#JustFinished The Splinter in the Sky, by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
It was good. It wasn't enthralling. I liked the story well enough. I liked the characters, though I felt they weren't that deep. It just didn't grab me all that well. And I found the Great Reveal to have been obvious. It wasn't marked YA, but I felt it should have been.
#JustFinished Empire in Black and Gold, by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Excellent, as with all I've read by him, but I prefer SciFi over all, so not as amazing as his SciFi. Still, an interesting world with interesting characters. Lost magics, technology rising, and fascists on the horizon. A mixed band (young and old, different motivations and philosophies) sets off to save everyone from their blinders. I'll read the second one.
#JustFinished How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu.
This is a gorgeous book. A collection of short stories tied together into a history of plague among humans interconnected through time. Non-linear, lyric, emotional. I cried and I soared with the stories.
In the very last story, Nagamatsu succumbs to some Marty Stu-ish writing, which I found very disappointing. But that was my only quibble. I found it well worth my time.
This was a re-read. All I really remembered from 30ish years ago was enjoying it. It aged pretty well. Yes, the unconscious sexism made me roll my eyes. My favorite example? It costs a lot to bring colonists to settlements outside our solar system, so let's send pregnant women and have them just drop the babies off, thereby diversifying the gene pool! The solution is both ridiculous and elegant in its simplicity.
#JustFinished 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Chick, by Mona Awad.
Ugh. Unreedeemed, imo. The main character is alternately self-absorbed and profoundly insecure. She spends her whole life bad-mouthing the people around her and I'm supposed to be happy that after 6 and a quarter hours of this immature brat, Awad ends the book with her perhaps on the brink of an epiphany? I like a good book about personal growth. This is not one.
#JustFinished Regrettably, I Am About to Cause Trouble, by Aimee McNee
Interesting YA set against the backdrop of the Tudor Court. I had a hard time liking Maude for most of the book, but we obviously weren't supposed to. Yes, growth.
Themes are found family, loyalty, courtesy, and allowing people to be who they are.
LGBTQIA+ positive with hints of societal disapproval.
Race positive with racism in the text.
This was a brutal read. I probably would have stopped around chapter 2 or 3 (the run-up to WWII in regards to the treatment of autistic people) if I hadn't known his central premise was that neurodivergent people aren't broken and are rather part of the natural range of humanity and should be as celebrated as any other group. The history of diagnosis and treatment is detailed and clear.
#WhatchaReading ? #JustFinished Tramps and Vagabonds by Aster Glenn Gray & am so happy to be loving her books again. Like The Sleeping Soldier, this explores attitudes about male affection/same-sex activity in the past--this time the 1930s Depression. As always, it's very immersive and touching, sweet despite very tense situations. The happy ending is a bit abrupt; I'd have like to see more thought process for the characters. But generally I loved it.
#WhatchaReading ? I finally, finally #JustFinished Mortal Follies, a book much longer and twee-er than it needs to be, though the sticking point for me, unlike most critics, was not the omniscient narrator Puck but the absolutely unnecessary and unbearable Miss Bickle. Cut her completely out and you'd be left with quite an interesting story. I did enjoy the dark and brooding heroine.