Reading and watching roundup, part 2, and Hugo nattering

[hamsterwoman]

I'm going to start with the part that did not fit in my last reading & watching roundup post, which is to say, The Hugos:

Winners were announced and detailed results were published, and you know what that means...

I cast my ballot before the deadline based on what I had finished reading/watching at the time, but then (as you can see above) consumed some additional nominees between when I voted/when voting closed and the awards. I never posted with my final ballot, I guess, so I'll take this opportunity to record how I voted, how I would've voted if I could vote the day of the awards, and of course what I think of the results.

Best Novel:

My actual ballot as of Aug 11: A Master of Djinn (which I was partway into at the time), The Galaxy and the Ground Within, Light from Uncommon Stars (which I was partway through at the time), No Award, A Desolation Called Peace (yes, really, sorry, I really did not think much of that book)

My ballot if I were casting it now: She Who Became the Sun, A Master of Djinn, The Galaxy etc. / Light from Uncommon Stars (I'm really torn on the order of these two, having been disappointed by both books in different ways, but while I was more disappointed by 'Galaxy', the fact that the spec stuff in 'Light' was the thing that did not work for me about that book makes me rank it lower on a SFF ballot, where I would rank it quite a bit higher as just a book), No Award, A Desolation Called Peace.

Winner: A Desolation Called Peace, ahaha. Like, I'm not surprised, but 'Djinn' winning the Nebula made me think that maybe it it would win over Desolation' here too, but no such luck.

Detailed results: I am very surprised that She Who Became the Sun was fifth of six (only the Andy Weir book was lower, and even that was really close), because I thought it was a stronger book than the rest, like, by objective standards, but also having a lot of the same things in its favor that the other books on the ballot (and past winners) do: a queer protagonist, non-Western setting with an all-POC cast, f/f central relationship, exploration of gender. Maybe it's that it's not fluffy or even feel-good? Well and I guess the fact that it's a debut novel while competing with past winners/nominated authors did not help, but 'Light' is also a debut novel, and that came in second. Master of Djinn is 3rd, Galaxy is 4th, but I can see the ordering of Light, Galaxy, and Djinn being a matter of taste -- they all have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Nominations: Perhaps the Stars just missed being on the ballot! -- by 5 votes, which is closer to the ballot than I had expected it to come, even with Terra Igonta making the series list. Also on the long list: Witness for the Dead, The Last Graduate (which made Lodestar anyway so wouldn't have counted, I assume), Black Water Sister, The Jasmine Throne, and some Expanse, Tchaikovsky, McGuire, and Gailey.

Best Novella:

My actual ballot as of Aug 11: Elder Race, A Spindle Splintered, The Past is Red (based on being partway through), Across the Green Grass Fields, No Award, A Psalm for the Wild-Built (based by being deeply bored by the first few pages)

My ballot if I were casting it now: Elder Race, A Spindle Splintered, The Past is Red, Across the Green Grass Fields (no change in order, but closer together), No Award, A Psalm for the Wild-Built (even more emphatically)

Winner: A Psalm for the Wild-Built. Yeah, two for two winners that I ranked below No Award. I guess it's that kind of year.

Detailed results: Well, I'm glad to see that at least Elder Race is #2. I would've ranked The Future is Red higher is I hadn't already read the novelette and was thus voting based on just the new stuff, so I'm not surprised it's #3, but I stand by my ranking 'Spindle' higher (Hugos have the order swapped). I *am* surprised that the Wayward Children novella is all the way down at #5, especially considering the series won. Did people just not like this particular one? (which I actually thought was one of the better installments) And the Aliette de Bodard novella was way down at the bottom through all the permutations, so I don't suppose I'm missing much by having skipped it.

Nominations: Completely not surprised that the Murderbot novella got the most noms, and that Wells declined having another go. Hiding in the long list are another Cat Valenta novella (she had a hell of a year as far as nominations are concerned), "Knot of Shadows" from LMB, and the Premee Mohamed novella that won the Nebula, way down at #13, which just goes to show.

Best Novelette:

My ballot: Colors of the Immortal Palette, Bots of the Lost Arc, That Story Isn't the Story, L'Esprit d'Escalier, Unseelie Brothers Ltd, O2 Arena

Winner: "Bots of the Lost Arc" -- which I'm not unhappy with at all. I probably actually enjoyed that one more than 'Palette', I just thought 'Palette' was a lot more ambitious. And/but 'Bots' is pretty similar to Suzanne Palmer's other Hugo-nominated and -winning short fiction, so it's not a surprise.

Detailed results: That's interesting, L'Esprit d'Escalier was the runner up in competition for first place (and every place thereafter also), but only ended up in 5th place in the run-off, which, it's always interesting when it works out that way, but I could see it be a polarizing story; the zombie Eurydice is, you know, A Lot. Unseelie Brothers Ltd ended up in second place, followed by "Palette", which I don't really get, but I guess it had pretty descriptions? The John Wiswell story ended up in 4th place. And I was pleased to see "O2 Arena" in last (I still have no idea what the Nebula folks were thinking to have it win...)

Nominations: The John Wiswell story and Unseelie had the most nominations. There's an EBear novelette way down at the bottom of the longlist. I don't have much else to say about this one.

Best Short Story:

My ballot: Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather, Proof by Induction, Mr Death, Unknown Number, The Sin of America, No Award, Tangles

Winner: "Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather", thank fuck for something that actually matched my top pick; I was starting to assume that was just not going to happen this year.

Detailed results: I'm happy with Mr Death in second place (as I waffled over which one to put there, between it and 'Proof'). Disappointed 'Proof' is down at #4, but I guess most people don't like math as much as I do. Both of the tail end picks match mine, too.

Nominations: Not surprised "Tangles" had way more nominations than its eventual place on the ballot would match. In the longlist, there's a John Wiswell story, and a P.Djeli Clark story, and the one that just didn't make it, "The Cold Calculations", sounds like it's in dialogue with "The Cold Equations", which sounds intriguing enough that I might look it up.

Best Series:

My ballot: Terra Ignota, White Rat, Wayward Children, Kingston Cycle, Merchant Princes

Winner: Wayward Children, *sigh*

Detailed results: I'm not surprised Terra Ignota was as low as #4, and in fact was expecting it to end up lower, given how dense and idiosyncratic it is. I'm actually quite happy with the last two places, which match mine, and pretty happy to see the Kingfisher books in #2. So, really, other than the winner and my favorite being swapped, alas, not too many complaints.

Nominations: Wayward Children had a massive boost in nominations vs the others. And a second Seanan McGuire series almost made onto the ballot, lol, with yet a third one farther down on the longlist XD I think the White Rat nominations are relatively low because people were nominating both as the subseries and the larger series. Also waving in passing to RoL.

I did not vote for Graphic Story and have no opinion on the results. Oh, except these two thoughts: 1) Apparently what it takes to unseat Monstress is N.K.Jemisin, and 2) the thing that received the most nominations in this category was a Seanan McGuire thing that was not even eligible XD

Best Related Work:

My ballot: “How Twitter can ruin a life”, by Emily St. James (Vox, Jun 2021) (I did not have time to read through this category, so I just voted for the one thing I had consumed in the wild)

Winner: Never Say You Can’t Survive, by Charlie Jane Anders

Detailed results: "How Twitter can ruin a life" is in respectable third place. Also happy to see Elsa Sjunneson's memoir in second, and it was actually a strong contender for first place until some late rounds.

Nominations: There's a Seanan McGuire Twitter thread down in the longlist, because of course there is XD

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long:

My actual ballot as of Aug 11: WandaVision, Encanto, Shang-Chi, Space Sweepers (based on the part of the movie I saw)

My ballot if I were casting it now: WandaVision, Encanto, Dune, Shang-Chi, Space Sweepers (still based on the same amount of movie). Look, I get that Dune is a more significant work of art than Encanto, but I know which I enjoyed watching more and which I was more moved by.

Winner: Dune. Not surprised, not mad, just not my personal favorite. This was definitely the outcome I was expecting, though.

Detailed results: Other than Dune being in first and Green Knight (which I did not watch) being in 5th, the order of the others aligns pretty well with my own thoughts.

Nominations: Not surprised that Dune is leading massively in nominations also. I was wondering at Spider-Man not appearing on the ballot; looks like it missed being included by just 2 votes; Black Widow is down all the way at 12, and Loki season 1 also appears further down. The Mitchells vs the Machines, the other one I was surprised wasn't there, was just after Spider-Man. And Raya is bringing up the rear, of other movies I watched.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short: I only watched and voted for the Loki ep, which came in second, but the winner is The Expanse episode. There was a WandaVision episode ("Previously On") which also qualified for the ballot, but the season got more votes in long form than the individual episode did, so that's how it went. And another Loki episode almost made it in, but for once, all of the nominated episodes are from different series, which is pretty cool.

Best Editor, Short: I didn't have time to review the voter packets for this, so voted for Neil Clarke and Jonathan Strahan, in that order, based on what I'd encountered in the wild/nominated stories they were editors for. Thus, very happy to see Neil Clarke win, and not as happy that Strahan got only 5th place.

Best Editor, Long:

My ballot: PNH, Ruoxi Chen, Brit Hvide, Navah Wolfe

Winner: Ruoxi Chen, which I'm reasonably happy with (inasmuch as I'm able to judge)

Detailed results: Navah Wolfe was second and actually received the most first-place votes. PNH was third.

Nominations: Wow, five people were crossed out off the short list -- 4 because they were not eligible and Toni Weisskopf, who would've been #4 by eligible nominations, declined the nomination, unsurprisingly. And most of the rest of the longlist could've been on the shortlist with one more vote. What is this category, lol.

Best Pro Artist:

My ballot: Rovina Cai, Will Staehle, Tommy Arnold, Alyssa Winans, Ashley Mackenzie, Maurizio Manzieri

Winner: Rovina Cai, so another win I'm happy about.

Detailed results: Will Staehle, who was a new name to me and whose work I liked, is way down at #6, but I'm actually not super surprised because it's a very different style and quite a bit simpler than the other artwork. Happy with Winans and Arnold placing high, and the relative placement of the others.

Nominations: John Picacio declined his nomination, which, I'd been wondering at his absence.

I did not vote for Semiprozine, and not super enthused about yet another win for Uncanny (though they do good work), but happy to see FIYAH in #2. Amused Mermaids Monthly only missed the ballot by 1 vote; that would've been cute!

I also did not vote for Fanzine, but have to notice that the Seanan McGuire thing won by a lot (look, she is totally allowed to be a fan, and the definition of fanzine does not preclude a pro's labor of love; I get it. It's just not exactly a level playing field.)

Best Fancast:

My ballot: Be the Serpent, Hugo Girl, Worldbuilding for Masochists, The Coode Street Podcast

Winner: Our Opinions Are Correct. Which I've listened to in the past and did not click with, but they seem to win whenever they're on the ballot, so that's what I expected

Detailed results: happy to see Worldbuilding for Masochist and Hugo, Girl! in the top half of the ballot, though in the opposite order I had them, and Coode Street in 4h. Sad to see Serpentcast last... :(

Nominations: Happy to see Kalanadi on the long list, and not too far down.

I did not vote for Fan Writer and have no opinions, except that I was not overly impressed with the winner's (Cora Buhlert's) writing when she was nominated the time I did review the packet. (None of the people I nominated made it to the long list, alas.)

Best Fan Artist:

My ballot: Sarah Felix, Ariela Houseman, Lee Moyer, Nilah Magruder, Lorelei Esther, Iain J. Clark.

Winner: Lee Moyer. I liked his stuff a lot, just wasn't sure how it was fannish, so I'm OK with the win.

Detailed results: Happy to see Sarah Felix was in second place; not happy that Ariela was in last.

Nominations: Spring Schoenhuth is at the very end of the longlist (which only took 8 votes)

Lodestar:

My ballot: The Last Graduate, Redemptor (based on the little bit I read)

Winner: The Last Graduate, so I'm happy enough, although it's not like I had strong feelings in this category -- that was pretty much a default pick for me.

Detailed results: Redemptor in last place, like Raybearer was the other year -- I really don't get how this series has not been embraced more. Order in the middle: Iron Widow, Catnet, Victories Greater than Death, Snake Falls to Earth.

Nominations: Wayward Children hiding out on the long list, as well as Cashore's Winterkeep.

Astounding:

My actual ballot as of Aug 11: Micaiah Johnson, Larkwood, Maxwell, Tracy Deonn, Xiran Jay Zhao (based on the tiny bit of Iron Widow I'd read, I guess?)

My ballot if I were casting it now: Micaiah Johnson / Shelley Parker-Chan (if I were being honest, I'd put SPC first, BUT given that it's her first year of eligibility and Micaih's second, I would've probably gone with the strategic ranking of Johnson first), Larkwood, Maxwell, Deonn, Xiran Jay Zhao

Winner: Shelley Parker-Chan, which is I think right and proper. But I am sad for the year 2 people who I also thought were very deserving, Micaiah Johnson and Larkwood. But really I thought it was a very strong slate, where by the end I would've been happy with any of 4 winners.

Detailed results: Happy to see Johnson was second, not happy and kind of puzzled that Larkwood and Maxwell were #5 and #6.

Nominations: Aww, there's Freya, brining up the rear of the longlist (I don't recall if she was actually eligible, since I know she had short fiction published previously).

So that's, let's see:

Categories in which my top choice won: Short Story, Editor Short, Pro Artist, Lodestar (although top = only here) = 4
Categories in which my top choice did not win, but I'm happy with who did: Novelette, Dramatic Long, Editor Long, Fan Artist, Astounding = 5
Categories in which I'm unhappy with the winner: Novel**, Novella**, Best Series, Fancast (*= last ranked choice, ** = last ranked choice AND below No Award) = 4, but 2 of these really annoy me
Categories in which my top choice did not win but I have no opinion on the work that did: Related Work, Dramatic Short = 2
Didn't vote, don't get to have an opinion on winner: Graphic Story, Fan Writer, Semiprozine, Fanzine = 4

So that's actually not a terrible breakdown, but given that I was disappointed by the results of the 3 longest form things (which I tend to be more passionate about), it feels like an overall disappointing year...

This Hugo administration also posted some stats i don't remember seeing before (end of PDF packet). It's interesting but unsurprising to see that while there were 23 nominating completists out there (I've done that once before, and it's not easy!), most people come in with 1-8 nominations, and 1-3 is really the mode. It looks like I nominated in 10 (novel, novella, short story, dramatic long, dramatic short, fanzine, fancast, fan writer, Lodestar, Astounding). Final ballots, though, the mode is voting in every category, which I did not expect! I've done that before, though did not make the effort this year. Other than the completists, it looks like voting for 7-10 categories is what a lot of people do; I voted in 15.

It looks like a plurality of people nominate a full novel slate, dramatic long and short forms. But for novellas and novelettes, there's this bimodal thing where a lot of people nominate 1 and a lot of people nominate 5, and I guess it's got to do with whether they read a lot of those forms or not. Best pro artist and semiprozine are also bimodal like that, Series and graphic stories, best related works, both editor categories, ALL the fan categories (fanzine, fancast, fanwriter, fan artist) are skewed towards 1 nomination only. So is Lodestar, which may explain why the slates and results tend to be so screwy. And Astounding is kind of in-between being skewed towards 1 nomination and being bimodal. And on the voting side, people tend to rank all the things in most categories, except fanzine, fancast, and editor long seem to be kind of bimodal between 1 vote and full ballot. Huh.

**

I was initially annoyed enough by the results (the novel and novella winners, mostly) that I wasn't sure I was going to watch the ceremony (something I've done every year since I got to attend the one in 2018, live when I can, or right after when I couldn't), but eventually I did watch it (here). Thoughts/impressions:

- I appreciated the fairly tight ceremony without a lot of extraneous frills -- which I get is probably partly due to Covid concerns, but 2 hours is a sweet spot. (I dind't really find the hosts' banter all that funny, but it wasn't annoying, just kind of unnecessary.)

- Pretty dresses and get-ups, now with matching masks! I predictably really liked Seanan McGuire's lilac ballgown (nice to get to see it three times, lol, as she accepted once for herself, once a shared award, and once on the Pro Artist winner's behalf) and Ruoxi Chen's bright blue dress and chain epaulette things.

- Shelley Parker-Chan, accepting her Astounding award: "So I wrote this book but in a way it wrote me. And it was cheaper than therapy." (re: figuring out why she kept writing people outside the gender binary). She also thanked her agent, who told her not to cut the sex scene, heh.

- Neil Clarke winning after 10 nominations was very sweet, and getting choked up about a close family member who didn't get to see it. "Guess what, folks, I didn't prepare a speech. This was my 10th nomination, I kind of got used to losing."

- Ruoxi Chen gave a lovely speech, and thanked the person who forced her to write the speech an hour earlier ("I didn't think I would need your powerful auntie energy" XD)

- Alec Nevala-Lee, presenting the Best Related Work award, brought in his "best related work" -- his very cute daughter -- to present.

- I was pleased to hear a lot of cheering when Terra Ignota's nomination for Best Series was announced -- I assume Ada Palmers U of Chicago fan contingent :) Seanan McGuire on winning the category: "I have been a nominee in this category every year" (no kidding XD)

- Sarah Pinsker thanked the people who did the layout for her story. And brought in an item for show and tell: her father's autograph book from Chicon 3 (1962)

- Suzanne Palmer gives really great, very funny Hugo speeches. This one included a limerick! XD

- I knew Becky Chambers wasn't going to be at Worldcon in person, but I didn't know why -- apparently because she is still getting her strength back after Covid, 6 weeks ago -- and felt like it would be wrong to push herself to be there when she didn't feel she had the strength when winning for this book in particular.

- Arkady Martine also gives good acceptance speeches. Pity I don't think her books actually live up to the cool things she sets out to do in them, per said speeches...

*

And now back to the regularly scheduled media roundup.

The books I had skipped over in the Hugo homework last time:

7. Freya Marske, A Restless Truth -- sequel to A Marvelous Light, which I got to read in ARC (it comes out in November), and, hm. I definitely enjoyed reading it, but it resonated less with me than the first book. I think the thing Freya is doing, telling a fantasy trilogy as a sequence of romance novels, is just not necessarily working for me as a thing, or at least not in this volume -- I wanted to know more about the worldbuilding and the Last Contract more than I wanted to read about the unfolding romance, and I also would have liked to see more of Robin and Edwin, which is of course not how sequences of romance novels work -- once a couple gets their HEA, the story moves on.

I had liked Maud in book 1, but it turns out I like her best through Robin's fond eyes, or at least seeing her own POV and Violet's did not add much to my enjoyment of the character (with one exception, which I'll talk about in a bit). And I liked Violet (Maud's love interest) OK, but I think I would've enjoyed more a story of her adventures in America, how she adapted to life in a new country and a new social class, the different magic she picked up from her new friends, the magician theater. The glimpses of her life in the States were very neat, as was the negative space, the stuff she didn't talk or think about in detail, and also more interesting to me than the romance. And I think, based on the chapter from Mrs Navenby's POV, I would have also enjoyed a book that was just about the Forsythia Club -- especially as old ladies -- more than this book also.

(I think, realistically, f/f just mostly doesn't interest me on its own, except for certain very specific vibes, which this book didn't have, so when it comes to f/f, I either need to like the characters themselves a lot, or the other things going on need to be sufficiently prominent at all times to keep my interest, and this didn't have the right balance for me; when it came to the extended romance and/or sex scenes, they were just something to get through (and I usually really like the way Freya writes romance and/or sex, though I have not read any of her fic that wasn't m/m, I don't think). Also, this book definitely reminded me that I find the choice of words for female anatomy used here a turn-off; not that there are much better options I can think of, but "cunt" emphatically throws me out of a sex scene. Ah well.)

There's a thing about Maud that I want to talk about separately, though. I get the sense that she is supposed to be a sort of Miles Vorkosigan character -- someone who doesn't have the experience to pull off what they're attempting, but has an ability to recruit people and have them follow her, through force of personality and quick thinking. Maybe that's not an intended connection, but pretty much everyone who meets Maud thinks or talks about being swept up by her, being her troops, her being unleashed onto the world, and Violet compares her to Alexander the Great. Which I wasn't really feeling, and that's a problem I've had before with characters who were supposed to be like Miles but a teenage girl. I don't think it's a girl thing specifically; after all, the real life person who reminds me the most of Miles -- to the point that my friendship with her made me like Miles more -- is female. I think it's more likely a thing where the reaction of other characters to the Miles-type is different; people who love Miles react to him with fond exasperation at most positive, while everyone else seems to start at a kind of "why is the universe punishing me by sending this person my way", which I find very relatable, while the reaction to these characters is much more positive. Which I can get why you wouldn't want it to be negative in the case of a female character -- it would not come across great if other characters were constantly complaining about / exasperated by a female character being "too bossy" or "too active". But the universal admiration doesn't work for me, either. But speaking of Miles, the one thing I did really like about the Maud we got to know more deeply in this book is her stubborn insistence on choosing to be a good person, a righteous person -- as an antithesis to her parents' hollow philanthropy: the way she talked about that made me think about the various conversations I've had about sorting Vorkosigan characters into Harry Potter houses, and the way I very strongly feel that Miles is a Slytherin who has chosen to be sorted into Gryffindor (because Aral is actually a Gryffindor) and, to continue using those concepts, applies all his Slytherin cunning and adaptability towards being the best and most Gryffindor he can be -- I do see the same thing with Maud, and I like that (fairly unusual, I think) trope a lot.

There is some really nice worldbuilding in this book, which deepens the world seen in the first one: the geographic and cultural differences in doing magic -- the American tradition of rings made out of various substances, the African diaspora magic based on songs, the fact that Hawthorn can see the Violet is now cradling with an American "accent". And the other facets of the "domestic" magics of the Forsythia Club -- embroidery which can keep an illusion or a warming spell anchored for years, imbuing substances with magic (essentially, potions, and how subtle and powerful they can be). The use of cradling without magic as a secret sign language was also really neat. I also enjoyed the continued engagement with the separation of magical power and magical knowledge, which we saw in book 1 with Edwin's magical expertise despite his lack of power -- spoilers from here the way Violet is the only person among the good guys who can actually use magic, but she receives instruction from Hawthorn, who has lost his power but not his knowledge and from the ghost of Mrs Navenby.

When cafemassolit was first talking to us about the book (having read it first) she mentioned that it was clear book 3 was going to be the romance for Edwin's asshole ex, and my reaction (and I think lunasariel's, too) was, I didn't think the asshole ex needed a love interest, I thought he needed a kick in the ass. I did like Hawthorn much better this time around; K was right that he benefits from not having his ex in the room to be cruel to, and also from the big brother vibes he adopts towards Maud. I'm still not convinced he needs a love interest, presumably in the form of Alan Ross, whom I did like, but I'm not sure hardscrabble commoner with revolutionary tendencies/bored aristocrat is necessarily going to do it for me... (yeah, I stopped and thought about Vlad/Morrolan too at this point, but either Vlad's emphatic lack of revolutionary tendencies makes the difference, or, more likely, it's the fact that they have way more in common and/or in interesting tension outside of that than Ross and Hawthorn do. But anyway, moving on.) I'm also not terribly interested in Ross's magic-negating effects, or whatever is going on with him and magic; I think I enjoyed each of the previous characters/character combos more before it turned out that the presumed-nonmagical character had some kind of extra-special magical ability (Robin as foreseer and Maud as medium); this is maybe the opposite of a magical ability, but it's still something unusual, and I think I would just have preferred all of them to be Badass Normal (in their own ways).

When K and I talked about this book, both before I read it myself and after, she mentioned how sex-positive it was, and it definitely is -- not just Maud's discovery of her sexuality and the words with which to ask for what she wants, how careful it is about consent (both sexual and emotional), but also marital aids, and especially the very positive depiction of pornography, completely with the pretty hilarious scene where they're reading pornography out loud.

Quotes:

"Maud had gathered around herself the impervious confidence of someone who wasn't used to being refused and was going to be obstinately unable to comprehend anything that sounded like refusal."

"A pause, in which the table warily weighed the question of whether Lord Hawthorn was familiar with the concept of humor."

Morris: "Don't be stupid and stubborn like your brother was."
Maud: "I think you'll find I can be very stupid indeed."

"'We're in here!' shouted Maud at once. 'We're both fine!' Which was a generous twisting of the word fine and also showed a touching assumption of what Hawthorn's priorities would be."

8. Jasper Sanchez, The Unpopular Vote -- part of my birthday gift from aome, who read the book a couple of months earlier and posted about it. The concept (a trans boy who is supposed to keep his identity secret, based on a promise made to his congressman father, decides to run for student body president in his high school) and especially the setting (a Northern California town outside of the Bay Area -- more on that below) intrigued me, and Debbie obliged me with my own copy of the book. Which I enjoyed, although I'm definitely starting to suspect I might just be outgrowing YA... I think "youngest kids is now a college student" may just be the point beyond which I can't take high school protagonists and their problems seriously...

One of my primary interests in the book, as I mentioned, was the NorCal setting. I was curious whether the wine country town was meant to correspond to a real place and whether I could recognize it, if so. The answers turned out to be (I'm pretty sure), yes and yes. I think the setting, which is called "Santa Julia" in the book, is Santa Rosa. It's described as the largest town between the Bay Area and Sacramento, and I think that fits, but I figured it out once I got to the part where Mark is wandering around town and he mentioned something about a famous cartoonist, and then I was like, ooh, I know that one! -- because while I've spent I think a total of 1 hour in Santa Rosa (on our way to/from somewhere), the one thing I remember very clearly is that Charles Schultz (of the Peanuts fame) lived there. Mark also mentioned a famous horticulturist, and that one I had to look up, but that also fits -- it's Luther Burbank. Anyway, so, that was cool, even though I don't know enough about Santa Rosa to appreciate any verisimilitude of setting (but I do suspect the author took some liberties). I do believe Santa Rosa is different enough from the Bay Area that a lot of things that did not feel like *my* NorCal experience were probably true to the author's (for example, Mark's public school has the IB diploma thing, which in San Francisco -- and I think most of the Bay Area -- is limited to international and a few private schools, with AP being the program of choice instead. But I do know, from L's SoCal friends, that other parts of California do have IB programs. (In present-day Santa Rosa, it appears to be just Montgomery High School that does. I wonder if that is actually the basis of Utopia HS in the book...) It was also interesting, and I assume plausible, to see the mix of demographics at the school, from decidedly blue collar to fancy winery money to Bay Area transplants escaping the grind. But OK, things other than the setting.

There is A LOT going on in this book, and much of it actually worked pretty well for me in terms of feeling sensitive and nuanced and surprisingly deep. Spoilers from here

Mark is not a protagonist I loved, but he is flawed in human ways and his grief for the lost relationship with his father, the hopes and memories of the beginning giving way to the anger at the end, was compelling to me; the scene in the church was also effective, with his thoughts about being born into the wrong body as proof of God's fallibility (the church scene is apparently a The West Wing reference/homage? having never seen the show, that part went over my head, but I liked it anyway). Ralph's grief for his father, from which he cannot move on and continues to exist in a kind of limbo, like the not-yet-unpacked room in the house they moved into after the father's death, was also well done and poignant (and actually I had a harder time than Ralph forgiving Mark for not coming clean with a more honest explanation when Ralph assumed that Mark's father was also dead; yes, of course Mark has the right to grieve the lost relationship with his father, but it's a very different sort of grief). Of course there's the stuff with Benji and bullying that kicks off the plot, but I also appreciated that Mark eventually learned than Henry, the opposing student body president candidate and essentially the antagonist for most of the book (although, more properly, that's Mark's father), has his own things going on that Mark is oblivious to -- partly out of his class privilege. Also, I think it's a really interesting choice that Mark's father -- the father who insists on Mark keeping his identity severed from his last name, who continues deadnaming Mark, and ridicules him -- is a liberal Democrat representing California, with a good record of supporting gay/trans rights in his politics -- just not when it might rebound on his gopes of being governor and eventually president. I've gotten so used to books like this breaking things down along party lines, it's quite refreshing to see the recognition that bigotry is not limited to those evil Republicans.

Other serious things the book touched on in a way that I appreciated was the mention that when Pablo's speech was delayed, there were attempts to place him in ESL (it was not clear to me whether Pablo, who is American-born, is actually early childhood bilingual or monolingual, but regardless I could see that), and calling out antisemitism on not just the right but also the left, which I was genuinely surprised to see. In general it was neat to see the POC and religious representation (e.g. Nadia is hijabi, Rachel and Ralph's household keeps kosher), and the way both the "good guys" and the random public and the antagonists got to be a mix of things (although the Christian Club got a bit of the short shrift, I did think) -- like, going by last names, Pablo is Latino, but so is Clary, the "establishment" incumbent president who is not interested in doing anything real and just wants to win for the crown; Jenny is Asian but so is one of the football players who bully Benji. I was also impressed by the frank way the book deals with mental health, both the experience and the stigma -- Mark is bipolar (apparently managed very smoothly with meds), Ralph is living with severe anxiety as well as the grief of losing his father, Rachel has ADHD (which, now that it's been diagnosed, is not preventing her from being very successful at school and targeting pre-med). I'm trying to remember if I've seen that sort of thing before in a YA book that wasn't EXPLICITLY about mental health, and I can't recall... Right, and Pablo (who is a wrestler) also self-describes as fat, and that was refreshingly also not made a big deal of.

Oh, and since this has turned into just a list of things I liked about the book, I also really liked Mark's urban-fantasy- and YA-reading doctor mom and the relationship between the two of them. And Pablo was very cute, my favorite of Mark's friends.

Things that I appreciated in concept but did not work for me as well in practice:

The French Club as the real Gay-Straight Alliance (which, I respect their right to have a space that is just for them, but also maybe the GSA wouldn't just be a bunch of straight people calling themselves allies if you showed up?), which, unlike other aspects of the book felt weirdly tokenistic. I liked the way Mark's transness was handled -- the tension between knowing that it's OK to not be announcing to everyone he is trans, that he doesn't owe people that, but also the reason he is staying silent is not really his choice. But OK, so you have Mark, who is trans and pansexual. You have Benji and Ralph and Rachel, who are gay (I think?), and cis, presumably. You have Nadia, in a relationship with a girl and who also realizes that she is genderqueer. Then you have biromantic asexual Pablo. And Jen, who is also bi or pan (based on her readiness to make out with a person she thinks is a girl), but also she's aromantic and just interested in hooking up, not dating. I mean, this is actually probably pretty true to how kids-these-days would go about labeling themselves, but I found it hard to take seriously that EVERYONE had a label or two.

On a different note, I was a bit confused by Nadia, who wears a hijab and modest garb and fasts for Ramadan, but apparently happily drinks alcohol with her friends. Not by that combination in itself -- I certainly know people who pick and choose which precepts of their religion they follow -- but usually there is some logic by which they've chosen to deviate from specific things they grew up with, and I don't think that came through here. Like, is Nadia choosing to drink because the social aspects of it are enough to overcome having grown up in a dry household? Or is she generally not religious and keeping Ramadan for cultural reasons (the way several non-religious but hailing from Muslim families/countries coworkers of mine do and the way I do Yom Kippur)? Like, either of these would've worked for me as explanations; I was just puzzled by the lack of one when everything else representation related was so carefully explained. (On the other hand, I do want to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the way these kids (high school juniors and seniors) were drinking fairly responsibly with parental knowledge and without it being a big deal.)

Also -- and I think it's telling how late in this section I'm even getting to it -- the relationship between Mark and Ralph just felt really arbitrary to me. Like, I liked Ralph, I'm glad he is getting out more. I'm glad that Mark got himself a cute boyfriend. But I felt zero chemistry from the two of them. I also didn't see the sense of Mark pressuring Ralph to run for VP, could not believe that Ralph agreed to it, given his anxiety, and even less believe that he would've won, but more on that below.

Here's the part that mostly did not work for me (although it did not interfere with my enjoyment of the book overmuch): the whole election plot. Yeah, I know, it's THE plot, and the title of the book, but it's just so silly. I actually do enjoy/have enjoyed high school election plots in movies like Election and assorted TV shows, and that's kind of what I was expecting here, but nooo. Because this isn't a realistic high school election -- this is a US presidential election mysteriously transported into a high school setting, and so it's got these ridiculous things like -- well, first and foremost, like people actually CARING about the results, lol. But also muckraking journalists and campaign speeches and campaigning to various electorates and the homerooms like precincts reporting one by one so you can have dramatic reversals. I both had no interest in reading a book about a US presidential election in microcosm AND that was not what I was expecting to get from this book, so that was doubly a disappointment. And it leads to a lot of the clunkies and most difficult to suspend disbelief for parts of the book, as well as just parts I just plain didn't like, in its attempt to graft these two things together. To be a proper antagonist for this main plot, Henry turns into a populist orator, Trump style, but a) some of the points he makes are actually kind of valid and Mark does not seem to realize them (what ABOUT students more interested in a vocational school path? their needs are valid, too, in a public school, and Mark, in his IB-vory tower, knows fuck-all about them and doesn't seem to care, and b) unlike a real election in the real world, the stakes are extremely low -- a student body president has no actual power (as Mark comes to realize), and so even if Henry were to win, the chances of any negative reprecussions for someone like Mark are nil, so it makes his asides about how "maybe Henry's police state has already convicted me of treason", whether they're serious or jokes, just read like caricatures of people feeling legitimately worried where politicians get elected in the real world. Also, the whole campaign trail thing was ridiculous and that part dragged on for me, because I couldn't take it seriously. The gay underclassmen couple with the baby doll? First of all, while the Health class is part of the state-mandated curriculum, I seriously doubt it includes baby dolls anywhere, and second, just so silly. Nadia pushing Mark to smoke pot with the stoners as an analogue to eating weird local foods in the heartland? I have no issue with the underage drinking, like I said, and Mark does sort of handwave it by saying he probably would've tried pot earlier if not for the need to keep any possibility of scandal away from his father, but, like, pushing drugs on your friend is not a great thing to do, come on. I also did not really get the whole Jen snit, where apparently Mark was supposed to... talk her into continuing to run for VP? First of all, the whole president/VP combo was already a GIANT stretch -- student body election stuff just doesn't work that way in any school that I'm familiar with, it's every person for themselves, not anything like a ticket. So that whole plot point just made no sense to begin with, and the way Jen acted wouldn't have made a ton of sense even if the ticket thing were plausible.

I did like one thing to come out of the election storyline, and that was the fact that it turns out that Amber *did* uncover Mark's pre-transition identity, but chose not to reveal it because outing people is not something she does.

Random bits:

One very minor thing that stuck out weirdly to me is how all these people are associated with or planning on East Coast schools. I get Harvard for Mark, who is following in his father's footsteps, and it's Harvard. Jenny is planning on Georgetown, which, OK, she is obsessed with politics, too. Dartmouth is mentioned at some point also, another Ivy. The only California school that I noticed making an appearance was via Mr ZP's Cal mug, which sounds about right, but, like, every ambitious California kid I know has their heart set on Stanford, or at least has that as a serious contender, and it was just kind of weird that it was never on anyone's radar apparently. But other local things did ring true, like the "business hotel across from a roaring theme park in the South Bay" where Mark and Jenny met at a JSA thing -- yep, been there.

A number of reviews I read complain that Mark and the other characters don't talk like real teens, because they monologue and make pretentious references. And they totally do! But this part didn't actually bother me, because having gone to school with self-professed nerds, I can totally buy a high school student monologuing about the electoral college, making references to Leibnitz and The Great Gatsby, and quoting Paradise Lost and Kafka -- like, I have done some of those at that age, which was, I think, the peak of pretentiousness for me, and also I've seen L's highbrow friends act similarly.

Quotes:

"That's when I get it. Henry doesn't see me as prey; he sees me as a fellow predator. I pass. [...] Of course I'm a man. I grabbed him by the arm, as if I were entitled to his time."

Ralph: "And I feel it [his grandfather's Holocaust trauma] all the time, when kids say they're jealous I get to take days off school for holidays they know nothing about or that I get eight days of Hanukkah, never realizing they get two months of Christmas." (A leeeetle dramatic, but I like that last bit.)

Mark's mom: "I prepared a hell of a lecture. I had charts and graphs and a whole cartridge of bullet points. But I wasn't prepared for the black eye." (This is why Mark's mom is the best.)

So, despite a pretty long paragraph of complaints, since the thing that didn't work for me is pretty central to the book. But it's a testimony to the strength of the other aspects that I still genuinely enjoyed my reading experience, and will be keeping an eye out for more books from Jasper Sanchez.

*

Movies from the return flight:

The Batman (the Pattinson one) -- I watched this pretty much only because O wanted me to: he is a much bigger fan of Batman/DC than I am (as in, I'm not one at all), and I'm pretty sure this is only the second Batman movie I've ever watched, the first one being probably Batman Returns -- I know I went to see a Batman movie in theaters with my middle school friend I., and the 1992 timing makes sense, even though I remember nothing about it. Unless it was the 1989 Batman back in theaters in preparation for Batman Returns? Anyway, so I don't care about Batman, and I don't like DC's whole vibe, and there's no reason a Batman movie needs to be 3 hours long -- but subject to all those caveats, I guess it was a good Batman movie? There are some cool visual set pieces in it that I was able to appreciate even on the small screen -- the fight illuminated only by flashes of machine gun fire (which I had seen before as a clip, and I don't know that I got more out of it in situ, but it's a cool scene); Batman dangling against the "Real Change" bank of screens that are being shot at and going dark, the stark black and purple of it. Some bits, it was very noticeable that the camera lingered to give fanboys in the theater time to properly freak out/applaud(/"readjust their pants" as L put it; she did not watch the movie but listened to me and O discuss it after) -- the first look at the Batmobile is very guilty of this, even O had to agree.

I don't find Batman a compelling character, but I guess Pattinson was a pretty good Batman? -- in that he is both menacing and, like, just this side of unhinged (and sometimes, that side of unhinged -- I particularly liked the scene where SPOILERS from here he visits the Riddler in Arkham and at the end of that scene he is banging on the glass and yelling where it's pretty clear that the men on BOTH sides of the glass are, you know, not entirely right in the head); I did not at all like him as Bruce Wayne -- way too emo kid for my taste, between the hair and the demeanor. And as much as I appreciate the physique, I don't know why he needed to assemble his murderboard (murder floor?) shirtless... (but he does have a great jawline for that cowl, it must be said). The supporting characters worked for me quite well. It's still weird for me to see Andy Serkis in live action and/or not over-the-top roles, but I liked him as Alfred. I never would've guessed that was Collin Farrell as the Pengin, but he was great, and I also liked Falcone, who was a very effective mix of avuncular and menacing. The Riddler was effective; I'm not always sold on antagonists who are at once brilliant and deranged, and some of his antics made me think of BBC Sherlock's Moriarty (who mostly does not work for me), but in combination with his appearance, the Riddler did -- there's a certain vulnerability to him that tied it together for me. The various lowlives did their part; I've liked Zoe Kravitz in other things, but Catwoman I think is just kind of over-the-top and I have a hard time taking her seriously (also, I don't know that it's possible to sell me on chemistry with Batman; this couple did not).

Plot-wise, the early part of the movie dragged for me, but I liked the progressive reveals of what the Riddler had against Thomas Wayne, the more damning story Falcone tries to sell Bruce on, and the shades-of-gray truth behind it that Alfred reveals. O liked the fakeout where it seems like the Riddler has figured out the connection between Bruce Wayne and Batman; I appreciate what they tried to do, but the fakeout version made more sense to me than the Riddler not knowing, so it didn't work quite as well for me. What I did really like, and had not expected to see in a Batman movie, is first the intimation and then the explicit acknowledgement that if you've got a dude dressed in a mask going around calling himself Vengeance as he dispenses vigilante justice for ostensibly good reasons, some people are going to be inspired to do the same for reasons that he would not agree with -- I really liked the way that was done, and the visual parallels between the Riddler and his followers and Batman himself. I also appreciated the notes of humour and common sense injected by the cop who kept questioning Gordon on dragging Batman to active crime scenes -- it's refreshing to see That Guy not being someone who is just a stick-in-the-mud. I did find it noticeable that all the corrupt cops and political figures were white and the explicitly not-corrupt ones were POCs, but considering who Batman himself is, I didn't find it a problem necessarily. Oh, and another thing I liked, along the same lines of kind of undermining the traditional Batman thing, is that what's funding the city's corruption is the Wayne foundation's Renewal fun -- because nobody has been keeping an eye on what's happening with it. Which, OK, when the Wayne parents were killed, Bruce was a boy and couldn't be expected to take over that, but if at some point he actually took an interest instead of doing the vigilante thing, maybe he could've done something about it at the source, instead of having to follow the Riddler's trail of breadcrumbs/murders.

The Good Liar -- I was out of movies I knew anything about and wanted to watch on the return flight, so figured the one I didn't know anything about that I should go with would therefore be the one with Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen, who are both actors I love a lot. Well, and I still enjoyed watching them in this, because they are exceptional actors, but the movie itself I was meh on. The plot is very random, the twists didn't really land for me, and it's pretty much a waste of the actors. Ah well.

**

And after my return, I finished watching series 3 of Taskmaster NZ: (spoilers by episode, through finale)

Ep 7 -- Tiny!Justine singing (on the USB stick, for "best thing on a stick" prize) is the cutest thing ever! The blockbuster composed of the individual scenes spliced together was a GREAT idea, and it was delightful to see how into watching it everyone got, and how excited everyone was to learn what was actually happening. The live team task with the rhyming debate was also fun! though I really feel like the team of 2 (Paul and Chris) should've had to switch off who started, as this way Chris had to come up with all the rhymes. He was good at it, but I liked that the team of 3 all had to rhyme at some point. Also, OMG David Correos! painted like wallpaper XD Also, even though it ended up not mattering about the 11 minute thing, I was charmed by Josh calibrating his counting to the watch before leaving the room, and Justine's idea of using a 10 min set to time the 11 minute interval.

Ep 8 -- Justine's outfit is fabulous! and I also really like Kura's shirt. Also, Kura's puppy is indeed adorbs, and it licking Chris's face was the cutest winner celebration ever. Speaking of prize tasks, I love that Josh and his dad apparently just build and test out weird shit in their leisure time, like this frozen squid cannon for fishing. No wonder Josh had a working knowledge of how a trebuchet works, lol. The dopplegangers task was fun, and I was glad that Jeremy gave everyone 5 points for that one; it would've been hard to judge the different approaches, but I especially love Justine's drag queen pick, and there really was something uncanny about Paul and Kura's; Chris's obviously wasn't actually a doppleganger, but I enjoyed the show, lol. With the apple task, it was very amusing how the boys all got into it, not only getting the task done quickly but chucking EXTRA things just for the fun of it. On the live task, I was quite impressed with Chris, Josh, and Justine's drawings, and even Kura's minimalist one was pretty well done, I thought!

Ep 9 -- OK, the thing with Sacky and the box of mystery was fabulous -- well played, Chris! Although Kura and Josh's showing in the "hide the body" task was also great; I was especially impressed, if unsurprised, by how methodically Josh went about things, scraping on the gravel, hiding decoys on the deck, and hiding the bag separately. In general, this was a very strong episode; highlights for me were: Josh jumping in the lake to be one with nature (I'm so glad Jeremy gave him 5 points even though he was the slowest), and also, it's so amazing that they had a shot of Chris setting that up. The cereal task as an idea, and Justine and Chris's offerings (that was incredibly adjust that Justine only got one point; I was glad that the audience audibly rebelled, though it didn't help). And the team-of-three's configuration for Battleship was GENIUS. Also, it just feels like all the contestants, and also Paul, are just getting punchy at this point and having a good time hanging out together more than anything.

Finale -- I have less to say individually about this episode, but I'm glad I already knew who won the series by the time I watched it, since Josh and Chris starting off in dead heat after the prize task and Josh gaining one point per task to pull ahead would've been quite nerve-wracking otherwise -- Chris could've easily won in just the last live task, for example. So in this one I mainly enjoyed Josh and Chris. Their solutions to the bath water transfer task were both very good, and also I'm totally unsurprised that Josh's solution involved lugging the bath and plumbing (well, unsurprised once I saw it; I knew they had to be saving for something different when they left him for last, but I wasn't sure what, because I hadn't been listening closely to the task and assumed part of the rules was that the baths could not be moved). I'm not super clear on how the trick-or-treat task was scored -- e.g. how did Kura, who gave Paul a bowl of lollies get one point more than Justine, who gave him the same bowl of lollies, AND a toy dinosaur, AND a half-hearted version of her trick? other than that Jeremy is bad at this? -- but I'm also not surprised that Josh went for an engineered solution, which worked so well he couldn't even open the door after the task was over without several more bonus airhorn blasts. Also his reaction to the airhorn was hilarious each time. (Also, still going for disturbing things to do with dummies, I see XD)

Final thoughts: I'm definitely happy with Josh's win, as he was my favorite from early on. Chris would've been a worthy winner, too -- that impressive streak of 5 wins in 6 episodes was definitely something! And OK, one of those was I think down to the 5 points for a task that only he got to do, but apparently everyone had a chance to find that extra task, so that's fair. I thought Jeremy tended to underscore Justine, and she seemed really annoyed by it by the end, which I don't blame her for. I had started out thinking Kura could be a serious contender, but it almost felt like she lost interest in competing part-way through? but at least seemed to still be having a good time. And Paul was quite clearly destined to come last or nearly-last (and I do feel like Justine should've beaten , but he was his score if she had been scored more fairly on the subjective tasks), but he was entertaining to watch, particularly his intriguing tendency to think of some kind of unorthodox and potentially even clever thing to do -- and STILL do very badly on the task.