Books in 2024
Monsters Born and Made
Definitely feels like there's more to be done in this world. Really good, gripping, really just nails the feeling of exhaustion that marks the character's experiences.
I've since learned that the author wrote another book in the world, unrelated to the story here, but both this one and her other book about the world will be important for her third book, which will kind of tie things together? Unsure if I'm curious enough to read the other book, but will probably keep an eye out for the next one. Overall, pretty good time.
When We Were Birds
I wrote a whole ass review of this one. One of my favorite books, probably of all time.
Ace of Spades
Gossip Girl + Get Out, incredible. Absolutely fantastic. Burned right through this one. The ending feels sort of thrown in or otherwise out of left field. Maybe that's just me. But, it was really good, it's the author's first book, so like, let her cook.
This is How You Lose the Time War
I don't really need to say shit here, do I? This book is already well-known to kick ass, thanks to Bigolas Dickolas. Little bit of work to get into it because it's very much from the perspective of characters operating in a way completely foreign to us.
Legendborn
It took forever to get to the twist that we all saw coming but holy shit, the reveal and all of it was worthwhile. Little bit of a tougher time getting through it, Idk, maybe there were just parts that dragged? Maybe I was distracted.
Basically what if we did some King Arthur shit but the protagonist is a black girl. It's honestly really well-done and while the microaggressions that the protagonist faces throughout aren't necessarily the focus, they're undeniably present.
The author also specifically said one of the things she wanted to include was this thing called Toxic Grief Syndrome, iirc, and that was kind of interesting.
Jade City
I had a good ass time with this book. Came as a recommendation from ya boi, Barquq (iknowi'mtheshit.jpg) and I had a great time. I won't say Fonda Lee is like a great author, but I appreciate her world-building because it feels very integrated--it's rarely the case that she just kind of pauses the narrative to just wax on about the world. The world-building is largely through asides explaining dynamics in the moment of a scene or through mini-vignette chapters that mark the act breaks. I'm a big fan of this.
1984
Wanted to read this one because it's obviously a well-known book and people love to talk about this or that being an example of 1984, but my suspicion is many of them haven't read or have forgotten just what this book is like.
The Candid Life of Meena Dave
I did not finish this book. It's very frustrating watching this character throw up walls as people try to invite her into a community. I think it's simply the case that this book just isn’t for me. And it isn’t, because the author explicitly wanted to write a book for 3rd, 4th generation Southeast Asian Americans. It might be great in that sense, obviously, I can't comment on that. I just found Meena herself to be frustrating more than interesting.
Gender Queer
This kicked ass. I have a lot of thoughts about it, but I think I'd like to keep most of them to myself, which weirdly feels in line with Kaobabe's own sort of gender-y thoughts. It's a really good memoir about gender that deals honestly and painfully with dysphoria as well as some of the anxieties of being trans in a way that really struck me. Some of what e talks about doesn't resonate with me, but I loved reading it. Also should say that me keeping a list like this was directly inspired by this graphic novel.
Jade War
We did a book club about this and that shit was hype. Glad that Shark joined in cause she had some good perspectives I never considered. Overall, a good time. Shame that I fell off my reading habits over the summer like, dead in the middle of this book. Made finishing it feel like a bigger task than it was. Gotta read that third book, wanna see where it goes, even if the back half of this book was a bit of a slog for me.
Dungeon Meshi
what can i say to hype up this manga? What hasn't already been said about how much it rules and how cool it is?
Mall Goth
Kate Leth graphic novel, so YMMV. I have some feelings that I can't quite figure out how I want to articulate, which I think are simply due to that fact that it is explicitly and obviously a YA graphic novel, if that makes sense? Like, I'm in my 30s, YA stuff rarely does it for me like it used to cause I'm so far removed from the demographic. It's decent and I do think that the message they want to communicate about skeevy teachers is an unfortunately important one.
The Girl From the Sea
I'm weak as hell for a gay love story, we know this. I thought this was incredibly cute and heartfelt and it really struck me. And then in the post-script, Molly Ostertag wrote that it was partially inspired by her partner ND Stevens (Ya know, creator of Nimona) and how their love changed her life. Anywho, cute as fuck. Made me cry (positive).
We Hunt the Flame
Slow af start, but it picks up pretty nicely. Instead of making up fantasy terms, Faizal decides to sprinkle in Arabic words and phrases, somewhat randomly. This has two big effects: the first is if you speak Arabic, it makes it hard and kind of weird to read, per Barquq, who had to put it down. The second is that it also makes it difficult to acclimate to if you don’t know Arabic because frequently, she provides no context for a given Arabic word, ESPECIALLY in the first several chapters where that kind of context seems key. For example:
Nasir made his way to the stairs as a servant ambled from the opposite corridor, carefully balancing a platter of qahwa. Surprise struck the servant's solemn features when he saw the prince, and the tray tipped. Too late, the man pitched forward to steady it, crashing into Nasir in the process.
The servant dropped to his knees and whimpered--whimpered--beside the tarnished silver platter. Dark qahwa bled from brass dallah.
Now, if you didn’t know, this word means coffee, but if you don't know that and you see “dark qahwa bled” your initial instinct may be, like mine, to assume it’s related to an animal or something. That kind of colorful language is normally fine, but confusing in a situation like above. There IS a glossary for this, but it’s not included in the book itself for reasons beyond my comprehension. Fucking hell, Lord of the Rings had more appendices than most textbooks. You can find a glossary on the website for the book, which is kind of cool, but it is somewhat difficult to read when you feel you have to keep putting down the book to look up a word. But, when this kind of gets out of the way, it’s a really good, engaging fantasy book based on Arabic and other Middle-Eastern mythology, which makes it incredibly unique inside the fantasy genre. I had a great time with it, overall. Just a bit of work to get into it. Also, came with a free obsession with the word zumra. I will be reading the second book some time in 2025, ideally.
Between the World And Me
I grabbed this not realizing it was memoir. And boy fucking howdy. I don't really know what I, a white suburban kid, could say about this book. It was extremely good, heart-wrenching, and difficult. Written as an extended letter to his son, this book is about Ta Nehisi Coates' life, primarily his time as a child and going to college and the many ways in which the Black body is owned by the state and may be revoked at will. He talks a lot about "Dreamers", those who believe in the lie of the American dream and how they need to realize that white and black are distinctions wholly created to divide and for the purposes and benefit of those in power. There's a lot and I'm probably not doing it justice. It's short--150 pages--but it's dense.