readingcat1832's reviews
233 reviews

 technically a dnf but i quickly lost my patience with this anthology based on the stories i did read. boring, formulaic, and for the most part not terribly interested in engaging with either their historical settings or their queerness outside of some insta-love where the characters happen to be of the same gender. a skim of the other two-star reviews echo thoughts i was already having. "roja" was quite good and "burnt umber" was at least fun but none of these actually grabbed my attention or will stay with me in any meaningful way. 

another thing that stands out to me is just how poorly edited this collection really is? i don't blame the authors for this part, but inconsistent or missing commas and way too many instances of tense inconsistency. i don't think i plan to read any other collections compiled by saundra mitchell. 

 hesitant rating for now. i am trying hard not to judge this too hard by comparing it to the movie, but that feels a bit unavoidable since i loved the film so deeply, and which i know i preferred but also deangelis deserves a lot of credit for coming up with the original story and characters... the bones if you will. 

but this was very enjoyable even on its own merits, and some sections i must say i did prefer over the film. maren's relationship with her parents feels more central here and it's effectively gutting at times, and even if she strays toward "not like other girls" territory (even without accounting for the cannibalism) i like some of maren's weird girl hobbies, especially her scrapbook. 

 if i was feeling petty i would give this one star but lucky for alice oseman i am feeling charitable and also rooney deserves a star all on her own (and a better book, i'm so sorry they did this to you girl). i am still waiting for any even passable aro/ace spectrum(s) representation and i am very tired and a little sad. probably a full rtc. 

 this was an interesting one because it reads so much like a debut, and there's some self consciousness in donoghue's writing, some element of trying to be experimental that really shows. but it's not in a bad way? it was in fact her very first book and it's such an interesting look into her early writing, knowing what a prolific writer she'd become in another 10-ish years.

stir-fry was written in 1994 and sometimes that shows in its attitudes; some aspects of its queerness and especially its depiction of bisexuality feel dated, but it's also such a fantastic bit of early lesbian fiction! i understand that for its time at least, a lesbian book that wasn't bogged down with tragedy was somewhat revolutionary. that may no longer be the case today, but this still made for a really nice look into older queer fiction and its characters and story still hold up. i'm starting to get tired of classic "coming of age" stories and even though stir-fry doesn't necessarily break the mould in that department, it probably did to an extent in the early 90s, but more importantly, it just does its job really well. i liked seeing maria's journey to self-discovery and her relationships with ruth and jael. probably not donoghue's intention, but to me maria also read as so very ace? seeing her "choosing" her (male) crushes for the sake of having them felt so very relatable. 

(also 10000 points to the bit of dialogue

("maybe he's bisexual" // "he could be a necrophiliac for all i care")

. what a sentence to read). 

this one had a strong start and then slowly deteriorated until i felt i was forcing myself to get through the book at around the 50% mark. i might have more thoughts later, but for now, i just need to air my grievances over just how much this book hammers exposition down on you. it felt like reading an author's outline more than a finished draft for large portions of the book, with huge swaths of information summarized to us instead of actually written out. one example is

anna discussing her growing closeness with leviathan with her team---an important relationship in the book that we NEVER get to actually see build in the first place. another is anna's kidnapping by supercollider: we jump forward to anna already having been kidnapped, literally dropped right into seeing her tied to a chair, when the previous chapter saw her cuddling and hanging out with june. then we go back as anna recounts the events of her kidnapping, then jump forward again. anna's recovery after her rescue is also mostly summary.

it left the book feeling oddly disorienting and didn't allow for me to have much of any emotional engagement, which is a shame because the first hundred or so pages were compelling and enjoyable. 

lore was cool but i was Not strong enough for the writing or those awkward similes