laurareads87's reviews
536 reviews

World Running Down by Al Hess

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

3.5. <i>World Running Down</i> 

What I appreciated: <i>World Running Down</i> includes real trans joy amidst a lot of struggle and a trans main character who is neither solely defined by his transness nor limited to a plot strictly about this -- a fully developed character with wants and dreams and desires, some of which relate to transition but not all.  I appreciate the representation in this book and wish I had it available to me when I was younger than I am now.

What didn't quite work: some of the dialogue feels like the author speaking too directly to the reader (particularly when a point was being made ex. about supporting sex workers or about trans inclusion). Problems were too easily solved (like, "wow this thing we really needed just happens to be here!"). Characters weren't perfect, but they weren't morally ambiguous either. Read borderline YA.

<i>Content warnings:</i> queerphobia, transphobia, deadnaming, dysmorphia, sexual assault, physical abuse, sexual abuse, "human" trafficking, kidnapping, death of a non-human animal, classism.
The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

Butcher of the Forest reads like a fairytale of a particular sort: atmospheric, violent, and unsettling. I like the balance Mohamed has struck here between providing enough detail to follow along while leaving much of the mysterious setting unknown and unexplained. Her writing is wonderfully descriptive. 

I do have a significant criticism though, which I’m leaving behind spoiler tags as it relates to the ending. I really, really do not appreciate when
a character’s history of having survived childhood sexual abuse & assault is used as a “big reveal” or a twist or whatever happened here. It doesn’t feel even remotely survivor-centric or trauma informed.
As a reader, I felt let down by this, and cannot recommend this beautifully written novella on this basis. 

Content warnings: violence, blood, body horror, gore, sexual abuse of a child (mentioned, doesn't occur on-page) 

Thank you to Tor Publishing & NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. 
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How It Unfolds by James S.A. Corey

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

A wonderful use of unconventional, non-linear structure in a short story.  "How it Unfolds" follows Roy, an astronaut; he and his crew are cloned thousands of times as they are put through something akin to a transporter that produces new versions of them on faraway planets.  These both are and are not the same people: memories pre-copying carry forward, but all these Roys on all these planets inevitably will live very different lives. An intimate consideration of second chances in relationships, of not wasting time, and of gratitude for the time we have.  This was my first time reading James S.A. Corey (though I loved The Expanse on television) and I'll happily read more.

Content warnings: mentions of death, mention of mental illness
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The Long Game by Ann Leckie

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dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

The Long Game focuses on a familiar theme: the question of collaboration and making deals with the colonizer for "long term" gains.  I found the alien worldbuilding compelling and I appreciated the POV of Narr the slug-like 'alien' (though here it is humans who are alien, having come from elsewhere); however, I don't know that the theme could really be done much justice in this short of a format.

Content warnings: colonization, death
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Power to Yield and Other Stories by Bogi Takács

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challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

4.5, rounding up. Before picking up Power to Yield and Other Stories, I had read one story by Bogi Takács before in an anthology (Xenocultivars) and really enjoyed it - it was one of my favourites. When I saw the chance to read an entire collection of eirs I was really happy and requested it immediately. While inevitably, with any collection there are some stories that I liked more than others, there is no 'filler' here - the stories fit together without feeling repetitive and all are compelling in one way or another. I find Bogi Takács' work very thoughtful and thought-provoking, particularly around themes of identity and power. There is so much diverse representation here that I appreciate.

I will mention here some of my absolute favourites:"The First Interspecies Solidarity Fair and Parade," "Folded into Tendril and Leaf" (the story I'd read previously in Xenocultivars), "And I Entreated," "An Errand Holy Spark," and the first story in the collection "Four-Point Affective Calibration" which let me know I was in for a great read.

Content warnings: violence, war, imprisonment, self-harm, blood, injury detail, colonialism, harm to non-human animals, mentions of antisemitism, classism, cissexism / transphobia, ableism, S/M in a non-sexual context. NOTE: the author provides a list of content warnings story by story at the back of the book. I have here adjusted the terms slightly just so that my StoryGraph and Goodreads reviews are consistent, but please do consult the author's own list if you have concerns - e even bolds the titles of the stories that are most content-heavy, which is thoughtful and something I wish more authors bothered to do.

Thank you to Broken Eye Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. 
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Slow Time Between the Stars by John Scalzi

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emotional reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A

4.5

Slow Time Between Stars is the inner reflections of a self-aware, autonomous starship tasked with bringing all of humanity's knowledge and, eventually, humanity itself to a new home many many thousands of lightyears away. This is a lovely read and entirely unlike anything I've read by Scalzi before. Highly recommend, including to those readers who have tried Scalzi's more comedic sci-fi and found it wasn't for them.

“I cannot look at my entire self and see one thing. There are many things, many moving parts, as they might say, that end up making me “me.” In this, I am no different from humans, even if they see themselves as individuals without understanding (or if understanding, choosing not to dwell on) the fact that their “selves” are intermediary-level entities positioned in systems above and below their daily perceptual horizon, a middle ground between their gut biome and the body politic. We are all made up of smaller things connected to larger things, and in the middle, we are we, us, I, me.”

I picked this up on a total whim when it presented itself as a 'recommended' e-book I could access for free, and I'm so glad I did. I plan to read the whole collection of stories.

Content warnings: none. 
A Year In The Wildwood: Explore The Wildwood Tarot by Alison Cross

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informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.0

A Year in the Wildwood is a companion to the Wildwood Tarot by Mark Ryan and John Matthews and with art by Will Worthington. It is written by Alison Cross, who administers the deck’s website, and is based largely on content that has appeared thereon. 

The core of the book is comprised of entries for each card in the deck that follow an order based on the Wheel of the Year, with suggested dates for each card constituting a year-long exploration of the deck card by card. The suit/season pairings will be familiar to Druidry practitioners – air/Arrows for spring, fire/Bows for summer, water/Vessels for autumn, and earth/Stones for winter – and the introduction offers suggestions for how to proceed through the book with the note that if these dates don’t work for the reader, they can of course proceed at any pace and in any season they wish. I completed this book, journalling my way through, based on (approximately) the dates suggested. 

The appendices at the back of the book include reference charts for the date correspondences for every card in the deck (sorted into a chart for the majors, the courts, and the minors), a single card reading prompt for each of the 8 wheel holidays, suggestions for exploring the significance of symbols that appear in multiple cards in the deck, a set of prompts following the ‘Daft Days’ (26 December to 6 January), and some web links to material related to the deck. 

I like the concept of this book a lot – Wildwood is a very seasonally rooted deck and so the idea of working through it over a year is really appealing. I like the card/date correspondences, the charts, and many of the journalling prompts (some of which I repurposed as spread positions); I also like the solstice/equinox single card prompts in the appendix at the end. I like how the author has included introductory material that explains the genesis of this book and its different versions. 

I did find the book rather inconsistent – some card entries have journal prompts, others don’t; some of these prompts feel open ended and inclusive, others feel very limited in who they might apply to. Sometimes the entry gave me lots to work with, other times I had to deviate quite strongly from it and do more work myself to come up with something meaningful to explore while journalling. The core of this book – the card entries spanning the year – is also very short; it spans page 23 to page 165, but the font is massive (like, maybe 14pt sans serif). I don’t necessarily object to large font – it can make a book more accessible, certainly – but I mention it to give a sense of how much content is actually here. 

There are definitely some issues here in terms of inclusion (or lack thereof) – some uncritical gender binarism (more than in the Wildwood guidebook, for comparison) and use of ‘tribe’ as a generic term for ‘friend group’ in ways that are not great. There are also some stylistic aspects of this book that don’t work for me; I think these are ultimately rooted in it being a compilation of web posts. Using CAPITALS FOR EMPHASIS like you’re shouting in an email feels really jarring in book context, for example, as do some of the strangely placed exclamation marks. The book definitely would’ve benefitted from more editing between website and print. 

Overall, I think that if you love the Wildwood Tarot you’ll get something out of this book. I enjoyed my year I spent with it (I would’ve quit otherwise) and I got a lot out of journalling my way through it. It is an enjoyable way to explore the deck card by card. This said, it’s not one I feel like I need to keep on my shelf for future reference, and I don’t think it has as much substance as the two other books that go with this deck (the guidebook that comes with it and Wild Magic). 
Making Love with the Land: Essays by Joshua Whitehead

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

5.0

 A powerful collection of genre-defying and deeply personal essays that has provoked much thought for me. This is a text that I know I will return to. Whitehead’s writing on writing – on genre, on language, on storytelling – I find especially compelling. 

Content warnings: colonialism, racism, violence, death, grief, heteronormativity, queerphobia, discussion of disordered eating & ED treatment 
Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands by Sonia Nimr

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adventurous emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

 A wonderful adventure that reads like a folktale told around a fire. Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands follows a young Palestinian protagonist from childhood into mid-adulthood through many trials and tribulations as well as many joys, friendships, and adventures - true to its name, a wondrous journey. The ending felt a bit abrupt, but other than that, I really really enjoyed this.

Content warnings: slavery, kidnapping, human trafficking, medical content, grief, violence, medical content, death, death of a parent 
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Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Womb City is author Tlotlo Tsamaase’s debut novel; having previously read xer short fiction in a few anthologies (Africa Risen and The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction) I was very happy to read xer first longer work. 

It is certainly a genre-bender – what starts as a dystopian sci-fi with themes of surveillance and biotech takes a turn toward fast-paced horror, with the end of the book feeling like an entirely different text than the beginning. It is also ambitious – there are a lot of themes here, and strong commentary on bodily autonomy, the relationship between memory and identity, and the ways that those harmed by patriarchy also serve to maintain it. I liked a lot about this. What didn’t quite work for me was how jarring the shift in tone is, and some of the pacing; toward the end, the pace was so fast that it definitely felt like a few too many ideas were squished in for the page count. Some parts felt a bit too information-heavy – the world-building is fascinating and complex, but in some places explained too clearly to the reader, resulting in ‘info-dump’ that often wasn’t necessary and disrupted the dialogue. All that said, though, I found the plot exciting and couldn’t put it down.

Content warnings: pretty much all of them – body horror, gore, blood, violence, injury detail, death, murder, gun violence, rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, drug abuse, death of a parent, suicide, misogyny, sexism, homophobia, medical content, medical trauma, human trafficking. 

Thank you to Erewhon Books, Kensington Books, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. 
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