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lizshayne's reviews
2217 reviews
The Book of Love by Kelly Link
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I liked this book a lot and also I wanted to love it and mostly just...liked it.
What Link does so well in her short stories is make fairy tale logic operate in the real world in a way that keeps the latter under the auspices of the former. What frustrates me about this book is that I'm not sure that fairy tales were meant to be 600+ pages long. Some of that might be that Link exceeded the amount of time I was willing to be confused before the plot kicked in and some of it might just be that she's an exquisite short story writer and a good novelist.
And yet it's weird and so much of it is wonderful and the structure fascinates me and yet I still didn't adore it the way I wanted to.
What Link does so well in her short stories is make fairy tale logic operate in the real world in a way that keeps the latter under the auspices of the former. What frustrates me about this book is that I'm not sure that fairy tales were meant to be 600+ pages long. Some of that might be that Link exceeded the amount of time I was willing to be confused before the plot kicked in and some of it might just be that she's an exquisite short story writer and a good novelist.
And yet it's weird and so much of it is wonderful and the structure fascinates me and yet I still didn't adore it the way I wanted to.
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This book. I see why it took her so long to become the book that it is.
Kingfisher, following in many ways in the footsteps of Diana Wynne Jones, has an exquisite sense of the rules of fantasy AND knows that the most absolutely terrifying things in the world are rarely the magic, but the ordinary cruelties that we do to each other.
Which is why ordinary kindness is what matters so much.
Also, as someone who loves the Goose Girl tale and definitely thinks it is under-told,I cannot fucking believe you made Falada evil. I nearly screamed. It was so smart and worked so obviously well and I could not even deal. Horses and roses, Ursula. I cannot. Also, I have no idea why I expected this book to have a low body count of named characters. No idea.<\spoiler>
I loved the geese, I loved the butler, I hated by which I mean loved the evil parenting - Kingfisher is just so good at expanding fairy tales to make them able to say so much more.
This also felt like something of a callback to Ella Enchanted, with the framework of “obedience”.
Kingfisher, following in many ways in the footsteps of Diana Wynne Jones, has an exquisite sense of the rules of fantasy AND knows that the most absolutely terrifying things in the world are rarely the magic, but the ordinary cruelties that we do to each other.
Which is why ordinary kindness is what matters so much.
Also, as someone who loves the Goose Girl tale and definitely thinks it is under-told,
I loved the geese, I loved the butler, I hated by which I mean loved the evil parenting - Kingfisher is just so good at expanding fairy tales to make them able to say so much more.
This also felt like something of a callback to Ella Enchanted, with the framework of “obedience”.
Champion of the Scarlet Wolf, Book Two by Ginn Hale
adventurous
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I’m not…entirely sold on the consistency of character for Elezar between this series and Lord of the White Hell, but I’ll forgive a lot for some seriously entertaining fantasy.
It’s fascinating to me that these books feel like they get marketed as romance, when they’re much more in the genre of “epic fantasy always ends in either tragedy or a love match”. Hale was always a worldbuilder first and a romance novelist second.
It’s fascinating to me that these books feel like they get marketed as romance, when they’re much more in the genre of “epic fantasy always ends in either tragedy or a love match”. Hale was always a worldbuilder first and a romance novelist second.
A Handful of Earth, a Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia Butler by Lynell George
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Is there a word for a memoir written by someone else? Not a biography, I do know how words word, but something that is constructed out of an authors own ideas and writings that is kind of them and kind of not?
This book is that; it’s an invitation into the life of Octavia E. Butler and I think I love her even more after it. I’m not sure how she’d have personally identified, but she feels like a neurodivergent role model.
Also she refused to drive.
This book is that; it’s an invitation into the life of Octavia E. Butler and I think I love her even more after it. I’m not sure how she’d have personally identified, but she feels like a neurodivergent role model.
Also she refused to drive.
City of Laughter by Temim Fruchter
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I really liked this one; there's a sense I had that this book was not entirely written for me (which is what happens when you read a story by someone who is no longer of the community you are still a part of), but also that it captured a lot of what I love about Judaism and folklore.
It's also, itself, a kind of laugh/scream of the women who did not fit into the mold that traditional judaism imagined; both trying to give them a voice AND reflecting on all the ways that their reality was always far larger than the stories told. It's queerness as a story resonates along their axes and it seems obvious, then, that a main character named Shiva as a vehicle for mourning all those possibilities that were impossible makes perfect sense.
It's partially an evocation of reality and partially a departure from it.
Also, like so many novels of academia, it loves the ivory tower and is a little more generous to it than it deserves.
(This book is, of course, the product of research, but whether it is itself research into the very kind of story its writing about feels like an open question. Yes but also only insofar as it creates more of the stories that it studies.)
And for another point in its favor: no golem.
It's also, itself, a kind of laugh/scream of the women who did not fit into the mold that traditional judaism imagined; both trying to give them a voice AND reflecting on all the ways that their reality was always far larger than the stories told. It's queerness as a story resonates along their axes and it seems obvious, then, that a main character named Shiva as a vehicle for mourning all those possibilities that were impossible makes perfect sense.
It's partially an evocation of reality and partially a departure from it.
Also, like so many novels of academia, it loves the ivory tower and is a little more generous to it than it deserves.
(This book is, of course, the product of research, but whether it is itself research into the very kind of story its writing about feels like an open question. Yes but also only insofar as it creates more of the stories that it studies.)
And for another point in its favor: no golem.
Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement by Ashley Shew
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
It's interesting to feel immersed enough in a field that it's not entirely new to you, even if I really appreciated how Shew delved specifically into the intersection of technology and ableism and gave language for this idea of technoableism; the specific ways that techologies are deployed against (rather than for, which would necessitate with) disabled people.
The final chapter was my favorite; disabled futures are some of the most thoughtful, interesting, and hopeful things that I encounter.
The final chapter was my favorite; disabled futures are some of the most thoughtful, interesting, and hopeful things that I encounter.
The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I always like Yangsze Choo's stories, she has such a good sense of how mythology and history weave together and I realize I don't really have the background to talk about this work through the lens of authenticity, but the world she invites her reader into reminds me of some of my other favorite writers who blend legend and real time.
She's just so deft with it and the way she told so many stories at the same time - this wasn't quite a mystery or a love story or a revenge story, but it held all three gently enough to tell the story of a life.
She's just so deft with it and the way she told so many stories at the same time - this wasn't quite a mystery or a love story or a revenge story, but it held all three gently enough to tell the story of a life.
The Duke at Hazard by KJ Charles
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Trust KJ Charles to tell her Duke story this way. This was so clever and fun and sweet and I love a good romance. This is very much written for fans of the genre who are already deconstructing some of the tropes a little bit; Charles invites that in the story she tells and also takes her aristocracy a bit more seriously. Not, heaven forfend, TOO seriously. But just enough to talk about ducal privilege. Swinging your duke around indeed.
Studies in Halakhah and Rabbinic History by Eitam Henkin
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
...this was more than I ever wanted to know about Novardok but also just such an interesting collection of essays. In particular, the way he writes about controversies and his extremely relentless need to not let people make strong ideological claims is incredibly compelling even if I don't always feel like I know how to write that way myself.
I think the essays on the talmudic sages were my favorites, followed closely by the disagreements in the Old Yishuv and, of course, the strawberries.
I think the essays on the talmudic sages were my favorites, followed closely by the disagreements in the Old Yishuv and, of course, the strawberries.
They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
4.5
I have so many songs that I need to listen to after this book.
Abdurraqib's writing is poetry and he reads it wonderfully and the light touch of speaking the interstitial and comment material the way a musician talks between songs is just so beautifully done. The way he writes about music can make me fall in love with a song I have never heard and might not even like. But I love it in that moment. And then when he talks about crushes and love and loss. And racism and fear and pain and going on. It's such a glorious tapestry and it's a book of essays by a poet which makes it not poetry, but also not not poetry.
Abdurraqib's writing is poetry and he reads it wonderfully and the light touch of speaking the interstitial and comment material the way a musician talks between songs is just so beautifully done. The way he writes about music can make me fall in love with a song I have never heard and might not even like. But I love it in that moment. And then when he talks about crushes and love and loss. And racism and fear and pain and going on. It's such a glorious tapestry and it's a book of essays by a poet which makes it not poetry, but also not not poetry.