The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rowling really tapped into personal types of experience in this novel, whether they belonged to her or not, they were vivid and completely believable. I think her ability to create such credible points of view is what made the Harry Potter series so very good, her characters a very close to real, in that we might all know someone like them.

While I enjoyed reading this book, I can understand how slower readers might never gather any momentum with it. I do think it is worthwhile. It is very slice-of-life (chunk, more like). Very human. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

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Quicksand by Nella Larsen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m not sure how confident I am about the five stars just yet, this novel hit far too close to home. Quicksand is a bit like a modernist black Madame Bovary, if one wishes to be reductive, and I loved Madame Bovary.

Helga Crane is an unhappy schoolteacher at Naxos in Tennessee, chafing at the isolation and ostracization she feels being a bi-racial, class conscious woman in an all black institution in the South. She’s 23 at the opening of the novel. I am 23. Too close!

However, Helga lacks a home and sense of identity, her white mother, an immigrant from Denmark, died when Helga was fifteen, leaving her alone but for her Uncle Peter, a white man who arranges for her education but otherwise remains the racially correct amount of distant toward her. Helga’s father is absent but to my memory never finally accounted for. I presume he died when she was very young.

In the novel’s opening Helga decides suddenly after two years at Naxos she can’t bear another day of the place, quits without reference, breaks off her lukewarm engagement, and sets off to Chicago to apply to her Uncle Peter for a loan to get her on her feet. It’s the beginning of a journey for Helga, a quest for something she can’t define. Led astray by her own folly and inevitable inability to know her own mind, Helga searches for a home, an identity, and a balm to sooth the racial friction of her very being.

I read this novel for a literature class, and my classmate pointed out immediately how distasteful and unlikeable Helga is as a character. I may have to disagree, being that Helga is, for me, a caricature of possibility, a warning sign writ large. Likeable or not, she is the focal point of a series of very complex internalized issues, and a very interesting novel.

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The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This novel is amazing. Probably the best Science Fiction novel I have ever read, and if not that, certainly in the top five. Hard-hitting theological questions detailed by tight knit interpersonal relationships and speculation about first contact with other sentient species. Very few flaws come to mind just after the first reading, but if I had to name one it would probably be how difficult it was to mentally picture Emilio Sandoz as a real human being, given how detailed his characterization is at the start, and how much he changes. I doubt it would trouble too many others. Though, speaking of troubling elements, this book is not fluffy and NOT for the faint of heart. Still, read it. READ IT.

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Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Whichever misgivings I had in the first few pages of this book, not enough concrete detail, or dialogue, or characterization, didn’t leave me throughout the rest.

It’s kind of like a slightly loose tooth you can stop jiggling with your tongue. Because you KNOW it’s there and you KNOW it’s loose and you just can’t.

The story is fine, but don’t expect to ever really be told how, why, or what about anything major. I.e. “the days of the unspeakable.” Jiggle.

There are a lot of characters and no real actual villain. Kind of like how you never actually see Sauron in LoTR. But less so, because Sauron is much more vivid than, um. What’s his name? That’s right. Jiggle.

The characters all, for the most part, have good and bad qualities. Physical characteristics? Kind of. Personal growth, sure, I guess. They don’t talk much, though.

All in all there were a lot of little things that could have been tightened up to make the whole narrative more cohesive. Like more dialogue…

I also had a suspicion the entire time that there was some “subtle” feminist subtext that didn’t show through because, well, it wasn’t working. It felt like a point was trying to be made that was kind of thrown in as an afterthought. (view spoiler)[I am mainly referring to Evanjalin being totally capable, but being forced into entirely unnecessary constraints despite her being more savvy and badass than any of the men. The part at the end when Finnikin had to realize their equality was a departure from the patriarchy though. Tiny applause. (hide spoiler)]

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Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Having previously read Feist’s Riftwar Saga and giving it a solid meh, I can confidently say this is Feist at his best.

Fans of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods will enjoy this book, which was published about ten years before Gaiman’s exploration of the fantastical in different kinds of folk tales.

Great pacing, solid characters, masterful weaving of the paranormal and mystical elements. Loved it.

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The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve been waiting a long time to read Sarah Rees Brennan’s Demon’s Lexicon, and I’m happy to report it greatly surpassed all expectations. Which, to be fair, were fairly few.

Nick is a tough guy with a tough past, yadda yadda, but he reads so unlike a tired cliche. In fact, half the fun of the book is trying to figure out just what his deal is, exactly. He’s a survivor, callous, unemotional, but with a fierce loyalty to his older brother, Alan. My theories ranged far, from a budding psychopath to high functioning autistic. I’m good at guessing, but I didn’t actually clue into the real twist until about halfway through.

Alan is a tough nut to crack, too. He’s a charming con, behind a facade of nerd and harmlessness. It took a long time for him to grow on me, probably until the end of the book, maybe even the first part of the second book. Which is also good.

I just realized I am not coherently reviewing this book because I liked it so much I can’t, and also because even though I only started this one last night, I’m smack in the middle of the third and my attention can’t be divided. That good.

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Ill Wind by Rachel Caine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sometimes coming in with lowered expectations can pay off. This was just barely one of those times.

Rachel Caine writes up many a figurative storm in Ill Wind. The narrator’s voice is chatty and forthright without grating on my intolerance for women who spend too much time thinking about clothes, shoes, cars, and how hot they are. Well…maybe it grated a little.

(view spoiler)[I didn’t have a problem at all with the convenient new romance, which only bothered me in the instances when David got all bossy protector-y. Even so, his motivation materialized, albeit toward the end.

Somehow the Djinn were at once not explored enough and also made too human to retain their mystique. The first sighting of the Djinn was exciting, I couldn’t wait to see the dynamic play out. I would have liked to know more about their history with the Wardens (and the history of the Warden’s themselves), maybe more exploration/exploitation of that thorough list of rules at the beginning.

I also wish Joanne had been given a bit more present to contextualize her past. A lot of info was dumped about her and then never mentioned again. Honestly, I could have run wild with her speshul snowflake childhood stories and the whole learning to control the weather stuff. But then, maybe spinning the story out wouldn’t have worked, given the entire thing is structured around a very unlikely road trip/car chase. Unlikely given the lack of sleep she mentions frequently,, the number of times she has to stop (the woman drinks a lot of coffee, you’re tryna tell me our delicate flower doesn’t need frequent pee breaks?), and the gratuitous liberties Caine takes with the geography of the United States.

Lastly, I’d have loved to have seen more of Lewis in the present day in this book. Granted, now I plan to read all of them to see if there is more of him to come, but I am curious to know what his deal is. Also I get the feeling that since every man ever is in love with this chick (no idea why, she’s in this perpetual state of emotional and physical unavailability, re: lightning} the fact that she was with both her mentor, the Djinn, and him at some point would have raised eyebrows. And now she’s dead. I mean…the possibilities, man.

I don’t know, you go through the whole story telling me this chick wanted to succeed in her career and be promoted and self actualize because she’s SOOOO powerful, and then you kind of kill/superpower her. Frankly, I was reminded of the Twilight series. She was a lot more interesting than Bella, though weirdly into similar things like old cars…and she goes and gets “saved” by being turned into a superhuman creature. Been there, read that.
(hide spoiler)]

All in all though, despite its flaws Ill Wind was a decent beach read. Lots of explosions and bad-ass weather manipulation, explained in technical detail. Bad geography, but what are you gonna do.

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Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As introspectively awe-inspiring as Fun Home but in a much more exhaustive way. Bechdel narrates her creative process as she weaves the narrative of the current book. The book refers to itself as a meta-book in the text.

It’s amazing that something so incredibly personal and minutely detailed remained gripping, even after having read Fun Home the same day. Bechdel is amazing, but I still get the impression that for all of her confessionals in these graphic novels, she still maintains a conscious distance.

What were in depth and serendipitous literary references and allusions in Fun Home seemed a bit forced here, but again, Bechdel was aware of it. Such lucid commentary on the thought process and the creative process. Really a great work. Probably deserves more stars.

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