singlier's reviews
33 reviews

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler 5/5 🌰s 

Oh, I devoured this book. It's a classic for a reason and it is not for the faint of heart. Without being gratuitous or veering into torture porn, Butler creates a 2024 ravaged by capitalism, climate change, and rugged individualism. Our protagonist Lauren is born into the privilege and safety of a walled suburban community: one where everyone has homes, family and food, but still struggle to survive day by day. When her community is attacked and burned, she creates her own community in the group of starving travelers that accompany her on her way north. 

It is full of rich vivid details, thoughtful protagonists, a complex and realistic speculative future, and eerily prophetic politicians. Highly recommend it to anyone that doesn't mind a bit of dystopian fiction.

Even though I knew the end by CL POLK 4/5 🔮s
 
A fun, bordering campy sapphic noir magical detective story. The noir elements are played up to point of satire, but I still enjoyed the text. It's not the best sapphic love story I've ever read, but it's sweet and provides insight into what couples could've looked like back in the 20s/30s. 
I didn't find the mystery compelling, but I liked the use of magic and the religious aspect of the magical system. I would love to read another story set in this world, but these characters did not fully compell me.

The framing device of this story really ruined the reading experience of this book. I know what I signed up for: I wanted the backstory of Captain Phasma. But this story tells the backstory three characters removed from Phasma, in a weak plot about a Storm Trooper Captain named Cardinal seeking evidence to discredit Phasma in the eyes of the First Order.

The story *did not need this*. I don't care about Cardinal or Vi, that's not why I picked up this book. I don't need a reason why we're getting this story. And without any interior insight on Phasma, I genuinely don't feel like I know her any better than I did when I picked up the book. Sure, we know where she grew up and some of her actions, but what were her thoughts, feelings, justifications for what she did? We don't get that here. 

Every break from the backstory to focus on Cardinal and Vi is *so boring* and anticlimactic. We know what's going to happen. He tortures her, they banter, she keeps telling the story. Every time Vi says "This will be your evidence" and then each time it's so...not interesting. Like, duh Phasma is cruel and merciless and powerful. I already knew that about her. I found myself asking, "Okay, what else?". I was constantly seeking a greater emotional depth that never delivered. 

Most interesting parts of the story: History of Phasma, the mystery of Phasma's home planet, the lengths the people went to survive

Least interesting parts of the story:
Cardinal's emotional turmoil (I don't care about this man, he's not the reason I picked up this story), Vi's suffering (ditto)

The story is fine. It just could be a whole lot better.

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy 5/5 🕊️ s

I finished this book last week and its still been on my mind so I figured it was time to sit down and write about it. Just...wow. This book is probably the best I've listened to this year. Its also, without a doubt, the saddest. 

This book follows the life of a woman named Franny, who hopes to follow the last migration of the Arctic Tern, the longest migrating bird in the world, from the North Pole to the South Pole. In order to do so, she hitches a ride on a fishing vessel, exchanging her knowledge of the bird's path (and the schools of fish they feast on) for travel. 

In this bleak future, the animals of the planet are dying. Due to extreme climate change, most major animal species have gone extinct (save those used for human production and consumption), and there is little incentive to stop the decline save for the resources of a select group of researchers, who Franny's husband belongs to. 

However, throughout her journey to follow the Terns the reader gains access to moments in Franny's life that show how lonely, distraught, and traumatized she is: her soul is built to wander, never comfortable in one place too long, and the toll it takes on herself (as she tries to conform) and her loved ones (who ache to watch her go). She tracks down estranged family in search of her lost mother, and recalls the coldness (and strength) of her paternal grandmother who raised her. She builds a rapport with the crew whose ship she boards, and for once in her life, finds a place where she does not feel the need to run from. It paints a heartbreaking portrait of a woman who spent her whole life finding happiness, and the trials she goes through to carve it out for herself. It is a story of love, most of all, and the love for things that are long gone.

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older 3.5/5  🚀

The Mimicking of Known Successes is a short story following Investigator Mossa uncovering a missing person's cases. In this world, humanity has been relocated to Jupiter, where they live on elevated platforms connected by railcar about the planet's gaseous surface. As she digs into the case, she seeks the aid of her old college flame Pleti, a Classics scholar and co-worker of the missing person. As our two characters uncover a secret conspiracy against the Earth Preservation society, we as reader gain knowledge of how this world came to be: how the Earth was destroyed and polluted, how all species of plants and animals were cloned, and how the ultimate goal of Classical scholars is to study the literature of Earth in order to rebuild the lost ecosystems and return home. 

The mystery of this story...is not great. I'm not super compelled by the characters or the events happening, and it's all *incredibly* scripted, beat by beat. It's like someone took a fill-in sheet for "Murder Mystery" and made it into a book. 

The charm and appeal of this book lies in both the characters  and the depth of its world building. Both characters are richly developed (and frustrating at times), but the romance that reignites between them is compelling and very sweet. The story too, of how humans came to live on such an inhospitable planet is told wonderfully through the gradual uncovering of the mystery--like Pleti describing her most recent project reading "Watership down" (not mentioned by name) in order to understand the ecosystem of rabbits--and never feels like forced exposition. This short story tells it's history from the inside out, rather than out looking in, something I've never seen done so well before.

If you are expecting a complex mystery, I would stay away from this book. But if you enjoy a gentle Sapphic romance with rich sci-fi world building, give this book a chance. 

East to the Dawn by Susan Butler 4/5 🛩️s

As a work of nonfiction, it is expertly researched: covering the entire life of Amelia Earhart, this book spares no expense covering her family history, childhood, early adult hood, all the way up to her final flight at the age of 39. It doesn't entertain wild theories about her either: it is upfront about her extra-marital affair, her less-than- reputable professional relations, and the role luck (as well as wealth and connections) played in her rise to fame. 

As a lesbian, I can say I always *hoped* Amelia was too. But based on this text, it isn't likely. With how well documented her life is (through her own extensive letter writing), I must concede her short hair and masculine fashion reflect the practicality of her profession. Alas. 

I will admit, this book is slow and long. It will often linger too long on people only tangentially related to Amelia (was a whole chapter dedicated to her great grandmother and grandmother necessary? Unlikely), but overall a solid biography with riveting details I never knew about her life and career.

How sad it is we live in a world where Amelia is perpetually 39, lost to sea, and not in one where she finally got to publish her poetry or books. 

The Hunger 1.5/5 🐂s by Alma Katsu 

Oh I wanted to enjoy this book and I was so excited to give it a read. The Hunger is a horror retelling of the ill-fated Donner Party expedition during the mid 1800s, weaving real life histories and people with a supernatural twist of horror and fear.

But it just... Didn't hit. There were a lot of narrator characters (around 5: Edwin Bryant, Charles Stanton, James Reed, Tamsen Donner, and Elitha Graves) and I never really got close to any of them or felt a strong connection to them. The way the book is ordered, often something important would happen to a character, but it wouldn't be until the next chapter that it's revealed *why*. 

Also, there are just...a ton of characters and a few chapters in I just gave up trying to keep who's who straight: who was cousins with who, who was the daughter-in-law of who, who was who's son or the servants of who, so on. Rarely so I ask for this, but I really wished to have a family tree in the beginning to keep things straight.

The book struggles most notably with its treatment of Native American practices, quickly falling into the ideas of "Indigenous mysticism" as soon as things turn awry. Maybe it's playing off the beliefs of the settlers, but for once I'd like a horror where there wasn't "an old Native American folktale detailing this exact horror situation" going on, you know? Also, negative a million points for using the s-term to describe the collection of symptoms (cannibalism, violence, etc) of the settlers. Turning them into "creatures less than human" felt like it took away from the horror of the situation of the Donner Party: the scariest thing of all is realizing that even "good" people are not exempt from evil, and will commit atrocious acts to their fellow people in acts of survival or desperation.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes 4/5 🥀s 

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (TBSS) follows the rise of the major antagonist of the original trilogy, President Snow. In the ten years since the Dark Days, the Snow family has fallen to ruin, clinging to the pristige of a pre-war life without the money to show for it. He performs a false life for his classmates at the academy, carefully reserved in his manner, observations, and opinion. When he is unexpectedly given the task to mentor a tribute for the upcoming Hunger Games, a young traveling musician named Lucy Gray, he takes it as his chance to finally make a name for himself and restore the Snow family's former glory. A long the way, he learns about life in the districts, falls in love with his tribute, and rebukes the ways of the Capitol in order to ensure her survival, and in turn, his glory.

This isn't to say this is Snow's redemption arc, nor is he some tragic villain with an equally tragic backstory. Through and through, Snow is a Capitol child, who constantly chooses the rights, power, and control over the districts over humanity. Even as he attempts to humanize the tributes of the games, providing them food and speaking out against their treatments, it is always done with the knowledge it ultimately benefits him and how he is perceived. Snow is never the good guy, and I applaud Collins in her steadfast push that we remember that. The few moments we see his goodwill, we can also see the disdain he has for those he has he does not believe deserve humanity. 

Most of my feelings for this book can be summed up as such: I wish this had been another trilogy. I say this, even though this book is 500 pages, because I needed more time to get to know and care about the characters. 

The book's pacing is FAST and there are so many characters, I gave up trying to keep them all straight. I wish each section had about 100 more pages to really give the characters a chance to breathe. In terms of pacing, it feels like Collins took the adage "every sentence must move the plot forward" and implemented it here. 

The book also struggles with telling, and not showing. We hear a lot of Snow's perspective on the war and the ways life is different, but the times I was most engaged was when Snow recounted a horrible memory, such as

when recounting the story of cannibalism from his neighbors, carving a piece of their maid's recently dead leg to eat. 

Giving Collins more pages to explore more of Snow's past would help me feel more connected to him, instead of merely wishing for his downfall.

Overall, if you are a major fan of the lore, history, and world building of the Hunger Games, you will probably like this book. But if you are expecting a heartfelt, action-packed story akin to the original trilogy, that is not what this story is. The action is in wordplay and ideology shifts, and the desperate viewing of Snow as he continues to cling to his ideals.