What I read in March!

[mozaikmage]

General announcement: succumbed to the siren call of a cash prize and started posting a Webtoon in this year’s contest, please read it and like share subscribe (there will be 5 more episodes, updating every Monday)

I read 16 books in March but it felt like less because each book seemed to take me forever to finish. At least most of them were good this time!

How to Survive a Plague: The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS by David France

Bleak! The technical medical stuff went over my head a lot of the time, but the more personal stuff was really affecting. Glad I was born after all of that because it must’ve been a nightmare to live through. But also, as France tells it, surviving was a nightmare in itself.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Also quite bleak a lot of the time but had some interesting things going on. I liked the queerness. I don’t know if the generation ship stuff made sense to me.

Oba Electroplating Factory by Yoshiharu Tsuge

Full review on The Beat.

Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood by Maureen Ryan

I realized while reading this I genuinely don’t know or care that much about Hollywood. Author expects a level of background knowledge about shows and celebrities I don’t really personally have. Did inspire me to watch the first episode of Dickinson, which was quite fun.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

So long! But I liked it. I liked the narrative voices for Maud and Susan.

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

This was just a very fun little fantasy adventure story with an enjoyable ending. It got a little dark, but mostly it made me want to keep reading, which felt like a welcome change after a month of having to push myself to open the books I had checked out because they were too heavy.

Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi

I liked the writing style I saw in You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty, even if I didn’t love the plot, so I wanted to see what else they’d done, and I liked Little Rot a lot more with the shifting perspectives and the constantly escalating drama. And gay sex!

I Think Our Son Is Gay, Vol. 05 by Okura

Still cute and still fun! The hold time at the library for it was weirdly long though.

Stormsong by C.L. Polk

My girlfriend was right to DNF this one as a f/f romance novel it’s shit. The main character spends so little time with her “love interest” she has more chemistry with some random other guy because she and the love interest like never interact. We’re told they liked each other in the past but there’s no dynamic built between them and it sucks. Witchmark had a more coherent romantic arc going in parallel with the plot at least, but here I feel like it's just there to be polite to readers expecting more romance in the romance novel sequel. Also I feel like there’s not nearly enough concern with the practical ramifications of what happens when all of the power suddenly goes out forever in the middle of winter.

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

Very nice writing, very... ? Story. I think the main character was kind of rude to her situationship, but the narrative treats her as being in the right about that. The Bi4Bi M/F dynamic was fresh and interesting, and the setting was very vivid and fun. I think I liked it more than I disliked it, but I found it hard to root for the main couple, which means this wasn’t great as a romance novel. But a good novel, otherwise.

Chalice by Robin McKinley

If I could I would mail this to the author of The Honey Witch with a note saying “THIS IS HOW YOU DO HONEY MAGIC” because that was my primary takeaway. THIS IS HOW YOU DO HONEY MAGIC!! It’s specific and clear and evocative and interesting! I enjoyed reading it, even if it was confusing at first.

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

Much shorter than I expected, very depressing. The Yoshiharu Tsuge book reminded me of it when I read it later.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Also depressing but for other reasons: it made me sad to watch the characters suffer under poverty and misogyny with seemingly no way out of either.

Evenings & Weekends by Oisín McKenna

It was fine, I guess. The gay stuff did make it more interesting, but like... I don’t know, I read it and immediately forgot pretty much everything that happened in it. I didn’t get very invested in anyone’s storyline.

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

I read this and then looked up the publication date to see if this was a deliberate riff on Babel, vice versa, or pure coincidence, and while it came out about a year after M. L. Wang was blogging about starting to write it a year prior to Babel’s publication so I think it’s just a coincidence. I think this handles the intersections of different kinds of oppression a little better than Babel did, but I don’t think the religion worldbuilding is very plausible. I really did like the characters, especially Sciona and Thomil- I don’t think I’d call this a romance or even a book with a romantic subplot, because one kiss in a high-stress moment does not a romance make. Long book, but not a chore to read.

Flamer by Mike Curato

Curato gave an artist’s talk at my grad program a few years ago so this book was on my TBR since then, and I finally cleared it! I thought it was okay. Might have hit harder if I was younger. Some of the page spreads were pretty effective.

 

Tsuge review here.

Comments

[queenlua]

ohhhh, i read No Longer Human years ago. i'd like to subject it to a reread sometime, as i didn't much like it back then but i think i'd get more out of it now.

however, i can heartily recommend Schoolgirl by the same author, which is much shorter (probably novella-length? idk i read it in ebook form in one evening at an Irish bar haha), but is just, like, stunningly good imo

[mozaikmage]

No Longer Human was also novella-length I think! The ebook was 118 pages. If Schoolgirl's even shorter than that it's probably like a novellette. I will have to look into it!