A month of horror, ebooks, graphic novels and non fiction!
The Unmothers – Leslie J. Anderson
After reading Jawbone last year, I thought that horror wasn’t for me. Nevertheless, the plot of this book intrigued me, and I powered through the audiobook throughout my long weekend.
My (admittedly few) critiques out of the way–it felt like a few of the characters had the same sounding names–Anna, Emma, Agatha, Aaron; Jake, Jason…I’m sure there were more J names. Especially listening to the audiobook made things a little difficult. I do want to give props to the audiobook narrator for making all the narrators sound different.
It doesn’t matter how “nice” a boy is, how good he is with animals or his family, he still took advantage of a girl (in the book the narrator literally used the word coerced). I envisioned the monster in the woods looking like the monster from Netflix’s 2017 movie The Ritual.
It reminds me a lot of Feast While We Can (creepy and suffocating small town) and We Could Be Rats (an opioid crisis impacting the town, and the users being villainized and immediately suspect). I don’t trust horses anymore.
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All Vol. 2 – Sumiko Arai
UGH! The yearning! The slowburn! Just kiss already!! I know they do though in the next volume, but stilllll. I love how both girls inspire the other to get out of their shells and make each other flustered. Also I always enjoy getting music recommendations from books.
Bring Me the Head of Susan Lomond – Connor B.
I’ve been following Connor’s work on Instagram and Tumblr for a while, and when I saw a copy of this book was available at the Queer Liberation Library, I immediately checked it out! It was very very cute–I thought the cousin was a little odd at first, but it was nice to have a voice of reason for Monroe. I also wanted the grandma to interact more, though I’m sure at this point she’s used to Monroe’s hijinks. I thought it was very sweet that Susan studied super hard just to get Monroe to talk to her.
But Will You Love Me Tomorrow – Laura Flam, Emily Sieu
Music history is one of my favorite topics, particularly rock and roll and the blues. It broke my heart to hear first-hand accounts of these girls getting exploited, these young girls, some of them not even out of middle school! Some never even got their high school diplomas! They were screwed over legally, were sexually harassed and abused, and they just wanted to make music! They just wanted to sing and perform! And DO NOT get me started on how major white musicians took the songs the girl groups made and made them popular, AND GAVE THEM NO CREDIT!
It was also interesting to see all these huge musicians and performers have connections to each other. I highly recommend this book, even if you don’t know much about music history.
Girl Juice – Benji Nate
This was honestly a nice respite from intense thrillers and books that were written ahead of their time–like brain candy! I loved how multi-faceted the characters were, and how they genuinely do care about each other. Nana clearly cares about Bunnie, Bunnie claims to not care about Tula but still helps her out in the end, Sadie wants the best for everyone, and Tula really tries her best.
Bunnie is probably my favorite character. My girl claims she can’t hold down a job, yet works at a diner? And her dog handles her finances? That second one makes sense, but girl says she can’t hold a nine-to-five because she’ll get stress acne, but works at a diner, in food service, which is arguably more stressful? Also, Tallulah and Sadie don’t share a bedroom?? If they did get a two bedroom Talullah could use one as an office?? I also want to know what the other girls (sans Bunnie) do for work–Nana draws and it’s mentioned that Sadie wants to write or writes.
I do wish we could have seen some of the desires the girls mentioned come to fruition–such as Nana wanting to go to clown school (even though earlier she claimed she didn’t want to?) or Tula wanting to try stand-up (I think that would have been great for her, personally).
I know I’m writing a lot of questions, but I genuinely had a lot of fun reading this. I stayed up late trying to finish it, I wanted to know what happened next! Especially during the demon arc! It felt reminiscent of books I would read over the summer as a kid, taking a break from my summer homework.
A Song for a New Day – Sarah Pinsker
So…are we sure Pinsker can’t see into the future? This book was written in 2019, a year before the Covid-19 pandemic, where we had to socially distance ourselves? Where a lot of in-person events (like CONCERTS) were canceled?? WHAT?! The building’s name being 2020
I do wish we had answers about the terrorist attack and how the pandemic started, but I understand that’s not the point of the book. The point was: the importance of live performances, how music connects people. Highly recommend it.
Bonus:
Library on Wheels – Sharlee Glenn
This is a bonus book because I read it for research for my own novel! It’s for younger readers, detailing the first bookmobile in America, but it was still a great read and a great stepping off point for my research. And a bonus? I checked it out from my own library!
Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan
Another book I read for class this past month, and I thought I would do a short review for it! There really isn’t much to say about the novel–I think people should read it. It’s an important novel, and one that needs to be read slowly, take time with. It was another book where I could talk with my class about, which is always fun for me.
E. A. Young Writes 