Book Review

Final June Wrap Up: Some summer spookiness

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Now to finish off my June reads (I know, I know, I’m so late AND I have actually read a couple books in July already, I’m SLACKING), I present: some summer spooks. I’m going to add my one spooky one from July simply because…it fits the theme, ok? Gosh. *insert epic silly face here*

First up: Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker (author of Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng)

Rating: 5 out of 5 Samurai

“She had killed someone too. She understood, at least in part, the torrents that he carried inside him. She looked him in the eye and didn’t run away. Perhaps someone like his father would have thought the situation romantic, but Lee wasn’t interested in Sen’s body. He wanted to hopelessly entangle her soul with his until they were one and the same, to follow her to the bottom of the sea, to rot beside her when death devoured them both.” (Japanese Gothic, pg. 234)

Oh my goodness. I really like Baker as an author. She creates such imaginative stories and really shows parts of Asian folklore or mythology that I would have never searched out on my own. The way she weaves these in with the horror of humanity is just incredible.

This book incited so many feelings in me. There was spookiness, there was horror, mystery, mythology, intrigue, and there was even sadness and frustration. Lee, he seemed so uncertain about everything but could tell that there was some kind of trauma he was suppressing. He talks about always being in a fog, drug induced, so he simply didn’t have to feel or to be a “good son” for his dad. Sen, in her own way, was so alone and so afraid to disappoint a father who was a coward and had gone back on his own beliefs. To have them find each other, this wall that would connect them in the same home, hundreds of years apart, was certainly fate. I think for me, most off all, this story was just sad, a sad tale of two lost, young souls, who found each other, and it was not a romantic love story but it was a love story in its own way, I think.

I would absolutely read this again, find the hints that maybe I missed as I read it the first time. Fantastic storytelling as usual, by Baker.

“She didn’t want Lee Turner to kiss her, or marry her, or fall in love with her. She wanted him to sit beside her on this porch and watch the stars with her for as long as she was still alive. She wanted to exist beside him, to be real and whole in someone else’s eyes, to bare her soul to someone and have them stay beside her anyway.” (Japanese Gothic, pg. 271)

Up next: Morsel by Carter Keane

Rating: 5 out of 5 Appalachian Monsters

The description was so spot on, The Ritual meets Blair Witch Project, that I was completely stunned. Lou is a desperate young woman trying to help her mother pay bills, becoming more and more stressed. Close to being fired, her boss Ellis, gives her a job: go out to the rural hills of Ohio, survey and take pics of some land, and report back. Already, I knew that this was going to go south. When her truck is completely sabotaged, Lou, with her dog Ripley, have to rely on the generosity of a stranger. Does she pick the nice house or the beat up house? That choice sets off a series of events that spiral into darker and darker territory. When she realizes that she is truly stuck, the terror truly begins.

I have to say, I was completely in awe of the writing. For this being a debut, the story flowed so nicely, the twists weren’t super obvious, and the imagery was par none. I can’t tell you how many times I had to just put the book down and think and shudder from some of the gruesome scenes. If you don’t like dead wildlife, this book might not be for you. I would definitely recommend this to those who like gruesome horror, body horror, and books about crazy cults. Perfect horror for the summer!

And finally: Bodies of Work by Clay McLeod Chapman (July read)

Rating: 5 out of 5 Butterfly Girls

“Don’t apologize. Never apologize. We need to hold on to our stories. Don’t forget.
We are though, aren’t we? Forgetting? Fading? What’s going to happen to us?
Only time will tell.” (Bodies of Work)

Wow. Wow. Wow. This was wild and so heartbreaking. I know it says horror but I’m only thinking it’s that because of the gore more than anything. Winston is a gross old man but his life was one of those “is it nurture or nature?” things. His home life as a child was full of trauma and abuse, and he was growing up in a time when things like autism and depression and such weren’t really talked about. So it’s not like he would have been able to receive and mental health support. However, he still becomes this awful human being. His butterflies, however, their stories are just as devastating. But the story in the story? What fantastical imagery and prose. I honestly think that this was a gorgeous story about disturbing and vile behavior and it doesn’t glorify it. But it does give peace and some semblance of justice or balance for the girls. 10/10 would read again.

“This happens everywhere. Women vanish. People forget their names, and their disappearances barely demand our attention.” (Bodies of Work)

Ok, that is all for now. I’m currently working my way through the Read Harder Challenge and the various Goodreads challenges, I’ll make a post to update where I am there! Off to reader land for me!

SPACE! The Final Frontier! A tale of two reviews!

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Alright, I missed a couple here, and so I am making up for it. Forgive me!

First we have Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Absolutely phenomenal, if I do say so myself.

Rating: 5 out of 5 missions

I am fairly certain that this is my first book by this author and holy moly did I pick a good one. Atmosphere is just as much about the 1980’s NASA space missions as it is about love and family and friendship. I truly cannot fathom anyone giving this less than 4 stars. This was an emotional rollercoaster. So much of the highs from finally having women in NASA, to women on space flights, to the lows of family not being who you want them to be and of the old thinking of queer people being “deviant”. The whole gamut of feelings were expressed in this book. I appreciated that the author tried to both keep the NASA language as technical as it needed to be and show how high pressure it truly was, with making sure we actually knew what was going on. That she did so much research, even going so far as to interview and work with former NASA folks, is amazing. Obviously, some liberties are taken but honestly it seemed pretty true to form for the 80’s. I was rooting for Joan and Vanessa and Frances the whole book. Barbara could kick rocks, I’ve never wanted someone to fall off a cliff as much as I needed her to. You have this amazing kid and you do all that to her?! Ugh. I had my kid young and he just graduated high school with honors. I was there for EVERYTHING. I hated Barbara.

Gosh, but the ending? THE ENDING?! I sobbed. Full out sobbed. Had to blow my nose and everything. What a punch. But my god was it beautiful. I can’t wait to read more work by TJR.

Next up, we have Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I was trying to finish this BEFORE it left theatres but alas, I missed the deadline on that one. HOWEVER, my partner actually read this before me which is a MAJOR WIN!

Rating: 4 out of 5 astrophages

Ok. Ok. I can see why there is a wide range of reviews on this one. I have watched The Martian, read Artemis, and now have read Project Hail Mary. I have to say, this was very science-y, moreso than I feel that Artemis was, so there were definitely large chunks of the science that my mind just glossed over. That didn’t take away from the story though, so I am not mad about it. Overall, I enjoyed the plot. I definitely felt like this one had me suspending my disbelief so much more (because who is truly going to learn a language that fast??)
but I did enjoy the pacing of the book. The flashbacks of learning what is happening to Earth and why Ryland was out in space, really helped to flesh out his character in a way that I found to be more believable. Was he still written like a weird science nerd? Sure, he also felt a little bit like a self insert character, but he was…tolerable. I definitely enjoyed his relationship with Rocky and their banter definitely made me giggle a few times. Overall, this was an enjoyable book, I would likely read it again, but I wouldn’t say I loved it, mostly because there was a lot more science mathing that frankly, I didn’t care about.

Ok, here is my space page reviews, and from here, I will be back with some horror reviews!! See you on the flip side!

Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant by Curtis Chin (audiobook)

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Rating: 2 out of 5 egg rolls

Whew. This too me WAY too long to listen to. I have to admit that the author himself as a narrator is not the most exciting to listen to. I had so many days in between listens but because it’s a memoir, there wasn’t really a loss of pace. I do wish he had gone deeper into some of his stories, especially in college, and I have to wonder…did any of those professors or people around him in his stories reach out to him after? Like that one prof in the narrative class?? She seemed awful so I wonder what she thinks about his perspective on it.

I did appreciate learning about what it must have been like in the growing up in the 80’s in Detroit, it was such a special time in the history of Detroit. I think Chin did a really good job of showing us Detroit in a way that is meaningful but real. As a native Michigander, Detroit is one of my favorite cities, and I hate when people tear it down. I also appreciate his perspective in the intersectionality of being a gay Asian boy in the 80’s, at the height of the AIDS epidemic and the Vincent Chen case in Detroit. What I didn’t like…was his crazy hold on the Republicanism but also his hold on liberal ideas…like he was definitely confused growing up and it felt like he only felt that way to spite his parents. It was…weird.

However, I’m giving this a 2 star because I became so disinterested that I finally would work while listening, just to have sound in the background. Ultimately, his story just didn’t resonate with me (which, valid, I’m a 38 year old mixed race Mexican American who grew up in the 90’s) but it wasn’t because it wasn’t interesting, but because it COULD have been interesting and he just…didn’t make it so? It’s hard to describe. Like there were so many places where he could have extrapolated more on parts of the history, or on his family, and yet, he would just cut off a story and never come back to it. I finished it and realized that I don’t even know if he told his family he was gay?? That’s how dissociated I became from his story. I appreciate that he is the co-founder of the Asian American Writers Workshop (that is, actually SO COOL) and that he found inspiration for writing though poetry, but honestly, his prose was so dry and chock full of the very stereotypes he hated, that I have a hard time believing that he did that. Also, why wouldn’t he have found inspiration from all the letters to the editor he had been writing since he was a child?? That would have made more sense to me.

Anyways, this was just ok, and I wish it was better, but hey. It’s his story. Who am I to judge, really? Thank you, Curtis, for sharing your life with us.

“Welcome to Chung’s. For here or to go?”

The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa

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Rating: 3 out of 5 time loops

That was certainly a wild ride. An interesting Who Dun It, translated from it’s original language to English, Nishizawa certainly brought a murder mystery with a CRAZY side of family drama.

We have the story of Hisataro, a 16 year old in a family fighting over an inheritance that hasn’t even come to fruition yet. His grandfather has been inviting the whole family to his home for the last few years so that he can “choose” an heir to his fortune, should his childless daughter ALSO pass, who is his initial heir. His other two daughters left the family as soon as they could, as he was not a great dad, gambling a lot and basically making them grow up in poverty. Hisataro, however, has a special ability: he can relive a specific day, over and over again, a la Groundhog Day. He’s not able to PICK what day he relives, though, and this time, he ends up reliving the day his grandfather dies mysteriously. So he spends the next few “time loops” trying to find out who could have killed Grandfather. Hilarity and family drama ensue.

There is definitely lots of cultural differences between Japan and the US, especially in terms of marriage. Generally, we try NOT to marry our first cousins, and we try to marry when we are of age…not 16/17 years old, if we can help it. Since a lot of that seemed to be cultural (especially given that I believe the book was originally published in the late 90’s, I gave that bit of the book a pass. The rest of the drama though?? Oh man there was so much tea the pot was OVERFLOWING. I can’t count how many times I covered my own mouth in disbelief of what was happening!

Unfortunately, what brought the whole thing down from 5 stars to 3, was the last two chapters. The epilogue was COMPLETELY unneeded and honestly, the explanation for why everything happened seemed…too tidy? I don’t know. I just didn’t really vibe with how those two chapters went with the rest of the book. So because of that, I cannot give this a full 5 star rating. I did enjoy myself immensely and had a fund time for the rest, and I can’t say I saw the “twist” coming, but yea. I think if nothing else, the epilogue could have remained out, for sure.

“I once read somewhere that when we make a mistake, the blood rushes to our heads, causing us to make even more of them.” – Hisataro

See what is on my TBR, what I’m currently reading, and more, on my Goodreads profile here.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

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Rating: 5 out of 5 Twitter mentions

WHEW CHILE! I am still reeling from how good this book was! I listened to this on Libro.Fm, if you haven’t used them, you should!!!

Wow. I have never, and I mean NEVER, hated a protagonist more in my life. Which is a testament to how much I loved this book and the author, that I still rated it 5 stars because of that. It’s like hating the evil villain so much in a movie but it makes the movie SO GOOD because of it!

Juniper Hayward is a mediocre white woman writer who is friends with Athena Liu, a rising Asian woman author. She has seen so much success, it’s actually made June jealous. When she witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she manages to also steal the last manuscript that Athena was working on. It’s about Chinese laborers in France during WWI, but June believes she can publish it-as her own-and that no one will know. She finds a publisher and lets them rebrand her as Juniper Song, ambiguous enough, and the story skyrockets her into fame. Juniper is on cloud 9 and attending workshops and speaker series and all kinds of things. Sure, there’s some pushback, but she is good at deflecting and lying her way through why she thought a white woman could tell this story. It isn’t until a blogger finds some *interesting* similarities that suspicion falls on Juniper and so to combat it, she writes another story….which becomes her downfall.

I’m not going to lie, listening to her downfall had me cackling with glee the whole time. Juniper was SUCH a horrid person that I literally could not wait for her to be “canceled” as they call it. She was the epitome of white savior complex and just didn’t want to take accountability at all. You would think this would make me hate the book, but I think, as a Latina woman who sees this happen all the time, I was so gleeful to FINALLY feel like I was seeing justice. I believe that the point of the book is to hate her, that her place in the narration is to be unreliable and unlikeable. I think there tries to be sympathy, but I just could not muster any. I was so invested in seeing her complete and utter destruction. I felt almost bad about it, but I also felt safe enough in the narration to feel ok about feeling those feelings.

The last few chapters though, she becomes completely unhinged. At first, I’m so invested in like, WHO is doing this? To what end exactly?? She is masterfully manipulated, and it was by someone I definitely did not see coming. It was pretty cruel…but also, she needed to just let the lie out. Her delusion was getting to be so much. June Hayward was a terrible and fantastic character.

This is definitely high on my list so far this year!

ARC: Finding Northlane by D.M. Henderson

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Rating: 4 out of 5 guitars

Romance instalove, which is pretty normal in the romance genre, so I’m not mad at it! We begin by meeting Dallas Northlane and his pregnant wife, Samantha, having a picnic by the water. We then fast forward a few years, and Dallas and his daughter are heading to a funeral. A few more years, and we are in the present, Dallas is taking his daughter to school and he meets her music teacher, Annabeth Harrington. And what a Meet Cute (or Meet Lust!) it is! They are both completely enamored with each other right away. Dallas is nervous for a variety of reasons, one of which is the age gap between them, and Annabeth is scared because, well, he’s the parent of one of her students! But they just can’t seem to stop running into each other all over this small town. The side characters are also fleshed out to give them some substance, which I appreciate. I loved Dallas’s brother Colt, and Annabeth’s friend group, especially Ella, her roommate and best friend. I loved the setup of the POV’s for this, I think books where we get both MC’s perspectives are my favorite. The spice was SPICING and Dallas definitely knew what he was doing in the bedroom…whew! Made me almost blush! I also loved how vulnerable Dallas was when he finally talked to Annabeth about his past, especially about his wife. That vulnerability and willingness to open up is so sexy to me. Honestly, the only thing that made this not a 5 star for me was the incredibly fast time they took to say I love you. That took me right out of the story. I thin kif they had said something like “I could see me falling in love with you” that would be one thing, but they barely knew each other-I think the timeline is something like 2 weeks-so that was just so unrealistic, especially given the emotional trauma both Dallas and Annabeth had gone through in their lives. Plus, as a dad, he was very clearly thinking with his dick and not his brain. As someone who is a single parent (though I’ve been with my partner for a decade now), it took me almost 3 years before I said anything along those lines and it was almost a year before he even MET my kid. Granted, Annabeth knows his daughter, but still. That’s a big shake up for an 8 year old. His daughter was also written as if she was a teenager, not a child, so that threw me a little. Occasionally, there would be some dialogue that would show her age, but not always. Either way, these issues were not so egregious that I needed to rate this any lower than a 4 star for me. This was certainly a great story and I cannot wait to get into the second book!

*I received this ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review*

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

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Rating: 4 out of 5 fathoms

Well that was certainly something. I haven’t listened to an audiobook in a long while, but I am glad I did for this one. Having the two narrators was a fantastic choice, since it really gave us the sense of the two women and their struggles. I do wish that the book touched more on Leah in the “after”. I liked getting the “during” but we only get Miri’s version of the “after” and it’s skewed. I would have like to know how Leah was feeling…even if it was gibberish…I think it would have added to the horror element. Which, honestly, only really happened toward the last 20% of the book, which was kind of a let down. The book stayed mostly on the topic of the two women and their dissolving relationship in the wake of Leah coming back from her research trip down in the sea and how she had changed. Miri was not really someone I cared too much for, I feel like she was kind of shallow, but I could tell that she did love Leah a lot. There was definitely a lot of repetition when it came to the water elements of the book, lots of water imagery, which could be a bit much (I saw that comment in a lot of reviews), but overall, by the time I was done, I was kind of staring into space and feeling. It was a good way to end, I think.

(art from Elizabeth von Oehsen/The Washington Post)

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

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Rating: 5 out of 5 wine coolers

“Everything makes sense if you look at it long enough.”

Wow. I’m really glad I did not read any of the reviews on this book. Like The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, it took me a bit to get into it because of SGJ’s writing style. But once I was hooked, it was over. I simply devoured this book (no pun intended). The story of the unnamed narrator as he navigated growing up as, essentially, a nomad with his aunt and uncle, was made more exciting by the twist of them being werewolves. There then became this underlying tension of will he or won’t he also come into his wolfness. Darren and Libby, his uncle and aunt, are not married, they are twins, and our narrator’s mother died in childbirth, and was their sister. Grandpa was their father, and most of what we know about werewolves come from stories told by him and Darren. Like most stories, these were embellished but held some truth to them. And thus, this is how our narrator saw the world. The family moves frequently because once you cause havoc, you can’t stay in one place. Too many animals dying can make people suspicious, as can human body counts. When you are the outcasts, the first fingers pointed are pointed at you. Libby and Darren take on jobs when they can, and they are pretty good about trying to be good citizens too, paying taxes (even if it’s with falsified identification) and sending the narrator to school. I think what I loved best was the chapters calling him a name based on what he was in that moment (mechanic, reporter, biologist, etc.). The narration of the book is very disjointed, but at the same time, makes so much sense, because you can tell it is coming from the voice of someone who is trying to remember events as they happened but also will remember when something happened at a different time of life. So the age jumps around, sometimes we are reading when he was 8 and sometimes 12, then sometimes 16, then 8 again. It is not a linear story, but we get all the necessary parts to capture the whole of his life with his family and his feelings about becoming a werewolf. There is high school romance, cut short, but there nonetheless, and even some growing pains of boyhood.

All in all, this wouldn’t be one of my favorites of his, I’m not a HUGE coming of age book reader, but it was still very good and I did enjoy it a lot. I am really enjoying going through SGJ’s body of work, as this is my 3rd by him, and I have more to go.

See my reviews of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter and I Was a Teenage Slasher on Goodreads.

“That’s how it is with werewolves. You have something, then you just have the story of it.”

The Wild Card by Stephanie Archer

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Spice rating: 3 of 5 pucks

Overall rating: 5 of 5 pucks

Yep. I knew it. I knew I was going to love this story so freaking much. After the last book, I knew Jordan and Tate’s story was going to just crush me in all the best ways. And I was right. I loved Jordan’s character, watching her figure out how to trust and learn to lean on people. I loved how devoted Tate was to Bea, and how well he had a relationship with Bea’s mother. That was so fun to watch. And Bea!!! She was the shining star. Stephanie Archer truly captured the hilarity of kids (“I won’t let you die alone, Dad.” She gives me a worried look. “I’ll be with you. I’ll hold your hand as you stop breathing.” -I FREAKING CACKLED 🤣) Jordan and Tate though, it was a like watching two people who needed each other and just couldn’t realize it until it basically slapped them in the face…but it was also so gradual. I’m fairly certain this is my favorite of this entire series, hands down.

Check out my thoughts on Behind the Net, The Fake Out, The Wingman, and Gloves Off. I truly loved this series. I would read them over and over again. They were great, feel good romances and very quick reads. Good palate cleansers if you need them with just enough plot to make the characters people you want to root for.

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

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Rating: 4.5 cups of Gnomish Coffee out of 5

I am SO LATE to the reading of this! I have to say that I did enjoy it, though it took me longer than I would have liked to read it. I just couldn’t really get into it at the start. But I hate having unfinished books, unless I am TRULY DNF’ing, so I sat back down one day and completed it. I have to say, I was wrong about this book. Honestly, the half cup off is really just because it took me longer than I liked to get into it, as I said.

This is definitely a cozy fantasy, with a dash of romance, but it’s like, blink and you miss it. Viv the Orc is FINALLY retiring as what one would call a mercenary, and finds herself in Thune, where she decides to open a coffee shop. Only, no one has ever hear of this “coffee” in Thune. So she has a bit of an uphill battle here. She is also new, so she has no friends here. However, this was definitely a story that became a lot about found family and what that looks like. Cal and Thimble were probably my favorites, Amity is also up there. Tandri, Viv’s assistant, is super smart, but there just wasn’t a whole lot of character development there that made me believe in their romance. Viv definitely changed, and I guess that’s most of the story. It’s a very low stakes book so there isn’t a whole lot of action. A couple annoying characters, who get straightened out almost immediately. All in all, a good book but not one that I think I would pick up again, even as a cozy book. I have the second book, and I’ll try that, see if I like it more. It’s entirely possible that I like it more! That isn’t to say that I didn’t like this. I did! Truly. I just think it wasn’t my whole cup of tea (pardon the pun).