beforeviolets's reviews
387 reviews

Howl's Moving Castle but make it a folkloric Polish fantasy in a sentient forest AND sentient house? yes please!

If you're a fan of fairytale retellings (Beauty and the Beast in this case), lush prose, tender romances, folklore and legends, the Howl's Moving Castle Ghibli movie, and atmospheric settings, I think this book will be just as up your alley as it was mine. An absolutely gorgeous debut from A.B. Poranek.

CW: (I was listening partially on audiobook, so did not keep full track, take these with a grain of salt.) violence, blood & gore, confinement, character death, grief, death of father (past), religious bigotry, minor/ancient being relationship, fire, dead bodies, child abuse (mention), domestic abuse (past)

Yield Ladies, yield to love Ladies

What a joyfully queer play. Performed in 1592 in front of the Queen of England, this play follows two young virgins, who are dressed in drag and sent into the woods by their fathers, who are afraid that they're so beautiful and fair that they'll be sacrificed to Neptune.

In the woods, Cupid plays pranks on Diana and her nymphs, causing them to experience love for the two young "men," for which Diana retaliates by making Cupid her servant. We also stumble upon some men reminiscent of the Midsummer Mechanicals, off on a journey of apprenticeships under an astronomer, alchemist, and fortune teller. Meanwhile, the two young women heavily suspect that the other is also just a woman in drag (and are both VERY bad at hiding it, trying to flirt with each other as women), and pretty immediately have the hots for each other.

At the end of the play, all the characters meet, Venus shows up and demands Cupid back, and Neptune agrees not to sacrifice anymore virgins. The girls in drag are "revealed" to be girls in drag (it was always obvious) and they announce, in front of everyone, that they are in love. Everyone seems to be baffled but also kind of okay with it and Venus says she can change one of them into a boy to allow them to be married, but the girls do not care about gender, so Venus says it'll be a surprise which one! (Then one of their dads says "hey, if we can just... change genders of people, can we make my wife a man?" which is really iconic.) Then they all go offstage and we have an iconic epilogue by our titular character telling all the women of the audience to be lesbians (including the quote mentioned above).

So yeah, great play. Thanks Lyly for the lesbians.

I've really been sleeping on this one, huh?

Shakespeare's histories have always intimidated me, leaving me to put off tackling them. And though I saw this play many years ago, I hadn't remembered much about it. But that must have been a fault of the production because I can't believe that this complex and stunning play could have escaped my mind. 

Comprable to Hamlet and Macbeth, Richard III is an incredible tragic historical work about cycles of violence, hubris, revenge and even ableism. Definitely worth tackling the histories for this one.

Thank you so much to the author for sending me a copy and a PR package of this book! These are my honest opinions!

Caraway of the Sea is a sweet self-published pirate story featuring a diverse cast and found family. I  enjoyed the writing, and for a self-pub book, I found the work to be quite polished and readable! I loved our MC, Caraway, who is so incredibly snarky and stubborn and guarded, and her journey throughout the story was really compelling.

Though this isn't a fault of Burget's writing, as this is a pirate book, I was expecting more of a plot-heavy fast narrative with lots of swashbuckling adventure and sailing action, but the majority of the story takes place on land (and the parts that are on a boat are just mostly in contained rooms below cabin, so we don't get much of a feel for the ship itself) and is driven by slow-burn interpersonal conflict. I think that for folks who aren't super into pirate-y content but want the general vibe, or people who want to dip their toes into pirates but prefer more intimate dynamics, this book may be up your alley. But because I pick up pirate books to be immersed in the pirate ship ambience, the sailing lingo, and gritty action, I felt this one wasn't quite as much up mine. 

I also want to mention that this book is marketed as fantasy but it isn’t. It’s a second world book, but without any actual fantasy elements or worldbuilding, this just seems like a tool to avoid handling any historical elements. It takes away rather than adds imo.

I'm really  grateful I was sent a copy and got to have a little taste of a pirate story this summer (no summer is complete without one pirate book imo), and I'm happy to see on here that this book seems like it's found its audience!

CW: violence, blood & gore, sexual assault, drowning, dismemberment, character death, death, anxiety, emotional abuse, physical abuse, manipulation, PTSD, gun violence, injury detail, confinement, depression, narcissism, alcohol, alcoholism

This is the fourth book by Andrew Joseph White I've read, and the second of this year alone. And in the most complementary way, I've reached a point with his work that writing a review is hard because I've already said it all. It's hard to find new ways to say that White is revolutionizing YA and writing some of the most important social horror stories of our modern age. Once again, AJW writes a brutal, unflinching and poignant story that pulls absolutely no punches. Once again, he writes brilliant and complex characters that make me feel seen and loved amidst (and because of) their struggles. Once again, he absolutely crushes it.

White shoots to kill and has never once missed the mark. And this bullseye is a stunning love letter to the Southern working class about class warfare, systemic oppression, generational trauma, and family.

Thank you so much to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

CW: violence, blood & gore, gun violence, injury detail, fire, immolation (past), addiction and withdrawal, child death, police brutality, animal death (not the dog on the cover, I promise), death, outing, transphobia, deadnaming, midgendering, bullying, hospitalization, emesis, medical content, car accident (past), underage drinking, internalized ableism, death of family members

RTC

CW: death of father, cancer, suicide attempt (offpage), loss of mother (past), self harm (for magic), blood, alcohol, sexual content, pregnancy, childbirth (brief)

How we deceive ourselves in days, in hours. We dream of years ahead but cannot see beyond the minute.

A really fascinating prequel to Macbeth focusing primarily on Lady Macbeth and her son. Though the pacing was slower and the work a little longer than my ideal, this was a really well done story focusing on the historical background behind the beloved Shakespeare play.

This story doesn't so much tackle its themes but dips its toes into their waters. Politics, misogyny, cycles of power, grief, hunger, fear, and more bleed faintly but precisely across the pages, often explored through stunning symbolism that speaks to a brilliant understanding of Shakespeare scholarship. The birds alone!

And the title of this book is perfect. Though the "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech is constantly employed in media, especially Shakespeare retellings, this reference for the title suited the book perfectly, adding so much depth and background to this famous soliloquy.

Thank you SO much to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CW: child loss, miscarriage, pregnancy, childbirth, adult/minor relationship, domestic abuse, child abuse, forced marriage, violence, blood & gore, animal death, misogyny, alcohol, insects, incestuous rape (past), hallucinations, parental death (past), fire (past), death in childbirth, death of grandmother (past), sexual content (implied)

I've had this book sitting on my shelf for an embarrassing amount of time and I'm so glad to have finally gotten around to it.

With any anthology, some stories were better than others. I'll go ahead and leave a brief review of each story and content warnings below, but I'd say the standouts of the collection for me were:
I Bleed by Dahlia Adler (The Merchant of Venice), King of the Fairies by Anna-Marie McLemore (A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tragedy of Cory Lanez by Tochi Onyebuchi (Coriolanus), and Lost Girl by Melissa Bashardoust (A Winter's Tale).

Severe Weather Warning by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka (The Tempest)
Honestly, I was not a fan. It was not much of a Tempest reimagining beyond borrowing a few character names and setting itself during a storm. But even within the story itself, I was uncompelled by the characters' conflicts and didn't understand some of the stakes.
CW: -

Shipwrecked by Mark Oshiro (Twelfth Night)
This should've been the first story of the anthology because it set such a wonderful tone and epitomized this anthology. I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing style on a personal note but this was so wonderfully cheesy and silly and queer. It perfectly added a modern, diverse lens onto this classic story.
CW: car accident (past)

Taming of the Soulmate by K. Ancrum (The Taming of the Shrew)
The concept of this is giving social media skit and I wish it accomplished a little more but this was cute.
CW: blood, claustrophobia

King of the Fairies by Anna-Marie McLemore (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
Anna-Marie... you get it. I've never read any of their writing before now but this absolutely made me want to pick up their other work. I shouldn't be surprised that a queer Latine author known for gorgeous metaphor-driven fantasy and magical realism absolutely crushed the Midsummer retelling, but this absolutely blew me away. Lyrical, vibrant prose that pulls from the Bard's original text with such tact. Tender, poignant characterization that builds its way out and within. A rewoven web of Midsummer's world into something simultaneously recognizable and wholly new. This story both praises and scolds the Bard with equal measure, reckoning with all parts of the text's body.
CW: transphobia, racism

We Have Seen Better Days by Lily Anderson (As You Like It)
This was disappointing tbh. As You Like It has so much delicious world building and character dynamics to pull from, but it feels like Lily Anderson couldn't understand anything beyond two cousins going into a forest and having crushes on two brothers. I did like the forest as a tool of escape, but other than that this was lacking.
CW: alcohol (mention)

Some Other Metal by A. R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy (Much Ado About Nothing)
Really extremely cute. The authors here clearly know Much Ado well and I loooooved the writing style here. It felt modern and heightened at the same time, especially in the dialogue. Did it need to be set in space? No, but go for it I guess.
CW: alcohol

I Bleed by Dahlia Adler (The Merchant of Venice)
There's not much to say about this except that I understand why Dahlia Adler built this entire anthology around the vision of this short story. This absolutely is the beating heart of this collection and Adler was not pulling punches.
CW: antisemitism, white supremacy, racism, emesis, car accident (mention)

His Invention by Brittany Cavallaro (Sonnet 147)
This one actually got me worked up, I'm so mad about it. So this short story is based on one of the Dark Lady sonnets. It's pretty much a majority belief among scholars nowadays that the Dark Lady is Black (or at least, a POC). With that in mind, this sonnet is about the speaker feeling like maybe he's going "mad" or "unwell" because his standards of beauty have been flipped around because he loves a Black woman who he views as "fair" (an early modern ideal that essentially means beautiful but also worthy, but is indeed associated with being a wealthy white woman). So though I think the story on its own is actually good and interesting, I have NO idea what it has to do with this sonnet, and I hate that it ignores literally all the racial discussions in it.
CW: sexual assault, blood

Partying Is Such Sweet Sorrow by Kiersten White (Romeo and Juliet)
Okay, this was a pretty basic take on R&J but oh boy was it REALLY well done. Brilliant use of negative space narratively.
CW: suicide (implied), abusive parents, homophobia, drug use, violence, bullying, hospitalization, child death (past), alcoholism (mention)

Dreaming of the Dark by Lindsay Smith (Julius Caesar)
So a couple of years ago, there was this witchy modern sapphic Julius Caesar retelling that was coming out (Take Her Down) and I read an ARC and boy oh boy was I disappointed to find out that it was atrocious. I mention this because this witchy modern sapphic Julius Caesar retelling was anything but. Caesar may have died but this was giving me life! (I only wish it was a full book to truly replace the hole in my heart.)
CW: car accident, blood & gore, death of loved one, grief, alcohol, death, fire (past)

The Tragedy of Cory Lanez by Tochi Onyebuchi (Coriolanus)
Wow. Wow. Wow. I'm currently having an obsession with Coriolanus so my stakes were high for this one. And what an homage to the original text this was. The use of rap culture and intersectional identities as tools to parallel the original story was nothing short of brilliant and it was so well executed. Onyebuchi never lost sight of the vision.
CW: child death, homophobia, violence, police brutality (past), gun violence (past), bullying (mention), antisemitism (mention)

Out of the Storm by Joy McCullough (King Lear)
Eh the ending was a little cheesy but I really appreciated the vision. I liked the play style format.
CW: hospitalization, parental death, abusive parent, incest (implied), misogyny, child death

Elsinore by Patrice Caldwell (Hamlet)
The vision of Hamlet meets Dracula is so wonderfully campy and I'm so here for it. The atmosphere and the vibes were well done but too much of the action was left off screen and not in an interesting-use-of-negative-space way like R&J. (Also how are you gonna gender bend Hamlet and not make it sapphic?????) I left starving.
CW: death of father, grief, blood

We Fail by Samantha Mabry (Macbeth)
This weirdly felt like the meeting point of multiple Macbeth productions and adaptations I've seen over the years (complimentary).
CW: death, car accident, miscarriage (past), blood, hospitalization (past), alcohol, emesis, animal death (offpage)

Lost Girl by Melissa Bashardoust (A Winter's Tale)
This was such a beautiful and touching reimagining, wonderfully embodying the complexities of the original story. I loved the open ending, I loved the fairy tale elements, I loved the characterization. Just well done.
CW: child death (past)

I absolutely adore books that are just silly brain-off stories. This book looked stupid and gay (complimentary) and I was so ready to have the time of my life.

Generally, I think this book had a lot of issues, but was indeed a really fun read.

I’ll go ahead and list the things I like:

-Despite being insta love-y (or maybe insta crush-y?) I think the romance pacing REALLY worked for me. The stakes and the meeting of the characters were set up in such a way that I really just bought it. If I was super drunk and having a breakdown in an alley and was kissed by a hot person who immediately vanished into thin air as if by magic I think I’d obsess over it too. I was so compelled by these characters on the page together and it was mainly what propelled me through this book.

-The friendly banter. The group chat elements of this story were really what reminded me of Red White and Royal Blue and made me understand that comp. The teasing and inside jokes were such a joy.

-The commentary about capitalism. So in this book, Christmas is sort of monopolizing holiday joy in a way that brilliantly mimics the way that business do indeed use Christmas as a way to capitalize off of people’s joy and are constantly steamrolling over other holidays because Christmas is such a great financial tool. We constantly see people nowadays complaining that it feels like Christmas is starting earlier and earlier (with decorations coming out practically at the same time as Halloween) and the way that this is manifested in this book is so funny and so smart.

But I did have some problems with this book’s writing and world-building. (Time for a lil rant.

-So I’ll start pretty simply with a writing issue, which is that we’re constantly told rather than shown information about the characters. And worse than that, that information is not actually often reflected in the characters’ behavior. For example, with Coal, he has this supposed history of insincerity and mockery and deflection, but we only ever see him being really caring and sincere. Even the inciting event of the story was supposed to be a “prank gone wrong” according to other characters, but it wasn’t ever actually a prank. It was Coal trying to do something genuinely very kind but was misinformed. So his character growth and relationship developments don’t work very well because we only ever see this “better” version of him.

-I’d say my biggest problem with this book, however, is its approach to religion (or lack thereof). This book is constantly trying to omit religion as a factor in the holidays. Which… doesn’t make sense because this book takes place in our world. Christmas is inseparable from its origins. It is practiced specifically by Christian people. So it feels weird for this book to talk about the way that Christmas is constantly reaching new countries and cultures that didn’t celebrate Christmas before while ignoring the inherent Christian imperialism and colonialism that would be tied to that outreach. I appreciate that it was trying to focus itself on capitalism, but to ignore the fact that this has a harmful (and historically violent) impact on real people felt really icky. Plus this book was constantly talking about the “other big joyous holidays” which were… just other Christian holidays. Literally non-Christian or secular holidays were NEVER mentioned. It just didn’t feel like there was room for non-Christian perspectives or religions to exist in this story and world (which is supposed to be our own) and it made me feel really excluded from it.

-And to continue off of that last point, despite this book attempting to omit religion from holidays, it utilizes heavy religious language! So as much as I would like to be generous and maybe suspend my belief to take this world as one that isn’t religious (which again, Christmas is inherently Christian and practiced by Christian people and can’t be separated from its origins and history but whatever), I can’t even do that. Romantic scenes between the leads constantly employ heavy religious description. There are constant mentions of priests and worship and idolatry and prayer. And so it creates this really uncomfortable friction in the world building to heavily utilize religion when talking about the way the characters feel about each other but to pretend it doesn’t exist when it comes to the function of religious holidays in the real world.

All in all, I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I think it was a really fun time and I would probably recommend it to Christian folks (or folks who participate in secular Christian culture), but I couldn’t really escape the pit in my stomach of feeling deliberately erased from this world as a Jewish person. I didn’t need to be included (I'm not a fool, I understand this is a story about Christmas), but to comment on the history of Christmas dominating cultures and countries while severing it from its religious origins, as well as creating an entire political sphere of holidays that exist in our world but not including or even off-handedly acknowledging a single Jewish, Muslim, etc. one just didn’t sit right with me. I’m not saying this book is “problematic” because I don’t think it is. But I think it wasn’t for me.

Thank you so much to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

CW: sexual content, grief, death (past), death of sibling (past), car accident (past), alcohol

who was going to tell me that shakespeare wrote a gay enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies BANGER???

seriously, what an underrated play. so many interesting moral discussions and debates about political responsibility.
and so so queer.