Good reading month, in terms of both quantity and quality (many four-star reads, good daisychain flow between books)! Great adulting month (more on this later)!! Even got some good knitting and writing in!
Here's what I read (photos/reviews linked):
GHOST OF THE NEON GOD ★★★★ Impulse buy; wasn't expecting it to worm into my brain but it did. Not perfect, but I had fun! Funny, fucked up, weird--you know my lifestyle.
CATCHPENNY ★★★★ Kitchen sink book (affectionate) about a washed-up thief who can travel through mirrors and doomsday cults and art and a missing teenager, exactly tickled my ODD THOMAS buttons, fucked up and funny and weird.
THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS ★★★½ I really wanted to love this, but it didn't quite stick the twist!ending landing for me. I admire his ambition and his worldbuilding; excited to see how the author grows. Overall a good time.
MINIMIZING MARRIAGE ★★★ Snagged this from the library for Aro Reasons (Brake coined the term "amatonormativity" and discusses its implications with regards to marriage specifically). Chapter 4 was excellent; the rest of it was interesting but not what I was after. Very readable volume in a Feminist Philosophy series.
BRIGHT ★★★★ Thai novel in translation (first one written by a woman!), been on my radar for years. Lovely translation, lovely tonal balance (sweet moments + melancholy; it's a story about an abandoned 5/6-year-old, but it felt Authentic instead of Saccharine or Depressing). Definitely keeping an eye out for her other work in English.
THE LUMINOUS DEAD ★★★★ I didn't mean to binge this in less than 24 hours on a three-day weekend, but Here We Are. This is We Support Women's Wrongs: Cave SF/Horror Edition. Propulsive, tense, claustrophobic, deeply fucked up.
Under the Cut: A Note About ~*★Stars★*~
Historically, I have been Very Bad™ about assigning things Star Ratings, because it's so Vibes Heavy for me and therefore Contingent Upon my Whims. (Example: I don't like that stars are Odd, because that makes three the midpoint and things are rarely so truly mid for me)(I have hacked my way around this with a ½, which is really only applicable for me at ★★★ and up). Here is, generally, how I conceptualize stars:
★ - This was Bad. I would actively recommend that you do NOT read this one, no redeeming qualities whatsoever, not worth the slog. Save Yourself, It's Too Late For Me. Book goes in the garbage (donate bin).
★★ - This was Not Good. I would not recommend it, but it wasn't a total waste or wash--something in here held my interest/kept my attention/sparked some joy. I will not be rereading this ever. Save Yourself (Or Join Me In Suffering, That Seems Like A Cool Bonding Activity).
★★★ - This was Good/Fine/Okay/Meh. I don't care about this enough to recommend it one way or another. Perfectly serviceable book, held my interest, I probably enjoyed myself (or at least didn't actively loathe the reading). I don't have especially strong feelings. You probably don't need to save yourself from this one--if it sounds like your jam, give it a shot! Just didn't resonate with me particularly powerfully. I probably won't reread this unless I'm after something in particular.
★★★½ - I liked this! I'll probably recommend it if I know it matches someone's vibes or specific requests, but I didn't commit to a star rating on Goodreads. More likely to reread, but not guaranteed.
★★★★ - I really enjoyed this!! I would recommend it (sometimes with caveats about content warnings or such--I tend to like weird fucked up funny shit, and I don't have many hard readerly NO's). Not a perfect book for me by any means, but Very Good. This is something I would reread! Join me!!
★★★★★ - I LOVED THE SHIT OUT OF THIS, IT REWIRED MY BRAIN, WILL RECOMMEND TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE AT THE SLIGHTEST PROVOCATION (content warning caveats still apply--see 4-star disclaimer). Excellent book, I'll reread it regularly, I'll buy copies for all my friends, I'll try to convince all of Booklr to read it, PLEASE join me!!
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So when I get into a state of TBR Overwhelm, I like to daisychain my way between books with similar vibes--making connections is how we have fun (ADHD, whomst??). Since this particular batch was largely Of A Color Family, I figured they needed a family portrait!
HAMMAJANG was Big Crime: Hawaiian Edition, so next up is NEON GOD, which is Small Crime: Australian Edition (do you see what I did there). Then I'll head back to my list of 25 in 2025 with CATCHPENNY, which is Crime: Weird Magic Edition, and from there I'll stick with my 25 list for SAINT, which is Not Crime: Weird Magic Edition (as far as I know, anyway!).
Given the sheer kitchen sink volume of Stuff going on in this book, I'm not sure I can summarize it concisely, so please have the jacket copy instead:
A thief who can travel through mirrors, a video game that threatens to spill out of the virtual world, a doomsday cult on a collision course with destiny, and a missing teenager at the center of it all. With the world on the brink of every kind of apocalypse, humanity needs a hero.
What it gets is Sid Catchpenny.
Wild, right? Sid is not a great guy, and I was so endeared to him anyway--loved the narration style, loved the dialogue style. Apparently Huston says he writes "pulp," which. Yeah.
This book weirdly reminded me of ODD THOMAS, which is one of my favorite series ever. Most of the similarities are stylistic or Vibes Based: the humorous tone in a very dark story, the stripped down bantery dialogue, the California/desert settings, the apocalyptic cults, the pervasive but barely explained magic, the tight community of acquaintances around the MCs, the borderline-thriller pacing, the lack of protag swearing, the tragic partnerships, the escalating stakes from personal to global. The major difference is, of course, the protagonists themselves: Where Odd is a total sweetheart and peak Aspire To Be This Good, Sid just kind of sucks all around lol--selfish wash-out fuckup. I loved him, too.
But! I still stayed up too late past my bedtime reading this several nights in a row, and I found myself spiraling around What Happens Next and Piecing Together Theories when I wasn't reading, it, so. Pretty good book, I think. I had a great time.
A couple major spoilery content warnings under the cut, because it deals with some heavy stuff ("cult" is loadbearing).
Content warnings (non-exhaustive): suicide cult, lot of discussion of suicide both in and out of that context; spouse death; infant death; also, not sure if depression is a content warning, but there's also a lot of that in here, too--pretty evident from the first real chapter after the prologue, though.
hello fellow denizens of our beloved hellsite, please help me select my next book to read based on ZERO propaganda, only titles and cover vibes. here are The Options:
what should i read next
a shining by jon fosse
catchpenny by charlie huston
dawn by sevgi soysal
this is us losing count (anthology)
the rain heron by robbie arnott
verdigris by michele mari
Voting ended onMay 3, 2024
and here they are, all lined up and waiting:
help me, button-pressing site, you're my only hope!!
WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme Sam hosts at Taking on a World of Words.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Here is what I am currently reading, recently finished, and plan to read from Thursday to Wednesday.
Let me know if you have read or are planning on reading any of these books!!
Happy…
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