books, September
I might have forgotten one. I can't tell.
Julia London, The Perfect Homecoming. About what I expected it to be, which was not great but not terrible. Too much, “I am totally not autistic! I just suck at people!” which I will buy because the character really, really doesn’t see the rules she’s been raised by. I will buy it but roll my eyes at it.
Cherie Priest, I Am Princess X. This just kept moving. No time to rest for anyone. It was kind of exhausting to read, but enjoyable.
Douglas Rees, Vampire High. A reread because it turns out that is about the level of realbook I want, plus I reorganized my shelves and found it. Not spectacular, but I didn’t expect it to be, and it’s satisfying.
Ilona Andrews, Magic Shifts. Angela is going back to read the first book and compare. Since I read it in chunks, and while other things were going on, I ended up with a weirdly dissociated experience of the book. I kept forgetting that I’d read it, or that I had finished it, or that the things in the book actually happened in the book rather than being yet more fanfic. What that boils down to is that it feels like an almost perfunctory book, like it has to happen to escalate things to a later book.
I would have loved more neighbor shenanigans and Mahon being Mahon and failing, honestly.
Daniel Jose Older, Shadowshaper. If I say this book is all surface, it sounds like more of a complaint than it is, and I do not want to do that. This book is very clear about what it is doing and why; it comes out and says so rather than backgrounding it. A little jarring for me, but I’m also used to the background being background I’m completely familiar with, see also white privilege, and thus smoother going down.
Anyway! The book is all surface in a way that makes me understand layers and subtext.
Julia London, The Perfect Homecoming. About what I expected it to be, which was not great but not terrible. Too much, “I am totally not autistic! I just suck at people!” which I will buy because the character really, really doesn’t see the rules she’s been raised by. I will buy it but roll my eyes at it.
Cherie Priest, I Am Princess X. This just kept moving. No time to rest for anyone. It was kind of exhausting to read, but enjoyable.
Douglas Rees, Vampire High. A reread because it turns out that is about the level of realbook I want, plus I reorganized my shelves and found it. Not spectacular, but I didn’t expect it to be, and it’s satisfying.
Ilona Andrews, Magic Shifts. Angela is going back to read the first book and compare. Since I read it in chunks, and while other things were going on, I ended up with a weirdly dissociated experience of the book. I kept forgetting that I’d read it, or that I had finished it, or that the things in the book actually happened in the book rather than being yet more fanfic. What that boils down to is that it feels like an almost perfunctory book, like it has to happen to escalate things to a later book.
I would have loved more neighbor shenanigans and Mahon being Mahon and failing, honestly.
Daniel Jose Older, Shadowshaper. If I say this book is all surface, it sounds like more of a complaint than it is, and I do not want to do that. This book is very clear about what it is doing and why; it comes out and says so rather than backgrounding it. A little jarring for me, but I’m also used to the background being background I’m completely familiar with, see also white privilege, and thus smoother going down.
Anyway! The book is all surface in a way that makes me understand layers and subtext.