Recent Reads

[mozaikmage]

 Still on the romance research grind but also just reading whatever I can get from the library that seems interesting! Here's a selection of things I have read recently.

Season of Love: pretty good! F/F holiday romance, Jewish lead whose family runs a Christmas experience farm place. An actual butch love interest for once! I feel like it could've been funnier, and I don't think I really understood Noelle or why the Jewish Aunt Cass was so into Christmas in the first place. But it was pretty fun altogether and not weirdly surface level about its representation Unlike Some Books (cough).

Hello, Stranger: het, artist with temporary face blindness from surgery has to do a portrait in a month for a contest. Her evil stepsister is hilariously mustache-twirling ohohoho laugh over the top, which I enjoyed despite the lack of believability, and it's funny how since the MC can't see faces she fixates on her love interest's abs. I did find the mc kind of annoying though and I figured out the twist faster than she did which I always hate.

The Familiar: historical fantasy with a romantic subplot. I really enjoyed it and was surprised and impressed by the side character f/f endgame. Did not think Ms. Bardugo would go there. I refused to read the Grishaverse in HS on the basis of Grisha being a stupid name for people with magic powers (it means Greg. Your mages are Gregs.) but I have enjoyed the not Grishaverse books I've read from her so far so maybe I will end up checking that out too. 

The Verifiers: frustrating because it's like a category romance or mystery novel in form (the narrative voice and back cover copy both sound like that to me) but seems to have greater literary aspirations and thus does not deliver on the promises of either the romance or the mystery part of its advertising in an attempt to make some kind of greater point about Relationships that didn't work for me. The main character is a lesbian but she doesn't get a romance subplot (although I think it's supposed be setting up a sequel hook with her coworker?) but like, since the book is about dating and dating apps, I expected and wanted her to have a romance subplot. It subverted expectations in a way that didn't feel very clever but just kind of frustrating. Her dynamic with her siblings was really interesting, I like that resentment mixed with love thing they had going on. 

When The Angels Left The Old Country: I think this is the kind of tone I'm going for with my romantasy wip. I like how naturally it combines all of this religion and Jewish American history with LGBT identities.

Wandering Stars: less enjoyable than There There but also probably intended to be that way.

Everything's Fine: Dark comedy, really painful in how real it feels a lot of the time. I feel like I've met this main character and her friends before. Very :').

Penance: also a dark comedy, a book for everyone who was in high school and on Tumblr in 2015. Made England sound like a horrible place to live in. Surprisingly funny for such a dark premise. I really liked it and felt kind of guilty for liking it so much, because it's about a horrible murder and true crime fandom but fictional. It's really accurate in its reproduction of Tumblr interaction (VRISKA MENTIONED!!) which makes the slightly off things (like people saying slay and skinny legend in 2015) stick out more.

Tell Me How You Really Feel: picked up from the library discard cart because I recognized it from the bookstore job as a sapphic YA book. OP did this infuriating thing of titling each chapter with a snappy pop culture quote but having all of the dialogue in the book be absolutely bland and forgettable. Also avoids using the words "lesbian" or "internalized misogyny" in a way that feels like she lost a bet or something. Those words should be in there and yet. I also really didn't like one of the leads, Rachel. She was not only annoying but also uhh not very smart in a way that's a little embarrassing to read about. Wow you're a high school senior who knows the word "deign", do you want a cookie? She goes on about what a good word "deign" is for a whole page! I know you already took your SATs! 

Also Sana's whole identification with Helen of Troy feels like Hot Girl Problems but the author doesn't seem to realize that's what's happening and thus doesn't name Rachel's internalized misogyny or give Sana any of the downsides of being a conventionally attractive and wealthy lesbian (I knew one in grad school so I know there's territory to explore there but OP missed it, probably for whatever reason made her avoid the words internalized misogyny and lesbian)

Their high school feels empty. Sana has one named friend she interacts with multiple times who has a personality trait, Rachel has one teacher, everyone else is barely even in the background. I don't think they even go to class ever. Sana's supposed to be a Popular Cheerleader but like. She doesn't seem tied into the social fabric of the school at all. This really frustrated me. I liked that their families felt fairly realized, especially Sana's, but I wish the school setting got some of that attention too. It's a fancy private school, it should feel special!

Also the povs switched too often and it was confusing because they both sounded exactly the same. 

When No One Is Watching: deeply upsetting thriller I stayed up too late to finish. Now THIS is how you do pov switches and unreliable narrators. I really liked it. I enjoyed Alyssa Cole's romances but I wasn't sure what to expect from her thriller. Turns out I like that too! Wish more characters survived alas.

Personal progress: stuck on the romantasy and getting new ideas for totally different stories. Drafting a new one shot comic also. We'll see what actually pans out.