March Reviews

I'm realizing I read a lot in March. Probably because I finally stayed in one place for an entire month, but I think there's also something about the impending warm weather that makes me want to read. I'm very much looking forward to time spent sitting outside with a book, and the lingering chilly winds and spring snow is Not it. But, whatever, let's not look so far ahead we don't see what in front of us. March reads first:

The Adventure Zone: Eleventh Hour by the McElroys and Carey Pietsch

Another graphic novel to add to the TAZ stack! This will be another short review, because this is the fifth book in the series and reviews are hard to do without spoilers once you get that far in.

I will say that Eleventh Hour is one of my favorite arcs and the graphic novel was a great translation from the podcast. The character designs and expressions continue to be incredible, and in this one especially the plot starts to really twist and change. You can tell we're getting closer to a something big, and I love how the McElroys have been able to take this story and make it something more while still maintaining the heart of it.

It does make me want to relisten to the podcast, so I might do that again sometime in the near future.

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

This book was a delightful gift from a friend's mom (hi Mrs. Borden!) and had been on my list forever, so I was delighted to get the chance to read it.

Shizuka Satomi is known in the music world as the Queen of Hell for her icy demeanor and intense training, teaching six of the best violin players the world may have ever seen. But the nickname is more literal than people know; Shizuka has promised to deliver seven souls to hell, and she's on the hunt for her final student. But when she encounters barely a trained transgender named Katrina, and a star captain named Lan running a donut shop, she starts to think that maybe there are some things worth saving from hell.

This book starts out feeling very fantasy-esque with demon deals, then a runaway queer story with Katrina, then suddenly also becomes science fiction when Lan and her family are introduced as aliens who came to Earth to build a Stargate while also running a donut shop. There's a lot going on but it never felt like too much, and once all the pieces started really going it all ended together almost seamlessly.

Aoki's writing is also gorgeous, practically musical in nature, which is fitting for a book about violinists. The perspectives jumped around a bit, obviously between the main three characters but also to Lan's children and aunt, to a violin repair shop owner, to the demon trying to capture Shizuka's soul, but it, again, never felt like too much. Everyone appeared when their story was needed, creating an orchestra of a tale.

I loved this book. It was a queer triumph in multiple ways, creating a place where people not only can survive, but thrive. Katrina faces so much in terms of discrimination and simply needing to survive, and Aoki doesn't shy away from the brutality and horror of it. Katrina does what she needs to do and the world takes advantage of her, scorns her, tries to push her into something she's not. It's heartbreaking to read, but she holds her head high and finds people who love her, and sometimes that is enough.

This book is really about the power of love; romantic, platonic, and familial. People and the love they bring make all the difference, whether you're a transgender runaway, a hell-bound violinist, or a star captain outrunning the endplague in a donut shop.

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

I picked this one up on a whim (and because I was still kind of on a retold myth kick from A Thousand Ships) at a bookstore with a friend and just zoomed right through it.

Told from the perspective of Penelope, Odysseus' famously patient wife, and the twelve maids he murdered, The Penelopiad is Penelope's story. She weaves the tale from the underworld, a wiser woman after death, of her upbringing, her marriage, and the twenty years she spent waiting for Odysseus to return, hearing the tales of his exploits while staving off the suitors intent on eating away her home. The maids serve as the chorus between chapters, the voices used for poems, court transcripts, and an honesty that Penelope and Odysseus could not bring themselves to use.

This book is such a creative use of voice. It has layers of agency, first in Penelope telling the story instead of Odysseus, filling in the places she behaved one way but meant another, and then with the maids, who's original story is kept to a few stanzas, finally given the stage to tell their part, rage over the injustice. There's also quite a bit of meta work with the maids, who use different formats to tell their story, usurping parts of Penelope's supposed truth and using some modern aspects and ideas to further condemn Odysseus and the men of the time.

I love a retelling, which is ironic because I'm not a big fan of reboots, but with books it's different. There are always new perspectives, especially with a story as character rich as The Odyssey, and I love that the women are finally given the opportunity to be vocal. It's freeing, even though you already know how it ends.

This was a pretty quick read but absolutely full of clever phrasing and use of voice and character. If you like Greek myths, check this one out. If you like other myths too, there's a series of these written by several famous authors on a variety of religions and mythology. I might have to check a few others out myself.

Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth

I very vividly remember reading Antigone in high school, and her story has always stuck with me. So n a continuation of my retelling kick, I picked this one up and figured I'd take a new stroll down memory road.

Antigone, living in a post apocalyptic world under the thumb of a patrician uncle, loves nothing but her siblings. Trapped in a world obsessed with rebirth and souls, there does not seem to be an escape. And when her brother is murdered while attempting a coup, her uncle Kreon decrees that his body is not to be touched, ensuring he will have no chance at rebirth. Antigone risks everything to give her brother one last chance at life, staring down the barrel of a fate she has never been able to change.

The original Antigone was written by Sophocles a very, very long time ago. So a more modern futuristic take on the story was fascinating. It carried the same terror and judgment, the same very human plight and love, while twisting it into something new. But it is a tragedy, always was and always will be.

I've always appreciated Antigone's devotion to her brother; she was willing to risk her own life to ensure some security in his, even after his death. I really appreciated the solidarity between Antigone and her sister Ismene, the way family is everything and nothing in a world like this, where genetics are predetermined and not interconnected. It was also a really interesting and somewhat horrifying look at autonomy.

Overall, this was a super quick read that I am having big feelings about.

My Dear Henry by Kalynn Bayron

March is really all about the remixes and the retelling, I'm having so much fun with them.

Gabriel Utterson hasn't seen Henry Jekyll since they were both expelled from the school of medicine for rumors of a relationship neither one can deny. And when he sees him once more, Henry is different, utterly changed and unrecognizing of Gabriel and what they had before. In his search to determine what happened to his dear Henry, Gabriel meets Hyde, an enigmatic dark figure, and finds himself following a path than can scarcely be believed.

I never read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, so I got to have my first experience with this story be the queer black version that embraces the other rather than fearing it. But that didn't negate the horror elements of the story; Bayron does an excellent job keeping the creepy factor of it all alive, and I was very quickly sucked into the mystery. And even knowing the basic spoiler of the original didn't stop me from tearing through it.

Bayron took a story about fear and made it one ultimately about love and the redemptive power of self acceptance. Society will tell you to fear the so called monstrous thing that makes you different, but it is the love and acceptance of that difference that ultimately saves the day.

She also clearly did a ton of research both on the original story and on the experience of Black, queer people living in London in the 1880s, and married the two concepts beautifully.

This is a pretty short review, but that's just because I really enjoyed both the concept and the execution.

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

It has admittedly been a minute since I've read Ninth House, so I definitely went in less prepared than I should have with all the characters and societies and order of events, but that didn't stop the story from being compelling and terrifying.

Alex Stern refuses to give up on Darlington. Despite the last year of mishaps and violent tragedies, she'll stop at nothing to get him out of hell, even if none of the societies believe he's even alive. But what Alex finds on her path to hell is more difficult and horrifying than she could have imagined, and she'll have to face a lot of her own demons on the path to redemption.

I don't even know where to start with this, Hell Bent is so good. Bardugo's writing is spectacular, and she knows exactly the weight of every single word. Her references are both fun and enticing, and her clear understanding of Yale and New Haven, along with this magical world she's built around them, makes for such a phenomenal setting. Her characters are realistic and hardened and strange. Every twist was unexpected and laid out like a trap, and it absolutely set the scene for the next book.

Hell Bent is heavy and rich, and not just because it has nearly 500 pages. Everything feels saturated and powerful, and I was absolutely sucked into the story. Alex has grown since Ninth House, and so had Dawes and Turner and even Darlington. They all became a little braver, and little more crooked, and the gray morality of everything Alex touched made it all the more compelling. You can feel Alex's conviction in this book, the driving force that gets both her and us the reader to the end.

I'm realizing what a useless review this is. If you haven't read Ninth House and like weird, dark academic stories, go read that one first and then thank the publishing world that you don't have to wait over a year to read Hell Bent.

The Restless Dark by Erica Waters

I'm not usually a huge horror/mystery fan, but I figured I'd give it a go with something queer.

Lucy has spent the last two years trying to get over nearly being murdered. Joseph Kincaid, the Cloudless Canyon Killer almost made her his last victim, leaping over the ledge of the canyon when he was caught. Now, a popular true crime podcast is hosting a week long contest to find the killer's body, and Lucy is going to find him, be sure that he's really dead and finally move on with her life. At the contest she meets Carolina, afraid of herself and what she could do (or has already done), and psych student Maggie, who encourages them to embrace the fog and darkness around them. But when they team up, they might find something worse in the woods.

The plot for this was very compelling. The portrayal of true crime podcasts as exploitative felt very accurate and timely, given the sensationalism of it all right now and the harm it does to the families of the victims. Lucy as a character was so haunted, and her fear felt very visceral, a true driving force in the book. That being said, I didn't really like the story. I sort of skimmed the last half to finish it and never really found a groove in reading it. The horror element was there, but the monstrous nature of humanity was more frightening and compelling than the fog and transformative haunted canyon stuff.

Everything read like it was supposed to be heightened, but I think because I couldn't get my head in it, it fell flat for me. I'd be very interested to give this to my friend who loves true crime and horror to see what she thinks (I might actually do that). Even the queer element of it felt...not forced, obviously lesbians and bisexuality women exist in all circumstances, even horror, so that was nice, but I guess it just felt like another thing to skim for me. It wasn't enough of a sticking point to get me for those plot reasons either. But, again, my friend who loves true crime and horror is also queer, so she wouldn't probably love this book.

I think ultimately it just wasn't for me, and that's fine. I'm still glad I gave it a shot.

Like You've Nothing Left To Prove by E. L. Massey

This is the sequel to Like Real People Do, which started as a fanfiction and then we rewritten as original content. We already know I'm bad at reviews for sequels, so we'll just sort of know this'll be short.

Picking up where the last book left off, Eli and Alex are working to keep their relationship healthy and hiding, until Alex is ready to be the first out NHL player. That plan is derailed when Eli gets hurt, prompting a very public outing that neither of then can control. Swirling in the aftermath and trying to recover from the media storm and injury, they can only cling to each other and hope they come through the other side stronger than before.

Massey is a good writer. She's funny, her timing is very good, she's great at dialogue, and the love between these characters is so big and all consuming that it leaks out all over the pages. I had just as good a time reading it in book form as I did in fanfic form.

That being said, there is still that slightly weird disconnect that comes from knowing it was fanfiction first. I feel like this one felt further away from the fic feeling than the first one though, which was nice. It felt more established in it's own universe, rather than still being tied to it's original one.

This series is going to be continued with other characters, the next one I know is another converted fanfic because I read it, but I think Massey will continue to improve on building her own world with these stories.

And that's it! Happy spring!

Literary recommendation: I had the pleasure this month of hearing Nic Stone talk about her new book Chaos Theory, along with her writing process and destigmatizing mental health and it was really, really cool, so go read anything by her

Media recommendation: Hozier dropped a new EP and it's stellar, everyone go listen