woodslesbian's reviews
70 reviews

Carmen Maria Machado’s writing just clicks for me in truly spectacular way, and I adored this feminist collection of weird, dream-like, visceral short stories! With short stories, what I really look for is something I can’t stop thinking about and which leaves me with a lasting impression, be that questions or emotions or inspiration to write more myself, and each one of these absolutely hit the mark. They’re definitely on the strange side, with some of them leaning more confusing and unexplained and unreliable, but that really works for me personally. I made myself read these over a couple of days rather than at all once, and I was literally lying in bed at night unable to sleep because I was too busy thinking about each story. 

My favorite stories were “Real Women Have Bodies” and “The Resident,” but I really enjoyed every single one. “Eight Bites” probably left the least impression on me, but even then I’ll probably end up rereading it and thinking about it down the line. I also know absolutely nothing about SVU, but I was still really entranced by “Especially Heinous” and its formatting, though I can see this one dragging for some readers.

If you’re up for a little weirdness and confusion I can’t recommend Her Body and Other Parties enough. I knew that I’d love this collection and I did—I’m thrilled to have a signed copy!!! 

I really ended up enjoying Feast While You Can for reasons I didn’t expect—while I went into it for the horror, I actually found myself more invested in the relationship between Angelina and Jagvi and the slow exploration of their romance! The pacing and depth of it and the history between them just really worked for me. The horror elements were very interesting and led to some tense moments for sure, but I also realized pretty early on that they weren’t going to be super scary or my thing personally and adjusted my expectations. I still found the monster very interesting and enjoyed what it did for the story, but, again, what really compelled me the most was untangling these two women’s pasts.

I really enjoyed the explorations of both loving a small, close-minded hometown and feeling trapped by it, and the different perspectives that Angelina and Jagvi bring to it. These characters just felt very real and I was so invested in the tension between them all throughout! I also did enjoy the slower pace on this one even if other people didn’t, but that may be because I was more focused on the characters than the horror elements. This is definitely still a horror novel, it’s just also very much about the central relationship and family drama as well in a way that really worked for me.

I also LOVED the ending. It went in a direction I completely didn’t expect but which is so up my alley!

I actually loved that Angelina and Jagvi get to survive and be together, but also how bittersweet their life is because of how deeply both of them have changed. It feels so realistic that they come out the other side of this altered with different expectations for life than before, but can still find a weird sort of happiness together. Also, I’m just a complete sucker for small towns just accepting the local monster and the way Jagvi is sort of treated as her handler… very fun for me!!! I also loved Angelina literally eating her monster and being changed by it, that was very cool:

Over all, I really wound up loving Feast While You Can even though it was different than what I initially expected, and I found it very strong in terms of character and relationships and some spooky moments. 

There is something so unbelievably special to me about a book following just the absolute worst, most morally gray genderqueer and gender-nonconforming people backstab, scheme, and manipulate their ways to the throne <3.

She Who Became the Sun is one of my favorite books of all time, so naturally I put off reading this sequel for over a year even when it was just sitting there on my shelf. I was worried about it not living up to my expectations, but it totally did! I had a great time with this and loved the continued handling of themes surrounding deviance, misogyny, and nonconformity. I love Zhu SO much and she is absolutely one of my favorite characters of all time, and one of the few characters I really see my gender experience in. Speaking of, I love how well the discussions of misogyny and transness are still grounded in Yuan Dynasty China and feel historical, rather than fitting into modern discussions. I'm always going to be obsessed in the nuanced explorations of the way different characters feel about gender presentation and ostracization and such based on their experiences and positions--in particular, Ouyang's misogyny is soooo interesting to me and he's also a favorite character of mine.

Parker-Chan's writing is also equally gorgeous, with beautiful descriptions and building tension and some deeply powerful writing about grief. I loooove all the political scheming and military discussions personally, and how every character's motivations were interwoven so well and were just so compelling. I think my only gripe is that I would've liked more of Zhu's perspective and especially Ma's, just because they were both so dear to me and Ma's compassion and perspective on misogyny was a very strong part of the first book. I understand why we had so much focus on other perspectives, though, and this wasn't enough to detract from my enjoyment of this sequel. I did in fact cry several times, and it made me want to go through the emotional rollercoaster of the first book all over again. 
 
Over all this was just a super satisfying conclusion to a series I ADORE, and I will read anything Shelley Parker-Chan ever writes forever. 

This one had such an interesting premise, a good atmosphere, and some very strong moments, especially at the end, but ultimately I felt like the mystery was revealed too early and it just doesn’t leave me with a lasting impression. I enjoyed the look at an insular town like this, as well as the feminist themes and over-all weirdness of the premise. There was a lot of love for and knowledge about horses that really shone through! And as mentioned above, I felt like the ending sequence was really strong and impactful, if not necessarily subtle in its theming.

Still, I didn’t connect very strongly to any of the characters and I feel like this one could’ve leaned harder into being weird and gross—it was atmospheric, but never especially scary, I would say. I also felt like the mystery of what was going on was pretty much apparent a third of the way through or less, without any super exciting reveals that subverted my initial expectation. Also, another thing that really took me out of the horror was

the monster talking. That’s a pet peeve of mine, but after so much silence, the dialogue felt sudden and not very scary at all, though in general I prefer horror that’s open-ended and impersonal.

In general, I just felt like things were a little too explained. Still, this was definitely an interesting read, and I can see it really working for some people! 

Normally I'm content to let a series stop at its natural ending points and feel like more isn't necessarily better, but in this case I was SO sad to find out that this is planned as the final installment of the Tithenai Chronicles. Even though I'm satisfied with where Velasin and Caethari are and how their story wraps up, I would literally just keep reading books about them forever tbh </3. So obviously I enjoyed this sequel a lot! I'm tempted to go back and reread A Strange and Stubborn Endurance over again ASAP too :'^).

My favorite part (of many) definitely has to be just Velasin and Caethari themselves, and of course their romance. I love Velasin SO much and just want nice things for him--I love how inquisitive and driven he is, I love his kindness towards others, I love that he's fully capable of being rude and petty and cunning when he needs to be! On that note, I really appreciated how Velasin's trauma was handled in this book, both in the fact that he is still very much dealing with it in a realistic way and the fact that he's allowed to be unreasonable, and unkind, and cause conflict, rather than just suffering in perfectly nice and pretty ways, I suppose. And of course I adore Caethari! He's just so sweet and charming and a little stupid, but also extremely competent in the areas where his strengths lie. And he loves Velasin so much :,^). I am always talking about how sheer devotion is a huge factor in selling me on a romance, and BOY does Caethari meet that standard. I am obsessed with

him being shot in the shoulder and then a few days later having to save a bunch of drowning nobles In a freezing river, getting kicked in the shoulder he just got shot in during the process, and then having to carry one of those nobles a mile through the rain. and he STILL tries to get Velasin a warm bath  first before he even thinks of himself. OUGH. Now that's what it's all about!!!

I also loooove the balance of romance and politics and worldbuilding in All the Hidden Paths just as I did in the first installment. The pacing might be a little slow for some, but I actually adore getting an emotional or dramatic moment followed by paragraphs just describing the city or explaining exactly what social slight has been made. I was both invested in the over all mystery and having theories, but still pleasantly surprised by the final reveal! I also enjoyed that, even with all the high stakes and tension, there were plenty of moments of rest and kindness that kept it from being overwhelming. I especially adored how Velasin and Cae keep meeting strangers and very minor characters who they still connect with in some small way, finding a lot of kindness out in the world despite their troubles.

In fact, I would call this series kind-hearted at its core. There's a lot of very dark stuff going on, violence and political scheming and bigotry, all of which plays an important role in the characters' journeys and which I really do appreciate, but I also think that it makes the love story at the center of these books shine even brighter in comparison. On that note, I continued to love the comparisons in culture, with Velasin struggling to live his life openly and even Asrien having to deal with this way more accepting culture. The discussions about gender nonconformity and loving your home even when it doesn't love you back... hoo boy. 

Anyways, this is not my most coherent review, but it's hard to have serious critical thoughts when I just love this book series with my whole heart and enjoyed every second of it. I read the last 200 pages of this in basically one sitting and would read 1,000 more just to see every small moment between these characters  in Foz Meadows' writing, even though I truly appreciated this ending.

Considering this is a book about a zoo full of magical animals starring in-depth descriptions of each creature, a sapphic romance, and a slower pace over a lot of pages, I really expected to completely love it. Seriously, I LOVE speculative biology and all things fantastical, and mostly read romances between women, so this seemed right up my alley! It was not. I also thought about giving it 2 stars, because it did get more tolerable the further I got into it, the descriptions of the animals were pretty good, and I could see what the author was doing (or trying to do) with character arcs--but I'm rating based on my personal enjoyment, and there was never a point where I was actively having fun reading this book. That sucks, because I was really set up to love it! But by the end my friends were begging me to just give up on it because I was complaining so much but I had to stick it out to the end.

For starters, I did NOT like Aila as a character. Part of this is just that I prefer characters who are confident and driven right from the beginning, which was not the case here, that much is down to just my personal preferences. However, I have rarely ever found a main character so incredibly annoying as I did in The Phoenix Keeper. It wasn't her social anxiety, I get being afraid of crowds or having trouble talking to unfamiliar people, and I have a lot of love in my heart for characters who are weird (weird said with love!) and have trouble fitting in. The problem, though, is that Aila is weird and mean instead of weird and nice. She's just so deeply judgey of both her coworkers who are just trying to do their goddamn jobs and be nice to her, and even of zoo guests??? Like. I get that working with The Public can be harrowing but she's like mad at people for coming to the zoo that she works at, and showing interest in her life's work, and asking simple questions, even though she works in an educational position!!! Her inner monologue is just CONSTANTLY going "ugh this idiot doesn't know XYZ about the thing I'm literally supposed to be gently teaching them about?" It just really grated on me, especially as someone who has volunteered in zoo outreach stuff in the past. She's also just so incredibly unkind to her coworker/love interest Luciana; sure, she has some good reasons to be upset with Luciana, at least from Aila's perspective, but instead of handling this like an adult, she constantly insults her mentally and is rude to her face--if I remember correctly, there's a bit where Aila almost says the line, I swear to god, "calm your candy-coated tits" but cuts herself off first, basically unprompted. I cannot understand talking to a coworker she sees on a regular basis like this at all, especially with her social anxiety. Like she's just a mean-spirited person, but in a way that is deeply uninteresting because the book seems entirely unaware of this and it's mostly played for laughs without actually being funny. She's also just really unaware of how her actions affect other people for a good majority of the book.

She does get some growth in this area, like realizing she judged Luciana too harshly and... learning to care about her best friend who is CONSTANTLY coddling and supporting her, as well as getting more confident in working with the public and recognizing the importance of zoo publicity in general. I did appreciate that last point especially and felt like it was handled well, but Aila's arc in general felt very simple and really predictable.

I could've overlooked a lot more of this if Aila was a teenager and this was a YA book, but I was expecting actual adult fantasy and she is, supposedly, in her late twenties, so her character was just really frustrating and I had trouble actually rooting for her because of that.

Aila is also pretty terrible to both her love interest and especially to Tanya. There's a little arc in there about her realizing she's effectively been ignoring Tanya's big project while her friend has been sacrificing tons of time and effort to helping Aila with her own work, but this just felt so easy to me and like it didn't resolve the main issues of their friendship. Tanya is constantly coddling and supporting Aila, even when she's in the wrong, and again works so hard for her emotionally and physically while receiving very little back. This is made especially weird because Tanya is a black trans woman, representation that might've been really cool, except she ends up feeling super weirdly maternal towards Aila and really falling into the stereotypes of the black best friend character in a way that felt so gross. There's several references like comparing her to a "mama bear" and just being really protective over Aila, despite them being the same age. There's just so many moments where she's doing so much emotional work for Aila and comforting her and just generally being protective of her and it felt so... gross. In a similar way, Luciana, who I believe is coded to be this fantasy-world's equivalent of latina, is a much stronger personality than Aila, very opinionated, and is at one point literally described as "fiery," which is literally the name of the stereotype. Like. Come ON. I was just uncomfortable with the way that the women of color in Aila's life do SO much to support her and her journey, without really having strong character arcs of their own, despite the author's attempts otherwise. Especially when we have to be reminded every 20 pages that Aila is soooo pale and white.

My other biggest issue with this book is the writing style... like Aila's character, a lot of this felt much better suited for a YA fantasy than an adult one, cozy or not. I felt like it was really clumsy in places, with setting up character motivations and such, it felt a little like the author was just checking off boxes. It was very simplistic and often extremely repetitive. The same few adjectives were used for the characters over and over and over again like every time they were in a scene--I swear to god if I had to hear about Connor's ~dreamy curl of hair~ ONE more time I was just going to start screaming, but every single character got this same treatment. Aila herself was just constantly describing that she was SOOOO skinny and so thin and weak and so pale and burns so easily and is pasty white, to the point where it just felt weird. Who thinks about themselves that way??? Why do we even care that she's stick-thin and white??? That's also just a personal pet peeve for me though, but the repetition was ridiculous. The prose was also extremely telling and very little showing, with information about Aila's anxiety and her feelings and really every little detail just thrown at us without any kind of skill or nuance. Like, seriously, we were reminded of Aila's anxiety what felt like every three pages, which was just really grating--even if anxiety is a major part of her life and really affects everything, there would've been better ways to incorporate that into the scenes than just repeatedly announcing it to us. Also, for my least charitable critique of MacLean's writing, it was just deeply, deeply millennial. I can't really describe it any other way, it was just so twee and quirky and, for me, horribly annoying. The word "boop" is used MULTIPLE times over the course of this book. There's also literally three separate conversations about topping or bottoming, one of which is an incredibly strange interaction that I think is meant to be funny when she's talking to Connor, which is especially baffling, and then two more awkward ones with Luciana. Why did we need to know this? This book is more or less PG with maybe one fade-to-black, so having multiple conversations about sexual positions just feels stupid and immature, to be fully honest. There were just a lot of poor attempts at humorous and ~quirky~ writing that really didn't click for me at all, especially when I felt like the tone didn't blend well with the more serious moments in the book.

The plot itself was like... fine. I could see what MacLean was trying to do with Aila's character arc, and I think she succeeded to some extent, but also that this sort of arc is much more suited to a YA fantasy. I was invested in the phoenix breeding program, but it was PAINFULLY obvious who the culprit was, and I say that as someone who is completely terrible at solving mysteries.

Especially since this is marketed as a Sapphic romance, I knew that Connor wasn't going to remain the love interest, so it was pretty apparent that the whole arc with him was just to set him up as the big villain. It felt like kind of a waste of time since I knew Aila would end up with Luciana anyways and those sections were not especially interesting. I also felt like it was really cheap to just have "liking stocks and not caring about the main character's interests enough=the villain". Don't get me wrong, I'm as leery of business dudes as anyone else, but it just felt shallow and silly, especially because Aila is literally hurt by him not listening to her talk about her passions enough while actively tuning his conversation about stocks out. Like I think it would've been much more interesting for Connor to be a genuinely decent guy and then ALSO behind the phoenix stealing, or have him just be kind of a random asshole coworker. In general, I found him boring as a love interest and somehow even MORE boring as a main villain. More broadly, I could predict what the entire arc of Aila's character, the main romance, and the phoenix breeding like a quarter or less into the story, which made me really unmotivated to keep reading, especially since I didn't love Aila. I get that this is a cozy fantasy, but I still wish there were, like, any serious stakes. Surely there could've been something that didn't end up perfectly for Aila, even just one small thing? But also I think maybe I just don't like cozy fantasy. Highlight of the book for me was the page where I thought I'd get to read about a guy getting eaten by a kelpie, but we didn't even get that! Also, my final note is just that I hate an ending that's basically "the cops show up and make everything okay! Yayyy law enforcement and carceral justice in this wish-fulfillment fantasy!" But that might just be me being petty.

To end on a more positive note, MacLean's descriptions of the fantasy animals and the thought she put into their habitats/general ecology absolutely shone through in this book. I would've loved to read a fantasy textbook from her, just not this novel. I can also see what she's trying to do with Aila's character arc, and, again, I found the second half of the book better than the first as she began to have some growth and learn some lessons. I'm also sure that Aila is really positive representation for some people, and that many readers connected with her and resonated with her story. But for me, representation alone is not enough to sell me on a story, and the issues discussed above really made this an unpleasant read for me when I wanted so badly to love this book. 

I should probably stop reading cozy fantasy.