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Finished reading:
Or rather, am finished with the book.
Family of origins by CJ Hauser. So 18 months ago (such a goddamn long time ago), Hauser's article The crane wife went viral for profoundly deserved, emotionally-devastating reasons. Based on that article, I asked my library system to buy a copy of her book when it came out, a year ago (still So Fucking Long ago). It finally came in, juuuust in time for my Xmas break.
I picked it up based on the writing strength of the article. The quality of the book was...not as great. This feels like a novel that was started in a creative writing class. Some of those are incredibly good! This was a 'I'll try again with her second novel' She's deliberately not used speech marks, which...can work? But Tim Winton she's not, and it's been long enough since I read Cloudstreet that I'm not even sure it totally worked for Winton, either. It's very...there are the occassional flashes of emotional brilliance (what I suspect she was able to distil her article down into), and that kept me going through a lot of the rest of the overwrittenness. A couple of things kept me reading: one of the characters put in an application to go to Mars as a civilian settler, and makes the interview shortlist, which to me put it far enough in the future that I was genuinely interested in all the other ways Hauser thought the near-future was going to be. Also, I would 100% believe that Hauser has a secret or not-so-secret AO3 account and a love for the ( spoiler ) fandom. I'm not into said fandom per se, but I'm curious about the workings of said, and both of those things got me to about the half way mark.
Then at the halfway mark, I started to suspect that the trip to Mars was more an exploration of the character's feelings, rather than a 10-20 years into the future jump. I started to realise I didn't actually like either of these characters much, either. I calculated approximately how long it was going to take me to read the other half, decided I'd rather spend those hours doing something else, and jumped forward to read the final chapter. I don't regret any of it. I'd interestedly pick up her second novel from the library. The crane wife is still an incredible article.
Currently reading:
The invisible life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
A young woman in 1700s France unthinkingly stumbles into a monkey's paw deal with a night god. "I don't want to be forced into a marriage/I don't want to belong to anyone/I want to live a full life and then you can have my soul when I don't want it anymore" becomes a cursed immortality of "everyone will forget you".
This is...also overwritten, but in a way that I'm willing to read past because the underlying themes--being forgotten by everyone, being unable to leave any intentional mark of your own--hits me in the heart so hard. I don't love Addie per se, yet, but I love, love relationship loops, and trying to leave whatever mark however indirectly, and trying to have a meaningful life. I love the woman Addie fell in love with, Sam; and I love, love Henry, the man who, Addie's just realised, can remember who she is. Considering she stole a book from his shop yesterday, this is a problem...
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Eternally on the current list, I'm sure. It's gotten overlooked with all the new shinies from the library and Xmas, so I'm mostly listing it here to keep it in the mental pile.
Up next:
SO MANY GOOD Christmas presents.
The faceless old woman who lives in your home -- a Welcome to Nightvale novel with a killer of an opening line. Idk if it's going to be able to sustain an entire novel's worth of this tight brilliance, and if it can, if it's going to be too exhausting to read, but I'm excited to find out.
The dictionary of lost words by Pip Williams. A fictional take on women's perspectives during the creation of the Oxford dictionary. Loved the sample.
The once and future witches by Alix E. Harrow. Purely on my adoration of The ten thousand doors of January
Or rather, am finished with the book.
Family of origins by CJ Hauser. So 18 months ago (such a goddamn long time ago), Hauser's article The crane wife went viral for profoundly deserved, emotionally-devastating reasons. Based on that article, I asked my library system to buy a copy of her book when it came out, a year ago (still So Fucking Long ago). It finally came in, juuuust in time for my Xmas break.
I picked it up based on the writing strength of the article. The quality of the book was...not as great. This feels like a novel that was started in a creative writing class. Some of those are incredibly good! This was a 'I'll try again with her second novel' She's deliberately not used speech marks, which...can work? But Tim Winton she's not, and it's been long enough since I read Cloudstreet that I'm not even sure it totally worked for Winton, either. It's very...there are the occassional flashes of emotional brilliance (what I suspect she was able to distil her article down into), and that kept me going through a lot of the rest of the overwrittenness. A couple of things kept me reading: one of the characters put in an application to go to Mars as a civilian settler, and makes the interview shortlist, which to me put it far enough in the future that I was genuinely interested in all the other ways Hauser thought the near-future was going to be. Also, I would 100% believe that Hauser has a secret or not-so-secret AO3 account and a love for the ( spoiler ) fandom. I'm not into said fandom per se, but I'm curious about the workings of said, and both of those things got me to about the half way mark.
Then at the halfway mark, I started to suspect that the trip to Mars was more an exploration of the character's feelings, rather than a 10-20 years into the future jump. I started to realise I didn't actually like either of these characters much, either. I calculated approximately how long it was going to take me to read the other half, decided I'd rather spend those hours doing something else, and jumped forward to read the final chapter. I don't regret any of it. I'd interestedly pick up her second novel from the library. The crane wife is still an incredible article.
Currently reading:
The invisible life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
A young woman in 1700s France unthinkingly stumbles into a monkey's paw deal with a night god. "I don't want to be forced into a marriage/I don't want to belong to anyone/I want to live a full life and then you can have my soul when I don't want it anymore" becomes a cursed immortality of "everyone will forget you".
This is...also overwritten, but in a way that I'm willing to read past because the underlying themes--being forgotten by everyone, being unable to leave any intentional mark of your own--hits me in the heart so hard. I don't love Addie per se, yet, but I love, love relationship loops, and trying to leave whatever mark however indirectly, and trying to have a meaningful life. I love the woman Addie fell in love with, Sam; and I love, love Henry, the man who, Addie's just realised, can remember who she is. Considering she stole a book from his shop yesterday, this is a problem...
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Eternally on the current list, I'm sure. It's gotten overlooked with all the new shinies from the library and Xmas, so I'm mostly listing it here to keep it in the mental pile.
Up next:
SO MANY GOOD Christmas presents.
The faceless old woman who lives in your home -- a Welcome to Nightvale novel with a killer of an opening line. Idk if it's going to be able to sustain an entire novel's worth of this tight brilliance, and if it can, if it's going to be too exhausting to read, but I'm excited to find out.
The dictionary of lost words by Pip Williams. A fictional take on women's perspectives during the creation of the Oxford dictionary. Loved the sample.
The once and future witches by Alix E. Harrow. Purely on my adoration of The ten thousand doors of January