Well, we somehow got to the end of another year, which means time to post the books and movies that I consumed this year. First up, the books, and as always, the final sentence of the book will be in parenthesis at the end, with all but the final word blanked out:
Books read in 2023
1. Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward by Gemma Hartley - Quite an eye-opener. This book made me angry, made me sad, made me look at my life and the society we live in in a whole new way. This was basically outlining how, in American culture at least, so much of the emotional labor of day to day living falls on women to take care of. Keeping track of where everything goes in the house, who has birthdays coming up, what to buy for these birthdays… The list and the work is endless, invisible, and largely taken for granted. And, Hartley makes an argument that it’s societal. That this is all learned behavior that can therefore be changed. Doing so is not easy - since reading this, I know that I’ve struggled to be better at noticing the emotional labor I’m throwing Steph’s way, and just trying to be better at doing my share of it. It’s a difficult change to make, but it’s one I’m working on. (We will draw a line in history: the generational divide starts here.)
2. Curse of the Reaper by Brian McAuley - Howard Browning played “The Reaper” throughout the 80s in all of the Reaper movies. Those were your typical slasher horror movies that take a good deal of inspiration from the NIghtmare on ELm Street series. (Although the Reaper films got INCREDIBLY heavy with the one liners in the later films. Like, holy cow, bad.) He’s been retired from acting since the last film - VIII: Moon Reaper - was put out 15 years ago. He still hits horror conventions, but, his better days are behind him. Then, the studio that owns the rights decides they’re going to reboot the franchise. Except, they want to recast the Reaper with Trevor Mane - a 20-something former child actor, who has been in and out of rehab a few times. Howard is conflicted with this bit of news - he’s somewhat relieved to hang up the Reaper’s chains - but then…he begins to hear the Reaper (the actual character) talking to him, telling him he needs to take the role… Is Howard suffering from dementia, or is something supernatural afoot?
This was …decent. It was a bit of a slow burn until the last 100 pages or so, and then it just accelerated til the end. It felt a lot like a novelization of Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (where the character of Freddy Krueger has a life of its own, affecting the actors in real life) and the ending was pretty much visible a mile away, but it wasn’t bad. (The rusty chain began to clank… clank… CLANK.)
3.What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe - the author of the awesome webcomic xkcd also has a blog wherein he answers ridiculous scenarios (what if Japan just left the planet, what if all the rain turned into lemondrops and gumdrops, how long would it take to read every law) in a manner that takes the question seriously, and yet is also pretty humorous. (Hasn’t there been enough destruction!?)
4. Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder - All the emotional labor, complexity, frustration, joy, annoyance, boredom, love, rage, and power of motherhood causes an unnamed young artist turned stay-at-home mom to transform into a dog. This was surreal and avant garde and compelling. It’s also somewhat interesting that this would come into my awareness so soon after reading the book on emotional labor. Large sections of this novel seemed like they were lifted almost verbatim from that book. This is not a complaint. If anything, it made the realization of what the mother was going through more understandable and impactful. As a man, there is no way that I can truly understand what motherhood is like, of course, but this maybe gave me a glimpse into getting a bit of that insight, perhaps.(Here was a woman who now knew that life unfolded through mystery and metaphor, without explanation, who looked upon her perfect son in front of her, a person she had made with her strongest magic, standing right there in a blinding spotlight as if he weren’t a miracle, as if he weren’t the most impossible thing in the world.)
5. The Quiet Boy by Ben H. Winters - I’ve read a few other things by Ben Winters that I’ve really enjoyed, and so when I saw that this book had come out recently, I gave it a shot. It was also quite good! It focused on a lawyer, Jay Shenk, who specializes in malpractice suits (he has a rather shady operation set up where he gets tips from people working at hospitals to give him the heads up on possible clients). Jay is a great character, who comes across equal parts sleazeball, and honest-to-goodness caring dude. He takes on the Keener family, after their teenage son. Wes, suffers a head injury, is operated on, and winds up in a vegetable-like state that is baffling the medical community. That took place in 2009. The novel flips back and forth between then and 2019, when Wes’s father has been arrested for murdering one of the witnesses that testified at the trial. This was a great novel that had a lot of enjoyable and very real feeling characters. (Thank you.)
6. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin - a YA book that felt like it COULD have been interesting and well done, but sadly fell very short of that potential. Liz is 15 when she gets struck by a taxi in a hit and run, and dies. The afterlife is what makes up the majority of the novel, and those, honestly, were the parts I wanted to know more about. Liz herself is largely unlikable, and most of the characters she interacts with - her grandmother, Betty; a dead celebrity from her favorite band, Curtis; the first person she meets in the afterlife, Thandi; her eventual (SIGH) love interest, Owen - are all rather blah as well. In Elsewhere, it turns out you age backwards, until you become a newborn again, at which point you return to live out life on earth all over again (as someone new, obviously). Neat idea, although the math of this feels like it’s extremely unlikely. Liz spends the majority of the novel bitching about having missed out on what the rest of her life would have been like, and not enjoying her ‘death’. Personally, I wanted to know MORE about the rules of this afterlife. How did people figure this out? Why are there buildings and cars and roads? What are they made out of? How does the Observation Deck (that allows people in Elsewhere to view people back on earth for five minutes at a time… for the cost of a coin called Eternium…) work? Why is there a whole currency system in the afterlife? Since you can’t die in Elsewhere… but there are ‘laws’ - what happens if some psychopath starts (attempting) to murder people? Do they have jails and they just keep the person there until they’ve de-aged to go back? The people of Elsewhere have to eat, but why? And is all the food vegetarian? (In the Thanksgiving scene in the book, none of the food mentioned was meat based) Diving deeper into ANY of these questions would have made for a far more interesting book than what we got. Instead, we got a whiny 15 year old obsessed with her breast size who spies on her family and is a shitty friend. Blah. (And in response, this baby, who is Liz and not Liz at the same time, laughs.)
7. Emily Eternal by M.G. Wheaton - Well that was fun! A rollercoaster of a speculative/ scifi/ action/ road trip/ romance romp. Emily is an AC (Artificial Consciousness, which is different than an AI. Sort of.) who has been designed by a team of engineers and software geeks to basically be a therapist to assist with trauma. By having a computer chip attached to your body, Emily is able to interact with your thoughts and help you well.. Be better. You know, like a therapist. But… just a computer program instead of a flesh and blood human being. This ALONE would be enough to constitute an interesting novel, but there’s more going on, because, it turns out that the sun is going to expand its size large enough to end all life on earth - something we’ve known for a while. But, well, the timetable we had was off by a few million years, and instead, the world is going to end in several months instead. Fortunately, the government has some ideas on how Emily’s abilities may be able to offer a solution to humanity’s problem. UNfortunately, not everyone thinks this plan is the best way forward, and those people are willing to use violence to get their point across. This kept me engaged with the world building, the ideas, the plot twists, the action and humor, and Emily as a character through …well, most of it. The final …thirty-ish pages or so felt a bit rushed. But overall this was absolutely a blast. This is apparently this guy’s first book, if he writes anything else in the future, I’ll check it out. (Be well.)
8. Which Side Are You On by Ryan Lee Wong - Reed is a 3rd generation Korean-American millennial who, like his parents before him, is heavily into activism and fighting for progressive ideals. There’s not much plot to this novel, it’s much more a character study of Reed and his family and friends, as he argues philosophical ideas and political motivations with EVERYONE he interacts with. It’s quite exhausting, actually, even if I agree with most of his points of view. I got to the point very early on when I was like, “dude. Not EVERYTHING needs to be a Rage Against the Man.” His parents try to get this through his head, with limited success. As he eventually learns this lesson, it seems like there may be hope for him yet. The world may not have been changed by his actions, but perhaps HE was. (My son.)
9. Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Discuss Their Favorite Television Show - A collection of essays that were all written shortly after Buffy wrapped up its 7 season run…jesus, 20 years ago? Anyway, while I absolutely LOVED Buffy back in the day, it …hasn’t aged as well as it possibly could have. Normally with a collection like this, I would discuss each essay, but I don’t even have the muster to do that. Most of these were meh or downright awful, and even the few that were somewhat intriguing were…you know, about a 20 year old tv show. And, of course, the Joss-worship was rather thick still, since these were written when the show was still on/wrapping up, and his true nature wasn’t widely known, so, that certainly doesn’t help any. I mean, the dedication is to Joss, for his “kindness, dedication and seven seasons of Buffy”. So, yeah, sour note right off the bat. Anyway, I think this should officially close the book on my love affair with that show. It was great when it was great, but its time is over. Oh, and okay, final sentence - and it’s a long one - from the final essay: (I posit that the finale Joss Whedon provided does unleash a surge of positive energy that empowers the forces of good, at the same time concluding the final arc of the show, thus providing a sense of closure to that dynamic thread; and additionally circling backward -- or perhaps spiraling upward-- to promises of the journey laid out in the premiere, seven seasons previous exploiting the mythic structure of the Hero’s Journey to create an extremely satisfying, balanced end.)
10. Zer0es by Chuck Wendig - I had enjoyed Chuck’s novel “Wanderers” that I read last year, and saw he had another action/sci-fi book he’d written that sounded interesting. Zer0es was about a group of hackers from various walks of life who are all arrested by the government and brought to a secret location to put their hacking skills to work for Uncle Sam. The 5 heroes of course bristle with one another (as well as several of the other hackers already at The Lodge, as well as the guards) but eventually uncover a world-threatening conspiracy called Typhoon that they must band together to overcome. I WANTED to like this, but it took far too long getting to the actual meat and potatoes of the story. And once it was revealed, it was …a bit ridiculous. Typhoon was a very sci-fi enemy, and if it had even a fraction of the ability that it was described to have had, it would have truly been unstoppable. Plus, I …kinda didn’t care about any of the Zer0es. Chance - the presumed hero of the bunch - was just a punching bag (the amount of beatings the kid took were astronomical). Wade was the “old guy” who might have been interesting if he wasn’t so Qanon-adjacent (this was written long before Qanon existed, but the seeds were certainly present in Wade’s character). Aleena was the Muslim anti-hero and love interest for Chance (sigh). Reagan was the “troll” with - of course- an actual heart of gold. And DeAndre was the “black guy” that was maybe just barely better than a racist caricature of African Americans. Anyway, these 5 all have their various quibbles and quirks and sadsack stories, but i didn’t feel anything toward any of them. There’s a sequel apparently, and I glanced at goodreads to see if it sounded decent enough to check out (it doesn’t, really). Apparently it doesn’t even focus on any of the Zer0es, so I guess Chuck didn’t feel anything for the characters either… (And he wonders: What next?)
11. Children of the New World by Alexander Wienstein - collection of short stories, most of which were set in the near future, or in a slightly-alternate world to ours, and focused on societies that had changed (or were changing) because of the blurring of reality-reality and virtual reality. Some of these were pretty good - all of them were easily readable, but the majority of them felt very… 2005? I don’t know a better way to explain it. Just sort of like… a bit naive in how the future will really roll out, maybe? Eh. Whatever. They were mostly fine, and it was all a pretty quick read, so I'm not mad I read it, but I don’t know that I’ll keep this writer in mind and seek out anything else he’s written. Stories:
Saying Goodbye to Yang - This is the story that lead to that movie I watched last year with Colin Firth… It’s about an android that gets broken, and the family can’t really afford to fix it, and how they have to deal with losing a “family member”. (“Wow, that’s amazing,” Kyra says, and I stand next to her, looking at the flowers George sent, acknowledging how little I truly know about this world.)
The Cartographers - Heh. I’m writing these descriptions about a week after I read the book, and I have NO IDEA what this one was about. I have a feeling that will be the case with most of them… I’m going to peruse Goodreads to read reviews to help spur my memory. Okay, this was about a group of people who make fake memories for people, which is a pretty intriguing idea, and I bet a TV series done now might go some places with that. (*quietly sweeps Dollhouse under the rug of the past*). But, obviously, the story itself didn’t resonate with me, if I had to go look it up. Ah well.(I tell her I can still remember her skin against mine as we slept, the light in her eyes when I’d open my apartment door for her, and the sound of her voice, telling me, over and over, just how much she loved me.)
Heartland - Set in a time/place where pretty much everyone has no job and or no money. A father is in a dissolving marriage, and drinks to escape it all. While at the bar with his bros, one of them casually mentions that child porn (or, child porn-related, in this instance just photos of his young kids without their shirts on) could earn him some very easy money. He is outraged at the idea and rejects it. The idea is there, though, tempting him. (In this story, when the father goes into his son’s room to make sure he’s sleeping, he kisses the small boy on his forehead and tucks the blankets up beneath his son’s chin, never considering, not even for a moment, tolling the blankets down past the boy’s small chest, which rises and falls with every breath, where deep inside there’s a heart that loves his father and trust he will protect him against the monsters of this world.)
Excerpts from The New World Authorized Dictionary - Meh. This was a gimmicky story that …wasn’t really a story. Felt more like a bunch of tweets of fake dictionary definitions to help world build a society. (Despite the rising toll of WMDMA-related deaths, Bausch & Cartz Pharmaceuticals believes the increase of amphetamine-based drugs reveals a vital need for stronger FDA-approved ADHD medication for preteens and young adults.)
Moksha - Enlightenment is obtainable through a combination of technology and spiritualism. It is quickly outlawed in the US. White guy travels to …India, I think? …to track it down, and quickly becomes addicted to it. (The water, it turned out, was freezing.)
Children of the New World - An older couple become addicted to living virtual lives. While there, they have lots of online cyber sex which results in them creating virtual children. This is all well and good until there are viruses and their system needs to be rebooted, which will result in the loss of their kids. (There’s nothing electronic about the gesture, no hum to the body, only the warmth of their breathing and the beating of their hearts.)
Fall Line - In this world, people are able to live vicariously thru VR recordings of others. A professional skier got into a career-ending accident, and is trying to carry on with his life at a ski-resort. I liked this one quite a bit. (Then I lower my goggles, letting my skis slide into unbroken snow, and lean into the fall line opening beneath me.)
A Brief History of the Failed Revolution - another gimmicky story, where the plot was told through scientific mumbo jumbo. No thanks. (Ideas, hypotheses, and arguments are the only assurance the individual still has of buying power in the marketplace of consciousness.)
Migration - A couple’s teenage son is rebelling against having to be inside and online all the time. He just wants to be physically active outside. This was another good one. (So, instead, I put my arm around him, and we stand together in the falling snow, watching the deer return to their migration.)
The Pyramid and the Ass - Not sure if this was a parody or just read like one. Reincarnation is real in this world, and as a result a lot of the world has lulled into a sense of static. The president, for example, is “George Bush 9th incarnation”. (See what I mean about 2005?) Anyway, while the majority of the world is obsessed with asses, there appears to be some sort of rebellion network going on, and the protagonist is (unknowingly) part of it. This was weird, but also felt like it was the lead up to a much longer (and possibly better?) story. (In the darkness of his logged-off mind, she whispered, “I’m just glad you’re home.”)
Rocket Night - Take Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and make it all about the most picked on child in an elementary class. This was dark, but, really only because, you know. “The Lottery” is dark. (I imagined them drifting alone up there, speaking into their microphones, reporting to themselves about the depths of the unknown.)
Openness - Would being able to know EXACTLY what someone else is thinking be a good thing for your relationships? Turns out, no. No it is not.(And I’d thought I was.)
Ice Age - Snow and ice have covered most of suburbia. One neighbor has hired a bunch of people to help him burn the glaciers away to get back to all the STUFF that is still down there. This does not please the rest of the neighborhood, and a coup is planned. An okay idea, that didn’t quite feel fleshed out enough. (And there will be no blood tonight, no bodies, and no murder among us - just this sled full of pawned goods, and drunken men, spoiling what was once our community.)
12. The Vanishing by Wendy Webb - Julia’s husband had a Ponzi scheme going on. Once discovered, he killed himself, leaving Julia on the hook legally, as well as facing the anger of all the victims. Then, Adrian shows up at her door and offers her a job of going to his mansion (Havenwood) to help care for his elderly mother. She takes him up on this - fucking ridiculous offer and moves into Havenwood, only to discover that there is lots of secrets and possibly supernatural events there. This book sucked ass. It was poorly written, and filled with characters who didn’t act or speak like real humans would in the situations they were in. It was supposed to have been a Gothic novel, but was just…dumb. I’m irritated that I read the whole thing. (And that was all I really needed to know.)
13. One By One by Ruth Ware - A music app called “Snoop” - which allows you to listen along with whomever you’re following - was created by a group of Millennials. Their company goes to a ski resort but an avalanche causes them to be cut off from civilization. Unfortunately, the company was going to be bought out, causing some of the employees to have motive for murder. This was an okay thriller that was rather forgettable, but I didn’t fully hate it. Steph read some other book by this author that she despised, but I felt like this was decent. (Followers: 1)
14. Two Dead by Van Jensen - This graphic novel about a soldier shortly after WWII who becomes a cop in New Orleans investigating a corrupt police chief had all the elements of being amazing - the artwork, the story, the characters - but… somehow it just didn’t all gel for me. Like, it had a lot to say about PTSD and grief and violence and race, and the characters were all well developed and felt real, but it still took me weeks to get through and now that I’m done with it, I don’t feel like any of it really impacted me, sadly. (There’s a fourth path.)
15. Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents -- and What They Mean for America’s Future by Jean M. Twenge - Love me some generation stuff. The author looked at MOUNTAINS of data from the past 60 years or so to lay out generational differences. Her theory is that cultural changes over the years are due in large part to the technology that is introduced when people are coming of age. This explains why Millennials, Gen Zers and the next generation (she dubs them Polars, which I like a lot better than “Generation Alpha”, which is the other term I’ve heard banded about. I hope Polars catches on, but knowing media …it most likely won’t.) Anyway, smartphones and social media are a big part of why the younger gens are …the way they are. Anxious, depressed, needing ‘safe spaces’ and big on cancel culture. Just as the advent of the internet played a key role in developing how Gen Xers and Millennials are: more individualistic and open to other viewpoints than the Boomers and Silents were. Technology shapes the culture, making us adopt a “slow life” way of life - children are coddled, waiting longer to move out or get married. Gah. I’m not explaining it very well at all, but it was interesting to read about this idea of how each generation is impacted by technology. And she had tons of graphs and data to back up her theories, so, it seems pretty reasonable to me. It was 500 pages, but it flew by. Very readable, and certainly gave me a different outlook on how and why society is how it currently is. One thing I noticed she did NOT mention in the book at all was the onset of AI. Guess we’ll see how that shakes things up in the coming years, and maybe she’ll write another book in a handful of years that revisits the upcoming Polars once they’ve started to enter the narrative a bit more. Either way, I recommend this book, if you’re interested in the social sciences at all. Good stuff. (The more we understand the perspective of different generations, the easier it is to see we’re all in this together.)
16. Wayward by Chuck Wendig - Sequel to Wanderers. People call things “post-apocalyptic” all the time, but usually the stories are pre- or during-apocalyptic. THIS was ACTUALLY set AFTER the apocalypse, showing how the survivors… survived. It was 800-ish pages, but even so, for most of the story, I didn’t want it to end. The ending did seem… somewhat rushed, though. I mean, I guess it all had to wrap up SOMEHOW, and the way things concluded was satisfactory enough. I think I was expecting that this might be a middle book, and that there would be a trilogy coming, and there still may be, but I think that the series is probably finished. Either way, it was a great ride. (It casts no shadow upon them.)
17. Paradise-1 by David Wellington - I like David Wellington’s stuff (except for the Chimera books, never could get into those) and figured a space-horror epic like this might be worth checking out.
Basic plot: Alexandra Petrov is a member of Firewatch (ie space cops). She defies an order, and gets sent out to Paradise-1, which is a colony that her mother (the former head of Firewatch) has retired to. Also on the ship going to Paradise-1 are:
the pilot, Sam - whom Alexandra has a romantic history with.
the doctor, Zhang (who has a medically attached bracelet that helps keep him stable, since he would otherwise have severe PTSD from his time on another colony that saw an outbreak of a mysterious disease)
the ship’s AI, Acteaon.
And the ship’s robot servant, Rapscallion.
Unfortunately, there’s a conspiracy in Firewatch that is hiding the truth about Paradise-1. Every ship that has gone there has become infected with …something. And as soon as our protagonists emerge from hyperspace, the ship is attacked and Acteaon begins malfunctioning to the point of uselessness. Things get worse.
This was 677 pages long and it SO did not need to be. It flew by for the first 3 or 4 hundred pages, and …then it kinda started getting repetitive. And just a heads up - this is the first in an intended SERIES, so there is no real conclusion to the story. So ultimately we’ve got almost 700 pages of SET-UP. Ay ay ay. Still, there were definitely unique elements to it - I liked the fact that Rapscallion could print his body into different forms and spread his consciousness out amongst them. And Dr. Zhang was a very interesting character, once we learned his backstory. Alexandra …not so much. She’s kinda bland, unfortunately. I think if this had been tightened up and shed a couple hundred pages, it would have made it a LOT more easy to swallow, and I’d be more excited about the prospect of a follow up book. As it is…I’ll read the sequel, at some point, I’m sure. (The tone of his voice was changing, changing from a question to a scream.)
18. Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt - YA novel about the four Tillerman children - Dicey (13), James (12, I think), Maybeth (9) and Sammy (6) traveling the countryside after their mother abandons them in the mall parking lot. Dicey (and all of the kids, really) is an amazing kid, and one of my favorite characters I’ve discovered recently. This is a series - there’s about five other books that follow the Tillermans, apparently - and I will more than likely dig into it at some point in the future… Although maybe not. It was kinda nice being able to leave them where they ended up, with a semi-uncertain, but relatively happy ending. And, I mean, as long as they are together, they can get through anything. What a great family those kids are. I don’t have a whole lot else to say about it, I just enjoyed the time I got to spend with them. (“Ready,” she said.)
19. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell - nonfiction book about going to various museums and sight seeing locations dedicated to the assassinations of U.S. Presidents. Vowell’s writing is funny, and the facts she lays out are interesting and wild. Of course, writing about this weeks after having read it is a mistake, as i’ve forgotten…pretty much all of it. But I liked the book while I was reading it. Just wish I retained more of it. (They shot him too.)
20. The Drift by C.J. Tudor - Started strong, lost interest about ½ way thru, though. And when I lost interest, I lost interest HARD. The first part was intriguing; but once a certain twist that I had suspected was revealed to be the case (not that hard to figure out, really - basically that the three narratives aren’t all happening at the same time) it just became …not as interesting? Anyway, plot - a pandemic has hit the world, and the virus does kill you, but it can also leave you as a ranting raving lunatic suffering in pain. These are known as Whistlers (due to the way it makes your breathing whistle) and they’re essentially zombies - even though they’re, you know, just people suffering from a really crappy cold. There’s a retreat that supposedly is looking for a cure and people can volunteer to go there to be studied. Two groups on their way there - one of them in a ski lift, one of them in a bus - are sorta the same sort of tale: In the ski lift, the passengers all awaken after having been drugged, and they don’t know HOW they got on the ski lift. On the bus, the passengers all knew they were on the way to the retreat, but the bus had just recently crashed, leaving them with injuries and dead passengers to contend with. And the third POV is from the folks in the retreat, who are suffering from various degrees of cabin fever, and a security system that is threatening to break down. I don’t know that this is recommendable, because in the end I didn't really care much about …really ANY of the characters, or their fates. I still enjoyed the first bit enough that if I see anything in the future from this writer, I’ll POSSIBLY check it out, but it will have to be a truly compelling idea for me to commit. (She was a survivor.)
21. Post-Apocalypto by Tenacious D - Super dumb and juvenile (so many dick jokes (and drawings)) but …sorta charming, in its own way. Tenacious D, the band that consists of Jack Black and Kyle Gass, made a graphic novel about the world ending in nuclear holocaust, and their adventures after that. It includes women cults, Terminators from the future with female genitalia, three headed dogs and Donald Trump Jr, among other things. It’s all immensely stupid, but I did laugh out loud a couple times, so gotta give ‘em props for that. Apparently there’s an animated movie (on Youtube, supposedly, but i haven’t gone looking) so you can listen/watch along with the songs that are peppered throughout. Doing that probably enhances the experience somewhat, but I was fine with the 30 minutes or so it took me to read through this. (So long as the D still has a recording contract with Sony Records, the world will survive.)
22. Everything is Fine Volume 1 by Mike Birchall - Creepy graphic novel about a community where everyone is forced to suppress …something from the past. They live in a community that is highly surveilled, and extremely paranoid and artificial. Also, all of the characters have giant cute cat heads, which causes a bit of cognitive dissonance. This didn’t *solve* any of the mysteries that it introduced, but I *am* intrigued enough that I’ll keep checking this out. (We need to talk.)
23. The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay - A “memoir” (novel) with a sprinkling of supernatural events throughout. Art Barbara (not his real name) starts off his memoir recounting his final year of high school, where, to beef up his college resume, he decides he needs some extracurricular activities. Since he’s got severe scoliosis (and leans more toward the ‘nerd’ crowd than the ‘jock’ side anyway) he creates the “Pallbearers Club” - he (and a few other classmates) volunteer to perform pallbearer duties at funerals of people who didn’t have enough friends or loved ones to fill those themselves. It’s through the club that he meets Mercy Brown, who is super cool and extremely punk. She takes photos of the corpses with her Polaroid camera (looking for “proof”) ,and introduces Art to Husker Du, and might possibly be a centuries-old vampire.
Mercy has obtained a copy of Art’s memoir (novel), and throughout the writing, has left her notes and commentary. She often contradicts Art’s telling of things, which casts him as an unreliable narrator, which is always fun.
The second half of the novel is set 20 years after Art had graduated, and he’s now in his early 40s, and life hasn’t been exactly great for him. He and Mercy grew apart, but he still thinks of her often. He’s been in multiple bands, but none have ever really lasted long or given him success or happiness. He’s become addicted to alcohol and pain medication (for his back). When he finally re-crosses paths with Mercy, he begins to suspect that she really IS a vampire, and his focus becomes on proving that.
Art was sometimes a bit difficult to tolerate - he’s verbose and has a tendency to be kinda mopey and over philosophical. Mercy’s ‘notes’ throughout were often a highlight, although I could see how they might irk people, too. Interestingly, I felt like the book should have ended with Art’s final section instead of how it did, with a final commentary from Mercy. But, I think overall it was still an interesting read, and a unique take on both the fictional memoir AND on vampire stories. (Salut.)
24. Holly by Stephen King - Latest Stephen King mystery novel. I zipped through it in two and a half days, because, you know, Stephen King is immensely read-able. This was that. Probably mostly forgettable, overall, but engrossing for the weekend that I was in it. Oh, yeah, this was set (at least partially) in 2021, so it was VERY Covid related. The online world, of course, has reacted predictably to that. (How can I help?)
25. Docile by K.M. Szpara - A scifi(ish) novel set in a world where basically indentured servitude was legalized. Millionaires can (and do) buy human servants referred to as Dociles. Most Dociles prefer to choose to have the experience of being a slave numbed by using a drug called Dociline that causes the user to be put into a state of forgetfulness and happy compliance. Elisha is a 21 year old who lives in the country, and whose mother was previously a Docile. The effects of her time on Dociline never wore off, however. He opts to become a Docile, but refuses the drug. Unfortunately, his Patron is Alex Bishop the Third. The Bishops are the family that created Dociline.
This novel had a lot of intricate world building that was probably the strongest thing it had going for it. It also had a handful of gay sex scenes that didn’t do much for me, but were fine for those who want that sort of thing, I suppose. I think the novel probably could have been better if it had been a hundred pages shorter. By around page 300 or so, I was starting to lose interest in the world and wanting things to be wrapped up, by the time I got to the happy(ish) ending at page 492, I was just ready to move on completely. Like I said, the world building was what kept me going, the characters were …okay, but some of the actions of certain characters seemed… odd? Without going into spoilers, I’ll just say that the way some members of Elisha’s family acted during his first visit home were …confusing. Or, I guess, extreme is probably a better word choice. But, whatever. It was a decent novel, definitely outside of my typical wheelhouse. (Together)
26. Babyteeth: Year One by Donny Coates - Graphic novel about 16 year old Sadie, who has just given birth to …the Anti-Christ. A religious group tracks these sorts of things, and sends assassins to eliminate the threat. ANOTHER group wants to ensure that the child survives to fulfill his destiny. Violence, racoon-demons, and hijinks ensue. The artwork is mostly meh, but the storyline - while not doing anything groundbreaking or new - is compelling enough to keep me interested. For now. (You can do this.)
27. Babyteeth: Year Two: Cradle and Grave by Donny Coates - While book one was (somewhat) grounded in reality, book two just went full in on the ridiculous fantasy aspect. The majority of it was set in a hell dimension (or maybe on earth that was post apocalyptic? It’s not clear, really) and there was a LOT of exposition. The artwork got WORSE as the book progressed, and it felt like whatever drive for the project may have existed in the beginning definitely fizzled out. I will give them props for actually wrapping it up instead of dragging the series on for years and years like so many graphic novels seem to do. Just… a pity that it wasn’t more of an exciting final product.(That…seems like such a long time ago.)
28. The Last of Us: American Dreams by Neil Druckmann - graphic novel tie-in to the video game (which I’ve never played; but I dug the HBO tv show ALSO based on the video game). I think having seen the HBO show helped me like this more, if I had been unfamiliar with that, I don’t know that this would have resonated with me at all. As it was, this was a bit like seeing some of the show in graphic novel form. And in that vein, it worked perfectly fine. This was short, and didn’t REALLY expand the world much, but I liked the cartoony type artwork, and it was nice to spend some time with Ellie (and Riley and the Fireflies) even if the world they reside in is a crapsack one. (I’ll see you tomorrow.)
29. The Book of M by Peng Shepherd - people all over the world begin to lose their shadows. Once you lose your shadow, eventually you begin to lose your memories as well. And once you lose your memories of how something is, you can misremember it…and that then becomes reality for everyone else. This magic ability to reshape reality is terrifying to the entire world, and especially for those who still have their shadows. Ory and Max are a couple who were attending a wedding for their friends, Paul and Immanuel, when pretty much the entire city they were in loses their shadow at the same time. All of the guests at the wedding at first stay hunkered in the hotel while the world dissolves into chaos and anarchy around them. Eventually, people begin to leave, until it’s just Max and Ory remaining at the Elk Ridge. The book actually begins with the two of them living in the hotel, scavenging, occasionally making their way into town to get supplies, when Max loses her shadow. Terrified that she will lose her memory of Ory - and reshape him in the process - Max decides to leave and hopes that Ory won’t try to follow her. Of course, he does attempt to find her. But making your way through this new magic-infested America is not nearly as simple as it was. For either shadowed or shadowless. This was an epic post-apocalyptic romance sci-fi fantasy story that was great, and surprisingly emotional. Some of the magic bits were hard to follow/understand at times, but overall, I really enjoyed this. (Fifty-two.)
30. Batman ‘89 by Sam Hamm - Kinda cool to see, in graphic novel form, what probably SHOULD have been the third Michael Keaton Batman movie. Focuses on Two-Face and the emergence of Robin, while also continuing to delve into the relationship between Batman and Catwoman. Pretty good stuff, all around. (KJINNNG)
31. Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin - This creepy and well written novel imagines a world where devices known as kentuckis infiltrate everyday life. A kentucki is essentially a Furby that has a camera and a remote control. You buy one, and hook it up, and wait for some random stranger in the world to become a “dweller” who is then connected to your kentucki, allowing them to, essentially, have a mobile camera inside your home. That’s …essentially the entire plot of the story - there was no real overarching storyline or plot. There were a handful of characters that we would check in on - occasionally having one-off chapters that were essentially just very short stories set in this world.
The idea is a very creepy - and yet intriguing one. Something about the idea of voyeurism and chance encounters with random strangers is somehow super compelling. Unfortunately, it was hard to keep everything straight in my mind, and since there wasn’t really any main plot of what it was all leading to, it effectively felt…kind of empty at the end? Like… it was cool to ponder about how things would play out if such a technology existed - and she did a great job coming up with the various freaky and intriguing ways that people would end up interacting with kentuckis - but …there didn’t seem to be a REASON for it all, if that makes sense. I don’t know. It was a decent novel, and it kept drawing me back, I just felt like I wanted something …MORE out if it overall. (She was so rigid she let her body creak, and for the first time she wondered, with a fear taht threatened to break her, whether she was standing on a world that it was ever possible to escape.)
32. The End and Other Beginnings: Stories From the Future by Veronica Roth - Collection of six short stories. Each of these were sci-fi-y to various degrees. Evidently the final two were set in a universe from one of her other books (series?), which explains (partially) why I found them lacking. Anyway. Stories:
Inertia - set in a world where the ability to kind of mind-meld with a person (who is near death) and interact with your memories and theirs exists. Claire has a friend, Matt, who she has grown apart from. WHen Matt is in a car accident, and won’t survive, Claire has the opportunity to revisit their relationship to see where it went wrong - from both their points of view. Strong start to the book. This was mostly character-driven and I really enjoyed this story. (Quiet, no need for words, we listened to “Inertia” on repeat.)
The Spinners - Two estranged sisters - one a bounty hunter who tracks down (and kills) alien parasites, and one who has been at a military academy - reunite after their mother dies. This was …okay, but the world building felt a little muddy. (Eon was smiling, too, as he looked back to the shore, which was disappearing, flattening to just a dark line on the horizon.)
Hearken - Certain people have the ability to be “hearkens” which allows them to “see” the life song (or the death song) that people create. It’s explained as being a connection to the universe and essentially the Hearkens are able to truly understand a persons life. (I’m not explaining it very well.) Anyway, Darya is a Hearken. She has to choose whether she wants to hear life songs or death songs, as her mother is about to die. Again, I’m not really explaining this very well, but I did like this story once I got into it. (She had been wrong to say that death was the mystery, not life.)
Vim and Vigor - bit of a character study about a group of three teenage friends who have had their friendship affected by the death of the fourth member of their group. A device that allows a person to see two different possible outcomes of future events is also used. (“I love this song.”)
Armored Ones - essentially two short novellas squished together. The first part of this focused on a woman who was being trained to be an assassin. And the second part focused on …maybe the member of the family that the woman was going to kill? I don’t know. The names and backstories in this were difficult to keep track of and I wasn’t a huge fan of this. BITS of it were good and compelling, but overall, not my cup of tea. (He was ready.)
The Transformationist - Another one that I wanted to like more than I did. Otho is a teenager in juvie for committing a crime that was essentially an accident. He could be freed from his sentence, but he just has to admit to the authorities what happened. His shame won’t allow him to do that, though. (Otho let his uncle’s smile, and the music that floated away from the dadsh, and the memory of Jove huddled against him, fill him and keep him warm.)
