March Reviews

Spring is finally here! The sun is out more often, there are fewer truly cold days, and I am reading up a storm.

Let's get right to it!

The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye by Briony Cameron

Nothing like a pirate adventure to start the month off.

Jacquotte is a burgeoning shipwright when tragedy turns her toward the sea. But her path to pirate-hood and vengeance isn't easy, and it will take loss of many kinds for her to rise as the captain she was always meant to be.

I kinda fluctuated between tearing through the pages of this book and stalling out periodically. The story is interesting, with plenty of action, heartbreak, injustice, and violence. Plus there seems to be just enough historical accuracy to make me feel like I'm learning something, even if it's just colonial territories and ship terminology.

The characters seemed fleshed out enough, at least the main few-- Jacquotte, her love interest Teresa (we love seafaring queer women)--there's quite the extended ensemble cast in this book, so there wasn't time for everyone, and most of them didn't need to be given more page time than they were.

Some of the battles and fight scenes felt a little drawn out to me, but I do truly think that's a me problem and it was the right amount of time for the type of story this is. 

This'll be a quick review because it's late, but if you like pirate books then give this one a shot.

The Wise and The Wicked by Rebecca Podos

This book had been on my list for a while, so when I finally got a copy I tore through it in two days.

Ruby Chernyavsky has known her whole life that she's descended from power. The women in her family have the ability to see their own deaths, and though the way is lost to them now, to prevent it from coming to pass. But when the matriarch of their family dies not as predicted, Ruby starts to believe that her own time can be avoided. And with the return of her estranged mother, she may have an opportunity to take time into her own hands.

This was a quick read about family and power and the choices you make for either of them. I liked Ruby as a narrator, even when I was stressed about her choices, and the world of Saltville felt the right amount of small, with the whole wide world and the stories beyond it. Her family felt varied and unique, and her love interest, Dov, came from his own kind of magic. There's also a lovely amount of queerness, non of it stigmatized.

It's definitely magical realism dipping it's toe into fantasy, but it gets more magical as the book goes along. I liked the magic present, how it felt like a fable or a superstition, until suddenly it was real power, present and loud and violent. 

I was talking to two other friends who read it, and one said it felt like YA reaching younger, where I felt it was reaching older, just based on some of the subject matter. After finishing I can see where's she's coming from though-- the pacing is fast, the characters young, but I think there's definitely still enough stuff present to make it firmly young adult.

Overall this was a nice read with an opening ending and a neat cast of characters in an interesting world. 

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Admission time: I've never read a Chuck Tingle book before, but he's an absolute queer icon so when I saw this one I knew I had to give it a shot, even if I don't usually read horror.

Misha Brynes is a successful screenwriter, but when he's given an ultimatum: keep your characters gay and kill them, or let them live straight, he knows he can't give in to studio demands. But as he's wrestling with creative control, creatures from his past-- creatures he's created--start to emerge from the darkness, stalking him towards his own tragic demise. 

This book is SCARY. Like, maybe I'm just a scaredy-cat who can't handle even small amounts of horror, but the things that Tingle and Misha through him created and fucking terrifying. And he doesn't pull punches-- ghosts, aliens, eldritch horrors, mob bosses, and the scariest thing of all: AI control.

I really liked the formatting of the story, how it jumps around a bit in time to the formative moments that made Misha and his horror villains, the strange out of context bits that slam into you later, all of it was well done. And it's all done with a flair of knowing, a raised eyebrow at the reader daring you to think critically about industry, about society, about the algorithm that claims to know all and be all. It's an invitation in the form of a science fiction nightmare, and I for one am glad to be invited, even if I didn't sleep well the nights was I reading it.

Also shout out to Tingle for including Tara, a colorful aroace who owns my heart and the system. I loved her powerplay at the end and how she held the keys to everything. Make ace friends people, we're delightfully unpredictable. 

Overall this was both queer horror and queer joy, and after a little break for my nerves I would absolutely hit up his other book Camp Damascus.

Stars Collide by Rachel Lacey

This book was fine, and pretty quick read, though I admit part of that is because I started skimming pages halfway through.

Eden Sands is not fine. A year after her divorce and lackluster album sales, her tour isn't selling like it should be. Anna Moss is on the up and up, trying to be taken seriously as an adult artist and not just a teeny bopper. When the two of them team up for a Grammy performance, sparks fly, and things only get hotter when they decide to go on tour together.

I didn't love the writing in this book-- I did the author thing where I rewrote sentences to seem less awkward as I was reading, and that always pulls me out of a story. The plot itself was fine, I like stories that include battling the rougher aspects of fame and self discovery later in life, but I wasn't pulled into the story.

Eden and Anna are fine enough characters, but I almost think the alternating perspective gave too much away. The timeline felt very fast, though I know that's how things work in romance novels, and I think I'm just in a weird headspace so that could be on me. 

Overall I didn't love this book, but it was a sweet enough queer love story.

I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman

I'm a really really big fan of Alice Oseman. Everything she writes has a heart made entirely of friendship, but also so often includes very, very realistic depictions of anxiety and realistic characters, and this one was no exception.

Angel's life is about The Ark-- boy band extraordinaire, and she's going to see them in concert and meet them at a meet and greet. Jimmy is the front man of The Ark, driven by love of music and his friends. But those two things don't feel like enough anymore. When Angel and Jimmy are thrown together, they have to decide what really matters them and what they truly believe in.

This is ultimately a book about faith-- and not just the religious kind. Angel and Jimmy are both very religious, but their faith is also in the band and their friends. It's a commentary on societal conception of religion and how industries like music and entertainment can create a sort of God like feeling around what are ultimately just people. And this looks at both sides-- how dehumanizing it can be while also being such a sense of hope and wonder for people.

Angel and Jimmy are very different, but they're both looking for purpose beyond and outside of themselves, fighting with the negative ways they see themselves and the personas they wear in the world. I really like Oseman's characters, and she's created a very realistic cast with this book.

The writing style is simplistic and brilliant-- everything is intentional, even when it doesn't feel that way. It's modern, if not timeless, making appropriate use of social media without making it all feel dated. Overall I really liked this book. My favorite Oseman is still Loveless, but this was a good, meaningful read.

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

Holy shit this book.

In 1955, over 600,000 women spontaneously turned into dragons, and the world refused to acknowledge it happened. Looking some years before and the many years after, When Women Were Dragons follows Alex Green, who's mother did not change but her aunt did, and the choices of both women and the denying society have enormous effects on Alex's life and the person she becomes.

This is a story about rage and trauma and the damage that comes from silence and refusing yo acknowledge things. But it's also about joy and learning and knowing your own worth and the freedom that comes with being and understanding your true self.

I cried several times, and almost highlighted sections of the book, wanting the underline and remember the feelings they evoked in me but not quite able to bring myself to mar the book. The ideas of choice and change feel enormous in ways I almost can't explain-- the changing of a body policed by other people, the freedom of finding yourself in this new form or terrified all the same of what you could become. To feel big in a world that wants to keep you small, to find joy and love and community. It's set in 1955 but feels as relevant as ever today.

The story primarily follows young Alex, from the time she's four years old to when she's college aged, but all told as a memoir of sorts from a much older Alex's perspective. It's poetic and scientific all at once, with a simply beautiful writing style-- I've heard of Barnhill's other work (mostly YA or younger if I'm not mistaken) but haven't read her work before, and wow what a book to start with. 

It's after midnight and I'm scribbling notes in my phone trying to make sense of how this book made me feel, but I don't know that I can really put it to words. I really really needed this book, and I'm going to recommend it to a lot of people, but especially the women in my life. May we all have the chance and the freedom to be dragons.

Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett

I picked up this book at a big library book sale, thinking it seemed just odd enough to strike my fancy, and I was right.

Emma Starling, prodigal daughter, returns to her family's home in New Hampshire to spend time with her dying father, who is seeing hallucinations of animals and the long dead Mr. Ernest Harold Baynes. He's also the only one keeping up the search for Emma's old best friend, Crystal, who went missing months before. As the family comes back together, all the Starlings will have to decide what (and who) they choose to believe in.

This is a funny story with all the charm of a small town cast and the ridiculousness of a setting just outside a giant millionaire exclusive hunting forest. Told from the omniscient perspective of the departed souls in the town's graveyard, Unlikely Animals is truly a unique book about family and second chances.

The layout was fun--separated into parts by different kinds of animals, which showed up in increasingly clever ways, and included bits from the real Mr. Baynes' books over the years about his life with his wild animals. 

The cast is fun-- Emma's and Clive could be considered the main characters, and their relationship is complicated but loving, and grew a lot over the course of the book. They're both finding their way in a world that expected differently of them, and to see them each find their place, or at least a place they could be happy in, was a delight.

The cast is big and the story is fun, and I had a pretty good time with it.

And that's it! Happy spring!

Literary recommendation: The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Media recommendation: I've been rewatching What We Do In The Shadows with my boyfriend the last few months and I forgot how fun that show is, so if you haven't yet please go check it out