October Reviews

Happy spooky month! This October brought the first snow of the year, and as the weather gets colder I'm definitely tucked inside and reading more (or at least I will be, after NaNoWriMo is done).

I did sort of accidentally read almost exclusively recommended books this month, but it worked out really well because I liked everything I read this month. A nice little victory just in time for it be miserably cold outside.

Let's get to it!

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

This is the first Neil Gaiman book I've read (I know, shocker), and what a way to kick start both October and reading his books. I will absolutely be reading more of them.

Richard Mayhew lives an unextraordinary life, until he saves a girl who falls through a wall. After, he's sucked into the magical and dangerous world of London Below, where he must help the girl he rescued, Lady Door, solve the murder of her family and find vengeance. That is, of course, if they can survive.

Gaiman is obviously a masterclass writer. I knew this just from watching the adaptation of Good Omens, but to really dig into it with a wild book like this was thrilling. His sense of humor is subtle in some places and a brick wall in others, but just as funny in both situations. The descriptors he uses are absolutely wild, and I'm completely obsessed with his style. This book is unhinged in the most fantastic way.

I've heard it described as being an Alice in Wonderland sort of story, and while falling into a new world on accident is certainly the start of both of those stories, Gaiman's very quickly takes on an even darker and more absurd twist. Richard is a fabulous protagonist, just boring enough to have the fantastical world stand out, but also brave and likeable enough to want to follow along. His growth through the story is excellent, and while the ending surprised me a small amount, it made complete sense for who he had become.

Door and the Maquis de Carabas were also excellent characters, bringing the strange and wonderful parts of the London Below to life.

Overall, this was spooky enough (murder! Angels! Rat people! Creepy monks!) to have kicked off Halloween month perfectly, and tells a phenomenally strange story.

Funeral Girl by Emma Ohland

This was one recommended to me by a friend's mom (hi Kelly! Thanks for the recc!) and while it normally takes me a while to stars reading recommendations, I found this one on thriftbooks the next day and knew it was a sign.

Georgia Richter is terrified of death. Living in a funeral home doesn't make it any easier, but neither does her ability to speak to ghosts. But when one of her schoolmates dies, Georgia knows she has to help him however she can. Helping Milo might be the thing that ends of saving both of them.

This counts as a spooky October read because it's a ghost story. It's also, first and foremost, a story about grief. Emma's relationship with death is obsessive and terrifying, and she's trying to cope with her grandma's death (and her grandma's ghost, the first she'd ever seen and gone now) but those two things get so tangled together.

She's anxious and asexual, which is great because I am too. But that did make it hard to read sometimes, following the familiar spirals and fears without a safe place to land. But Emma had to work through those things, and I appreciated her journey through this book so much.

The ghost aspect was interesting, kind of a Pushing Daisies type idea where Emma can tough a person once and have their ghost appear, then touch them a second time and they disappear. We got to learn some of the rules along with Emma, which I thought was cool.

I also appreciated Emma's friend Amy, who was such a ride or die friend while also standing up for themselves. I appreciated them calling Emma out on her bullshit but still standing by her when she needed help. And I even more appreciated Emma realizing they she needed to give Amy that kind of friendship back.

Overall this was a really interesting look at grief and death, as well as a compelling story about moving on and finding peace.

Borne by Jeff Vandermeer

This was another recommendation from a friend, though I've read Annihilation before, so Jeff was already on my radar. This just pushed me to check out more of his stuff.

Surviving in an apocalyptic wasteland ruled over by a giant flying bear, Rachel has resigned herself to a life of scavenging and protecting her and her partner's home from the creatures and people alike that roam the wasteland. Bur on a scavenging trip she finds Borne, a biotechnology creature of unknown origin. Under Rachel's care, Borne grows into something beyond her imagination, until his presence disrupts the world she and everyone else in the city knows.

Vandermeer is truly the master of strange science fiction. He crafts worlds beyond strange but still tied enough to ours to be possible in a distant (or near) future. It's terrifying and also mundane, the way everything becomes once you experience it enough, until something new arrives to make you terrified all over again, remind you of the awful reality of the world that you live in

Rachel as a character is a great narrator for the story. She's unreliable in her own memory but striving for an honesty that makes up for it. She keeps secrets from Wick, Borne, and us, and that makes her all the more compelling. She's incredibly human in a story full of dangerous creatures.

The story itself builds slowly at first, until something snaps and it goes careening toward the realization that nothing is as it seems. I was sucked into it and surprised by Vandermeer's carefully laid traps, a story executed with surgical precision. It's weird, like, so so weird, but also very, very good. But that sort of sums up everything Vandermeer does. Borne is just as much a story about parenthood and watching children grow as it is about the terror of a world beyond your control. It's about the decisions you make for the people you love and the ones you make out a fear and how sometimes they are the same thing.

I will definitely be reading more of his stuff.

Something Close To Magic by Emma Mills

I love Emma Mills books, so I was stoked when I saw she was releasing another book, which was also her first foray into fantasy.

Aurelie is just trying to make it through her baking apprenticeship. After losing her place at magic school, this is her beat shot at finding a better life. But a bouncer hunter, a troll, and a prince seem to have other things to say about her simple life. On a quest she'd never intended on joining, Aurelie will have to decide what she really truly wants for her life, and if it's something she thinks she deserves.

This was charming and delightful. Prince Hapless may have been my favorite character, but the others are just as delightful. I loved the witty dialogue and quippy adventure, and it was truly a very sweet love story. There's mystery to it as well, which builds as slowly as the romance, until you're as surprised as Hapless is when something goes wrong.

I also loved the world building. Magic isn't trustworthy in this world, the cost of it greater than the use, or at least that's what everyone thinks. I also loved the kingdom habit of granting verbs as court names; Prince Hapless, King Gallant, Lord Defiance, etc. It made for a fun guess at whether those names were true or just a hopeful parental desire. Expectations and humor abound.

I've always really liked Mills' writing, and how she manages to make something both very deep and light hearted. Her stories are also very character centered, which I appreciate (love a good cast of characters).

Overall this was a very delightful read and a lovely new fantasy.

Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings

I have to say, normally I don't fuck with time travel stories; they stress me out too much over what will be changed or mess up the future. But this wasn't so much a time travel story as it is about saving humanity through the meeting of the past and future. And it was spectacularly written.

The crew of the Jonah are running from a decades long war with the alien Felen when their ship breaks down in a rift in space. There, they're met with a ship that claims to be from 152 years in the future, with stories of how their ragtag crew ended the very war they're fleeing. But history doesn't match up with what and who the crew are, and with both ships running out of power, they'll have to work fast to figure out how to get them both back to their own time-- and maybe save the galaxy while they're at it.

This was a ride of a book. Just as the characters are from different moments in time, the book itself is split through time, flipping between the ships working together in the rift to the events that brought them all to where they are. It's truly a strange group, but the serendipity of it all cannot be understated. I can't go too into detail for that because spoilers, but I have the say it's a white knuckle ride while things fall into perfect place, right to the very end.

The characters are traumatized and jaded and trying to grapple with their own legacy and mortality. They clash and grow and orbit one another with ferocity and so much hope. I really did grow to like and appreciate every single character.

The world building is also so interesting. It's science fiction with aliens and supercomputer technology and gene splicing and intergalactic war and all the weirdness that comes with it. And the time travel/meeting in the rift stuff is so, so fascinating. I'm actually low key obsessed with this book and all the weird and awesome twisty stuff it does. Very much an ouroboros of a story in the best, most hopeful way.

If you're at all a science fiction fan, give this a try.

Castle In The Air by Diana Wynne Jones

When I finished Howl's Moving Castle and learned there were more books with those characters, I did immediately go purchase them. Castle in the Air is a companion novel, and while I did like Howl a lot better, it was still very charming and entertaining.

Abdullah knows there's more to his life than the carpet selling booth that he runs (and not just because of the prophecy his father received when he was born). After a travelling merchant sells Abdullah a flying carpet, he's transported to a magical garden where he meets Flower-in-the-Night, the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. Before they can marry, however, Flower is swept away by a djinn, and it's up to Abdullah (with the help of a dishonest soldier, a cranky genie, a protective cat, and the flying carpet) to rescue her.

This is definitively based on stories from Arabian Nights with a special Jones twist. It is also very obviously written in the 90's-- not for the technology or anything like that, the setting is very much a fantasy land, but there are certain liberties taken or opinions stated that would not fly today. But it was published in 1990, and I can only assume that no one said 'hey, don't do that.' So keeping that in mind, it was a well-written story with some elements I didn't agree with.

The main character, Abdullah, is clever and a little bit of a coward, and I'll be honest, his story wasn't all too interesting for the bulk of the story. I felt like I was waiting for something to get moving for a bit too long, which is ironic because Abdullah was traveling for so much time in the novel. I think the fact that it was a companion novel got me a little too excited, because I kept just waiting for Sophie or Howl to show up, and then when they finally did the story moved so much faster. That's just kind of how Howl and Sophie are though; stuff is happening and we're moving.

I liked Flower-in-the-Night and the other princesses that showed up at the end. In fact, the end chunk of the story was the best of it, at least in my opinion. Not only was I delighted to see what Howl and Sophie were up to, but Abdullah became more of an entertaining character and the story jumped up in excitement levels.

Overall, I think I'm just more excited to read the official sequel to Howl's Moving Castle, since those characters are ultimately the most interesting to me.

The House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

Speaking of which, here's the sequel!

Charmaine Baker wants nothing more than to stick her nose in a book and not look up, so when her great uncle needs a house sitter and Charmaine's mother volunteers her, it seems like the perfect chance to read. Then a magical dog and an apprentice show up, and an unexpected job at the royal mansion turns into a hunt for gold. The king has requested help from powerful sorcerer Sophie Pendragon, with the wizard Howl and Calcifer the fire demon in toe. It's up to reluctant Charmaine to save the day.

This was a cute read. Like A Castle In The Air, I liked getting a little update on how Sophie and Howl were doing. There was also a character from that story that made an appearance, and while I do think guest appearances can be gimmicky if overdone, this was the perfect little bow to tie all three stories together. I also appreciated a bit more Sophie and Howl in this one, but I think I'm realizing that I just like those characters so much more than expected. The main character was fine, kind of reminded me a big of meddlesome grandma Sophie, if significantly less capable of cleaning a house.

This whole...I don't know if I can call it a series? They're labeled as a companion novel and a sequel, so I guess series is the best I can do for now...regardless, this whole series is very whimsical and strange and unexpected and fun. It has libraries and weird purple creatures that lay eggs inside other people and kobolds and hydrangeas. Jones really does a fantastic job of taking both the menial and the exciting and intertwining them so that you can never tell what's around the corner.

After reading three of Jones' books, I could definitely see myself reading more, I'll just have to find the right one to follow up Sophie and Howl.

And that's it! Happy Fall! Happy NaNoWriMo!

See you on the flip side.

Literary recommendation: Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, simply because I mentioned in several times in this review already

Media recommendation: I've been watching Lessons in Chemistry and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which has led me down the rabbit hole of gentle 1950's jazz, so, any of those things can be my recommendation for this month.