Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
Obviously you would think I’ve seen the film. I haven’t. I want to. This is the sort of surreal book that lends itself well to art and design because there is both a sense of blank canvas in the characters and in the design, but what is not alterable is the setting and time. It makes the book unique in a lot of ways as the main character is, frankly, the world and Bella is absorbing information and character as she becomes integrated into it.
I enjoyed Bella’s assessments of the world, the eyes of an innocent frankly discussing the state of the world. I enjoyed also the multiple narratives contradicting one another as each character puts their light onto that world, influenced by how they have benefited in society.
This book is, genuinely, much more complex and sophisticated than I think even many movie goers would say the film is. Having not seen it yet, I’ll have to update you later.
In the meantime, however, read this book. It’s one of the first books I was truly able to sing my teeth into this year. It would easily be its own book to analyze it properly.
Tag: dark academia
Review: The Night Circus
The Night Circus
Erin Morgentstern
This was a reread for me, which typically I don’t reread books so soon after the first time I’ve read them. It tends to be a decades later ‘oh yeah, I can appreciate this differently now’ vibe. But I read this book for the first time in 2020 and I’ve probably aged a few decades between them and now.
I remember, both times I’ve read it, immediately thinking of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The opening lines are from the perspective of and detailing the Night Circus itself, the edifice, and I remember the first time I read it being drawn in by this comparison. It’s something that promises something unusual.
What I find funny, having read this book twice, is that the characters are so crisp and well developed while giving the smallest amount of detail necessary. That’s how a mysterious air is achieved, after all, but it really does smack you in the face to realize how little you know and how much you still attach yourself on.
My opinion of certain aspects has changed given the time and life experiences I’ve had between readings; I am far more sympathetic to Isobel the scorned card reader; far less sympathetic to Tsukiko who betrayed her love.
I still love the man in grey and Chandresh.
The characterization is evocative. The storytelling and pacing; the sense of being out of time in several aspects, is something which manages to draw you in while keeping you separated, exactly as a circus should.
Plus, who doesn’t live a story that comes with an aesthetic?
It’s an absolute recommendation
Review: What the Dead Know
What the Dead Know
Nghi Vo
A copy paste disclaimer! :There are several stories available for free download if you are already subscribed to amazon prime, and I took advantage of that recently and thought I’d spend November telling you about the short stories and novellas I picked up that I liked best and thought was worth the read.
These tend to be stories commissioned by Amazon and put into collections by Amazon
Okay, back to review:
Of the stories I read, this one has stuck with me a long time. The narrative is immediately engaging, the characters relatable and enjoyable. It’s one of those stories difficult to talk about without spoiling it because you want to pull others into this same world that you were pulled into.
The gimmick of two con artists, one being utilized for and also taking advantage of the ignorance of those around them because of their race; the communication with spirits and motif of revenge all check very important boxes to me.
Of the ghosts stories I’ve read, which is not a small number, several of the images in this story are so evocative that they’re well stuck in my craw. I absolutely would recommend this story to anyone and at 30 pages it leaves you both wanting more and satisfied.
Review: Ninth House
I’ve read Leigh Bardugo before, specifically I read Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom a few years ago. From a promotion for Hell Bent, the second Alex Stern book which came out in January of this year, I got a chance to snag a copy of the first, Ninth House.
I feel like I’ve been kind of blessed this year in that I keep finding books that I actually like, and early on! Ninth House scratched an itch for Dark Academia, Noir, Murder Mysteries, and necromancy, ghosts, and the paranormal— anyone who knows me knows that I’d have taken any one of those individually. Ninth House delivered all.
The switching between two main timelines, illustrating Alex Stern’s, our antiheroine’s, guilt and culpability in the plot was well paced and a neat unfolding. Nothing ever felt forced or sandwiched in, though there was a distinct a and b storyline. The interwoven noir elements as she investigates a murder and the potential involvement of the magic user’s secret society houses felt like a separate style almost, the storytelling split between the mystery and the emotional involvement of Alex’s own revelations, but gently switching so that readers had natural breaks in what could be a heavy story.
It is Bardugo’s first ‘adult’ novel though I always struggle to understand what that means —it means sex. All of the excellence of her writing style, but now we can talk about hard ons. Publishing is a silly place. I’m excited now to read Hell Bent.
Aliactast 
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