Book 22-25
The Night Eaters, Vol. 1: She Eats the Night by Marjorie M. Liu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I loved this more than I did Monstress (and I very much enjoyed that too). I think maybe because this is a smaller scope story and I find myself drawn to those more these days. Ipo and Keon immigrated to Hawai'i from Hong Kong before their twins, Milly and Billy were born. Fast forward about twenty odd years and the twins live in NYC (and their parents do come for visits). They are trying to keep a restaurant going during Covid. Milly has dropped out of medical school for this and Billy would rather play video games than anything (don't we all, Billy, don't we all).
From the get go we can see we're going to have more than a simple Tiger Mom disappointed in her children's choices (Keon is much more easy going). Ipo, with her ever-present cigarette, is fierce and cold. She seems to love her garden and plants more than her children (Keon is devoted to her, her kids are annoyed with her). Through the very neat art (by Sana Takeda who also worked on Monstress, but this is much more muted than that), we can see the home across the way has something going on (rather looks like ghostly vines) that is not going to bode well.
The story unfolds back and forth from the present and the haunted house and the past as Ipo and Keon court, marry etc. So it's one layer after another with this story and I don't want to say more about it because it needs to be experienced. What I can say is Ipo (and to a lesser extend Keon) think their kids are soft and a little spoiled (with reason) and Ipo has decided it is time for them to learn to be harder before her past catches up with them.
To be fair, Milly and Billy are a bit whiny and self centered. As much as she won't admit it, Milly is hard like her mother. Billy is more like dad. When push comes to shove, they're going to have to face a nightmare and come to terms with their heritage.
I loved this as mention above (oh probably should say the gore isn't much but the f-bombs are fast and heavy) and I am looking forward to part one.
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M Is for Monster by Talia Dutton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This Frankenstein inspired graphic novel had an interesting plot, Doctor Frances Ai and her sister Maura had been conducting an experiment that goes horribly wrong and Maura is killed. Frances and her partner, Gin, bring her back to life. The interesting thing here is in this world magic and science are melded and no one really bats an eye at this event which is so transgressory in the original work.
However, the young woman Frankie has brought back is decidedly not Maura. She has no memories at all really beyond language and how to live (eat, dress etc). Frankie takes it as the stress of being resurrected and surrounds her with the trappings of Maura's life, her room, her clothes, her family and her friends, like the older woman next door, Dottie.
The problem is the woman hates Maura's clothes, she doesn't like science, she doesn't even like how Maura takes her tea (no sugar, yep with you on that one). The one saving grace is Maura's spirit can communicate with her body via mirrors so she tells M (as she wants to be called) how to answer Frankie correctly.
And M is desperate to do so because she over hears Frankie saying she might have to pull M apart and redo the brain to get Maura back correctly. M doesn't want to die on the off chance Maura might rejoin her body so she pretends the best she can. However, it's never quite enough, especially when she has interests outside of science, like in Dottie's sewing/clothes making business (something Maura hated).
The cover calls this an exploration of living up to others' expectations of you and it is. It's also the shape of grief. Frankie wears the guilt of her sister's death and her desperation is very much on the page in how she doesn't want to let her sister go. Gin (her non binary partner and the one who deals with most of the housework) tries to balance the two women at least until it all comes to a head and who gets to live M or Maura.
The characters are well drawn and sympathetic. I enjoyed this one-shot. The art was intriguing as was the idea of science and magic melding.
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Hell and Back by Craig Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Did I tag a Longmire as paranormal? Yes I did. This is not your average Longmire and I imagine that will upset some people. It is definitely drawing from The X-Files and the Twilight Zone. If those aren't your jam, you might want to consider if you want to read this. I enjoyed it very much with a caveat or two. For one you absolutely need to read Daughter of the Morning Star (which danced with the paranormal idea), the book before this to have any sense of what this book is trying to do.
It heavily features the Wandering Without, the Evesohtse-Heomese, a spiritual entity, that devours souls. Last book there was a missing girl that the Cheyenne considered might have been taken by the Wandering Without. This book opens with Walt in Fort Pratt where he was heading at the end of the last book, where an Indian boarding school once stood, where thirty boys died when it burnt down.
Something very weird is happening, a Ground Hog Day theme of never ending night and people constantly repeating their day (and we slowly learn Walt knows these people somehow). then we have Henry and Vic looking for Walt who is missing in the here and now.
On top of all that confusion is the idea that Walt has been sent somehow (either by the Wandering Without or maybe Virgil a shaman like character) back to the late 1800s with the boarding school and why exactly is he there?
Most of the book is from Walt's pov but Henry and Vic have their time (third person point of view time for them) It is much less of a mystery than it is an X File exploration of unfortunate time period in American history.
And there is where my caveat comes in, Without being terribly spoilery it is obvious that Walt wants to save these Native boys. (I think at this point most of us know that there were Indian schools where their language/culture etc was tortured out of them, the idea of 'kill the Indian, save the man') and I was in fear of would he save them and change history. I would be very much not okay with that idea. It happened. It needs to be part of the conversation and I am sure that's what Johnson was after here. What it doesn't need is a White savior and to be fair it ends on an ambiguous note that doesn't suggest yes history was changed.
I'm not sure why this coma/near death trauma hallucination was the way Johnson decided to tackle this topic. It seems a strange choice for Longmire but like I said, I did enjoy it (I was less impressed that Henry is still referred to by The Cheyenne Nation and The Bear even when we're not in Walt's pov). I'm curious how this is going to fold into the normal Longmire stories.
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Everybunny Loves Magic by Aaron Reynolds
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'll be honest, I didn't read the first two which put me at a disadvantage. Basically picked this up because I needed a bunny on the cover for a reading challenge and I can say this did not encourage me to get the other two (i gave it three stars thinking maybe it would be better had I read the others).
Now to be fair, it wasn't bad but I found Rex to be utterly obnoxious. Imagine if you will, an eleven year old Sherlock Holmes or Sheldon Cooper...only he's nowhere near as smart as he thinks. And Rex does have his Watson/Leonard. Poor Darvish withstands a lot of belittling and verbal nonsense from Rex, more than any friend should. I'm assuming Rex talking out his butt thinking he's a master sleuth (and usually being wrong) is the 'funny' part of this.
What sets Rex apart from Sherlock and Sheldon is he has a paranormal power. He sees and talks to dead animals (who talk like humans to him). He has Drumstick a dead chicken who is his constant companion. Rex doesn't like this ability but he's stuck for now.
In this he's swamped with dead bunnies who died suffocated in a magician's hat. He and Darvish try to get to the bottom of the bunny deaths all the while having to play a murder mystery at school too. Mostly Rex theatrically accuses people while ignore Darvish's more sensible approach (and waxing poetically at how far Darvish has come and how much further he has to go as an investigator).
Also a beaten into the ground trope in this is Rex's 'manhood' and insistence on coffee (that he actually doesn't like but assumes makes him a man). Meanwhile Darvish is far more mature than he.
Was it funny? Not really but I AM not the age group this is aimed at (I divide middle grade books into ones kids in the age group will enjoy and ones that adults and kids alike would like. I put this in the first category). Was the mystery satisfying? No, I'm not sure you could actually solve this? Was it a good ending for the series? You know, I want to say yes even without seeing the rest of the series because it does feel like it wrapped everything up.
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