February Reviews

February sure was. A month. It might be the shortest month but it sure can be the most eventful. I traveled a lot (shout out New York and Las Vegas, one of you is great and the other one is smelly, good luck figuring out which one is which), did a ton of crafting, and had my car totaled (baby's first accident and I wasn't even in the car). That did mean I had even less time to read than expected, so that means only three books this month, none of which were especially exciting for me.

So let's just jump in.

How To Bite Your Neighbor and Win A Wager by D. N. Bryn

I've read one other D.N. Bryn book before, I just hadn't realized it until after I finished this one. And while it was a good use of vampirism as a metaphor for disabilities as well as queerness, I have to admit I liked the other one better.

HTBYNAWAW is about two young men, a broke vampire named Vincent, who breaks into people's houses to drink their blood, and Wesley, still reeling from the loss of his mother and in need of a vampire to get closer to the company he's convinced killed her. When Wesley catches Vincent in the act, it feels like fate; lure him in with the promise of blood and use him to take down the people responsible for his mother's death. Only, as Wesley gets to know Vincent, it gets harder to convince himself to turn him in. The budding attraction between them doesn't help matters either, but if they aren't careful, the very company Wes is trying to take down might just take them down first.

This was a strange concept. I had a hard time getting over the initial discomfort and grossness of Vincent feeding on people while they slept. It felt a little too assault-y to me, and even after Bryn goes to great length to make him seem non-threatening and kind and down on his luck, I still had a hard time fulling switching to a Vincent-fan. Wesley was also doing some shady shit, and that was stressful, though it did feel like it was putting them on an even playing field in terms of using each other. Then they went and fell in love.

The pacing of the book was a little strange. It felt like the 'getting to know you' stuff was extended and sort of took over for the sleezy company killing people thing, which came back with a swift vengeance right at the end. The resolution felt fast and unexpected, a little too tidy to get back to the romance, which had to run it's one last will they won't they miscommunication spiel, before speed running to a very hasty ending. A happy ending though, so, you know, points for that.

I liked the concept and intention for this book. Using vampirism as a social stigma, finding the inherent humanity in monsters and monstrousness in humanity, I do love that. I just think the execution wasn't totally my cup of tea, which is fine! Because I'm sure it is someone's perfect cup! Overall, I had a decent time, but probably not good enough to seek out the rest of the series.

Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta

This book has been on to TBR pile for a while now, probably because YA sci-fi and fantasy are genres I can only consume under the right mindset. But, I figured now would be the time to give it a shot.

Sona is a survivor, and the academy has just made her a weapon. Godolia slaughtered her entire village with their giant mechs, Windups, and she's been plotting her revenge ever since, allowing them to train her to fight, to pilot the very Windups that killed her people, to become a god and tear them down from the inside. But she didn't plan on Eris, Gearbreaker and revolutionary, and maybe Sona's only real chance at revenge. But Godolia is just as powerful as they remember, and it will take more than just their motley crew of outsiders to tear down a place that has spend decades building gods.

I had some disruptive things happen in my life while I was reading this, so combined with the fact that it's 400 pages long, it took me longer than expected to read this book. I was admittedly kind of distracted, I probably didn't get the full experience I was supposed to, but overall this was a pretty good read. Very dystopian, and most definitely something I would have probably enjoyed a lot in high school, during my big 'rebels saving the world from itself' phase (I was deep in the trenches of that one and fully blame Maximum Ride for that one).

The world building was really interesting, and it sort of feels like we only got snippets of it; big, ugly, defining snippets of a very evil total power, but there is definitely more to be explored in the books that follow (it ends of a cliffhanger, spoiler alert, so I know there will be at least one more book). I also liked how it didn't shy away from the gritty awfulness of the world. There was death, there was blood, there was rage. There was also the recognition that these characters are just children, inheriting this shitty place and being forced to grow up and deal with it before they should. And there is a grief in that, and the exploration of all of those emotions to the tune of slaying giant mechs was pretty badass.

I also appreciated that a lot of what would have been big, battle heavy scenes with hard to follow action were sort of glossed over in favor of dealing with the aftermath. We witness Sona and Eris both kill people and take down Windups, but after the initial bit it allows more page space for the characters, rather than what would amount to big movie theater explosions (which are notoriously difficult to track on a page).

This was also truly the definition of enemies to friends to lovers, as these two made the slow trek from refusing to trust one another to actually falling in love, a bond forged in mutual hatred for a place and a slow reckoning that they want themselves and each other to live. The other characters were entertaining, roughhousing and yelling in very funny, teenage ways. There were, however, a lot of them, and I did get them mixed up several times. Risks of having a big supporting cast with very similar destructive tendencies.

Overall I did enjoy this book, even if it took me a while to get through. I'm still debating if I'll go for the follow up book or not, we'll have to see.

As You Walk On By by Julian Winters

I've read a few Julian Winters books before, and I even got to meet him at YallWest a billion years ago.

Theo has a Plan (well, his dad has a plan, but his Dad's plan is his Plan): get into Duke on an athletic scholarship and do all the things people said his father would. But after a dare for prom goes wrong, Theo finds himself questioning everything he thought about his life was on track. His best friend isn't who Theo thought he was, and in a bedroom at a party, he finds himself connecting with the last people he thought he would. But even after a night of revelations, it'll take Theo more than he thought he was capable of to find the truth and happiness he's actually seeking.

As You Walk On By is very clearly a reference to The Breakfast Club, which I have unfortunately only seen once and didn't really like? So if there were more references, they sort of stopped at the title for me. And unfortunately, I didn't love this book, which is wild because I love a late night adventure with an unlikely ragtag group of kids. But I just wasn't connecting, and again I have to wonder if I'm just...aging out of the YA high school coming of age genre. Which, like, ouch, I'm not that old, but I did work for an education company all about getting kids into college that completely disillusioned me to the education system, so, that may have also played a part.

I do always appreciate the diversity in Winters' books, both in terms of race and sexuality/gender. This book had a black, gay male lead, with a Hispanic love interest who was bi, a nonbinary character of color, a queen black girl, and a girl experiencing the horrors of modern slut shaming and assault. And they all had their issues, despite coming from different social backgrounds and circles, finding their own with a confidence only brought on my spending extended amounts of time in close quarters with strangers. And Theo had a lot to confront, both in regards to himself and to his friends and family.

I'll probably stop the review here, since I hate going into reasons why I don't like a book (unless it's warranted, looking at you Verity review), because, and I feel like I say this a lot, but this book is important, and it's going to do so much for the people who need it. And just because that person wasn't me, doesn't mean I get to put it down. SO, thank you Julian Winters for continuing to write poignant books about queer black boys coming into their own.

And that's where we're at! Excited about what I'm reading next month already. Really hoping March is a little bit less eventful than February was.

Sam

Literary recommendation: Self-Made Boy by AM McLemore

Media recommendation: Three of my shows are getting another season this month, so shout out to The Mandalorian, Ted Lasso, and Shadow and Bone.