Reading roundup of YA and fluff
17. Becky Albertalli, Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda -- I first heard about the book via qwentoozla, and it sounded like my kind of YA, quirky and funny and sweet. And it is all of those things, and reminded me rather a lot of Will Grayson, Will Grayson and also Openly Straight, both of which were YA books with gay protagonists that I liked a lot. But I think I actually like Simon even more than any of those guys.
I liked that this book really had an ensemble feel to it, rather than being just Simon's coming-of-age story, or romance. I really enjoyed Simon's "since we were little" friendship with Nick and Leah, and the way that doesn't necessarily make things easier always, but even when things were awkward or they were mad at each other, the friendship and love between them was very clear. And I liked his newer friendship with Abby, too, and that sense of freedom that comes with a new friendship and going through intense experiences together. Spoilers! Even Martin was an interesting character, though I'm glad Simon didn't forgive him. And I really loved Simon's family, in its quirky and trying-too-hard sometimes, awkward but loving glory, the Chipmunk impersonations and Facebook scavenger hunts and Skype reality TV show watching and all, his psychologist mom and his dad who doesn't know when to shut up and SJW college sister and little sister who is suddenly cool -- and the general sense that families are messy and complicated and awkward and embarrassing but (mostly) loving and well-meaning (e.g. Martin's parents marching in Pride in support of his brother, Bram's divorced parents giving him various awkward versions of the Talk upon him coming out to them).
I liked the themes in this book, the idea of coming out not just as a gay thing but of revealing various facets of yourself to people important to you and the world, and doing it on your own terms. And the interplay between privacy and the desire of people who love you to know the whole you, freedom to be a new person and the weight of expectations from those who love you, which I thought were both nicely done, with Simon on the one hand wanting both his privacy and the freedom to change, and on the other hand being frustrated by Blue not being ready t take the next step, annoyed by his parents being surprised that he now drinks coffee and blindsided by Nora never being home and suddenly standing up to Alice. It's pretty simple stuff, but effective and plausible and not laid on too thick. And I really liked the conversation Simon has with his mother, when she talks about how the continual surprise and making a big deal of everything is not out of desire to stifle growth, but because, as a parent, you do miss the time when you saw all the changes happen when you were there (not surprised the author has kids). Anyway, I thought thematically it was very nicely done, and tied the specifics of what Simon is dealing with to the universal. Oh, and I liked all the coming out scenes, which were all nicely different and mostly low key, and occasionally really funny.
I was pretty sure that Blue was Bram from the point where Simon accidentally got Bram's English paper with the perfect score -- although the president's name thing threw me off track for a moment. I even googled up a list of presidential names, and then it hit me that Bram was short for Abraham probably. (Also, Blue talks about the white default when Simon mentions the straight default, so that was another clue.) It hadn't occurred to me that Martin was also named after a president, and I didn't buy Simon thinking Martin could've been Blue, but it didn't bother me too much. Anyway, Blue and Simon are ridiculously cute in the emails, and Bram and Simon are even cuter in person, and their grocery store Oreo milk lunch date was the most adorable thing.
I liked the extended cast of the book, the way it really felt like a real school -- not a singl tight clique of friends, but different overlapping circles that can get along -- Nick's soccer friends, Simon's theater kids, Leah's rock band (apparently) -- and the way people who are awful in some ways can be pretty awesome in others (like Taylor). And I liked that the mixed signals thing Simon was getting from Cal pinging his gaydar but also cuddling up with a girl turned out to have the simplest explanation that Cal is bi.
It felt like a very contemporary book, what with everyone being on their phones, and Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr (I think this might be the first book I've read that had Tumblr in it explicitly?) And Harry/Draco fanfiction XD Simon and his crush on Daniel Radcliffe, and relating everything to Harry Potter was pretty adorable, too.
One thing I'm not totally satisfied with is where the ending leaves Leah, because I felt like she deserved some happiness, too. I mean, she and Simon reconcile, and she's revealed as a drumming rock star, but everybody else in the main cast is happily paired off, and it didn't seem fair. But that's really my only complaint, and it's probably more realistic than a Hollywood ending, anyway...
Turns out there's a movie coming out next year, which I'm curious about.
18. David Levithan, Boy Meets Boy -- this one appealed to me less than Simon, but I think that's just the author's style -- while I enjoyed Will Grayson, Will Grayson, I definitely enjoyed Levithan's Will (the lowercase one) less than John Green's. The other part is probably that Boy Meets Boy has more of a love triangle thing going on, and m/m/m love triangles are apparently just as boring to me as het ones. It's a good book, and knowing that it was written in 2003 (which I only learned from the afterword) made it all the more impressive in my eyes, and there are elements of it I really liked, but on the whole, not my style. IDK, are these even spoilers?
Another thing I learned from the afterword, or, actually, the 10-year-anniversary Q&A that follows, is that Levithan was influenced by the Weetzie Bat books, and I can totally see it now, in some of the prose and in the surrealism of the town. Which was a mixed bag for me: on the one hand, the LGBT-utopian elements (such as the hardcore drag queens having more of a problem with Infinite Darlene than the football players) were cute and refreshing, and some of the other stuff was just plain fun -- day-trading janitors who are millionaires but keep working because they find school cleanliness important, the Dowager Dance with the portrait -- but, IDK. It's a very particular style of worldbuilding that apparently works for me only with specific type stories (the Weetzie Bat books mostly being a hit), and it didn't really here. The other thing it sets up or relies on is the love story being a "love at first sight" kind of deal, where they see each other and Just Know, and I do think it's kind of nice that there is a m/m love story with that trope, given the zillions of het love stories like that out there -- but it's not a trope that works for me personally. And I do appreciate that Noah and Paul spend time together actually getting to know each other, and that Paul works hard for the ~from first sight~ "happily ever after", but I just don't like that framework.
I did find Tony's story more affecting than Paul's, and I do agree that the book is at least as much about Tony as it is about Paul. But... Paul is our POV character, and it is Paul shenanigans that we spent most of the time with. And I do actually like what Levithan is going for there -- the "it gets better" utopia of Paul's town that is a beacon for Tony, and the small steps and difficult negotiation it takes to get him from his complicated and dark present to that technicolor utopian place. And I do appreciate that the book has that happy counterpart, because there are plenty of depressing books about LGBT issues. But, IDK, it just felt unbalanced, and I felt like the seriousness of Tony's story made Paul's issues seem trivial and his setting ridiculous rather than charmingly magical realism. The two things just didn't meld into a symphony for me, but sort of worked athwart each other. So, an interesting structure, and I see what he was going for there, but one that didn't work for me.
My favorite and most memorable thing about the book was Infinite Darlene, and I was consequently glad to see that the edition I had included a short story ("The Quarterback and the Cheerleader") which included Infinite Darlene going on a date with a male cheerleader from a rival school. The format of the story, which was even Weetzie Bat-ier than the book (or maybe I just noticed it more because I read it after reading the Q&A where Levithan mentioned that influence), so it didn't work for me that well as a STORY, but I was very happy to see Infinite Darlene again, and to see her get a happily ever after of her own.
Ultimately, though, I don't think Levithan's style is a good fit for me, so I won't be seeking out more of his books, though I'll read them if they come across my path, like this one did.
19. Sherwood Smith (sartorias) and Rachel Manija Brown (rachelmanija), Rebel (The Change #3) -- I'm liking the series more and more as it goes on, and in this case, I think it particularly benefited from my recent diet of future-fic SFF-y intentionally-diverse YA (i.e. Not Your Sidekick and The Abyss Surrounds Us -- TASU holds up pretty well, but the character choice feel considerably less arbitrary here, and I kept comparing the woven through diversity of this series to the earnest but belabored PSAs/infodumps of NYS). But more on that later. Spoilers from here, including the mystery reveal
I was really happy to have Felicite's POV return in this book, having missed it in book 2 -- Felicite is the POV character I'm most invested in (followed by Jennie, and then probably Kerry, but it's kind of a big jump between the two of them), and the Preston-Wolfe family drama in this book was really great: Grandma Wolfe coming back and the conflict between her and Tom Preston, with Valeria doing her politician best to keep the peace and Will being caught in the middle, and all the awkward family dinners. Tom Preston, who is, from every POV at this point, a loving father, a brave man, a good leader -- and a giant bigot; an astute and capable man and a good judge of characer -- with enormous blindspots. I really liked the scenes where Jennie decided to vote for him, despite his personal dismissal of her (which was painful to read in the post-fire fighting scene) because he was really the best choice, and Kerry warning him rather than the new defense chief about Voske's plan to attack from the sea -- and the town basically forgetting that Horst is the new defense chief when push comes to shove and deferring to "private citizen" Preston. Preston whispering to Felicite during the mocking Romeo and Juliet staging, helping her see it in a different light ("This is the price of power. Don't let them win." [...] Daddy was right. TheCatalina Players thought she was important enough to write an entire play just to hurt her feelings. If you thought of it that way, it was almost flattering.") was also great. The lengths to which Felicite goes to conceal her Change, from the tedious everyday (bathing with barely moist towels, lying about why she's wearing scarves) to thinking of it even in the middle of a life-threatening situation (smearing ash on herself during the wife, hiding the handkerchief Preston gives her to clean herself off so he wouldn't see that it's not wet) was really well done -- it really drives home how completely ON she is at all times, and there's the sense of both the oppressive (self-imposed to some degree but definitely understandable) environment and how clever and quick-thinking she is, in a way that's both admirably and heart-breaking. I really hope that the reveal of Felicite's Change, once it finally happens, will end positively for both of them and for the Preston-Wolfe family, because they are the people I am most invested in, in all their Lannistery politicking. (They are such Lannisters, seriously. Felicite even has a golden rat to match.)
And all the stuff with Felicite and Henry... I had guessed pretty early on (as, I'm guessing, did Sheriff Crow and Tom Preston) that Henry had a secret Change and was using it to set fires to make himself look good, and so Felicite angsting about him finding out about her Change, and the two of them talking about how awful Changed people are was especially tragic. The multiple POVs worked really well with the mystery in this one, because it was already confirmed, or pretty much, that Henry was the arsonist and will need to be exiled when Felicite revealed the tunnel to him, and I was eagerly awaiting finding out what would happen with that: Would Felicite come clean to her father, putting her duty to Las Anclas above loyalty to Henry (as Becky had done)? Although, of course, Becky was altering his life but not condemning him to actual death (and I do think Felicite was right in her assessment of what Henry knowing the secret would mean for his future). I absolutely believe that she would continue trying to come up with ways to politick them out of trouble up until the last -- and that, much as she thinks she loves Henry, she would not abandone her ambitions (which she thought of first) or her family to go with him, but that a part of her regrets the freedom she gives up even so. (Also, Felicite's foe yay with Kerry continues to be a joy to behold.)
There were people other than Felicite and her family in these books, but they are secondary for me. I liked the addition of Summer (and the reveal of who was her occasionally slipped-in "we" and the tragedy there), and really felt for Ross having to suddenly deal with a bratty (and traumatized) teenager. But when she and Ross finally have their breakthrough conversation and she shares her drawings of their parents and tells him about Spring, that was both sweetly and believably done -- Summer was still Summer, just with her vulnerabilities opened up. I also really liked the relationship between Kerry and Summer, and that by the end of the book, Summer can actually confide in Kerry when she's scared (with the crystal trees) rather than laying on the bravado -- although she gets right back to that as soon as they're back in town. I continue to like Kerry in general, although not so much the storyline about her trying to build a sibling, or at least cordial, relationship with Paco. My favorite scene with her, though, was probably the rat-bonding, not even so much for Kerry herself, or even Whisper, as for the rat worldbuilding (which is the point I'm using to try and sell L on reading these books). Oh, and the second favorite was Kerry straining to extend her shield over the others, when they're caught in ambush, and having to fight with Jennie's too heavy, too corporeal sword. (And I like the way Kerry still hears her parents' advice in her head.
Ross, Jennie, and Mia's poly relationship continues to be cute in theory, and I definitely continue to appreciate it as an alterantive to the stupide YA love triangle thing, and I like the way the three of them carefully and gradually navigate consent and being ready for sex, or not being ready -- but all my appreciation for all the relationships in this triad is purely intellectual. (Honestly, I still feel way more chemistry between Jennie and Indra (even in Becky's inherited memories) than between anyone involved in the triad. Thought this may well be in part because I kinda have a crush on Indra myself.) But intellectually, I do appreciate a lot of things about it: that all three participants do worry to some degree on how the arrangement is working but being firm in their commitment to it, Mia coming the Jennie for advice and it being awkward but their friendship carrying them through it. And I feel like this book made it clearer that Mia is something like demisexual/gray-A, rather than just a late bloomer with her first crush, which I also appreciated, along with the acknowledgement that this can actually be more complicated than full-on asexuality, which is brought up several times as a legitimate thing. And Mia's sex disasters are pretty darn funny, as was her Very Meaningful eviction of the tractor engine from her bed.
The Becky arc worked least well for me in this book, which might just be because there are so many POVs at this point and hers is the newest one, but I think it's more than that -- her storyline felt both the least connected and the most... Very Special Episode, I guess. There are a lot of important things in it: Becky and Henry both being victims but reacting differently (the scene Becky sees through her Change, of their father telling young Henry to smile was very chilling, and the most powerful of her POV for me); the cycle of abuse at her house and Brisa's way of convincing Becky she can break it (that's one thing about Becky's POV: it definitely made me see Brisa in a more positive light); the reaction of others, who didn't know, or tried to find out, or didn't think to ask; even the idea (unrelated to the abuse storyline itself) that it's OK to walk away from a career path if it's not working for you, even if you and others have invested a lot of time in it. But it just felt too neatly tied up to have Becky walk away and find her strength and find a new career, all in the fairly short space of the one book. I'm happy for her and everything, but it stood out as an overly tidy bit of canon to me. (Randomly, just as I was writing this up, I realized that my mental image of Becky is very much like Tara from Buffy, apparently.)
(On another random note: Becky and Henry and Felicite all having hidden/late-blooming Change powers made me wonder -- Las Anclas is supposed to be 30% Changed, but it seems like the actual number might be considerably higher...)
One of the things I invariably enjoy about these books are the description of food (eggs scrambled with cactus and onions! lobster dumplings and Dr Lee's kimchi! buckwheat pancakes with mesquite syrup!), and of the critters. The rats are wonderful, of course, as already mentioned, but so are the miniature hippos in Dai La! I also enjoyed seeing the giant insects on the way to the ruined city, the brightly colored leaf-sailing mouse-things, and the too cleaver raccoons. And Spring won me over instantly, in Summer's drawings/stroies, with her pet iguana named Fluffy. A new source of amusement in this book were the Catalina players, especially their take on the dystopian lit (I loved the resolution to the de rigueur love triangle being that the heroine ends up with her female best friends, and the rival boyfriends end up with each other), and was disappointed we didn't get to see more of the no-doubt weird treatment The Three Musketeers got. Mia fixating on the costume lobster claws and thinking she could improve them was another nice touch, as was watching Jennie struggle to be both positive and honest about the Preston-Wolfes.
I had mentioned a comparison to Not Your Sidekick early on, and I kept being struck by how naturally and non-preachily the representation/diversity was worked into the plot. Everything from the various characters' skin color, Mrs Riley being Deaf, Ross's hand, Jennie's height and size, Nasreen's hijab, Felicite liking girls and other LGBT relationships, etc. etc. And one scene that stood out to me in particular in relation to NYS was the pronouns scene with Jose: action doesn't pause to have a full-on "him/his" discussion, or to pat a character on the back for making a good guess: Summer misgenders him because she's new in town, Jennie corrects her about that as well as about using her powers in sparring, she tries to argue (because she's arguing about everything in Las Anclas), Jose explains he's trans, and Summer "blinked, then shurgged" and moves on. I think the difference for me, really, is that the moments in NYS (and similar) feel like the story is put on pause while Model Characters have the Important Conversations (or important internal monologues) in model ways, while here I did really feel like this was these specific characters having these in-character thoughts. Aside from that, One thing I continue to really enjoy about the worldbuilding is the gender-equality of the setting -- female mayor who has everyone quaking in their boots with the Button Dress, female sheriff, female head of the players' company, female Rangers and archers -- and little things like the female butcher, Miss Chen, being one of the strongest people in town who Preston would've liked to tap to go with Ross on the fire-fighting mission through the crystal trees -- with the gender stuff never being remarked on at all because it is completely unremarkable.
I think book 4 is supposed to be the conclusion, and I'm looking forward to it more eagerly than ever.
20. Martha Wells, All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) -- a rather adorable novella narrated by Murderbot, a self-hacked security cyborg guarding a planetary survey team, half-assedly, because it would rather be watching the soaps (and fast-forwarding through the sex scenes, because those are boring). Unsurprisingly, this gave me Kosmo~oluhi feels, although there are definitely differences. Spoilers from here!
I definitely loved the narration/writing, especially Murderbot's consistent bitching about how cheap the company is. I was said that Murderbot takes off at the end of the novella, because even though its reluctant interaction, I had gotten to be rather fond of the humans, especially Dr Mensah and Ratthi, and everyone's dynamics with each other, and the fact that even the person who is not won over by Murderbot and is suspicious of it, Gurathin, seems to be a decent person with valid concerns and plenty of good qualities ('"I do think of it as a person," Gurathin said. "An angry, heavily armed person who has no reason to trust us." "Then stop being mean to it," Ratthi told him. "That might help."') And I enjoyed watching the way Murderbot transitioned, slowly, from lumping itself in with the equipment and "resources" to thinking of itself as one of the party and of the scientists as "my humans", even though it still DEFINITELY does not want to talk with them about feelings, and prefers to watch them through the external camera feed rather than making eye contact. I also liked the way it was able to use its exposure to media to pull off the GrayCris double-cross, and in general to their and/or its own advantage. And the mystery/thriller aspects of the story were nicely done, too, and a good size for the novella. And I always love a story with a self-sacrificing and stoic android in it.
Quotes:
"This sounded like a great plan, in that it didn't involve me."
"At least Mesah and Arada had overruled the ones who wanted to talk to me about it. Yes, talkto Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency. I'd rather climb back into Hostile One's mouth."
"Dead bodies, maybe. I'd seen plenty of those (and caused plenty of those) on past contracts, but this one had been dead-body-lacking, so far. It made for a nice change."
"She was going to be the only one speaking to me so I wasn't distracted. Mensah underestimated my ability to ignore humans but I appreciated the thought."
"Granted, I liked the imaginary people on the entertainment feed way more than I liked real ones, but you can't have one without the other."
"'SecUnit, your opinion.'
Frotunately, I had one now. Up to the point where we'd gotten the drone download, my opinion had been mostly oh, shit."
Anyway, really fun premise, and you can see from the large number of quotes, especially for such a short book, I enjoyed the writing a whole lot. Looking forward to the next novella, next year, and hopefully many more (especially now that Kosmo~oluhi are done).
*
We also watched Sing with L, which I had expected to be boring, ridiculous, and twee, and which was... well, twee and ridiculous, yes, but surprisingly not bad! And enhanced by L's quips about "rockupines" and "mouse-ician", and making fun of the Russian bears and Japanese red pandas, and so on. I liked the koala, and Nana Noodleman the old sheep diva, and Rosita the pig with her Rube Goldberg machine and hidden skills, and L's favorite was the grandpa elephant. And the squids, which we were both happy returned for the rebuilt theater. There were, of course, ridiculous fart/poop jokes and other stupid humour, mostly involving Miss Crawly's glass eye, but it was pretty cute on the whole.
I liked that this book really had an ensemble feel to it, rather than being just Simon's coming-of-age story, or romance. I really enjoyed Simon's "since we were little" friendship with Nick and Leah, and the way that doesn't necessarily make things easier always, but even when things were awkward or they were mad at each other, the friendship and love between them was very clear. And I liked his newer friendship with Abby, too, and that sense of freedom that comes with a new friendship and going through intense experiences together. Spoilers! Even Martin was an interesting character, though I'm glad Simon didn't forgive him. And I really loved Simon's family, in its quirky and trying-too-hard sometimes, awkward but loving glory, the Chipmunk impersonations and Facebook scavenger hunts and Skype reality TV show watching and all, his psychologist mom and his dad who doesn't know when to shut up and SJW college sister and little sister who is suddenly cool -- and the general sense that families are messy and complicated and awkward and embarrassing but (mostly) loving and well-meaning (e.g. Martin's parents marching in Pride in support of his brother, Bram's divorced parents giving him various awkward versions of the Talk upon him coming out to them).
I liked the themes in this book, the idea of coming out not just as a gay thing but of revealing various facets of yourself to people important to you and the world, and doing it on your own terms. And the interplay between privacy and the desire of people who love you to know the whole you, freedom to be a new person and the weight of expectations from those who love you, which I thought were both nicely done, with Simon on the one hand wanting both his privacy and the freedom to change, and on the other hand being frustrated by Blue not being ready t take the next step, annoyed by his parents being surprised that he now drinks coffee and blindsided by Nora never being home and suddenly standing up to Alice. It's pretty simple stuff, but effective and plausible and not laid on too thick. And I really liked the conversation Simon has with his mother, when she talks about how the continual surprise and making a big deal of everything is not out of desire to stifle growth, but because, as a parent, you do miss the time when you saw all the changes happen when you were there (not surprised the author has kids). Anyway, I thought thematically it was very nicely done, and tied the specifics of what Simon is dealing with to the universal. Oh, and I liked all the coming out scenes, which were all nicely different and mostly low key, and occasionally really funny.
I was pretty sure that Blue was Bram from the point where Simon accidentally got Bram's English paper with the perfect score -- although the president's name thing threw me off track for a moment. I even googled up a list of presidential names, and then it hit me that Bram was short for Abraham probably. (Also, Blue talks about the white default when Simon mentions the straight default, so that was another clue.) It hadn't occurred to me that Martin was also named after a president, and I didn't buy Simon thinking Martin could've been Blue, but it didn't bother me too much. Anyway, Blue and Simon are ridiculously cute in the emails, and Bram and Simon are even cuter in person, and their grocery store Oreo milk lunch date was the most adorable thing.
I liked the extended cast of the book, the way it really felt like a real school -- not a singl tight clique of friends, but different overlapping circles that can get along -- Nick's soccer friends, Simon's theater kids, Leah's rock band (apparently) -- and the way people who are awful in some ways can be pretty awesome in others (like Taylor). And I liked that the mixed signals thing Simon was getting from Cal pinging his gaydar but also cuddling up with a girl turned out to have the simplest explanation that Cal is bi.
It felt like a very contemporary book, what with everyone being on their phones, and Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr (I think this might be the first book I've read that had Tumblr in it explicitly?) And Harry/Draco fanfiction XD Simon and his crush on Daniel Radcliffe, and relating everything to Harry Potter was pretty adorable, too.
One thing I'm not totally satisfied with is where the ending leaves Leah, because I felt like she deserved some happiness, too. I mean, she and Simon reconcile, and she's revealed as a drumming rock star, but everybody else in the main cast is happily paired off, and it didn't seem fair. But that's really my only complaint, and it's probably more realistic than a Hollywood ending, anyway...
Turns out there's a movie coming out next year, which I'm curious about.
18. David Levithan, Boy Meets Boy -- this one appealed to me less than Simon, but I think that's just the author's style -- while I enjoyed Will Grayson, Will Grayson, I definitely enjoyed Levithan's Will (the lowercase one) less than John Green's. The other part is probably that Boy Meets Boy has more of a love triangle thing going on, and m/m/m love triangles are apparently just as boring to me as het ones. It's a good book, and knowing that it was written in 2003 (which I only learned from the afterword) made it all the more impressive in my eyes, and there are elements of it I really liked, but on the whole, not my style. IDK, are these even spoilers?
Another thing I learned from the afterword, or, actually, the 10-year-anniversary Q&A that follows, is that Levithan was influenced by the Weetzie Bat books, and I can totally see it now, in some of the prose and in the surrealism of the town. Which was a mixed bag for me: on the one hand, the LGBT-utopian elements (such as the hardcore drag queens having more of a problem with Infinite Darlene than the football players) were cute and refreshing, and some of the other stuff was just plain fun -- day-trading janitors who are millionaires but keep working because they find school cleanliness important, the Dowager Dance with the portrait -- but, IDK. It's a very particular style of worldbuilding that apparently works for me only with specific type stories (the Weetzie Bat books mostly being a hit), and it didn't really here. The other thing it sets up or relies on is the love story being a "love at first sight" kind of deal, where they see each other and Just Know, and I do think it's kind of nice that there is a m/m love story with that trope, given the zillions of het love stories like that out there -- but it's not a trope that works for me personally. And I do appreciate that Noah and Paul spend time together actually getting to know each other, and that Paul works hard for the ~from first sight~ "happily ever after", but I just don't like that framework.
I did find Tony's story more affecting than Paul's, and I do agree that the book is at least as much about Tony as it is about Paul. But... Paul is our POV character, and it is Paul shenanigans that we spent most of the time with. And I do actually like what Levithan is going for there -- the "it gets better" utopia of Paul's town that is a beacon for Tony, and the small steps and difficult negotiation it takes to get him from his complicated and dark present to that technicolor utopian place. And I do appreciate that the book has that happy counterpart, because there are plenty of depressing books about LGBT issues. But, IDK, it just felt unbalanced, and I felt like the seriousness of Tony's story made Paul's issues seem trivial and his setting ridiculous rather than charmingly magical realism. The two things just didn't meld into a symphony for me, but sort of worked athwart each other. So, an interesting structure, and I see what he was going for there, but one that didn't work for me.
My favorite and most memorable thing about the book was Infinite Darlene, and I was consequently glad to see that the edition I had included a short story ("The Quarterback and the Cheerleader") which included Infinite Darlene going on a date with a male cheerleader from a rival school. The format of the story, which was even Weetzie Bat-ier than the book (or maybe I just noticed it more because I read it after reading the Q&A where Levithan mentioned that influence), so it didn't work for me that well as a STORY, but I was very happy to see Infinite Darlene again, and to see her get a happily ever after of her own.
Ultimately, though, I don't think Levithan's style is a good fit for me, so I won't be seeking out more of his books, though I'll read them if they come across my path, like this one did.
19. Sherwood Smith (sartorias) and Rachel Manija Brown (rachelmanija), Rebel (The Change #3) -- I'm liking the series more and more as it goes on, and in this case, I think it particularly benefited from my recent diet of future-fic SFF-y intentionally-diverse YA (i.e. Not Your Sidekick and The Abyss Surrounds Us -- TASU holds up pretty well, but the character choice feel considerably less arbitrary here, and I kept comparing the woven through diversity of this series to the earnest but belabored PSAs/infodumps of NYS). But more on that later. Spoilers from here, including the mystery reveal
I was really happy to have Felicite's POV return in this book, having missed it in book 2 -- Felicite is the POV character I'm most invested in (followed by Jennie, and then probably Kerry, but it's kind of a big jump between the two of them), and the Preston-Wolfe family drama in this book was really great: Grandma Wolfe coming back and the conflict between her and Tom Preston, with Valeria doing her politician best to keep the peace and Will being caught in the middle, and all the awkward family dinners. Tom Preston, who is, from every POV at this point, a loving father, a brave man, a good leader -- and a giant bigot; an astute and capable man and a good judge of characer -- with enormous blindspots. I really liked the scenes where Jennie decided to vote for him, despite his personal dismissal of her (which was painful to read in the post-fire fighting scene) because he was really the best choice, and Kerry warning him rather than the new defense chief about Voske's plan to attack from the sea -- and the town basically forgetting that Horst is the new defense chief when push comes to shove and deferring to "private citizen" Preston. Preston whispering to Felicite during the mocking Romeo and Juliet staging, helping her see it in a different light ("This is the price of power. Don't let them win." [...] Daddy was right. TheCatalina Players thought she was important enough to write an entire play just to hurt her feelings. If you thought of it that way, it was almost flattering.") was also great. The lengths to which Felicite goes to conceal her Change, from the tedious everyday (bathing with barely moist towels, lying about why she's wearing scarves) to thinking of it even in the middle of a life-threatening situation (smearing ash on herself during the wife, hiding the handkerchief Preston gives her to clean herself off so he wouldn't see that it's not wet) was really well done -- it really drives home how completely ON she is at all times, and there's the sense of both the oppressive (self-imposed to some degree but definitely understandable) environment and how clever and quick-thinking she is, in a way that's both admirably and heart-breaking. I really hope that the reveal of Felicite's Change, once it finally happens, will end positively for both of them and for the Preston-Wolfe family, because they are the people I am most invested in, in all their Lannistery politicking. (They are such Lannisters, seriously. Felicite even has a golden rat to match.)
And all the stuff with Felicite and Henry... I had guessed pretty early on (as, I'm guessing, did Sheriff Crow and Tom Preston) that Henry had a secret Change and was using it to set fires to make himself look good, and so Felicite angsting about him finding out about her Change, and the two of them talking about how awful Changed people are was especially tragic. The multiple POVs worked really well with the mystery in this one, because it was already confirmed, or pretty much, that Henry was the arsonist and will need to be exiled when Felicite revealed the tunnel to him, and I was eagerly awaiting finding out what would happen with that: Would Felicite come clean to her father, putting her duty to Las Anclas above loyalty to Henry (as Becky had done)? Although, of course, Becky was altering his life but not condemning him to actual death (and I do think Felicite was right in her assessment of what Henry knowing the secret would mean for his future). I absolutely believe that she would continue trying to come up with ways to politick them out of trouble up until the last -- and that, much as she thinks she loves Henry, she would not abandone her ambitions (which she thought of first) or her family to go with him, but that a part of her regrets the freedom she gives up even so. (Also, Felicite's foe yay with Kerry continues to be a joy to behold.)
There were people other than Felicite and her family in these books, but they are secondary for me. I liked the addition of Summer (and the reveal of who was her occasionally slipped-in "we" and the tragedy there), and really felt for Ross having to suddenly deal with a bratty (and traumatized) teenager. But when she and Ross finally have their breakthrough conversation and she shares her drawings of their parents and tells him about Spring, that was both sweetly and believably done -- Summer was still Summer, just with her vulnerabilities opened up. I also really liked the relationship between Kerry and Summer, and that by the end of the book, Summer can actually confide in Kerry when she's scared (with the crystal trees) rather than laying on the bravado -- although she gets right back to that as soon as they're back in town. I continue to like Kerry in general, although not so much the storyline about her trying to build a sibling, or at least cordial, relationship with Paco. My favorite scene with her, though, was probably the rat-bonding, not even so much for Kerry herself, or even Whisper, as for the rat worldbuilding (which is the point I'm using to try and sell L on reading these books). Oh, and the second favorite was Kerry straining to extend her shield over the others, when they're caught in ambush, and having to fight with Jennie's too heavy, too corporeal sword. (And I like the way Kerry still hears her parents' advice in her head.
Ross, Jennie, and Mia's poly relationship continues to be cute in theory, and I definitely continue to appreciate it as an alterantive to the stupide YA love triangle thing, and I like the way the three of them carefully and gradually navigate consent and being ready for sex, or not being ready -- but all my appreciation for all the relationships in this triad is purely intellectual. (Honestly, I still feel way more chemistry between Jennie and Indra (even in Becky's inherited memories) than between anyone involved in the triad. Thought this may well be in part because I kinda have a crush on Indra myself.) But intellectually, I do appreciate a lot of things about it: that all three participants do worry to some degree on how the arrangement is working but being firm in their commitment to it, Mia coming the Jennie for advice and it being awkward but their friendship carrying them through it. And I feel like this book made it clearer that Mia is something like demisexual/gray-A, rather than just a late bloomer with her first crush, which I also appreciated, along with the acknowledgement that this can actually be more complicated than full-on asexuality, which is brought up several times as a legitimate thing. And Mia's sex disasters are pretty darn funny, as was her Very Meaningful eviction of the tractor engine from her bed.
The Becky arc worked least well for me in this book, which might just be because there are so many POVs at this point and hers is the newest one, but I think it's more than that -- her storyline felt both the least connected and the most... Very Special Episode, I guess. There are a lot of important things in it: Becky and Henry both being victims but reacting differently (the scene Becky sees through her Change, of their father telling young Henry to smile was very chilling, and the most powerful of her POV for me); the cycle of abuse at her house and Brisa's way of convincing Becky she can break it (that's one thing about Becky's POV: it definitely made me see Brisa in a more positive light); the reaction of others, who didn't know, or tried to find out, or didn't think to ask; even the idea (unrelated to the abuse storyline itself) that it's OK to walk away from a career path if it's not working for you, even if you and others have invested a lot of time in it. But it just felt too neatly tied up to have Becky walk away and find her strength and find a new career, all in the fairly short space of the one book. I'm happy for her and everything, but it stood out as an overly tidy bit of canon to me. (Randomly, just as I was writing this up, I realized that my mental image of Becky is very much like Tara from Buffy, apparently.)
(On another random note: Becky and Henry and Felicite all having hidden/late-blooming Change powers made me wonder -- Las Anclas is supposed to be 30% Changed, but it seems like the actual number might be considerably higher...)
One of the things I invariably enjoy about these books are the description of food (eggs scrambled with cactus and onions! lobster dumplings and Dr Lee's kimchi! buckwheat pancakes with mesquite syrup!), and of the critters. The rats are wonderful, of course, as already mentioned, but so are the miniature hippos in Dai La! I also enjoyed seeing the giant insects on the way to the ruined city, the brightly colored leaf-sailing mouse-things, and the too cleaver raccoons. And Spring won me over instantly, in Summer's drawings/stroies, with her pet iguana named Fluffy. A new source of amusement in this book were the Catalina players, especially their take on the dystopian lit (I loved the resolution to the de rigueur love triangle being that the heroine ends up with her female best friends, and the rival boyfriends end up with each other), and was disappointed we didn't get to see more of the no-doubt weird treatment The Three Musketeers got. Mia fixating on the costume lobster claws and thinking she could improve them was another nice touch, as was watching Jennie struggle to be both positive and honest about the Preston-Wolfes.
I had mentioned a comparison to Not Your Sidekick early on, and I kept being struck by how naturally and non-preachily the representation/diversity was worked into the plot. Everything from the various characters' skin color, Mrs Riley being Deaf, Ross's hand, Jennie's height and size, Nasreen's hijab, Felicite liking girls and other LGBT relationships, etc. etc. And one scene that stood out to me in particular in relation to NYS was the pronouns scene with Jose: action doesn't pause to have a full-on "him/his" discussion, or to pat a character on the back for making a good guess: Summer misgenders him because she's new in town, Jennie corrects her about that as well as about using her powers in sparring, she tries to argue (because she's arguing about everything in Las Anclas), Jose explains he's trans, and Summer "blinked, then shurgged" and moves on. I think the difference for me, really, is that the moments in NYS (and similar) feel like the story is put on pause while Model Characters have the Important Conversations (or important internal monologues) in model ways, while here I did really feel like this was these specific characters having these in-character thoughts. Aside from that, One thing I continue to really enjoy about the worldbuilding is the gender-equality of the setting -- female mayor who has everyone quaking in their boots with the Button Dress, female sheriff, female head of the players' company, female Rangers and archers -- and little things like the female butcher, Miss Chen, being one of the strongest people in town who Preston would've liked to tap to go with Ross on the fire-fighting mission through the crystal trees -- with the gender stuff never being remarked on at all because it is completely unremarkable.
I think book 4 is supposed to be the conclusion, and I'm looking forward to it more eagerly than ever.
20. Martha Wells, All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) -- a rather adorable novella narrated by Murderbot, a self-hacked security cyborg guarding a planetary survey team, half-assedly, because it would rather be watching the soaps (and fast-forwarding through the sex scenes, because those are boring). Unsurprisingly, this gave me Kosmo~oluhi feels, although there are definitely differences. Spoilers from here!
I definitely loved the narration/writing, especially Murderbot's consistent bitching about how cheap the company is. I was said that Murderbot takes off at the end of the novella, because even though its reluctant interaction, I had gotten to be rather fond of the humans, especially Dr Mensah and Ratthi, and everyone's dynamics with each other, and the fact that even the person who is not won over by Murderbot and is suspicious of it, Gurathin, seems to be a decent person with valid concerns and plenty of good qualities ('"I do think of it as a person," Gurathin said. "An angry, heavily armed person who has no reason to trust us." "Then stop being mean to it," Ratthi told him. "That might help."') And I enjoyed watching the way Murderbot transitioned, slowly, from lumping itself in with the equipment and "resources" to thinking of itself as one of the party and of the scientists as "my humans", even though it still DEFINITELY does not want to talk with them about feelings, and prefers to watch them through the external camera feed rather than making eye contact. I also liked the way it was able to use its exposure to media to pull off the GrayCris double-cross, and in general to their and/or its own advantage. And the mystery/thriller aspects of the story were nicely done, too, and a good size for the novella. And I always love a story with a self-sacrificing and stoic android in it.
Quotes:
"This sounded like a great plan, in that it didn't involve me."
"At least Mesah and Arada had overruled the ones who wanted to talk to me about it. Yes, talkto Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency. I'd rather climb back into Hostile One's mouth."
"Dead bodies, maybe. I'd seen plenty of those (and caused plenty of those) on past contracts, but this one had been dead-body-lacking, so far. It made for a nice change."
"She was going to be the only one speaking to me so I wasn't distracted. Mensah underestimated my ability to ignore humans but I appreciated the thought."
"Granted, I liked the imaginary people on the entertainment feed way more than I liked real ones, but you can't have one without the other."
"'SecUnit, your opinion.'
Frotunately, I had one now. Up to the point where we'd gotten the drone download, my opinion had been mostly oh, shit."
Anyway, really fun premise, and you can see from the large number of quotes, especially for such a short book, I enjoyed the writing a whole lot. Looking forward to the next novella, next year, and hopefully many more (especially now that Kosmo~oluhi are done).
*
We also watched Sing with L, which I had expected to be boring, ridiculous, and twee, and which was... well, twee and ridiculous, yes, but surprisingly not bad! And enhanced by L's quips about "rockupines" and "mouse-ician", and making fun of the Russian bears and Japanese red pandas, and so on. I liked the koala, and Nana Noodleman the old sheep diva, and Rosita the pig with her Rube Goldberg machine and hidden skills, and L's favorite was the grandpa elephant. And the squids, which we were both happy returned for the rebuilt theater. There were, of course, ridiculous fart/poop jokes and other stupid humour, mostly involving Miss Crawly's glass eye, but it was pretty cute on the whole.