Video essay link;https://youtu.be/TuIUdrpys1U?si=sqHnY9qlR67jYScs
The Essay:
(more…)Tag: lgbtqia+
Review: You Feel it Just Below the Ribs
You Feel it Just Below the Ribs
Jeffrey Cranor, Janina Matthewson
Wheewwww
I loved it. I struggled with it a bit because it feels at times too unreal and at other times too close to home, which I imagine is exactly the sliver of reality is seeks to exist between.
I have realized something very crucial in reading this book; I would follow Jeffrey Cranor into the ocean. Which I imagine would be terrifying for him, but I love the biting realism in this dystopian thriller.
Typically, I am not a fan of books told in journal format, it’s just not my preference, but this was excellently written, sci-fi horror.
I absolutely recommend it for people who like darker, more realistic portrayals in their fiction.
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: Thistlefoot
Thistlefoot
GennaRose Nethercott
I’ll cut to the chase, this was one of my favorite books I read in 2023.
Thistlefoot takes place in a world of magic and not, a world where most things are exactly the same as they are in reality but with an important exception —the scars of an event can awaken the spirit of a place.
One of the early mentioned examples of this is a Burger King that grew eyes after a break in.
Thistlefoot, the book’s name sake, is a house that sprouted chicken legs.
The sibling pair at the heart of the story, Bellatine and Issac Yaga, are the inheritors of Thistlefoot and the generational trauma that both makes them who they are and that has been kept from them by their family. They both have their own unusual gifts, which unbeknownst to them are adaptations to that trauma. The book examines disapora in a fascinating way.
The story follows both the Yaga siblings and the history of the house itself in a slow burn reveal of the tragic events that led Thistlefoot to sprout legs and flee.
All while being hunted by a similar oddity, which intends to destroy Thistlefoot.
This book was such a delicate and well constructed handling of generational trauma and particularly genocide. I had gone into it blind and was taken in immediately with the world and characterization.
It’s an absolute recommendation.
Camp Damascus
It’s October! I should do some spooky books.
Starting the month with Dr Chuck Tingle, Camp Damascus is hands down one of the best books I have read this year. A quick read under 300 pages, it is one of these most effective horror stories I have read in ages. Centered around religious trauma and homophobia, the action begins almost immediately, with no ‘wait till the third act’ nonsense. Shit hits the fan, and hard, and keeps coming. Dr Tingle takes no time to bullshit around with building suspense, the true horror comes from the nonchalant reactions and denials of the clear horrors occuring.
The main character’s neurodivergence was written so naturally and well, it was a wonderfully refreshing representation that I didn’t realize I had been craving.
Easily one of my favorite books of the year, I absolutely encourage you to read it, I am so excited for his next book that I know is in editing stages.
Prove love 💕
Review: M is for Monster
I’m never entirely certain how to review graphic novels and I tend to stray away from graphic novels and comics in reviews. Those are apparently just my recreational reading. Yet, I wanted to discuss M is for Monster by Talia Dutton in part because it is her first graphic novel and I think it ought to be celebrated and promoted.
An extended metaphor for accepting identity, a scientist attempts to bring her sister back to life following an accident, yet is repeatedly and vocally disappointed by the results; this causing her new creature to mask and question who she is in a world where she is not the person that everyone tells her to be.
The art is comfy, possibly a strange description, but for a story which is Frankenstein-inspired some people might assume gore or graphic art. I find Dutton’s work to be beautiful and tasteful, as well as in line with a lot of other queer content I’ve seen that takes uncomfortable topics and twists them into elegant metaphor.
Review: In The Dream House
I am not sure I could tell you how much I adored this book.
In The Dream House, by Carmen Maria Machado, in an agonizingly beautiful memoir about domestic violence , acknowledging the complexity and the difficulty of addressing domestic violence in same sex relationships out of fear of promoting stigmas against the LGBTQIA+ community. It’s heart wrenching, each chapter reflecting a different trope explored within the fantastical setting of the Dream House.
Machado’s abusive partner is only referred to as ‘The Woman in the Dream House ‘ and the book is written in second person, addressing the audience as Machado, bringing you into her seat of power and disempowerment, while walking through various memories and scenes that inform Machado’s growth and development into an adult and in her relationships. It was a deeply vulnerable and presumably honest exploration of Machado as you, the reader. It’s clear she’s a short story buff and she doesn’t shy from fictionalizing herself.
It is excellent, viscerally written and Machado’s style continually grounds the reader into her experience.
Aliactast 
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