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What a week. What a fortnight, actually. I have encountered many metaphorical fires and even successfully extinguished some of them. And so, my past two weeks' worth of reading in this week's post.
Folks, times are unsettled and I am breaking all the rules.
What I Just Finished Reading Last Week
The Good Hawk – Joseph Elliott
There’s a lot of potential for a historical fantasy set in 11th-ish century Scotland featuring a protagonist with Downs Syndrome to go awry in execution, but Elliott never missteps. The Good Hawk is everything I want from the genre: epic battles and epic journeys, language geekery, ancient lore, action and drama and quests against long odds, and characters confronting familiar problems in a very different time and place from the modern day. The novel is home to a variety of cultures and worldviews, which Elliott mostly depicts as differing from each other, not starkly divided into Good and Evil based on 21st century Western progressive ideals, as do many recent genre offerings. The characters are delights—fully formed people with believable motivations, strengths, and failings. And they face real stakes: not everyone is going to survive. I’m speaking in broad terms here because I think it’s worth going into this book without knowing much about it beyond these elements and discovering the details as you read—and I do recommend reading The Good Hawk if you’re in any way intrigued by what I’ve written here.
What I Just Finished Reading This Week
Solutions and Other Problems – Allie Brosh
I think this book will disappoint anyone who comes to it hoping for nonstop belly laughs. It is not that kind of book. This isn’t to say that there are no belly laughs; there are, and they are some of the funniest things I have read in recent memory. But Brosh is far more focused on coming to terms with uncomfortable facts about life rather than just telling more irreverent stories a la Hyperbole and a Half. ( Read more... )
The Owl Service – Alan Garner
I only recently heard about Alan Garner, which intrigued me because I read a lot of British fantasy and if he’s good, why hadn’t I encountered him before? Stylistically, he is very different from most of the genre’s authors, relying almost entirely on dialogue to drive the plot and even depict the setting. It takes some getting used to and at the outset I wasn’t sure it would work for me, as I find lush descriptive language one of the genre’s major draws.
The novel opens as Allison, her stepbrother Roger, and their respective (step)parents go on holiday to a remote Welsh country house and interact with the Welsh staff: mad Huw Halfbacon, Nancy, and her son, Gwyn. The kids find a dinner service in the attic and then strange things begin to happen.
The plot incorporates elements from the 4th branch of the Mabinogi, and I would not recommend reading The Owl Service if you’re unfamiliar with the former, because you may not understand what’s going on, let alone how revolutionary Garner’s story is. (More on this behind the cut.) Once my brain adjusted to imagining description from dialogue, the novel improved considerably. It’s still something of a product of its time: men act decisively and women are illogical, bitchy, anxious, uneducated, conniving, and literally have science explained to them by the menfolk.
But. ( Cut for major spoilers. )
Oh my god. Plot, character development, social commentary, supernatural mystery and zero authorial hand-holding: this novel is fabulous and Garner has earned my unending love.
Red, White, & Royal Blue – Casey McQuiston
Ten days ago, I looked at my life and said, What I need most right now is intelligent but unapologetic fluff. Red, White, & Royal Blue had a lot to recommend it for the role, given its premise: youngest male offspring of the first female president of the United States falls in love with the youngest grandson of Great Britain’s queen. And for the novel’s first 130-odd pages, boy did it deliver, as McQuiston spun an escapist fantasy confection that hit all the right notes for me. I had a hard time keeping the characters apart because aside from their names they all speak and think exactly the same, but that “same” is the sort of irreverent, snappy banter and observation I enjoy, so all was forgiven. Better yet, McQuiston had the good sense to move quickly to the “lovers” phase of “enemies to lovers” once the bloom had worn off the first stage.
( But then, it went downhill. )
TL;DR This is a lot of demands to hang on an escapist fantasy confection, but McQuiston invites it by repeatedly insisting on “realism” and a "three cheers to the underdog" ethic and inconsistently maintaining either. It works far less well than if she’d just chosen to jettison such concerns completely.
little scratch – Rebecca Watson
This powerful novel is told in streams of consciousness. The plural is intentional here; Watson does a stellar job of representing, through both language and formatting, the default internal state in which several modes of consciousness and rumination occur simultaneously. She also accurately depicts the power of intrusive thoughts and the lengths to which people go to banish them.
At the start of the novel, we learn that the unnamed narrator has woken up with a hangover, that she has a boyfriend to whom she’s deeply attached, and an office job that she despises. The rest is revealed gradually, and Watson’s skillful introduction of “the rest” in a way that lets readers guess exactly what it is before the protagonist makes it explicit is what transforms this novel into 200 pages of continuous gut-punch. This was heavy reading in the same week that I tackled Brosh’s Solutions, but man, is it a tour de force.
Rat Queens vol. 4 – Kurtis Wiebe, Owen Gieni, & Ferrier
The stories in this volume are as fun as ever, but very much disconnected from everything that happened in volume 3; a cursory search online indicates that Drama is responsible. I ignore this and focus on enjoying the ride.
What I Am Currently Reading
Piranesi – Susanna Clarke
Oh, postal service. You are indeed slower than you used to be.
The Reign of Wolf 21 – Rick McIntyre
I’m jumping straight into this, the second volume. So far so good.
The Golden Bough vol. 2 – F. Marian McNeill
Having finished the chapters on Halloween and Scotland's slate of November festivals, I will set this one aside until December.
The Sisters Grimm – Menna van Praag
I needed a dose of well-written girl power after this week’s heavy reading.
Rat Queens vol. 5 – Kurtis Wiebe, Owen Gieni, & Ferrier
So far, so good.
What I'm Reading Next
Aside from the McIntyre, I picked up Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, Charlie Holmberg’s Spellsinger, Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education, Megan Whalen Turner’s The Return of the Thief, and David Wondrich’s Imbibe.
これで以上です。
Folks, times are unsettled and I am breaking all the rules.
What I Just Finished Reading Last Week
The Good Hawk – Joseph Elliott
There’s a lot of potential for a historical fantasy set in 11th-ish century Scotland featuring a protagonist with Downs Syndrome to go awry in execution, but Elliott never missteps. The Good Hawk is everything I want from the genre: epic battles and epic journeys, language geekery, ancient lore, action and drama and quests against long odds, and characters confronting familiar problems in a very different time and place from the modern day. The novel is home to a variety of cultures and worldviews, which Elliott mostly depicts as differing from each other, not starkly divided into Good and Evil based on 21st century Western progressive ideals, as do many recent genre offerings. The characters are delights—fully formed people with believable motivations, strengths, and failings. And they face real stakes: not everyone is going to survive. I’m speaking in broad terms here because I think it’s worth going into this book without knowing much about it beyond these elements and discovering the details as you read—and I do recommend reading The Good Hawk if you’re in any way intrigued by what I’ve written here.
What I Just Finished Reading This Week
Solutions and Other Problems – Allie Brosh
I think this book will disappoint anyone who comes to it hoping for nonstop belly laughs. It is not that kind of book. This isn’t to say that there are no belly laughs; there are, and they are some of the funniest things I have read in recent memory. But Brosh is far more focused on coming to terms with uncomfortable facts about life rather than just telling more irreverent stories a la Hyperbole and a Half. ( Read more... )
The Owl Service – Alan Garner
I only recently heard about Alan Garner, which intrigued me because I read a lot of British fantasy and if he’s good, why hadn’t I encountered him before? Stylistically, he is very different from most of the genre’s authors, relying almost entirely on dialogue to drive the plot and even depict the setting. It takes some getting used to and at the outset I wasn’t sure it would work for me, as I find lush descriptive language one of the genre’s major draws.
The novel opens as Allison, her stepbrother Roger, and their respective (step)parents go on holiday to a remote Welsh country house and interact with the Welsh staff: mad Huw Halfbacon, Nancy, and her son, Gwyn. The kids find a dinner service in the attic and then strange things begin to happen.
The plot incorporates elements from the 4th branch of the Mabinogi, and I would not recommend reading The Owl Service if you’re unfamiliar with the former, because you may not understand what’s going on, let alone how revolutionary Garner’s story is. (More on this behind the cut.) Once my brain adjusted to imagining description from dialogue, the novel improved considerably. It’s still something of a product of its time: men act decisively and women are illogical, bitchy, anxious, uneducated, conniving, and literally have science explained to them by the menfolk.
But. ( Cut for major spoilers. )
Oh my god. Plot, character development, social commentary, supernatural mystery and zero authorial hand-holding: this novel is fabulous and Garner has earned my unending love.
Red, White, & Royal Blue – Casey McQuiston
Ten days ago, I looked at my life and said, What I need most right now is intelligent but unapologetic fluff. Red, White, & Royal Blue had a lot to recommend it for the role, given its premise: youngest male offspring of the first female president of the United States falls in love with the youngest grandson of Great Britain’s queen. And for the novel’s first 130-odd pages, boy did it deliver, as McQuiston spun an escapist fantasy confection that hit all the right notes for me. I had a hard time keeping the characters apart because aside from their names they all speak and think exactly the same, but that “same” is the sort of irreverent, snappy banter and observation I enjoy, so all was forgiven. Better yet, McQuiston had the good sense to move quickly to the “lovers” phase of “enemies to lovers” once the bloom had worn off the first stage.
( But then, it went downhill. )
TL;DR This is a lot of demands to hang on an escapist fantasy confection, but McQuiston invites it by repeatedly insisting on “realism” and a "three cheers to the underdog" ethic and inconsistently maintaining either. It works far less well than if she’d just chosen to jettison such concerns completely.
little scratch – Rebecca Watson
This powerful novel is told in streams of consciousness. The plural is intentional here; Watson does a stellar job of representing, through both language and formatting, the default internal state in which several modes of consciousness and rumination occur simultaneously. She also accurately depicts the power of intrusive thoughts and the lengths to which people go to banish them.
At the start of the novel, we learn that the unnamed narrator has woken up with a hangover, that she has a boyfriend to whom she’s deeply attached, and an office job that she despises. The rest is revealed gradually, and Watson’s skillful introduction of “the rest” in a way that lets readers guess exactly what it is before the protagonist makes it explicit is what transforms this novel into 200 pages of continuous gut-punch. This was heavy reading in the same week that I tackled Brosh’s Solutions, but man, is it a tour de force.
Rat Queens vol. 4 – Kurtis Wiebe, Owen Gieni, & Ferrier
The stories in this volume are as fun as ever, but very much disconnected from everything that happened in volume 3; a cursory search online indicates that Drama is responsible. I ignore this and focus on enjoying the ride.
What I Am Currently Reading
Piranesi – Susanna Clarke
Oh, postal service. You are indeed slower than you used to be.
The Reign of Wolf 21 – Rick McIntyre
I’m jumping straight into this, the second volume. So far so good.
The Golden Bough vol. 2 – F. Marian McNeill
Having finished the chapters on Halloween and Scotland's slate of November festivals, I will set this one aside until December.
The Sisters Grimm – Menna van Praag
I needed a dose of well-written girl power after this week’s heavy reading.
Rat Queens vol. 5 – Kurtis Wiebe, Owen Gieni, & Ferrier
So far, so good.
What I'm Reading Next
Aside from the McIntyre, I picked up Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, Charlie Holmberg’s Spellsinger, Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education, Megan Whalen Turner’s The Return of the Thief, and David Wondrich’s Imbibe.
これで以上です。
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