Rachel Manija Brown's Blog, page 19
December 15, 2023
My Latest Zoe book, starring Norris the Dunkleosteus
This is why I disappeared recently.
If you'd like to buy a copy directly from me, please PayPal me $3.00. My PayPal address is Rphoenix2@hotmail.com (NOT gmail!) If you'd like a free copy, please email me at Rphoenix2@gmail.com, and I'll send you one. This goes for any book I write - I'm happy to provide a free copy any time.
There's a ton of Christmas romances. There's a handful of Hanukkah romances. And I've come across the occasional romance involving non-Abrahamic winter holidays. But I've never come across one that represents the very common experience of celebrating holidays from more than one tradition, separately or together. I've also never seen a shifter romance in which the hero changes into a Dunkleosteus. So in the interests of representation, I had to write this book.
Norris, the hero, is an ascended minor villain. He appeared as one of the Big Boss's henchmen in Defender Hellhound, and I fell in love with him when he was ordered to menace the heroes in his shift form, turned into a Dunkleosteus and leaped into a much-too-small swimming pool (filled with water dyed to look like tomato juice, it's a long story), and refused to get out.
Annabeth, the heroine, also makes a brief appearance in a previous book. She throws a watermelon frappucino in Merlin's face in Defender Raptor (because she mistakes him for her cheating ex-boyfriend who stole her sofa, it's a long story.)
The only way to break his curse is to bring his mate to the Defenders holiday party. Too bad she hates the holidays.
Norris loves his unusual shift form. What marine paleontologist wouldn't want to turn into a giant prehistoric fish? When he meets his mate Annabeth, a brilliant and beautiful barista studying to be a marine biologist, love hits him like a tidal wave. What could possibly go wrong with a fated romance at the happiest time of the year?
First, there's the curse.
He's turning into an enormous armored fish at the most inconvenient times, and she has no idea that shifters or curses even exist. And the only way to break the curse is to reawaken Annabeth to the magic of Christmas. Not to mention Hanukkah. And Winter Solstice. And...
Then, there's the grinch.
Ever since a truly terrible day last December, Annabeth has hated winter holidays. All of them. It doesn't help that she has to wear an elf hat to work. But everything turns around when Norris steps into her coffee shop. He makes her feel as warm inside as a marshmallow toasting over an open fire. So why does he keep suddenly running away? And why does he seem so disappointed when she tells him he can take her anywhere... except to a winter holiday party?
And with friends like these...
In between preparing for the holiday party and fending off "help" from their flying kittens and other magical pets, the Defenders are delighted to help Norris court his mate and break his curse. Or maybe that should be "help..."
The Defenders are back in this hilarious and heartwarming shifter holiday romcom, packed with Christmas cheer, Hanukkah happiness, Diwali delight, and Winter Solstice wonder.
Splashing Through the Snow is a complete, standalone holiday romantic comedy with a happily ever after. It contains minor spoilers for Defender Hellhound and Defender Chimera related to Norris's appearances in those books. If you want to avoid all spoilers, please read those books first.
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comments
If you'd like to buy a copy directly from me, please PayPal me $3.00. My PayPal address is Rphoenix2@hotmail.com (NOT gmail!) If you'd like a free copy, please email me at Rphoenix2@gmail.com, and I'll send you one. This goes for any book I write - I'm happy to provide a free copy any time.
There's a ton of Christmas romances. There's a handful of Hanukkah romances. And I've come across the occasional romance involving non-Abrahamic winter holidays. But I've never come across one that represents the very common experience of celebrating holidays from more than one tradition, separately or together. I've also never seen a shifter romance in which the hero changes into a Dunkleosteus. So in the interests of representation, I had to write this book.
Norris, the hero, is an ascended minor villain. He appeared as one of the Big Boss's henchmen in Defender Hellhound, and I fell in love with him when he was ordered to menace the heroes in his shift form, turned into a Dunkleosteus and leaped into a much-too-small swimming pool (filled with water dyed to look like tomato juice, it's a long story), and refused to get out.
Annabeth, the heroine, also makes a brief appearance in a previous book. She throws a watermelon frappucino in Merlin's face in Defender Raptor (because she mistakes him for her cheating ex-boyfriend who stole her sofa, it's a long story.)
The only way to break his curse is to bring his mate to the Defenders holiday party. Too bad she hates the holidays.
Norris loves his unusual shift form. What marine paleontologist wouldn't want to turn into a giant prehistoric fish? When he meets his mate Annabeth, a brilliant and beautiful barista studying to be a marine biologist, love hits him like a tidal wave. What could possibly go wrong with a fated romance at the happiest time of the year?
First, there's the curse.
He's turning into an enormous armored fish at the most inconvenient times, and she has no idea that shifters or curses even exist. And the only way to break the curse is to reawaken Annabeth to the magic of Christmas. Not to mention Hanukkah. And Winter Solstice. And...
Then, there's the grinch.
Ever since a truly terrible day last December, Annabeth has hated winter holidays. All of them. It doesn't help that she has to wear an elf hat to work. But everything turns around when Norris steps into her coffee shop. He makes her feel as warm inside as a marshmallow toasting over an open fire. So why does he keep suddenly running away? And why does he seem so disappointed when she tells him he can take her anywhere... except to a winter holiday party?
And with friends like these...
In between preparing for the holiday party and fending off "help" from their flying kittens and other magical pets, the Defenders are delighted to help Norris court his mate and break his curse. Or maybe that should be "help..."
The Defenders are back in this hilarious and heartwarming shifter holiday romcom, packed with Christmas cheer, Hanukkah happiness, Diwali delight, and Winter Solstice wonder.
Splashing Through the Snow is a complete, standalone holiday romantic comedy with a happily ever after. It contains minor spoilers for Defender Hellhound and Defender Chimera related to Norris's appearances in those books. If you want to avoid all spoilers, please read those books first.
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comments
December 1, 2023
From Below, by Darcy Coates
In 1928, the SS Arcadia vanishes without a trace after sending several vague yet deeply creepy distress calls, the last of which concludes with "There are bodies in the walls."
Sixty years later, the wreckage of the Arcadia is found way off from its last believed coordinates. A documentary team will be the first to explore the ship. They'd planned to do some wreck diving but to mostly use remote-operated, unmanned vehicles. Unfortunately, their ROVs all mysteriously stopped working when they arrived at the wreck site. Since they'll only get paid if they produce the footage they promised, they decide to do three dives to explore the wreck.
The cave diving exploration of the ship is intercut with the story of exactly what happened to the Arcadia. It's hard to say which is creepier, because they're both incredibly creepy. From Below is an old-school style ghost story, relying on dread, implications, and things glimpsed out of the corner of your eyes.
What's terrifying about a ghost? To me, it's the thought that you might see one. Or worse, that you might realize that the ghost is standing right behind you and have to choose to turn around, knowing that when you do, you will see it. Or that it's under the bed, waiting to grab your ankle. Or that you might glance in a mirror, and see it behind you.
The fear that a ghost might kill you is, to me, the least scary thing about a ghost. Just being personally confronted with their existence is what's scary.
At a certain point, the book switches the fear that ghosts might just be there for the fear that the ghosts can kill you. At that point it becomes less scary and more of of an action/adventure story. Still good, but minus the existential dread.
I was disappointed by Our Wives Under the Sea, which didn't do enough with a lost submarine. I was disappointed by Dead Silence, which did a bad job with salvagers on a haunted spaceship. From Below was exactly what I wanted. You always know exactly how much oxygen the divers have. You know exactly what every bit of the ship looks like, feels like, smells like, both in the past and in the present underwater. The atmosphere is incredible. The characters have exactly as much characterization as they need and not a bit more, which in this case is perfectly fine. What Coates does overwhelmingly well is convey an atmosphere of sheer relentless dread.
In addition to the fear of ghosts, drowning, suffocation, corpses, getting lost underwater, being lost in some kind of sea hell, and going insane from terror, there is also a highly specific terrifying element which I've only ever come across once before, in a manga by Junji Ito involving caves.
I don't think the book really needed the final "just when you think it's over" beat or the partial/possible explanation for the haunting, but they didn't spoil anything either. If you want to read a terrifying book about ghosts on a ship, From Below is hard to beat.
Content notes: Nothing terribly gory or graphic beyond some corpse descriptions. It's about fear and dread rather than gore.
Thanks to![[personal profile]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1491408111i/22407843.png)
sovay
for mentioning it! I'd never heard of it before and I loved it.
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comments
Sixty years later, the wreckage of the Arcadia is found way off from its last believed coordinates. A documentary team will be the first to explore the ship. They'd planned to do some wreck diving but to mostly use remote-operated, unmanned vehicles. Unfortunately, their ROVs all mysteriously stopped working when they arrived at the wreck site. Since they'll only get paid if they produce the footage they promised, they decide to do three dives to explore the wreck.
The cave diving exploration of the ship is intercut with the story of exactly what happened to the Arcadia. It's hard to say which is creepier, because they're both incredibly creepy. From Below is an old-school style ghost story, relying on dread, implications, and things glimpsed out of the corner of your eyes.
What's terrifying about a ghost? To me, it's the thought that you might see one. Or worse, that you might realize that the ghost is standing right behind you and have to choose to turn around, knowing that when you do, you will see it. Or that it's under the bed, waiting to grab your ankle. Or that you might glance in a mirror, and see it behind you.
The fear that a ghost might kill you is, to me, the least scary thing about a ghost. Just being personally confronted with their existence is what's scary.
At a certain point, the book switches the fear that ghosts might just be there for the fear that the ghosts can kill you. At that point it becomes less scary and more of of an action/adventure story. Still good, but minus the existential dread.
I was disappointed by Our Wives Under the Sea, which didn't do enough with a lost submarine. I was disappointed by Dead Silence, which did a bad job with salvagers on a haunted spaceship. From Below was exactly what I wanted. You always know exactly how much oxygen the divers have. You know exactly what every bit of the ship looks like, feels like, smells like, both in the past and in the present underwater. The atmosphere is incredible. The characters have exactly as much characterization as they need and not a bit more, which in this case is perfectly fine. What Coates does overwhelmingly well is convey an atmosphere of sheer relentless dread.
In addition to the fear of ghosts, drowning, suffocation, corpses, getting lost underwater, being lost in some kind of sea hell, and going insane from terror, there is also a highly specific terrifying element which I've only ever come across once before, in a manga by Junji Ito involving caves.
I don't think the book really needed the final "just when you think it's over" beat or the partial/possible explanation for the haunting, but they didn't spoil anything either. If you want to read a terrifying book about ghosts on a ship, From Below is hard to beat.
Content notes: Nothing terribly gory or graphic beyond some corpse descriptions. It's about fear and dread rather than gore.
Thanks to
sovay
for mentioning it! I'd never heard of it before and I loved it. [image error] [image error]
comments
November 30, 2023
The Iron Children, by Rebecca Fraimow
Do you like robot nuns? How about robot nuns commanding and telepathically puppeteering four-armed cyborg soldiers? Okay, how about a young woman, Asher, who will become a robot nun once she completes her studies and her soul is uploaded, unexpectedly ending up in command of a mission in which one of the cyborg soldiers is actually a mole?
I mean mole as in a spy from the other side. Not a burrowing rodent. This novella has such an awesomely wild premise, a rodent mole cyborg soldier seems completely possible.
This is basically a perfect novella. It has a great premise that it completely leans into, fascinating worldbuilding, a likable ensemble cast, a solid adventure/winter survival story, an equally solid mystery, emotional and cultural complexity, and a very, very satisfying resolution. It's one of those stories where every single one of the characters has their own motivations and agency, which is ironic/appropriate considering how central it is to both plot and theme that many of the characters are literally puppeted by others.
There's a lot going on but it's all very integrated and doesn't feel overloaded. But I would LOVE to see it expanded into or continue into a full novel, or to see a full novel in this world.
I can't say any more without spoilers, other than that you should all read this. If it doesn't get nominated for SFF awards, I will throw things. Anyone who intends to make Hugo nominations should definitely read it.
( Read more... )
Content notes: It's a war story and involves child soldiers and issues of consent (not sexual) and mental/physical autonomy. There's some war violence but nothing graphic.
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comments
I mean mole as in a spy from the other side. Not a burrowing rodent. This novella has such an awesomely wild premise, a rodent mole cyborg soldier seems completely possible.
This is basically a perfect novella. It has a great premise that it completely leans into, fascinating worldbuilding, a likable ensemble cast, a solid adventure/winter survival story, an equally solid mystery, emotional and cultural complexity, and a very, very satisfying resolution. It's one of those stories where every single one of the characters has their own motivations and agency, which is ironic/appropriate considering how central it is to both plot and theme that many of the characters are literally puppeted by others.
There's a lot going on but it's all very integrated and doesn't feel overloaded. But I would LOVE to see it expanded into or continue into a full novel, or to see a full novel in this world.
I can't say any more without spoilers, other than that you should all read this. If it doesn't get nominated for SFF awards, I will throw things. Anyone who intends to make Hugo nominations should definitely read it.
( Read more... )
Content notes: It's a war story and involves child soldiers and issues of consent (not sexual) and mental/physical autonomy. There's some war violence but nothing graphic.
[image error] [image error]
comments
November 29, 2023
The View From the Cherry Tree, by Willo Davis Roberts
Eleven-year-old Rob loves sitting in the cherry tree in his front yard, where he can spit cherry pits at the bedroom window belonging to Mrs. Calloway, the world's worst neighbor, and avoid the madhouse his home has become in the runup to his older sister's wedding. Then he sees a pair of hands shove Mrs. Calloway out the window to her death! But when he tries to tell people, nobody listens or believes him. Except the murderer...
Roberts' first book is basically Rear Window for pre-teens. I read this when I was kid and remember finding it very suspenseful. It still is once it gets going. The beginning/middle is a nicely written and amusing but fairly standard middle-grade comedy/mystery, with some implausibilities in terms of how impossible it is to get anyone to even let Rob finish a sentence when they know he saw Mrs. Calloway fall to her (rather gruesome) death. But once the murderer gets serious about getting rid of Rob, it becomes a cracking thriller that had me staying up late to finish it.
Content notes: One use of the r-word, the murder is unexpectedly disturbing/graphic for a middle-grade thriller, cats are injured/in danger (but they recover and are fine), a whole lot of spiders.
The Kindle version with the awful cover has been censored. The original book had the cat named S.O.B. This version names it Sonny, and cuts the explanation for the cat's name. S.O.B. is a major character, so it wouldn't surprise me if other elements of the book were altered too. Buy a used copy of the original book instead.
[image error] [image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
Roberts' first book is basically Rear Window for pre-teens. I read this when I was kid and remember finding it very suspenseful. It still is once it gets going. The beginning/middle is a nicely written and amusing but fairly standard middle-grade comedy/mystery, with some implausibilities in terms of how impossible it is to get anyone to even let Rob finish a sentence when they know he saw Mrs. Calloway fall to her (rather gruesome) death. But once the murderer gets serious about getting rid of Rob, it becomes a cracking thriller that had me staying up late to finish it.
Content notes: One use of the r-word, the murder is unexpectedly disturbing/graphic for a middle-grade thriller, cats are injured/in danger (but they recover and are fine), a whole lot of spiders.
The Kindle version with the awful cover has been censored. The original book had the cat named S.O.B. This version names it Sonny, and cuts the explanation for the cat's name. S.O.B. is a major character, so it wouldn't surprise me if other elements of the book were altered too. Buy a used copy of the original book instead.
[image error] [image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
November 28, 2023
Audiobook Recs & a Giant Audiobook Sale
Audible is doing a store-wide sale through the end of the month. If you have a Premium Plus membership (I do), every single title is deeply discounted, many to $2 or $3. If you don't, there are still a whole lot of good discounts. If you often listen to audiobooks, it's worth signing up for Premium Plus just to access the full sale.
If you listen to audiobooks at all, check it out. I've already bought enough to last me for the next year, and I'm still browsing.
Here's a few audiobooks I highly recommend for the synergy of book and performance. Every one of them is a delight in itself, even if you've read the book before. I have reviews of most of them if you'd like to know more about the books themselves.
Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie, read by Hugh Fraser. Hilarious.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, read by Chiwetel Ejiofor. If I could recommend just one audiobook, this would be it. A great book with an absolutely perfect performance. $6.99 without membership.
Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand. Multiple narrators.
The Cass Neary series by Elizabeth Hand, narrated by Carol Monda. Absolutely perfect match of book to narrator.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman, read by the author. This is my favorite of his audiobooks but I love him narrating his own books. I'll listen to him reading anything but my second favorite is his reading of Neverwhere.
Revelator by Daryl Gregory, read by Reagan Boggs.
We Sold Our Souls! by Grady Hendrix, narrated by Carol Monda. No one does tough, world-weary , middle-aged women like Carol Monda.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, read by Shaun Taylor Corbett.
The first four Dark Tower books by Stephen King, read by Frank Muller. (The narrators switch at book five as Muller was in a motorcycle crash that he never recovered from.)
Pet Sematary by Stephen King, read by Michael C. Hall. Brilliant performance.
Stephen King books in general are excellent read aloud - his storyteller voice translates beautifully to audio. I also love Duma Key read by John Slattery, Lisey's Story read by Mare Winningham, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon read by Anne Heche, Salem's Lot read by Rod McLarty, Holly read by Justine Lupe, anything read by Frank Muller, King's own reading of Bag of Bones, and many more.
Boy's Life by Robert McCammon, read by George Newbern. Beautifully captures the book's sunlit nostalgia, beauty, and terror.
Hell House by Robert Matheson, read by Roy Porter. Porter's thunderous narration goes marvelously with the book's melodrama.
True Grit by Charles Portis, read by Donna Tartt. If you've only seen the movies, you have GOT to listen to the book. It's brilliant and Tartt reads it brilliantly.
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, read by Andy Serkis. The whole thing is great fun but "Riddles in the Dark" is an absolute masterpiece.
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, read by Rob Inglis. A traditional reading rather than a performance, completely immersive.
Memoirs are generally best read by their authors; in this vein, I especially enjoyed Midnight Son by James Dommek Jr., Sarah Polley reading Run Toward the Danger, Jenette McCurdy reading I'm Glad My Mom Died, and Notes From a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi.
And a bonus, not exactly an audiobook but it's in the audio catalogue: Speaking Truth to Power Through Stories and Song: Words + Music, by Tom Morello. You don't need to be a fan or even familiar with his work to love this.
What are some of your favorite audiobooks? And if you too are browsing the catalogue, please comment with any good finds you spot!
comments
If you listen to audiobooks at all, check it out. I've already bought enough to last me for the next year, and I'm still browsing.
Here's a few audiobooks I highly recommend for the synergy of book and performance. Every one of them is a delight in itself, even if you've read the book before. I have reviews of most of them if you'd like to know more about the books themselves.
Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie, read by Hugh Fraser. Hilarious.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, read by Chiwetel Ejiofor. If I could recommend just one audiobook, this would be it. A great book with an absolutely perfect performance. $6.99 without membership.
Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand. Multiple narrators.
The Cass Neary series by Elizabeth Hand, narrated by Carol Monda. Absolutely perfect match of book to narrator.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman, read by the author. This is my favorite of his audiobooks but I love him narrating his own books. I'll listen to him reading anything but my second favorite is his reading of Neverwhere.
Revelator by Daryl Gregory, read by Reagan Boggs.
We Sold Our Souls! by Grady Hendrix, narrated by Carol Monda. No one does tough, world-weary , middle-aged women like Carol Monda.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, read by Shaun Taylor Corbett.
The first four Dark Tower books by Stephen King, read by Frank Muller. (The narrators switch at book five as Muller was in a motorcycle crash that he never recovered from.)
Pet Sematary by Stephen King, read by Michael C. Hall. Brilliant performance.
Stephen King books in general are excellent read aloud - his storyteller voice translates beautifully to audio. I also love Duma Key read by John Slattery, Lisey's Story read by Mare Winningham, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon read by Anne Heche, Salem's Lot read by Rod McLarty, Holly read by Justine Lupe, anything read by Frank Muller, King's own reading of Bag of Bones, and many more.
Boy's Life by Robert McCammon, read by George Newbern. Beautifully captures the book's sunlit nostalgia, beauty, and terror.
Hell House by Robert Matheson, read by Roy Porter. Porter's thunderous narration goes marvelously with the book's melodrama.
True Grit by Charles Portis, read by Donna Tartt. If you've only seen the movies, you have GOT to listen to the book. It's brilliant and Tartt reads it brilliantly.
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, read by Andy Serkis. The whole thing is great fun but "Riddles in the Dark" is an absolute masterpiece.
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, read by Rob Inglis. A traditional reading rather than a performance, completely immersive.
Memoirs are generally best read by their authors; in this vein, I especially enjoyed Midnight Son by James Dommek Jr., Sarah Polley reading Run Toward the Danger, Jenette McCurdy reading I'm Glad My Mom Died, and Notes From a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi.
And a bonus, not exactly an audiobook but it's in the audio catalogue: Speaking Truth to Power Through Stories and Song: Words + Music, by Tom Morello. You don't need to be a fan or even familiar with his work to love this.
What are some of your favorite audiobooks? And if you too are browsing the catalogue, please comment with any good finds you spot!
comments
November 27, 2023
Our Wives Under the Sea, by Julia Armfield
Miri's wife Leah was on a submarine that sank to the ocean floor and was lost for six months. When Leah returns unexpectedly, she has clearly come back wrong. The book alternates Miri's point of view in the present, living with the eerily altered Leah, and Leah's tale of the doomed submarine trip.
Isn't that a great premise and cover? I love things going horribly wrong on submarines, and I love "came back wrong," and Armfield's prose is very accomplished. It seems like this book (which got rave reviews from everyone but my commenters who had read it) had to be good. Unfortunately, you guys who commented were right. I didn't like it for the exact same reasons you guys didn't like it.
Things Miri does not do with her wife who is turning into something very strange: research folklore, take her to a doctor.
Things Miri does do: mope, take her to couple's counseling.
In the present timeline, Miri feels completely emotionally disconnected from Leah. Miri mopes around the house remembering her past life with the Leah she loved, and being mildly creeped out by and estranged from present Leah. Present Leah has all sorts of bizarre symptoms, doesn't eat, drinks salt water, and spends almost all her time in the bathtub. She doesn't do any normal human things or relate to her wife at all. Her only dialogue is to occasionally recites facts about the sea.
Despite Leah obviously being either extremely sick, turning into something inhuman, or an undersea doppelganger who isn't Leah at all, Miri makes only half-hearted attempts to get her medical care or figure out what's going on. She tried to contact the mysterious Center that ran the doomed expedition, but only gets a bureaucratic runaround. She does get Leah into couple's counseling, but it fails because Leah shows up for one meeting, is weird, and then refuses to return because she's too busy sitting in the bathtub.
In the past timeline, narrated by Leah, we get the doomed submarine expedition. It sank mysteriously and then sat at the bottom of the ocean floor. The three-person crew can't see anything or contact anyone. This storyline is amazingly boring. Very little actually happens, you get no sense of what life on a submarine is like, and the events that do happen are brief and don't have emotional impact. Like Miri, Leah spends a lot of time mentally reminiscing about their marriage.
As you can probably tell from Leah getting couple's counseling but not medical care, and Miri's failure to, say, do any research on ocean folklore, this book is not horror or dark fantasy at heart, but rather an allegory on the loss of a partner. Leah's condition and Miri's reactions to it have elements of a marriage dissolving for emotional reasons, losing a partner to dementia or mental illness, and losing a partner to terminal illness.
I love horror and fantasy that's metaphoric, but for me it has to be actual horror or fantasy as well as a metaphor. Pet Sematary is about death and how we cope with mortality, but there are also literal resurrections that people react to in a plausible manner. His House is about the cruel way countries treat immigrants and how you can leave your country but you can't leave your past, but there are also actual ghosts that people have to deal with. Our Wives Under the Sea doesn't work in terms of its actual plot, but only as a metaphor for the loss of a partner.
Unfortunately, it also didn't work for me on that level. I didn't like either Miri or Leah. I didn't dislike them. I just didn't care about them. They didn't feel very differentiated from each other pre-submarine - we get a ton of relationship minutiae and how they relate to the ocean, but all that detail didn't cohere into strong characters. I didn't care about their relationship, and the entire story is about the dissolution of their relationship. Miri is so disconnected from present Leah, and past Leah is physically separated from Miri, so the only time we saw their relationship actually working was inside their heads and in the past. I've seen writers make this sort of thing work, but it didn't work here.
This is a short book but it felt slow. Miri keeps going on and on and on about random stuff that has no point, like the neighbors who leave their TV on. There were a lot of individual good lines and paragraphs and ideas, plus some good body horror, especially a scene involving eyes. (If not for the brief but horrific eye scene, I classify this as definitely dark fantasy rather than horror.) There's a great subplot about the internet forum Miri finds where women roleplay being wives left behind by their astronaut husbands. But as a whole, I didn't like the book. And while I often like ambiguous or not completely explained endings in horror, WOW was the ending unsatisfying and annoying.
( Spoilery complaints )
Content notes: Body horror, mostly not that graphic but there's one very freaky eye horror scene. The entire book is about grief.
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I love the watery woman cover and am annoyed that it was switched for this boring one. I guess the point is that the sea might as well be a desert if you're grieving? That's not a metaphor that appears in the book.
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comments
Isn't that a great premise and cover? I love things going horribly wrong on submarines, and I love "came back wrong," and Armfield's prose is very accomplished. It seems like this book (which got rave reviews from everyone but my commenters who had read it) had to be good. Unfortunately, you guys who commented were right. I didn't like it for the exact same reasons you guys didn't like it.
Things Miri does not do with her wife who is turning into something very strange: research folklore, take her to a doctor.
Things Miri does do: mope, take her to couple's counseling.
In the present timeline, Miri feels completely emotionally disconnected from Leah. Miri mopes around the house remembering her past life with the Leah she loved, and being mildly creeped out by and estranged from present Leah. Present Leah has all sorts of bizarre symptoms, doesn't eat, drinks salt water, and spends almost all her time in the bathtub. She doesn't do any normal human things or relate to her wife at all. Her only dialogue is to occasionally recites facts about the sea.
Despite Leah obviously being either extremely sick, turning into something inhuman, or an undersea doppelganger who isn't Leah at all, Miri makes only half-hearted attempts to get her medical care or figure out what's going on. She tried to contact the mysterious Center that ran the doomed expedition, but only gets a bureaucratic runaround. She does get Leah into couple's counseling, but it fails because Leah shows up for one meeting, is weird, and then refuses to return because she's too busy sitting in the bathtub.
In the past timeline, narrated by Leah, we get the doomed submarine expedition. It sank mysteriously and then sat at the bottom of the ocean floor. The three-person crew can't see anything or contact anyone. This storyline is amazingly boring. Very little actually happens, you get no sense of what life on a submarine is like, and the events that do happen are brief and don't have emotional impact. Like Miri, Leah spends a lot of time mentally reminiscing about their marriage.
As you can probably tell from Leah getting couple's counseling but not medical care, and Miri's failure to, say, do any research on ocean folklore, this book is not horror or dark fantasy at heart, but rather an allegory on the loss of a partner. Leah's condition and Miri's reactions to it have elements of a marriage dissolving for emotional reasons, losing a partner to dementia or mental illness, and losing a partner to terminal illness.
I love horror and fantasy that's metaphoric, but for me it has to be actual horror or fantasy as well as a metaphor. Pet Sematary is about death and how we cope with mortality, but there are also literal resurrections that people react to in a plausible manner. His House is about the cruel way countries treat immigrants and how you can leave your country but you can't leave your past, but there are also actual ghosts that people have to deal with. Our Wives Under the Sea doesn't work in terms of its actual plot, but only as a metaphor for the loss of a partner.
Unfortunately, it also didn't work for me on that level. I didn't like either Miri or Leah. I didn't dislike them. I just didn't care about them. They didn't feel very differentiated from each other pre-submarine - we get a ton of relationship minutiae and how they relate to the ocean, but all that detail didn't cohere into strong characters. I didn't care about their relationship, and the entire story is about the dissolution of their relationship. Miri is so disconnected from present Leah, and past Leah is physically separated from Miri, so the only time we saw their relationship actually working was inside their heads and in the past. I've seen writers make this sort of thing work, but it didn't work here.
This is a short book but it felt slow. Miri keeps going on and on and on about random stuff that has no point, like the neighbors who leave their TV on. There were a lot of individual good lines and paragraphs and ideas, plus some good body horror, especially a scene involving eyes. (If not for the brief but horrific eye scene, I classify this as definitely dark fantasy rather than horror.) There's a great subplot about the internet forum Miri finds where women roleplay being wives left behind by their astronaut husbands. But as a whole, I didn't like the book. And while I often like ambiguous or not completely explained endings in horror, WOW was the ending unsatisfying and annoying.
( Spoilery complaints )
Content notes: Body horror, mostly not that graphic but there's one very freaky eye horror scene. The entire book is about grief.
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I love the watery woman cover and am annoyed that it was switched for this boring one. I guess the point is that the sea might as well be a desert if you're grieving? That's not a metaphor that appears in the book.
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November 21, 2023
Dead Silence, by S. A. Barnes
A five-person spaceship crew hears a distress call from a long-lost luxury spaceship. They board it, hoping for salvage wealth, and discover that everyone onboard the ship died under violent and mysterious circumstances. It's basically a haunted house in space... and the only way to claim salvage rights is to get inside and pilot it back.
Despite the blatant similarities to Alien, Aliens, and Event Horizon, I love apocalypse logs and "stuck in a haunted house," so I was predisposed to like this. On the plus side, it has some haunting spooky images, like a mass of bodies floating in zero g above a ballroom floor, and enough creepiness and suspense that I actually finished it. On the minus side, everything else.
The writing is clunky. The science fiction setting doesn't feel likely or lived-in - it's full of references that are old-fashioned now. The most plausible part is the predatory corporations. The characters are barely characterized at all, and while we're told that the protagonist Claire's main trait is that she's emotionally closed off, what we mostly see is that she's miserable and insecure and bad at her job. The other four characters have about one trait each. There's an interminable framing device in which she's telling the story while being accused of murdering her crew. The explanation of what's going on is mildly clever yet somehow less interesting than "it's ghosts."
( Read more... )
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Despite the blatant similarities to Alien, Aliens, and Event Horizon, I love apocalypse logs and "stuck in a haunted house," so I was predisposed to like this. On the plus side, it has some haunting spooky images, like a mass of bodies floating in zero g above a ballroom floor, and enough creepiness and suspense that I actually finished it. On the minus side, everything else.
The writing is clunky. The science fiction setting doesn't feel likely or lived-in - it's full of references that are old-fashioned now. The most plausible part is the predatory corporations. The characters are barely characterized at all, and while we're told that the protagonist Claire's main trait is that she's emotionally closed off, what we mostly see is that she's miserable and insecure and bad at her job. The other four characters have about one trait each. There's an interminable framing device in which she's telling the story while being accused of murdering her crew. The explanation of what's going on is mildly clever yet somehow less interesting than "it's ghosts."
( Read more... )
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November 20, 2023
Nestlings, by Nat Cassidy
A Jewish couple dealing with a new baby, a new disability, and a horrible landlord win a housing lottery to get a fantastic New York City apartment in a ritzy building inhabited by the rich and famous, plus a few lucky subsidized housing lottery winners. And then they live happily ever after in their lovely new home, the end. Just kidding. This is a horror novel.
Due to an extremely rare labor complication, Ana, formerly a dancer and personal trainer, was paralyzed from the waist down. She's dealing with post-partum depression and post-injury depression, all while trying to care for baby Charlie and keep her new career as an audiobook reader going. (Her big audiobook series, Blood Rink, is about lesbian vampire hockey players and I want to read it.)
Reid is run ragged as the main caregiver for both Ana and Charlie. He's thrilled to escape their awful old apartment, and even more thrilled to move into such a great building with a fascinating and mysterious history. He can only find one book on it, which he reads and re-reads and re-reads. And when he meets the neighbors, they're everything he hoped for and more.
But Ana isn't so happy. The new apartment is on the top floor, and that's not her only qualm. The window in Charlie's room keeps getting left open, even when she's positive she never opened it. Charlie regresses behaviorally and seems unhappy and stressed. But that's natural under the circumstances, isn't it? Reid begins to worry that Ana is getting paranoid...
Nestlings has a cracking pace and is very fun to read. With its sheer readability, attention to detail of place and character, fascinating monsters, excellent action sequences, and some spectacularly disgusting scenes, it reads like something Stephen King might have written if he was a Jewish New Yorker. I particularly loved Ana - she's angry and depressed and messy and brave, and she has a terrific character arc.
The climax/ending felt a bit rushed and had too many loose ends, and while the Jewish content was excellent I wanted even more of it. But overall, if this sounds like something you would like, I bet you would. If you want to avoid the most disgusting scene, skip the chapter from the point of view of a victim-to-be who's a down on his luck guy trying to stay sober. BARF FOREVER. (The second and third most disgusting scenes are, respectively, plot-relevant and can't be skipped, and extremely brief.)
I would love to discuss this book so I hope some of you read it. It's best read without spoilers, so I suggest not clicking on the cut if you haven't read it yet.
If you do read it, read the afterword about its inspiration, and continue past the part where Cassidy thanks his agents and so forth. It's a jaw-dropping story about the worst year of his life. Contains death, including the sad but natural/old age deaths of his cat and dog.)
( Read more... )
Content notes: child harm/endangerment, gaslighting, depictions of bigotry (not endorsed by author), physical disability and mental illness (very good portrayal of both IMO), bugs, VOMIT.
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Due to an extremely rare labor complication, Ana, formerly a dancer and personal trainer, was paralyzed from the waist down. She's dealing with post-partum depression and post-injury depression, all while trying to care for baby Charlie and keep her new career as an audiobook reader going. (Her big audiobook series, Blood Rink, is about lesbian vampire hockey players and I want to read it.)
Reid is run ragged as the main caregiver for both Ana and Charlie. He's thrilled to escape their awful old apartment, and even more thrilled to move into such a great building with a fascinating and mysterious history. He can only find one book on it, which he reads and re-reads and re-reads. And when he meets the neighbors, they're everything he hoped for and more.
But Ana isn't so happy. The new apartment is on the top floor, and that's not her only qualm. The window in Charlie's room keeps getting left open, even when she's positive she never opened it. Charlie regresses behaviorally and seems unhappy and stressed. But that's natural under the circumstances, isn't it? Reid begins to worry that Ana is getting paranoid...
Nestlings has a cracking pace and is very fun to read. With its sheer readability, attention to detail of place and character, fascinating monsters, excellent action sequences, and some spectacularly disgusting scenes, it reads like something Stephen King might have written if he was a Jewish New Yorker. I particularly loved Ana - she's angry and depressed and messy and brave, and she has a terrific character arc.
The climax/ending felt a bit rushed and had too many loose ends, and while the Jewish content was excellent I wanted even more of it. But overall, if this sounds like something you would like, I bet you would. If you want to avoid the most disgusting scene, skip the chapter from the point of view of a victim-to-be who's a down on his luck guy trying to stay sober. BARF FOREVER. (The second and third most disgusting scenes are, respectively, plot-relevant and can't be skipped, and extremely brief.)
I would love to discuss this book so I hope some of you read it. It's best read without spoilers, so I suggest not clicking on the cut if you haven't read it yet.
If you do read it, read the afterword about its inspiration, and continue past the part where Cassidy thanks his agents and so forth. It's a jaw-dropping story about the worst year of his life. Contains death, including the sad but natural/old age deaths of his cat and dog.)
( Read more... )
Content notes: child harm/endangerment, gaslighting, depictions of bigotry (not endorsed by author), physical disability and mental illness (very good portrayal of both IMO), bugs, VOMIT.
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November 18, 2023
Megan's Island, by Willo Davis Roberts
I checked this out because I loved Roberts' The Girl with the Silver Eyes, which was one of her two SFF books. (The other is The Magic Book, which I have not read.) She was mostly a writer of children's thrillers, most famously The View From the Cherry Tree.
Megan and her younger brother Sandy have moved around a lot, as their single mom, a widow from before Megan can remember, often changes jobs. One day she abruptly uproots them in the middle of school and rushes them to her father's cabin by a lake. She refuses to explain anything and leaves them with him, saying she has something she needs to do and he's not to explain anything to them either. There's a cozy interval while Megan and Sandy explore an island in the lake, but Megan is understandably very worried and frustrated. Especially when their grandfather has to go to the hospital, leaving them alone, and strange men appear looking for them...
( Read more... )
It's... fine. Roberts has a nice easy-reading style. But I felt like it could have gone farther in both coziness and thrills, and the ending was pretty anticlimactic.
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Megan and her younger brother Sandy have moved around a lot, as their single mom, a widow from before Megan can remember, often changes jobs. One day she abruptly uproots them in the middle of school and rushes them to her father's cabin by a lake. She refuses to explain anything and leaves them with him, saying she has something she needs to do and he's not to explain anything to them either. There's a cozy interval while Megan and Sandy explore an island in the lake, but Megan is understandably very worried and frustrated. Especially when their grandfather has to go to the hospital, leaving them alone, and strange men appear looking for them...
( Read more... )
It's... fine. Roberts has a nice easy-reading style. But I felt like it could have gone farther in both coziness and thrills, and the ending was pretty anticlimactic.
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November 17, 2023
Beginner's Luck, by Oriel Malet
After reading Thursday's Children and Listen to the Nightengale, I inspected my bookcases and pulled out any books featuring ballet that I had not yet read. Hence, Beginner's Luck.
Three orphan siblings living in gloomy obscurity with an unfriendly aunt who hates performing arts discover that their father was an actor, their mother was a dancer, and they have a living aunt who's an actress. An absurd pile-up of wild coincidences that reminded me of the immortal line "And then the hand of fate stepped in" enables them to start a new life with a pantomime troupe.
There are definite echoes of Ballet Shoes. The oldest, Victoria, starts with no particular ambitions but is a competent dancer and it's hinted may be a good actress, the middle, Jenny, is a very talented ballerina and a small diva, and the youngest, James, is a hilarious child prone to impromptu recitals of a weird poem about a venerable ancestor, getting rolled up in a carpet and smuggled aboard a train, and getting a bear mask stuck on his head.
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The pantomime troupe elements are fun but not given anything like the depth or details of anything by Godden or Streatfeild. But it's a very charming and funny in that particular style of 1930s-1950s British children's literature, and if you like that generally you will like this. It's very thoroughly out of print but I see affordable copies in online bookstores.
Oriel Malet was the pen name of Lady Auriel Rosemary Malet Vaughan (!) who had a thirty-year friendship with the much older Daphne du Maurier, who she met at a party, and published a volume of their correspondence. She also wrote novels. If this is a good sample, they were extremely charming and I would like to read more of them.
The Goodreads reviews failed to disambiguate this book from a different one with the same title, to hilarious effect. A gentle book--One of my favorite books from childhood, which I enjoyed rereading this week... A struggle rages in his soul between the way he was taught in the Catholic monastery, and the pleasure of sin that are assailing his flesh.
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Three orphan siblings living in gloomy obscurity with an unfriendly aunt who hates performing arts discover that their father was an actor, their mother was a dancer, and they have a living aunt who's an actress. An absurd pile-up of wild coincidences that reminded me of the immortal line "And then the hand of fate stepped in" enables them to start a new life with a pantomime troupe.
There are definite echoes of Ballet Shoes. The oldest, Victoria, starts with no particular ambitions but is a competent dancer and it's hinted may be a good actress, the middle, Jenny, is a very talented ballerina and a small diva, and the youngest, James, is a hilarious child prone to impromptu recitals of a weird poem about a venerable ancestor, getting rolled up in a carpet and smuggled aboard a train, and getting a bear mask stuck on his head.
[image error]
The pantomime troupe elements are fun but not given anything like the depth or details of anything by Godden or Streatfeild. But it's a very charming and funny in that particular style of 1930s-1950s British children's literature, and if you like that generally you will like this. It's very thoroughly out of print but I see affordable copies in online bookstores.
Oriel Malet was the pen name of Lady Auriel Rosemary Malet Vaughan (!) who had a thirty-year friendship with the much older Daphne du Maurier, who she met at a party, and published a volume of their correspondence. She also wrote novels. If this is a good sample, they were extremely charming and I would like to read more of them.
The Goodreads reviews failed to disambiguate this book from a different one with the same title, to hilarious effect. A gentle book--One of my favorite books from childhood, which I enjoyed rereading this week... A struggle rages in his soul between the way he was taught in the Catholic monastery, and the pleasure of sin that are assailing his flesh.
comments
