March & April 2020 Reads
I needed some comfort food, so I re-read the first and second of the Newsflesh trilogy (for, like, the tenth time...): Feed and Deadline. While technically a zombie apocalypse narrative, Newsflesh isn't about the zombies. It's about human nature and fear; survival and recovery. It's about VERY dirty politics (the plot follows the oddly liberal Republican candidate of the US presidential election, and he's got some enemies out for blood). It's about a love for newsmedia; a defiance of censorship; and an uncovering of government conspiracies. It's also about biology/virology, because Mira Grant wrote it, and she is my science-obsessed senpai. This series is so RICHLY, intricately crafted, all the way down to the tiniest detail of worldbuilding. Anything this woman writes is a glorious sandbox in which I will gleefully wallow.
Okay, so maybe I had more than a little "comfort food" in the last two months. I re-read SEVERAL of my old favorites. SO SUE ME; THE WORLD WENT CRAZY. Into the Drowning Deep is, as stated in my review: "a love letter to conservation, to science, to evolution, to diverse [queer, disabled] characters, to humanity, to the deep ocean, to mysteries and to knowledge. F*** yeah, killer f***in' mermaids." If you like science-horror, heavy emphasis on the 'science;' if you like a literal boat-full of women in STEM fighting monster mermaids with SCIENCE, then this one is for you. (I hope you like gore. There's blood and guts everywhere, and it's DELIGHTFUL.)
As the months wore on, so did my need for hiding in the comfortable pages of the familiar. Inkheart was one of my favorite books from childhood. Cornelia Funke is an incredible German author who weaves words together in positively mesmerizing patterns. I've spoken to bilingual fans of her books, curious if it was just a skilled translator at work, or if the original text is just as beautiful. They insist that actually, the original text is EVEN MORE GORGEOUS. I believe it!!! Fun fact: Inkheart was THE book that cemented child-me's decision to become an author. I too wanted to make words into ART, the way Funke does. If you're interested in children's fantasy, this is a cross-Europe adventure with clever protagonists and nasty gangster villains. Give it a shot! It was so lovely to get back into this inky world, if only for a while. (Psst: Brendan Fraser himself narrates audiobooks #2 and #3. It's a very silly and amusing performance that had me giggling several times.)
I also had to re-read the second-- JUST the second-- book in the Hunger Games trilogy. This series was a BIG FREAKING DEAL when I was in middle school (the movies came later), and, unlike with Twilight, my gay ass actually UNDERSTOOD the hype this time around. Anarchy! Vive le revolution! Overthrow the regime! Sure, the love triangle between Peeta and Gale was annoying (they both suck), but tween-me forgave it, both because Katniss, too, didn't care for it, and because there's SO MANY more interesting things and characters happening. It had a puzzle to solve ("tick... tock...") and you grew to care for more of the tributes, which made it weightier when they were killed off or harmed. This series holds up really well upon re-read.
Earlier this year I read Rin Chupeco's "The Bone Witch," which wasn't really my cup of tea (though it was still unique, and I appreciated it for what it was). I'm glad I didn't write her off completely, because this time around I read her novel "The Girl from the Well," and I truly enjoyed it. Like the Bone Witch, it was so strange and dreamy and unique! I can't say I've ever read a haunting told from the point of view of a ghost before. As anyone interested in studying and creating horror can tell you, Eastern horror is very distinct from Western in a number of ways, and this novel felt like a love letter to all things Japanese and spooky. One suggestion: If you can avoid it, don't listen to the audiobook. While there's nothing wrong with it, the way the words are arranged on the pages of this book do matter. It's a very poetic style.
I read the 1892 short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," which is apparently a classic many people had to read in high school, but I'd never before heard of it. I heard some people online saying their quarantine situation reflected this 30-page story, but after reading it, I sincerely hope they're exaggerating. I understand that this was a very modern story (for its time), with ideas of female empowerment and resistance to the patriarchal structure. It was a very unsettling tale with a surprisingly satisfying ending; creepy to the point of horror. There's not much I can say -- it's so short that to say anything would spoil the whole thing, but I really, really loved it.
(I also read "The Box Social," which I'm not going to count, because it's only two pages long, but HOLY CRAP you GUYS, it packs a punch. I guess it's one of the first instances of date rape depicted in fiction, and the author got SO MUCH hate mail for it... But man. Poignant and heavy. I really admire authors who can tell such a complete story in such few words.)
Also beloved was the 1963 classic, The Wall by Austrian author Marlen Haushofer, which was recommended by my dad. If you read this, do it via audiobook. Kathe Mazur is one of the best, most perfect readers I've experienced in ages. Her VOICE!!! I usually listen to books at double speed so they hold my attention (that's ADHD for ya, baby), but I couldn't bear it for this one. It was meant to be listened to quietly; slowly. What a strange tale of a middle-aged woman in the Austrian mountains waking to find herself alone in the world, with an invisible wall trapping her in place. She has to learn how to live alone in nature, without society to support her. It's like if Jack London was a female author, or if I Am Legend skipped the vampires in favor of agriculture. I really loved it; it made my heart ache.
Because I love Ryan Hollinger's horror-analysis videos, I became intrigued by his newest video on Shutter Island. I checked the book out and gave it a quick read before I sat to watch what Hollinger had to say about it. I guess I LIKED Shutter Island... (it was a step above average, but only a step), but Hollinger leads me to think the Leonardo DiCaprio film, especially the very final line, was better than the book. I guess I'd recommend it if you're into "dark police procedurals screw with your perception of reality"-type stories. (You'd think I'd've liked it more... That SOUNDS like something that's right up my alley, but... eh; I've seen better.)
In an attempt to complete my Animorphs goal for the year, I finished a few more of the massive series. I am not too proud to say that #13, The Change, made me (an adult person on enough antidepressants that my tear ducts SHOULD have atrophied) cry actual tears. The series can be hokey and dated at times, but when it gets it right, it really gets it right. It blows my mind that Scholastic feared children would find Tobias, a red-tailed hawk, an unrelatable narrator. Somehow, his being a hawk only shows all the more what it MEANS to be human.
More lighthearted was Smoke Bitten, the twelfth installment in the Mercy Thompson series. If you like urban fantasy, I highly recommend this series to you. Let me scream to the heavens: "FEMALE PROTAGANIST OF COLOR IN HER MID TO LATE 30s!!!"
That's reason enough to read and love something, in my opinion, but there's a lot more at play here. I love Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson as a character, just by herself-- she's a Blackfeet VW mechanic with a history degree. She takes tai kwon do (among many other hobbies). She loves her friends and family, and has a supportive community. I may not like her eventual love interest (he's boring. MOST male urban fantasy love interests are boring compared to their exceptional girlfriends, tbh), but I appreciate that 1. she chose him carefully because he respects and supports her and 2. she never needed him in order to be complete as a person. Some topics this series covers that I particularly appreciate is in support of male survivors of sexual assault, and an opposition to toxic masculinity. (I also appreciate how the series has lately been becoming more and more leftist.)
This wasn't the BEST installment of the series (River Marked (#6) and Silence Fallen (#10) hold that place), but it was solid.
And... That's it, really. I know it's not much, especially considering most of these were re-reads for me. Here's hoping I feel more open to new things next month.
