I read a few more books this month, but have decided to create a blog post since I can never fit my thoughts on every book in an Instagram post.
Every time you see a jpeg of the book cover, I read that as an ebook. When you see a photo of the book, I read that one in print. If you see a jpeg of an audiobook, well, you get the idea. You might notice that I didn’t listen to any audiobooks this month. I mostly caught up on podcasts & listened to music when I was able to listen to anything. I do plan on listening to a couple of audiobooks next month, though.
White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link (3.5✸)
There are few who write stories like Kelly Link. The first similar author that comes to mind is Jeffrey Ford, but if you read a Link story and a Ford story back to back, you’d still be able to tell the difference between the two. Both authors’ stories have a sense of magical realism to them, a sense of world building that’s both effortless and vast. The stories in White Cat, Black Dog occupy two opposite ends of the spectrum in my mind: either I love them, or I’m ambivalent about them. I think with stories as bizarre as these, it helps to remember that they’re just stories in the end, and it’s best to enjoy the ride. And yes, almost every story has some sort of magical animal in it. It really makes everything that much more delightful.
Memory’s Legion by James SA Corey (4.5✸)
After finishing the Expanse series last month, I’ve been feeling a little hollow. That happens every time I finish a book series (or a TV show) and spend a lot of time with characters, settings, and concepts that become familiar. But having this volume of short stories set in the Expanse and following characters I’m already familiar with was a godsend. Stories/novellas that take place in a universe of novels are sometimes seen as afterthoughts. These authors, on the other hand, bring the same effort to these stories that they do their novels, and it shows. I’m glad I saved this for last because the stories take place at various times throughout the series’s history, so I would have spoiled quite a bit of the main story if I’d read these sooner. We get some backstory for some characters and closure for others, and it helps flesh out the universe’s tiny details, which is great. I love tiny details. My only gripe is that there aren’t more short stories to read in this universe.
How to Sell A Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (3.5✸)
“…she didn’t have a choice. She would have to handle whatever happened. There was no such thing as too much. There was just more and more, and her limits didn’t matter. Life didn’t care. She could only hang on.”
This tale has a classic beginning: Louise’s parents pass away suddenly and she is left to clean out their strange, puppet-filled house with her brother Mark. They do not have a good relationship. Soon, strange things start to happen, and family history begins to haunt the present through extremely creepy puppets.
This is a classic haunted house tale, one that treads on familiar ground. I’m fine with books that do that, but I was not creeped out at all until I reached the 50% mark in this case. After that, the book picked up speed. There was the trademark Hendrix humor, which worked well to break up the tension in the story. The ending, I felt, tied everything up nicely.
I’m going to be honest here: I might be suffering from horror fatigue. Or maybe more precisely, I’m suffering from Grady Hendrix fatigue. I’ve read every single one of his novels (except The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. I DNF’d that one at about 50% in because I was bored out of my skull). I really liked Horrorstor, The Final Girl Support Group, & My Best Friend’s Exorcism, but thought We Sold Our Souls was just okay. I’ve read most of these over the past few years, and I think that might be why I’m starting to see a pattern here; this book just didn’t hit as much as his previous work. I hope Hendrix’s next novel is something completely different.
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time #1) (4.75✸)
This book wasn’t the first fantasy novel I ever read (that award goes to The Phantom Tollbooth and the Redwall series), but it was the first truly epic adult fantasy that I read. It was the book that started my lifelong obsession with fantasy literature. I’ve finally decided to both collect the hardcovers for the Wheel of Time series and do a full re-read (I finished the series for the first time in 2014). I read New Spring back in February (not because it’s that great of a novel, but because I’m a completest), but my intention is to slowly read this series alongside other books.
Now about the novel that started it all: I was fully invested from page one. I was also surprised at remembering so much of this book after 15 years. I loved being back in the world, and am looking forward to the rest of the series. I knocked the rating down by a quarter star because the book is infodump-heavy, which causes the plot to drag. But, in the end, it isn’t a huge problem, since the longer I’m in this world, the better.
Temple of the Oracle by Jeffrey L Kohanek (Fate of Wizardoms #3) (3.75✸)
I listened to the first two books in this series in audio. Those audiobooks were free on YouTube (posted with permission from the author). Since I found myself liking this series, I decided to buy the ebook omnibus on Amazon. It was only $10 on Kindle, so it was budget-friendly, and it supports the author. It was nice to read this story instead of listening to it, and it’s such a short book. The writing style made it a breeze to read, so I finished it quickly.
This installment of the series was the weakest for me so far. While the plot moved along and we got some character development, this novel suffered from middle-of-the-series syndrome where not that much actually happens. This is something that I’m noticing more and more with longer fantasy series, and I’ve decided to accept it as the cost of entry. Fantasy series are essentially one long novel broken up in the service of the publishing industry, so I’m willing to forgive the author.
One pet peeve I had was with the romance between two of the characters. The fact the they were together wasn’t the problem; it’s that every single interaction between these two characters was about how much they wanted to fuck. It was funny and sweet the first few times, but by the end they were talking about it every time they were in the same room, and it got a bit tiresome. We get it; they’re horny.
Other than that, I had a good time with this one and will continue the series.
I also read a bunch of volumes of One Punch Man this month (vols 21-25), but they were all digital save for volume 24. In lieu of a picture of the books, I’ve subbed with a drawing of a mini-Saitama that I found on Google Images. I will probably be picking this series up digitally for the foreseeable future (and probably the rest of my manga as well). I just don’t have the shelf space right now to accommodate a ton of tiny books, but I do have a DIY bookshelf project in my future that should substantially increase my carrying capacity.
And that’s all for this month. I will see you at next month’s reading wrap up.
The Night Bulletin 