Reading Wednesday
Jan. 15th, 2020 06:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyJust finished: Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson. I wrote about it last week but anyway, it's phenomenal. The disjointed structure that lends itself perfectly to the psyche of a character whose life has fallen apart and is then reconstructed, the grounded details about the land and culture of the Haisla, the incursions of supernatural beings into the gritty realism of the setting. Many, many trigger warnings: This is not a happy book. But it is, I think, a hopeful one.
Dreadnought by April Daniels. After that I wanted to read something fun, and multiple people have recommended this one to me. It's a YA novel about a closeted trans girl who inherits the powers of a dying superhero. Said transformation also makes her visibly a girl and unable to be closeted anymore. I binge-read it in two days and immediately put a hold on the sequel. It's got the YA tropes that I'm not a fan of (flat prose, pauses to explain concepts to the reader) but the appealing characters and cool concept make up for a multitude of sins. I enjoyed the shit out of it. TW: The depiction of Danielle's home life and coming out experiences (multiple, continuous throughout the novel) are, unfortunately, quite realistic. I found it hard to take from the perspective of a cis adult who would lose her shit if anyone treated the trans kids in her life that way; if you're trans, I imagine it's substantially harder.
Currently reading: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. It's about lesbian space necromancers. There are two types of people in this world: people who hear "lesbian space necromancers" and go "OMG I MUST READ THIS IMMEDIATELY eEEEE" and those who go "wtf?" If you don't know which one I am, do you really know me at all?
Dreadnought by April Daniels. After that I wanted to read something fun, and multiple people have recommended this one to me. It's a YA novel about a closeted trans girl who inherits the powers of a dying superhero. Said transformation also makes her visibly a girl and unable to be closeted anymore. I binge-read it in two days and immediately put a hold on the sequel. It's got the YA tropes that I'm not a fan of (flat prose, pauses to explain concepts to the reader) but the appealing characters and cool concept make up for a multitude of sins. I enjoyed the shit out of it. TW: The depiction of Danielle's home life and coming out experiences (multiple, continuous throughout the novel) are, unfortunately, quite realistic. I found it hard to take from the perspective of a cis adult who would lose her shit if anyone treated the trans kids in her life that way; if you're trans, I imagine it's substantially harder.
Currently reading: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. It's about lesbian space necromancers. There are two types of people in this world: people who hear "lesbian space necromancers" and go "OMG I MUST READ THIS IMMEDIATELY eEEEE" and those who go "wtf?" If you don't know which one I am, do you really know me at all?
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Date: 2020-01-16 11:58 am (UTC)