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Have finished:
An unkindness of ghosts by Rivers Solomon. Wow. I… might need processing time about this one, but wanted to get scrappy thoughts down, at least. This was really good in ways that are not usually good for me – I didn’t personally connect with Aster (the main character) because she was so distanced, but she’s also (I’m 99% sure) written as being on the spectrum, so I’d hesitantly call that a feature rather than a bug. I didn’t feel like I was connecting with anyone, and the worldbuilding was nearly teetering for me (I wanted a map at the very least), but then half way through all those things that I didn’t think I was attached to suddenly came together in a holy SHIT gripping, distressing, worth it second half. Like, I inhaled the rest of the book in a desperate compulsion to find out what happens in a way that I’m rarely gripped by – I’m almost always gripped by characters and world building, and plot is a distant third.
I want to compare it to Stars are legion by Kameron Hurley – both are female-centred (and just casually no-big-deal queer centred) narratives set on generation ships with an attached mystery, but that’s possibly not fair to either of them. Hurley was very deliberately writing a world without men, whereas Solomon is writing a world that is steeped in men’s violence, racism, and slavery. Solomon writes their violence…I hesitate to say brilliantly, because that sounds weird, but so entirely grounded through the lens of the slaves themselves, and so profoundly women- (and women of colour) centric, that I strongly rec it from that regard. No one is raped on-page that I can remember, but the realities of past rapes and the ever-present risk are just…there, like the air they breathe. None of the violence is gratuitous, but that’s also because none of the violence stands out for the characters, which is its own level of horror.
With only a few misteps (I desperately want a Watsonian reason for her to let herself miss curfew, goddamn it, because that made little narrative sense and it was a crucial pivot point *mutter mutter mutter*), An unkindess of ghosts is a harrowing, well-crafted read. I’m glad I read it, even if it’s a “I don’t think I could do it again”, type read. Do rec, with the male violence caveats.
Currently reading:
The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson. Paused it over Swancon, but have now read books 5 and 6, and really enjoying it in a way that I don’t have much to comment on at the moment, exactly, but it’s good.
Who fears death by Nnedi Okorafor. I didn’t intentionally set out to read two deeply grim narratives back to back, but here we are… and my god this is good. I have been inhaling it at about a hundred pages a day for the last three days. Heads up for graphic (past) rape and brutality in the first few chapters, as a content note. There’s also female circumcision, but that part is not as grim as it might read to a western eye.
I am fully here for Oneyesonwu and her shpaeshifting, and her magic and her world. I love the initiation rite and what it means, and what that does to the shape of the book (gah, I don’t want to spoil in case that’s also part of the pleasure for people). I’m even not too bothered by the intrusion of the “you’ve come to transcribe my story” artifice which is something I usually haaate. I love the team of girls, and how it later fractures, and the focus on women’s pleasure and interior lives and and.
I’m so glad I shelled out for the better binding – I got Stefan to bring me a trade paperback rather than one of the smaller, less expensive editions, and it was so worth it for the (physically!) more comfortable read.
Up next:
HUGOS! I’ve started reading the short stories, but that’s gonna be a separate post, I think. \o/
An unkindness of ghosts by Rivers Solomon. Wow. I… might need processing time about this one, but wanted to get scrappy thoughts down, at least. This was really good in ways that are not usually good for me – I didn’t personally connect with Aster (the main character) because she was so distanced, but she’s also (I’m 99% sure) written as being on the spectrum, so I’d hesitantly call that a feature rather than a bug. I didn’t feel like I was connecting with anyone, and the worldbuilding was nearly teetering for me (I wanted a map at the very least), but then half way through all those things that I didn’t think I was attached to suddenly came together in a holy SHIT gripping, distressing, worth it second half. Like, I inhaled the rest of the book in a desperate compulsion to find out what happens in a way that I’m rarely gripped by – I’m almost always gripped by characters and world building, and plot is a distant third.
I want to compare it to Stars are legion by Kameron Hurley – both are female-centred (and just casually no-big-deal queer centred) narratives set on generation ships with an attached mystery, but that’s possibly not fair to either of them. Hurley was very deliberately writing a world without men, whereas Solomon is writing a world that is steeped in men’s violence, racism, and slavery. Solomon writes their violence…I hesitate to say brilliantly, because that sounds weird, but so entirely grounded through the lens of the slaves themselves, and so profoundly women- (and women of colour) centric, that I strongly rec it from that regard. No one is raped on-page that I can remember, but the realities of past rapes and the ever-present risk are just…there, like the air they breathe. None of the violence is gratuitous, but that’s also because none of the violence stands out for the characters, which is its own level of horror.
With only a few misteps (I desperately want a Watsonian reason for her to let herself miss curfew, goddamn it, because that made little narrative sense and it was a crucial pivot point *mutter mutter mutter*), An unkindess of ghosts is a harrowing, well-crafted read. I’m glad I read it, even if it’s a “I don’t think I could do it again”, type read. Do rec, with the male violence caveats.
Currently reading:
The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson. Paused it over Swancon, but have now read books 5 and 6, and really enjoying it in a way that I don’t have much to comment on at the moment, exactly, but it’s good.
Who fears death by Nnedi Okorafor. I didn’t intentionally set out to read two deeply grim narratives back to back, but here we are… and my god this is good. I have been inhaling it at about a hundred pages a day for the last three days. Heads up for graphic (past) rape and brutality in the first few chapters, as a content note. There’s also female circumcision, but that part is not as grim as it might read to a western eye.
I am fully here for Oneyesonwu and her shpaeshifting, and her magic and her world. I love the initiation rite and what it means, and what that does to the shape of the book (gah, I don’t want to spoil in case that’s also part of the pleasure for people). I’m even not too bothered by the intrusion of the “you’ve come to transcribe my story” artifice which is something I usually haaate. I love the team of girls, and how it later fractures, and the focus on women’s pleasure and interior lives and and.
I’m so glad I shelled out for the better binding – I got Stefan to bring me a trade paperback rather than one of the smaller, less expensive editions, and it was so worth it for the (physically!) more comfortable read.
Up next:
HUGOS! I’ve started reading the short stories, but that’s gonna be a separate post, I think. \o/
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
:D It's coined from the original Sherlock Holmes books by Arthur Conan Doyle, and is to do with what angle you want to interpret a story from.
My understanding is it goes like this: there's a bunch of inconsistencies between the Sherlock stories. A Watsonian reading looks to the narrator, Watson, and wonders at Watson's reasons for writing them in: was he leaving clues about something else? Was he lying for a reason? Drunk? Etc
A Doylist reading of a text looks at the author's reason for those things. In Doyle's actual case the answer is usually: Doyle grew to hate his character and stopped consistency checking ¯_(ツ)_/¯