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Finished reading:
The witch's kind by Louisa Morgan
This feels like cottagecore at its very nearly perfect: nothing happens, the bad things (while described, and deserve trigger warnings) are in the past thanks to the flashbacks with now-reflections. It's not a Romance Novel by any stretch of the imagination, but reading it I get why so many people devour them. It has the same sort of feelings, even if what Barrie Anne is in love with is her farm and her adopted daughter with her aunt by her side. I really liked the emotional ebb and flow, and the characters' motivations. Motivations sound trite, but I legit believe why Barrie Anne wanted the fantasy of the relationship, and how badly it was going to crash down for her, and I ached for her. I can see how Morgan built to the ending she constructed, but I'm not sure the dramatic climax was necessary per se. I'm seesawing between 3.5 and 4 stars out of five for this one. I definitely don't regret buying it. I'd gladly get another book of this author's from the library, though.
( Trigger warnings slash spoilers )
Currently reading:
The house in the cerulean sea by T L Klune. This is the X-Men meets Miss Peregrine's House meets on-page queers, and dear god, it's also really good. The sentence level could do with some tweaking, but the voice is so incredibly droll and wry and has made me laugh out loud several times. Worth noting, many characters are over-the-top and dare I say hilariously mean to the main character in the lead up to him leaving his routine and going to find the other main characters, but it was all so sharp that I trust that when the catharsis hits, and the comfort flows in, it's going to be just as good. Two lines have made me catch my breath and want to hug it to my chest so far, and I'm anticipating many more. Also worth noting: the main character is fat, and there's a little fatphobia from the (mean) characters, and some internalized fatphobia on his part. I have every hope that the author is better than validating or vindicating that fatphobia in the rest of the book, but I'm also wary. Queer doesn't mean good rep in other areas, so while I'm hoping, I'm also careful. I'll report back.
Some days later, and a hundred pages from the end, and so far so good on the body acceptance, but the emotional pacing has waned a little. After such a good beginning, the middle of the book is flagging for me, sadly. Thinking about it, the first third of the book had the emotional tension of being uncomfortable in the known world, but also being sent away into the scarier unknown. Getting to know the children is interesting, but there hasn't been an underlying emotional tug, either a desire on Linus's part to stay, or a (strong enough) desire for Arthur, or an internal *something*. It's still a good book! But it's been striking seeing my own emotional response to what's going on. I'm really hoping it picks up in the last hundred pages.
Up next:
Picking Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke back up.
The witch's kind by Louisa Morgan
This feels like cottagecore at its very nearly perfect: nothing happens, the bad things (while described, and deserve trigger warnings) are in the past thanks to the flashbacks with now-reflections. It's not a Romance Novel by any stretch of the imagination, but reading it I get why so many people devour them. It has the same sort of feelings, even if what Barrie Anne is in love with is her farm and her adopted daughter with her aunt by her side. I really liked the emotional ebb and flow, and the characters' motivations. Motivations sound trite, but I legit believe why Barrie Anne wanted the fantasy of the relationship, and how badly it was going to crash down for her, and I ached for her. I can see how Morgan built to the ending she constructed, but I'm not sure the dramatic climax was necessary per se. I'm seesawing between 3.5 and 4 stars out of five for this one. I definitely don't regret buying it. I'd gladly get another book of this author's from the library, though.
( Trigger warnings slash spoilers )
Currently reading:
The house in the cerulean sea by T L Klune. This is the X-Men meets Miss Peregrine's House meets on-page queers, and dear god, it's also really good. The sentence level could do with some tweaking, but the voice is so incredibly droll and wry and has made me laugh out loud several times. Worth noting, many characters are over-the-top and dare I say hilariously mean to the main character in the lead up to him leaving his routine and going to find the other main characters, but it was all so sharp that I trust that when the catharsis hits, and the comfort flows in, it's going to be just as good. Two lines have made me catch my breath and want to hug it to my chest so far, and I'm anticipating many more. Also worth noting: the main character is fat, and there's a little fatphobia from the (mean) characters, and some internalized fatphobia on his part. I have every hope that the author is better than validating or vindicating that fatphobia in the rest of the book, but I'm also wary. Queer doesn't mean good rep in other areas, so while I'm hoping, I'm also careful. I'll report back.
Some days later, and a hundred pages from the end, and so far so good on the body acceptance, but the emotional pacing has waned a little. After such a good beginning, the middle of the book is flagging for me, sadly. Thinking about it, the first third of the book had the emotional tension of being uncomfortable in the known world, but also being sent away into the scarier unknown. Getting to know the children is interesting, but there hasn't been an underlying emotional tug, either a desire on Linus's part to stay, or a (strong enough) desire for Arthur, or an internal *something*. It's still a good book! But it's been striking seeing my own emotional response to what's going on. I'm really hoping it picks up in the last hundred pages.
Up next:
Picking Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke back up.