)
Finished the girls I’ve been. Unsure if I’ll check out the next one unless it’s like a duology because i felt this book ended pretty well. There’s stuff to figure out and whatnot but i think it leaves at a very reasonable spot and in a way that doesn’t necessarily require another book.
Also want to say Tess Sharpe seems like a real one–included a list of resources for domestic violence and SA in the back as well as a note about endometriosis which notes that many who have a uterus aren’t women and statistics about the disease only chubby cis women! Pretty dope to include.
Started reading this book called “Your Brain on Art” and it seems interesting, but I’m a tad skeptical, in the sense that it feels a bit breathless in talking about how Art is Important and not Just a Luxury. Like, in a sense it feels like a foregone conclusion that they’re bringing neuroscience into. Which is cool, but I think there’s some unpacking to be done there.
I will probably try to finish it, but I feel like it’s going to be less from a perspective of enjoyment and more from a perspective of critique? We’ll see how things shake out.
Finished the Green Bone books after going back and listening to Jade War and then starting Jade Legacy over. Feeling kind of cool on the series unfortunately but mostly because Jade Legacy was pretty underwhelming tbh. Just didn’t deliver the character drama I wanted and expected and the story mostly circled around decades-spanning large scale international and military political bureaucracy that didn’t interest me.
More specific spoiler gripes
It truly lost me when the jade alliance building exploded while all the important leaders were in a meeting and no major character died. It really had me for a second there when I was thinking Hilo was dead and Shae would have to pick up the mantle secretly nursing Mada back to health and having this complicated new relationship between the clans based on debt and having to work together to uphold order but no everyone was fine and the status quo just rolled on as usual.
I was cackling when Hilo had to tell his sonephew that he killed his birth mother because she was trying to be normal and wouldn’t let the mafia have her kid but it was actually really honorable of them to do that and she was super evil for not putting her kid in the mafia. I thought for sure this is going to come back up that kid is going to separate from the clan when he grows up and it’s going to be this big family drama he’s going to realize how fucked up his moms death was and have a grudge but it was just a footnote motivation for his young adult mercenary stint for a couple years and then he came back to the clan and became the good boy leader everyone wanted… Man.
There really were a lot of “character opened his mouth to say something, it’s been 3 years since the last chapter where this character showed up, and offscreen he’s been doing this and that and also this but right now he’s here to just say what you would expect this character to say” moments in this book.
I didn’t hate Jade Legacy or anything like I don’t think I’d say it’s outright bad I still listened through the whole thing and it was decent enough brain popcorn for work. Idk I wonder if I’m just broken and can’t enjoy things. I’ve had trouble finding books that hit for me recently and maybe it’s just me maybe I’m the cinemasins guy.
That book infected me in high school. I’ve been saying “so it goes” for so long now that it’s started mutating into a verbal typo. I think the most recent stage was “so it the go”
spent the last week and a bit rereading All Night Laundry. I first read it back when it was ongoing - I THINK I got current, but then decided to check back when it was done. well, it’s done! it’s also HUGE. I keep thinking I’ve caught up to where I was last time I read, then I get a bit further and think wait, this seems Very Vaguely Familiar, so I don’t think I’m quite there yet but it’ll have to happen EVENTUALLY? anyway! it’s very good! I’m enjoying it a lot!
if you’ve never heard of All Night Laundry, it’s a interactive story about time travel that is best enjoyed knowing as little about it as possible, imo. it started in like 2013 on the MSPA forums as what the kids used to call a ‘fan adventure’, updating daily using reader suggestions to drive the story forward. this might sound familiar. unlike Homestuck, which pretty quickly dropped the idea of audience participation when shit started to get real (and the idea of updating daily) ANL kept doing both right up to the end as far as I know. as a result it’s one of the most wildly impressive works of Calvinball I’ve ever read. it also has several badass queer WOC main characters.
content warnings (forgive me if I miss something, and they’re necessarily incomplete as I haven’t finished it yet): blood, gore, flashing lights, major character death, pet death, body horror, drowning, claustrophobic scenes, serious injury, guns, cops, some rumination on internalised homophobia, realistic depiction of anxiety attacks, discussion of suicidal ideation, uhhhhhhh?
: its my turn on the “uh oh i might not like heavenly tyrant folks” train oh no