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DNF:
The secret runners of New York by Matthew Reilly
This was on my possible to read list, and then the universe dropped it in my lap, so I snapped it up. Matthew Reilly seems like a really nice guy! I've met him a few times. I adored Ice Station, even if I couldn't bear any of his others, at all. I live/d in hope of finding another Ice Station, and I was super into the synopsis of this: time travelling girls, post-apoca, and running? Hells yes, yes please. Goodreads described it as Gossip Girls meets Fury Road which … okay? Willing to give that a go.
The prologue was…not well written. Which is potentially fine, I'm willing to put up with clunky writing in order to read a good time travel, honestly, and I know Matthew Reilly is not actually a wordsmith. But then we hit the main story, and *exhales*. The main protagonist is 16, and her mother has married into considerable New York wealth. Her mother is perhaps unsurprisingly desperately obsessed with the patriarchal Kool-Aid of "your looks as a woman are your everything". She imparts such wisdom as (direct quote) Stop slouching, pull your shoulders back, push your little titties forward And ohhh boy, if I never hear the phrase "little titties" again, it will be too fucking soon. I was Tense from page 9 onwards, is what I'm saying, and then I start hitting the aforementioned gossip girls.
The gossip girls are bullying and cliquey, no surprises there. They're also racist and ableist (also, not exactly a surprise). But multiple characters are racist and ableist and the text never speaks against either of those things. We the reader are supposed to think they're bad for saying that, I guess, but even when the main character tries to stand up for various disabled minor characters, she's ableist about it. She narrates a girl with Down Syndrome as being 'moon-faced', and then when she sticks up for another girl with a physical disability she tells other characters to "leave the poor girl alone" (Poor girl?). The racism... the text never actually rebuts what they're saying about Mexican, Chinese or Arabic people, for example. I get why the main character never speaks up, and while it makes it explicit as to why, she also never internally flinches or resists even in the reader's direction, and man does it feel like the people taking those racist hits are in fact the people of colour reading the book. It feels like there's nowhere else for those punches to land. So I was actively miserable reading this book in a way that I can't ever recall being before. And that's *before* we get into what the goodreads reviews says is the physical violence and civilization collapsing, and people gruesomely murdering each other etc. Also there's much later references, apparently, to things like "unemployed Muslim youths" rioting, and "maybe it was the [lower classes] giving into their base instincts, maybe it was something else, but either way [mass violence and riots against rich people and their homes]" (emphasis mine) And, fuck no. I am *out*. I tapped out at page 67, just as we're getting into the time travel. THAT bad.
Finished reading:
The gentleman’s guide to vice & virtue by Mackenzi Lee. To my pleased surprise, this saw its improbable alchemy conclusion all the way through, utterly straight-faced it (pun not intended), and then stuck the queer romance landing. It made me all misty, even. Really, really pleased. I'll probably take a break between this one and P&P so I don't risk burning out on the style, but I'm looking forward to it.
Currently reading:
Blackout: how is energy-rich Australia running out of energy? by Matthew Warren (Still) reading. I'd not picked it up for most of the week, low-key resisting the dryness, but I'll keep persisting, a few pages at a time.
Up next:
Not sure, still. Some sort of fiction to balance out the non-fiction, I imagine. Probably Family of Origin. Also, self, start pre-ordering things while you can in fact pre-order them and count towards people's stats.
THE LIST
Non-fiction
- On eating meat, by Matthew Evans – an ethical omnivore’s take on eating meat
- Growing Up Queer in Australia, edited by Benjamin Law
- Quarterly Essay on Safe Schools, Moral Panic 101, by Benjamin Law
- Dead Blondes & Bad Mothers: on monsters & the fear of female power, by Sady Doyle, out 13/8/2019
- Yes Yes Yes: Australia’s Journey to Marriage Equality by Shirleene Robinson, Alex Greenwich
- How powerful we are, by Sally Rugg, out this month. Another marriage equality campaign book, that I’m looking at specifically because there’s apparently a chapter on the impact on queer Australians during the vote, which is not something that I’ve been able to find any sort of data on at all.
Fiction
- The lady’s guide to petticoats and piracy, by Mackenzi Lee
- Family of origin – novel by CJ Hauser of above article, which was released two weeks ago.
- The light brigade by Kameron Hurley – still waiting curiously to see if this is going to make it to Australia
- Seafire – N C Parker – girl pirates!
New addition!:
- The light between worlds by Laura E Weymouth. Looks like Every heart a doorway but better
The secret runners of New York by Matthew Reilly
This was on my possible to read list, and then the universe dropped it in my lap, so I snapped it up. Matthew Reilly seems like a really nice guy! I've met him a few times. I adored Ice Station, even if I couldn't bear any of his others, at all. I live/d in hope of finding another Ice Station, and I was super into the synopsis of this: time travelling girls, post-apoca, and running? Hells yes, yes please. Goodreads described it as Gossip Girls meets Fury Road which … okay? Willing to give that a go.
The prologue was…not well written. Which is potentially fine, I'm willing to put up with clunky writing in order to read a good time travel, honestly, and I know Matthew Reilly is not actually a wordsmith. But then we hit the main story, and *exhales*. The main protagonist is 16, and her mother has married into considerable New York wealth. Her mother is perhaps unsurprisingly desperately obsessed with the patriarchal Kool-Aid of "your looks as a woman are your everything". She imparts such wisdom as (direct quote) Stop slouching, pull your shoulders back, push your little titties forward And ohhh boy, if I never hear the phrase "little titties" again, it will be too fucking soon. I was Tense from page 9 onwards, is what I'm saying, and then I start hitting the aforementioned gossip girls.
The gossip girls are bullying and cliquey, no surprises there. They're also racist and ableist (also, not exactly a surprise). But multiple characters are racist and ableist and the text never speaks against either of those things. We the reader are supposed to think they're bad for saying that, I guess, but even when the main character tries to stand up for various disabled minor characters, she's ableist about it. She narrates a girl with Down Syndrome as being 'moon-faced', and then when she sticks up for another girl with a physical disability she tells other characters to "leave the poor girl alone" (Poor girl?). The racism... the text never actually rebuts what they're saying about Mexican, Chinese or Arabic people, for example. I get why the main character never speaks up, and while it makes it explicit as to why, she also never internally flinches or resists even in the reader's direction, and man does it feel like the people taking those racist hits are in fact the people of colour reading the book. It feels like there's nowhere else for those punches to land. So I was actively miserable reading this book in a way that I can't ever recall being before. And that's *before* we get into what the goodreads reviews says is the physical violence and civilization collapsing, and people gruesomely murdering each other etc. Also there's much later references, apparently, to things like "unemployed Muslim youths" rioting, and "maybe it was the [lower classes] giving into their base instincts, maybe it was something else, but either way [mass violence and riots against rich people and their homes]" (emphasis mine) And, fuck no. I am *out*. I tapped out at page 67, just as we're getting into the time travel. THAT bad.
Finished reading:
The gentleman’s guide to vice & virtue by Mackenzi Lee. To my pleased surprise, this saw its improbable alchemy conclusion all the way through, utterly straight-faced it (pun not intended), and then stuck the queer romance landing. It made me all misty, even. Really, really pleased. I'll probably take a break between this one and P&P so I don't risk burning out on the style, but I'm looking forward to it.
Currently reading:
Blackout: how is energy-rich Australia running out of energy? by Matthew Warren (Still) reading. I'd not picked it up for most of the week, low-key resisting the dryness, but I'll keep persisting, a few pages at a time.
Up next:
Not sure, still. Some sort of fiction to balance out the non-fiction, I imagine. Probably Family of Origin. Also, self, start pre-ordering things while you can in fact pre-order them and count towards people's stats.
THE LIST
Non-fiction
- On eating meat, by Matthew Evans – an ethical omnivore’s take on eating meat
- Growing Up Queer in Australia, edited by Benjamin Law
- Quarterly Essay on Safe Schools, Moral Panic 101, by Benjamin Law
- Dead Blondes & Bad Mothers: on monsters & the fear of female power, by Sady Doyle, out 13/8/2019
- Yes Yes Yes: Australia’s Journey to Marriage Equality by Shirleene Robinson, Alex Greenwich
- How powerful we are, by Sally Rugg, out this month. Another marriage equality campaign book, that I’m looking at specifically because there’s apparently a chapter on the impact on queer Australians during the vote, which is not something that I’ve been able to find any sort of data on at all.
Fiction
- The lady’s guide to petticoats and piracy, by Mackenzi Lee
- Family of origin – novel by CJ Hauser of above article, which was released two weeks ago.
- The light brigade by Kameron Hurley – still waiting curiously to see if this is going to make it to Australia
- Seafire – N C Parker – girl pirates!
New addition!:
- The light between worlds by Laura E Weymouth. Looks like Every heart a doorway but better
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