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A Small Wild Magic by Kathleen Jennings: 2/5 Bland story, weak artwork.

The New Boyfriend by Kelly Link: 1/5 (DNF) Terrible writing, unfocused story.

The Woods Hide in Plain Sight by Joshua Lewis: 2/5 (DNF) Awkward prose, horrible dialogue, story idea cliched.

Son of Abyss by Nik Houser: 5/5 Great worldbuliding, and an excellently executed story. It's odd, because on a conceptual level, this story doesn't particularly appeal to me, but the plotting and characterization are just so tight that I can't help but enjoy it. This is a mostly meh anthology, but this is a definite standout.

I'm trying not to call this overwritten, because it's probably not that bad. Odds are, the only reason I take issue with it is because I just read Heart of Darkness and I now hate everything that strikes me as being even remotely fancy or pretentious. So it might be hard not to judge this probably-decent book because of that.

To Jackson's credit, I think Big is a really good protagonist (if kind of similar to Jackson's previous protagonists), and if the book were only about her, I would probably like it a whole lot better. But Mosey's chapters are so awful, and the plot is so contrived, that there's no way to enjoy it except on the basis of what it could've been.

Bragg definitely does a good job of capturing the joy of being successful at something. This is definitely a very well-written section.

The Thing About Cassandra: 3/5 I like the twist at the end, but the story is kind of boring until it comes.

Down to a Sunless Sea: 2/5 This one is just very boring and forgettable - the prose is about all it's got going for it.

I would honestly read a full memoir abut Bragg being a journalist. If this book had any focus, I honestly feel like it would be really good.

Big and Liza's chapters are pretty well-written, but Mosey's are UNBEARABLE. This has to be the worst attempt to write a teenage voice I've ever read, and as a YA fan, that's saying something.

Also, why is this book so preoccupied with sex? I keep forgetting that a woman wrote this - the biggest thing this reminds me of is Chuck Palahniuk writing about women in Invisible Monsters.

The only good thing about this book is that it's mercifully short. Thank god I'm almost finished.

Even though this is not at all what this book promised, I honestly like the second half a lot better than the first.

Kitty Capulet and the Invention of Underwater Photography by Dylan Horrocks: 2/5 (DNF) I thought I would like this at first, because the protagonist is pretty well-developed. But the writing is pretty awkward, not as funny as it's trying to be. But the real problem came when I started to get to the meat of the story, and the insufferably preachy message that I sensed coming. I'll pass.

I feel like I'm maybe being too hard on this book, that maybe it's not that bad other than how overwritten it is. But I also feel like something this overwritten doesn't deserve to be seriously considered. Or maybe I'm just in a shitty mood.

An excellent ending to an excellent book. This isn't the best book I've ever read, but I've certainly never read anything like it.

Honestly, I think Bragg's adulthood is a lot more interesting than his childhood. Which is odd, because the cover and introduction suggested it would mostly focus on when he was a kid.

Making a Chair: 4/5 Not my favorite of Gaiman's poems, but this is a pretty good concept for one, and it's a nice read.

A Lunar Labyrinth: 2/5 This feels like the introduction to a larger story, and it's kind of disappointing when the story ends and you realize it's all you'll get.

This is an overwhelming mess. The entire novel feels like an absurdist comedy, but it's written like it's supposed to be a serious family drama. A lot of Jackson's books have this problem, but this is easily the worst of them. Also, am I the only one who's noticed that, apart from maybe Someone Else's Love Story, Jackson essentially writes the same protagonist for every book?

What is the purpose of the framing device? It adds nothing to the story, except for a bunch of distracting quotation marks at the beginning of every paragraph. (Which is to say, the quotation marks aren't actually that distracting, since Conrad only inserts a paragraph break every five pages or so.)

I guess this is going to be more of an autobiography than a memoir. Which would be fine, if the introduction didn't promise so much more than that.

Again, I think I've mentioned this before, but this does an excellent job of capturing wartime fear and paranoia, without hitting you over the head with it. There's subtlety to it.

I really thought this might be good, but if it keeps going in this direction, it might be the worst Joshilyn Jackson book I've ever read. This plot is so far out of the bounds of reality that it's ridiculous - there's a big difference between having some unlikely-but-realistic coincidences and making your entire novel a series of soap opera twists.

I don't remember if I've mentioned this yet, but I really like the use of German in the story. I don't speak German, so I can't speak to how accurate it is, but it's certainly immersive, and it feels real, even if it maybe isn't.

Alright, admittedly, I am kind of seeing how someone other than an English Professor could conceivably like this. I still don't like it, but there's at least kind of a point to it.

This certainly isn't bad, don't get me wrong. Rick Bragg is a pretty good writer, and he does a great job of establishing the mood and tone of the south. It's just... eh. I could get a story like this from anyone who grew up in the south in the seventies.

Wings in the Morning by Sarah Rees Brennan: 2/5 (DNF) Decent worldbuilding, terrible writing.

Left Foot, Right by Nalo Hopkinson: 3/5 Maybe a little ham-fisted, but it's certainly original and weird enough to be interesting.

The Mercurials by G. Carl Purcell: 3/5 Confusing worldbuilding, very good writing.

I'm not even going to pretend I'm following the plot. I have no idea what's going on, and I don't want to. I'm only reading this out of obligation, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

Zusak is very good at capturing anxiety and fear in a subtle way. This isn't intense, exactly, but it still communicates its mood very well.

I'm not sure if I quite understand the structure of this book. Bragg seems to be jumping around in time, without any real focus that I can discern. It makes it hard to figure out what's going on.

Holy shit, Jackson is TERRIBLE at writing teenagers. For the love of Christ, Mosey said "OMG" out loud, completely unironically. Reading this, you'd think Jackson has never even met a teenager since she graduated high school. It's a shame, because I thought the book was going to be pretty good based on the prologue, but it's becoming clear to me that Jackson does not have what it takes to pull this off.

About the only good thing I can say about this book is, at least it's short.

This is pretty well-written, but for some reason, I'm not wild about it so far. I'm not sure why. Maybe it feels a tad bit generic so far - I'm not sure why Bragg saw this as noteworthy enough to write a whole book about. But we'll see.