Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Vivien Alcock’s The Stonewalkers. Another banger from Alcock. This time, the premise is “Hey, wouldn’t it be fucked up if statues started coming to life?” A statue in the garden comes to life and follows Poppy inside the decaying country house where her mother works… which unfortunately happens to be full of stone busts the owner collected. The statue, alarmed by what appears to be evidence of mass statue decapitation, flees over the moors, and Poppy and her sort-of-friend Emma go in search of her… Very pacy. An excellent cave sequence. Not fully convinced by Poppy’s character growth but we’ll take it.

I felt pretty meh about the previous Penelope Lively novel I read (A Stitch in Time), but I quite liked The Ghost of Thomas Kempe! Although like A Stitch in Time, I’d seen it described as timeslip and it’s not timeslip. It’s a ghost story, rather on the creepier/more destructive end of ghosts, wonderful sense of atmosphere both in the haunted house but also in just the general autumnal flavor of it all.

And I read Grace Lin’s The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon, which I struggled to get into, to be honest. It wasn’t till the last third or so that I felt really caught up in it. Gorgeous illustrations, though, especially the full-page illustration of the dragon’s lair, lit with row upon row of paper lanterns.

What I’m Reading Now

Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire. Based on my experience with the movie, I expected this book to blow me away, and instead it’s just - fine? I actually delayed reading it for a while because I suspected I was going to start obsessing, and instead I’m not obsessing at all and that’s frankly a bit of a let-down. Louis, I just can’t ship you and Lestat if you keep going on about how Lestat is beneath you and you’re superior to him in every way.

What I Plan to Read Next

I have alas run out of easily accessible Vivien Alcocks. I may circle back to her through interlibrary loan at some point, though.

Comments

[asakiyume]

"her sort-of-friend Emma" is conveying a tantalizing bit of information. What kind of sort of friend? Does she get roped into the statue chase? Or impose herself on it? Or something else?

[osprey_archer]

Poppy is new in town, Emma is kind of a friend but not sure she wants to be Poppy's friend because Poppy has a bit of a lying problem, but then they get involved in the statue chase together.

[regshoe]

Everything I hear about Interview with the Vampire makes it sounds like an extremely obsessable book! How disappointing it's not turning out that way.

[osprey_archer]

I was SO ready to be obsessed. So primed by the movie! And so far it's not happening, which is such a letdown.

However, I hear the second book is perhaps more beloved than the first, so maybe I'll read that next Halloween and THEN I'll get obsessed.

[silverusagi]

I am reading IWTV right now and am not making super fast progress. I do think I enjoyed The Vampire Lestat more, because Lestat is just So Much as a narrator, but also because you really get into the mythology and worldbuilding and history of the vampires. And I'm excited to get to that book and see if it's as engrossing as I remember.

[rachelmanija]

The Stonewalkers is so creepy. I wonder if it was an influence on that Doctor Who episode.

Maybe I'll read The Ghost of Thomas Kempe before October ends. It sounds very Octoberish.

[osprey_archer]

The Ghosts of Thomas Kempe is EXTREMELY Octoberish.

[magid]

My favorite Penelope Lively book is Moon Tiger (though I have not read all of hers, by far!).

[osprey_archer]

Penelope Lively wrote SO many books. It would be difficult to read them all!

[threeplusfire]

I truly think one of the things that the show version of Interview did phenomenally well was making Louis' depression and emotional arc so much more satisfying. Like, I love these books. I know they were written in such grief. But oh Louis, he does go on and on. (Lestat had a point) But seeing Louis as a black, queer man in America *really* made so much more. It's not just his personal grief but all the grief that goes along with his American experience.

[osprey_archer]

I've heard only good things about the TV show. Someday perhaps I'll watch it! My TV watching speed is glacial so we'll see.

[anna_wing]

I think the book is the sort of thing that needs a particular temperament/ moment in life to have its full effect. I read it in my teens, and the dreamlike obsessive quality of the writing did strike me. I remember the second book as being quite different, a rather jolly, picaresque romp, and then the whole series fell off a cliff, especially the later ones. I remember thinking crossly that Diana Wynne Jones could convey more weight and sense of the numinous in two sentences of a children's book than Rice could in the entirety of the gigantic tome that I had just wasted a day of my holidays reading.

[osprey_archer]

There's a non-zero chance that I would have gone completely feral about Louis and Lestat in my teens and have simply outgrown that stage in my life. Although I did end up liking the book enough that I plan to read the next one - a lot of people tell me The Vampire Lestat is their favorite, and everyone agrees that the series falls off a cliff not too long after, although some people have suggested continuing through Queen of the Damned.

[sovay]

I felt pretty meh about the previous Penelope Lively novel I read (A Stitch in Time), but I quite liked The Ghost of Thomas Kempe!

Having voted for it out of positive elementary school memories, I am glad it worked for you as an adult reader! I should probably re-read it.

My favorite Penelope Lively was written for adults: the autofictional AU mosaic of Making It Up (2005) and the generational character sketches of Consequences (2007).

[osprey_archer]

Will be interested in your thoughts if you reread!