Wednesday Reading Meme
Oct. 21st, 2020 07:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Despite my mixed feelings about Kayla Miller’s first two graphic novels, I snatched up her third book Act when I saw it at the library and I suspect I’ll snatch up her next one even though, again, I had mixed feelings about this one. I suspect that Willow’s attempt to drag Olive into insular codependency in Camp sunk hooks in my brain and I keep coming back for more even though (a) the point of Camp was definitely that Willow needed to let Olive have other friends, (b) as you can see in my review I was not super jazzed about Willow so why do I even WANT her to have an insular codependent friendship with Olive, and (c) in Act Willow develops a crush on a boy and will presumably turn to him for her codependency needs in the future. (In fact, a subplot in this book is that Willow is so focused on the boy that she’s not spending enough time with Olive.)
In short, there will probably never be more delicious one-sided obsession, but this probability is as naught, I will keep snatching up the books just in case.
I also finished Jeannette Ng’s Under the Pendulum Sun, which I ultimately found disappointing, because I kept guessing the big twists about a hundred pages before they happened. ”Cathy’s a changeling and the Helstone siblings are going to use that to rules-lawyer their way into some incest,” I said, which duly happened; and then, as they continued their giddily happy incestuous affair, I realized, “There’s going to be a big reveal that Catherine Helstone actually IS Laon Helstone’s blood sister, and the whole changeling thing was just a fun plot by the Fae so they could yell “IT IS INCEST REALLY! PSYCH!” presumably for the purpose of destroying Laon’s missionary zeal.”
This also occurs. This is, in fact, the big climactic moment of the book. I’m not convinced we needed four hundred pages to get there, but possibly I would have been more on board with it if I were more interested in incest in the first place?
What I’m Reading Now
George MacDonald’s Phantastes, which I’m finding tough going, I’m afraid. I seem to like MacDonald’s work better in his lighter moods (The Princess and the Goblin, The Light Princess) and struggle when he’s more hifalutin.
Therefore I set Phantastes aside and have been ripping through John Knowles’ A Separate Peace. I had gathered from osmosis that the book is slashy dark academia and for once osmosis is absolutely right, that’s EXACTLY what it is, set at a New England boarding school during World War II to boot, A++ would nom again. I’ll write about this at more length once I’ve finished it. (There’s a scene in Honeytrap where Daniel is reading this book, and now I think it’s TRAGIC that I didn’t read the book in time for Daniel to have some trenchant thoughts about the transmutation of poorly understood and half-repressed homoerotic impulses into aggression.)
What I Plan to Read Next
I’ve got my sights on a “Sleeping Beauty” retelling set mostly in 1964 (the Beauty character fell into an enchanted sleep after being pricked by a bayonet in 1864, hence the “mostly”)... which of course means that I’ve just got to read more Mary Renault, as one of the most widely available authors with queer themes at the time. Unfortunately this is before The Persian Boy was published, but in plenty of time for The Last of the Wine.
Despite my mixed feelings about Kayla Miller’s first two graphic novels, I snatched up her third book Act when I saw it at the library and I suspect I’ll snatch up her next one even though, again, I had mixed feelings about this one. I suspect that Willow’s attempt to drag Olive into insular codependency in Camp sunk hooks in my brain and I keep coming back for more even though (a) the point of Camp was definitely that Willow needed to let Olive have other friends, (b) as you can see in my review I was not super jazzed about Willow so why do I even WANT her to have an insular codependent friendship with Olive, and (c) in Act Willow develops a crush on a boy and will presumably turn to him for her codependency needs in the future. (In fact, a subplot in this book is that Willow is so focused on the boy that she’s not spending enough time with Olive.)
In short, there will probably never be more delicious one-sided obsession, but this probability is as naught, I will keep snatching up the books just in case.
I also finished Jeannette Ng’s Under the Pendulum Sun, which I ultimately found disappointing, because I kept guessing the big twists about a hundred pages before they happened. ”Cathy’s a changeling and the Helstone siblings are going to use that to rules-lawyer their way into some incest,” I said, which duly happened; and then, as they continued their giddily happy incestuous affair, I realized, “There’s going to be a big reveal that Catherine Helstone actually IS Laon Helstone’s blood sister, and the whole changeling thing was just a fun plot by the Fae so they could yell “IT IS INCEST REALLY! PSYCH!” presumably for the purpose of destroying Laon’s missionary zeal.”
This also occurs. This is, in fact, the big climactic moment of the book. I’m not convinced we needed four hundred pages to get there, but possibly I would have been more on board with it if I were more interested in incest in the first place?
What I’m Reading Now
George MacDonald’s Phantastes, which I’m finding tough going, I’m afraid. I seem to like MacDonald’s work better in his lighter moods (The Princess and the Goblin, The Light Princess) and struggle when he’s more hifalutin.
Therefore I set Phantastes aside and have been ripping through John Knowles’ A Separate Peace. I had gathered from osmosis that the book is slashy dark academia and for once osmosis is absolutely right, that’s EXACTLY what it is, set at a New England boarding school during World War II to boot, A++ would nom again. I’ll write about this at more length once I’ve finished it. (There’s a scene in Honeytrap where Daniel is reading this book, and now I think it’s TRAGIC that I didn’t read the book in time for Daniel to have some trenchant thoughts about the transmutation of poorly understood and half-repressed homoerotic impulses into aggression.)
What I Plan to Read Next
I’ve got my sights on a “Sleeping Beauty” retelling set mostly in 1964 (the Beauty character fell into an enchanted sleep after being pricked by a bayonet in 1864, hence the “mostly”)... which of course means that I’ve just got to read more Mary Renault, as one of the most widely available authors with queer themes at the time. Unfortunately this is before The Persian Boy was published, but in plenty of time for The Last of the Wine.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-21 07:43 pm (UTC)If you're looking for others, I've had great success with Valancourt's mid-century queer reprints, ditto the Feminist Press reprinting things like Valerie Taylor's Stranger on Lesbos (1960) and Return to Lesbos (1963).
no subject
Date: 2020-10-21 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-22 04:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-24 02:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-22 08:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-24 02:46 pm (UTC)