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| 0767930614
| 9780767930611
| 0767930614
| 3.83
| 6,351
| Jan 01, 2009
| Mar 03, 2009
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really liked it
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Zombies Are People Too! “The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but "Can they suffer?” ― Jeremy Bentham, The Principles of Morals Zombies Are People Too! “The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but "Can they suffer?” ― Jeremy Bentham, The Principles of Morals and Legislation "Is it necrophilia if we're both dead?" Andy Warner reanimated three months ago, but so far his "second chance" at life has him wishing that his DNA had just let him RIP. His wife Rachel is dead, killed in the same car accident that claimed Andy's life. Since the undead have no rights to speak of, custody of his daughter Annie was handed over to Rachel's sister and her husband; Andy can't even stalk her on Facebook, since zombies are prohibited from using the Internet. Forced to move back in with the 'rents after rising from the dead, Andy spends his days chugging wine and watching reruns in their wine cellar. His mother is physically repulsed by him, and his father - never the warm and cuddly type - openly loathes him. Andy's only respite is the local chapter of Undead Anonymous (UA). There's Rita, the sexy suicide/formaldehyde fetishist Andy's falling for; Jerry, a fellow vehicular casualty who delights in showing off his exposed brain; Naomi, the biracial, chain-smoking zombie whose empty eye socket makes a convenient ashtray; kind-hearted Tom, mauled to death by dogs; and surly sourpuss Carl, who was knifed to death. Led by Helen - a counselor in her first life - the members of the group attempt to navigate a hostile world, where even the slightest misstep could land them in the pound. Even though the vast majority of zombies don't consume human flesh, they are nonetheless feared and reviled by Breathers. Andy and his adopted family are content to toe the line - that is, until fellow group member Walter is attacked and dismembered by a group of men, thus igniting an act of civil disobedience. And when Tom loses an arm to a fraternity pledge prank, Andy and Company do the one thing they're never supposed to do: take revenge on the living. The Santa Cruz zombies are getting restless. But is their activism due to a newfound sense of purpose in life - or the "venison" given to them by a free-living zombie named Ray? (Spoiler alert: the jarred meat is Breather!) Breathers: A Zombie's Lament is a darkly funny and sometimes poignant read. I especially love the little details: Andy's constant refrain of "if you've never....then you wouldn't understand." ("If you've never seen someone get his arm torn out of his socket by a gang of drunk college fraternity boys who slapped him in the face with his own hand, then you probably wouldn't understand.") Andy's adorably morbid haikus ("lips colored crimson / dead flesh like alabaster / my lifeless heart pounds"). The gruesome mother-son bonding moments between Andy and his mom. Helen's comically optimistic mantras (still better than Ted the psychiatrist). Animal people might also enjoy the parallels drawn between the treatment of nonhuman animals and zombies, which are many and begin at the moment of a zombie's reanimation. New zombies are captured by Animal Control and taken to the SPCA, where their families are given a week to claim them. Those unlucky enough to reanimate while not carrying a valid form of ID are held for three days before being turned over to the county. Unwanted or troublesome zombies can meet any one of a myriad of horrific fates: they may be salvaged for spare parts. Used in medical experiments. Made into crash test dummies. Chained up on forensic research facilities and left to rot. Still others might be sent to zombie zoos or cast on zombie reality shows. Much like nonhuman animals, human cruelty towards zombies knows no bounds. All zombies are required to register with the County Department of Resurrection, where they're issued ID tags, just like companion dogs and cats. Zombies are prohibited from harming (or even inconveniencing) Breathers, even in self-defense. Much like "dangerous" animals, dangerous zombies are earmarked for destruction. Zombie attacks are granted excessive media coverage (think "Shark Week"), while acts of zombie kindness (or even normalcy) go ignored. In fact, the only humans who treat zombies with some modicum of respect, Andy notes, are the SPCA employees. In an attempt to save unwanted zombies from being tortured or destroyed, the local SPCA has even initiated a companion zombie program and attempted to find foster homes for those zombies who don't have a human guardian to claim them. Particularly touching is the passage in which Andy - issued a rare invite upstairs, to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner at the table, in the company of the living - begins to relate to the animal on his plate: So I keep quiet and eat my dinner and look around the table, at my disappointed mother and my brooding father, at all of the food and splendor of this silent, oppressive Thanksgiving feast, until my gaze falls on the turkey with its blistered skin and its vanishing flesh. The more I stare at it, the more I realize that I can relate to it, empathize with it, and it strikes me how much we have in common. True, it's dead and cooked and partially devoured, but is that so different from me? As it's slowly consumed, the bones appear bit by bit, the cartilage and ribs revealing themselves as meat is stripped from the skeleton. Eventually, it will be nothing but a carcass. And I wonder: am I being destroyed by Breathers? [...] The longer I stare at the turkey, the more I begin to feel a sort of kinship with it. The more I see it as a metaphor of my current existence. The more I begin to understand why Tom would want to become a vegetarian. Andy's contemplations give way to a hilarious scene that ends in a father-son tug-of-war over the dismembered bird. Still, it'd be a stretch to call Breathers vegan-friendly; even though it's completely unnecessary, Andy and his friends continue to consume animal meat out of habit. Tom the "vegetarian" eats fishes (but at least Jerry calls him out on it). And of course by story's end, the "neo-Breathers" are consuming human flesh by the bucketful. Overall, I found myself pleasantly surprised by Breathers: A Zombie's Lament; comparisons to Max Brooks aren't off the mark. I can't wait to pick up the sequel, I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus (though part of me wants to save it for next December, to get me in the holiday spirit. Nothing says "Christmas" quite like zombies.) http://www.easyvegan.info/2015/01/09/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 23, 2014
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Dec 30, 2014
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Dec 24, 2014
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Paperback
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| 1594633665
| 9781594633669
| 1594633665
| 3.96
| 3,054,543
| Jan 13, 2015
| Jan 13, 2015
|
really liked it
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Losing Control - and Finding it Again (Full disclosure: I received an ARC for review through Library Thing's Early Reviewers program.) Rachel Watson's l Losing Control - and Finding it Again (Full disclosure: I received an ARC for review through Library Thing's Early Reviewers program.) Rachel Watson's life is in shambles. After she was unable to conceive a child with her then-husband, Tom, Rachel's social drinking quickly spiraled out of control. Eventually, her struggle with alcoholism cost Rachel everything: her marriage, her friends, her home, her job, her dignity - even her memories and sense of self. Rachel doesn't just get drunk, she gets flat-out wasted, with frequent blackouts and periods of lost time. Forced to move in with an old college acquaintance, taking the 8:04 train from Ashbury to Euston every weekend so that her landlady Cathy won't know that she was fired from her job, Rachel thinks she's hit rock bottom, or just about. And then she sees something on her morning commute that she shouldn't, thrusting her into a whole new realm of awful. The train to London conveniently carries Rachel past her old house, which Tom now shares with his new wife, Anna, and their baby daughter, Evie. Needless to say, this does little to help Rachel get over the hurt and trauma and move on with her life; in fact, she frequently stalks and harasses "the other woman" (though rarely without the boost of some "liquid courage"). Four doors down lives an attractive and (seemingly) adoring young couple. Nicknamed "Jason and Jess" by Rachel, the two serve as a blank slate onto which she projects all the hopes and dreams she once had for herself and Tom. Her emotional investment in their relationship is such that, when Rachel spots Jess kissing a man who most definitely is not Jason, Rachel feels personally betrayed. But when Jess (Megan) goes missing - on the same night a blackout-drunk Rachel travels into Witney and returns home covered in blood and bruises - Rachel is thrust into the middle of the investigation. Or rather, she inserts herself there: the hunt for Megan's killer gives Rachel's own life a sense of purpose that she hasn't felt in years. When the police fail to take her seriously ("the police think I'm a rubbernecker"), Rachel takes matters into her own hands, striking up a friendship with Megan's potentially abusive husband, Scott; seeing her old therapist, Kamal Abdic, who may or may not have had an inappropriate relationship with his patient; and visiting the scene of the "crime" to jog her memory. And as Rachel realizes that she must keep her wits about her - especially if she's ever to remember what transpired that fateful Saturday night - she makes a conscious effort to get her drinking under control. (In fact, The Girl on the Train often reads the like single most terrifying - and hopefully effective - anti-drinking PSA of all time.) Rachel's narrative is interwoven with that of Megan, giving us a glimpse of her life in the year leading up to her disappearance; and Anna, who functions as a counterpoint of sorts to Tom/Rachel. Slowly their experiences converge, leading to a rather chilling denouement. The Girl on the Train is a moody, atmospheric, and bleak story. From Megan's disappearance on, it feels vaguely similar in tone and style to the big "woman in peril" suspense story of 2014, Gone Girl - what with its puzzling, he said/she said, who to believe? quality - a comparison that initially seems superficial at best (unfair at worst) but definitely gains strength with its twisty turny ending. I hesitate to say more (spoilers!), but Hawkins has crafted a fantastically compulsive read. That said, Rachel's insistence that she could tell which men were "good" and "bad" from her limited interactions with them rubbed me the wrong way. Frequently. Abusers aren't just knife-wielding strangers who lunge at you in the dead of night, but also (often) people you know - intimately: friends, lovers, husbands, sons. Your neighbor in 6E or the barista at the cafe on the corner who you sometimes flirt with. Your boss; your boss's boss. She barely knows Scott and Kamal, yet Rachel feels certain that one is the villain; the other, an innocent victim. That she's mistaken on both counts and ultimately disabused of this notion results in a somewhat satisfactory payoff...but it does little to erase my early impressions of her. 4.5 stars, reluctantly rounded down to 4 where necessary. http://www.easyvegan.info/2015/01/16/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 19, 2014
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Dec 22, 2014
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Dec 19, 2014
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Hardcover
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| 0307886263
| 9780307886262
| 0307886263
| 3.86
| 503,248
| Nov 01, 2011
| Nov 01, 2011
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really liked it
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 16, 2014
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Dec 19, 2014
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Dec 16, 2014
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Hardcover
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| 0373211287
| 9780373211289
| 0373211287
| 3.83
| 5,253
| Nov 25, 2014
| Nov 25, 2014
|
liked it
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Et tu, Kitty? (Full disclosure: I received an ARC for review through Goodreads's First Reads program. Also, unmarked spoilers abound for PAWN, while sp Et tu, Kitty? (Full disclosure: I received an ARC for review through Goodreads's First Reads program. Also, unmarked spoilers abound for PAWN, while spoilers for CAPTIVE are clearly marked.) Three weeks have passed since Kitty Doe shot and killed the Hart family matriarch, Augusta, in self-defense; since Augusta's son, Prime Minister Daxton Hart, awoke from a coma, revealing to Kitty that his claims of amnesia were a ruse; since Celia Hart and her daughter Lila went into hiding, leaving Kitty to continue passing as Lila, both to ensure Benjy's safety and foment a revolution. Just three short weeks, and already Kitty and her pretend fiancé, Knox, are at each others' throats. After sacrificing so much for The Blackcoats, Kitty feels neglected and used; while she spent the past few weeks touring the country, speechifying and rabble-rousing on their behalf, her allies planned and plotted without her. Now she's back, but still out of the loop; no one seems to want her opinion, let alone her help. And so she takes a silly, stupid risk, ostensibly to prove that she's more useful than they think. She breaks into Daxton's office to retrieve a file - proof that Daxton isn't really Daxton, but rather an imposter - and is promptly caught, convicted of treason, and sent to the dreaded Elsewhere. Wearing the face of a member of the ruling family has its perks, however, even in prison. Hannah and Captain Jonathan Mercer offer her their protection (later, Kitty learns, at Knox's request) - a consideration she initially refuses. And then she discovers that The Blackcoats are everywhere, Elsewhere included. Especially Elsewhere. Home to a large cache of weapons, The Blackcoats aim to steal the codes from the Mercers' mansion, arming their rebels both inside the prison city and out - and hopefully enlisting a number of prisoners to fight on their side as well. With the weaponry of Elsewhere in their possession, they stand a fighting chance against not-Daxton and the Ministers of the Union. And so Kitty enters the proverbial lion's den, discovering some rather shocking truths about herself in the process. Let's start with what I liked about Captive - namely, Elsewhere. A small prison city, Elsewhere is a brutal place: where rule-breaking captives are pitted against each other in cage matches to the death; Ministers and other VIPs can hunt or otherwise torture humans for leisure and entertainment; and a sexual sadist has been given the keys to the entire operation: "So Elsewhere was exactly like D.C., except the Shields had been replaced by the prisoners themselves, and instead of going Elsewhere, you were sent to the cage. For a candy bar, for an orange - it was all the same thing." The whole things plays like an especially demented, real world Stanford prison experiment, with upwardly mobile prisoners snitching on their fellow inmates in order to be promoted to guards: "The true horror of Elsewhere wasn't the hunt Daxton enjoyed so much; it lay in the twisted hope Mercer and the others offered the prisoners. Betray your friends, betray the only family you have in this place, and we might let you become one of us. We might let you pull the trigger next time." Hannah Mercer was herself once a prisoner; it's rumored that an affair with no less than Daxton Hart landed her the gig as head of Section X. I also like that there's a slightly more diverse cast this time around, in the form of Isabel Scotia, a badass rebel warrior woman of color. And the few major plot twists are delightfully twisty. Kitty, on the other hand. Oh, Kitty, whatever happened to you? The end of Pawn promised a hero in the making: a young outcast dedicated to using her newly acquired position of power and privilege to help overthrow the social order. Not just to ensure the safety of herself and her family - but to make the world safe for everyone like her. And yet her commitment to the cause seems to hinge almost entirely on the current state of her relationship with Knox. (Because boy troubles are such a great reason to abandon your most deeply held ideals, dontchaknow.) The result is an emotional Tilt-a-Whirl, with Kitty willing to throw millions of her compatriots to the Harts just because she's having a bad day. In between the mental whiplash and eye-rolling, lines of a certain Clash song kept bouncing around my head. ("Should I stay or should I go now? / Should I stay or should I go now? / If I go there will be trouble / And if I stay it will be double.") * spoiler alert! * When she does decide to stick with The Blackcoats, Kitty's so intent on proving her usefulness that she fucks up, rather spectacularly, on multiple occasions. Not once, but twice, she takes it upon herself to steal vital information from the locked offices of dangerous men, with no knowledge or input from her fellow Blackcoats. Knox even warns her against it (both times!), because it's his mission to accomplish (both times!). Not to mention, he's the more experienced spy....and can read the information he's in search of, to boot. The first time, Kitty steals a few files from Daxton's safe (it's sheer luck that Daxton's file contains a picture she recognizes, since she can't decipher any of the words) - the absence of which will quickly tip Daxton off to the burglary. (Duh!) Probably Knox meant to photograph or photocopy them...a tactic Kitty might have been privy to, if she'd worked with Knox instead of against him. (Oops!) Instead of learning from her mistake, Kitty takes another ill-advised stab at espionage by breaking into Jonathan Mercer's office and stealing the codes for the armory. She's caught red-handed when Knox escorts a very hammered Mercer into his office, ostensibly to drink him under the table and then lift the codes himself. (Nice job. Again!) And then there's the whole thing with Noelle. Yes, let's blab to a near-stranger about an underground "terrorist" group hiding in plain sight and quietly plotting a coup. What could possibly go wrong? * end spoilers * So yeah, Kitty of Captive was most definitely a letdown. Give me some Scotia any day. Btw, cattle? Also have "lives and feelings." We might not respect or even recognize them, but that doesn't make it any less true. http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/12/17/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 09, 2014
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Dec 14, 2014
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Dec 09, 2014
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Hardcover
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| B0DLTC6HQT
| 3.79
| 12,607
| Nov 26, 2013
| Nov 26, 2013
|
really liked it
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An entertaining political thriller/dystopia featuring an engaging heroine. (Trigger warning for attempted rape.) "I closed my eyes as my mind raced. If An entertaining political thriller/dystopia featuring an engaging heroine. (Trigger warning for attempted rape.) "I closed my eyes as my mind raced. If I refused, I was dead. But if I said yes - then what? I would be Lila Hart. For the rest of my life, I would have someone else's face, answer to someone else's name, live someone else's life. "But at least I would be alive. I breathed in slowly, forcing myself not to panic. I was still me, wasn't I? I still felt like me. They couldn't take that away no matter what they did to my body. I might have looked like Lila Hart, but I was still Kitty Doe." All Kitty Doe wants for her 17th birthday is to earn a respectable score on her test - nothing special, just enough to get her an average rank of IV - so that she can stay with her boyfriend Benjy. Get a relatively safe job, maybe buy a small house in the Heights of DC, even have a kid or two - with enough income to keep their "Extra" instead of sending him or her off to a group home, like Kitty's own parents were forced to do to her. Just one little test is all that stands between Kitty and her happily ever after. Unfortunately, Kitty's dyslexic, and the Ministers of the Union don't give kids like her additional time to take the test - no matter how intelligent they may be. The ranking system's a farce, after all. Just ask the VIs and VIIs who inherited their ranks. Kitty's poor score lands her a III and a lowly sanitation job - halfway across the country, in Denver. If she hops on that train, she knows that her odds of ever seeing Benjy again are nil. But her options in the District of Columbia are slim: stay hidden at the group home, putting den mother Nina at risk - or get a temporary job at one of the local "clubs," biding her time until Benjy turns 17 and takes the test himself. As a virgin, she's sure to pull in an extra-high bid at the initial Auction; and after that, she can choose her own clients, so it won't be that bad. And when Benjy eventually aces the test - as she knows he will - Kitty will have saved up a nice little nest egg to get them started. It's a no-brainer, right? But Kitty's more valuable than she thinks. With her striking blue eyes - something that future-science hasn't yet been able to replicate - Kitty bears a striking resemblance to Lila Hart, Prime Minister Daxton Hart's niece. The same niece Daxton intends to assassinate for her rabble-rousing, revolutionary speeches. Daxton "buys" Kitty and offers her an impossible choice: give up her old life and come with him to Somerset Mansion, no questions asked - or give up her life, period. Kitty thinks Daxton wants to add another mistress to his stable - but when she wakes up two weeks later, she's stunned to find that she's wearing someone else's body: that of Lila Hart. She's been Masked - undergone radical surgery, her face and body reshaped to look like Lila's - and now Daxton and his mother Augusta expect her to be Lila. With this, Kitty steps out of the slums on the Heights and into the snake pit that is the Hart family: political intrigue, assassination attempts, body doubles, and underground rebellions abound. Matriarch Augusta rules the Hart family with an iron fist - and isn't afraid to put a hit out on her own blood when they step out of line. (And replace them with strangers, as science allows and circumstances dictate.) Daxton is a cruel dictator who delights in killing, whether for political expedience or pure entertainment. Daxton's sister Celia has been driven half-mad with grief, first by the execution of her husband for treason - then by the murder of her daughter, Lila, for playing the role of revolutionary at her mother's behest. Along with Lila's fiancé, Knox - who Kitty is expected to marry as planned - Celia tries to recruit Kitty into assuming her late daughter's role. There exists a group of rebels called the Blackcoats which aims to overthrow the Hart's monarchy and restore democracy to America - and Kitty's help would be instrumental in rallying popular support. Everyone, it seems, needs her to be Lila. But all Kitty wants is to escape to Elsewhere with Benjy. When a newly tattooed Benjy resurfaces as Knox's assistant, Kitty finds she has no choice - not only does she have to keep playing the game, but now she has to see it through: it's the only way to keep Benjy safe. The first book in The Blackcoat Rebellion trilogy, Pawn is a compulsively readable political thriller/science fiction dystopia/romance. Filled with twists and turns, the story moves along at a steady clip, and features a number of complex, believable protagonists. Kitty makes for an especially relatable heroine: much like Katniss Everdeen, our contemporary benchmark, Kitty is a reluctant revolutionary who, at story's outset, is solely concerned with her family's well-being - even if it means sacrificing her own. Thrust into impossible situations, Kitty excels, and uses her new position of power to help others like her: the poor, the disenfranchised, the oppressed. Just like the Mockingjay, however, those surrounding Kitty are apt to use her - like a pawn in their games. When everyone wants something from her, how's a girl to know who she can trust? That said, the cast (or at least those members whose physical appearance is described in detail; e.g., Kitty, Benjy, Knox, the Harts) is overwhelmingly white. Since much of the story takes place within the walls of Somerset, this makes some degree of sense: racial divisions are likely to deepen in times of oppression, and it stands to reason that the ruling class will be distinctly white and male. Yet Carter doesn’t use this as a jumping-off point to explore issues of racism and sexism, choosing instead to focus solely on class divisions. Additionally, this new world is so far removed from the America of today that I would have liked a more detailed picture of how we arrived here. At times the Union veers dangerously close to a parody of an ultra-conservative utopia, with its emphasis on meritocracy (completely ignoring the effects of class privilege) and "earning your place" in society, to the tune of exiling criminals, the elderly, and those with cognitive impairments. For example, when Daxton took Kitty hunting, I half-jokingly thought that their "prey" would be "the most dangerous game" (wink, wink), because that's exactly the way the story was going...and, much to my surprise, I was right! It was a horrifying scene, to be sure, but also one I had trouble taking too seriously. Incidentally, Kitty's red meat fetish rubbed me the wrong way as well. Historically, meat - especially red meat - has been a sign of status, reserved for men and the wealthy (and specifically, wealthy men). As a resource-intensive food, it's doubtful that IIIs/orphans like Kitty would have been allowed to eat the stuff - let alone on a regular basis. Cultural attitudes shift, to be sure - but unless they're growing meat in labs, the realities of animal agriculture argue strongly against it. http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/12/15/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 05, 2014
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Dec 07, 2014
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Dec 06, 2014
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ebook
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| 145550212X
| 9781455502127
| 145550212X
| 3.98
| 7,061
| Jan 13, 2015
| Jan 13, 2015
|
really liked it
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**spoiler alert** American History V (Full disclosure: I received an ARC through Goodreads’s First Reads program.) “It’s one of the few true blessings t **spoiler alert** American History V (Full disclosure: I received an ARC through Goodreads’s First Reads program.) “It’s one of the few true blessings to the curse of being a vampire. For in those ephemeral moments we cease to be monsters and get to be superheroes.” I have a confession to make: I’ve never read Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Sure, I watched the movie – when it came to DVD last autumn – and liked it. Just not enough to check out the book on which it was based, apparently. So when I spotted a Goodreads giveaway for The Last American Vampire, I was torn. Usually it’s pure folly to read a series out of order, but the alternate history aspect proved impossible to resist. Also, it looked like the story was far enough removed from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter that I might enjoy it anyway; as of this writing, Goodreads doesn’t even list them as part of the same series, though this could very well be a temporary oversight. While fans of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will undoubtedly get more out of The Last American Vampire, this newcomer loved it just the same. The story follows Henry Sturges – Abe’s immortal friend and mentor – in the years before and since the fatal shooting in Ford’s Theater. Breaking one of the Union’s few rules – “A vampire will make no other vampire.” – Henry stalks Abe’s funeral procession, finally stealing the corpse from its casket in Springfield some three weeks after Abe’s death. Henry lovingly resurrects his friend, nursing him back to health, only to have Abe commit suicide by sunshine upon realizing what he’s become. Henry is alone in the world, but only temporarily; as time passes the wheel of history churn forward, he befriends an impressive roster of intellectuals, artists, and celebrities, from Bram Stoker and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain. Henry serves as an “errand boy” to multiple American presidents (Teddy Roosevelt? What a dick!); unmasks Jack the Ripper, with whom Henry shares a surprisingly intimate acquaintance; gathers intelligence abroad, as a one-man precursor to the CIA; faces Rasputin and lives to tell the tale; tries (and fails) to kill Hitler; fights in the trenches of both world wars; hunts down JFK’s assassin; and, along with Howard Hughes, embarks on a decades-long search for a cure (of sorts) for vampirism. He lives through the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, Prohibition, and the Hindenburg disaster (he’s the cause of that last one, truth be told) – as well as the social progress of women’s suffrage and the Civil Rights movement of the ‘60s. When Henry decides to earn a bachelor’s degree in English lit, he’s the only one in his class who can honestly say that he met their subjects face-to-face. All the while, Henry pursues a mysterious vampire agitator who goes by the name “A. Grander VIII”; this hunt gives way to flashbacks of Henry’s brief life as a human, as well as his early days as a vamp. With his young wife Edeva in tow, Henry immigrated to America in 1586 aboard The Lyon - like many others, the young couple was in search of a better life. But little did they know that a vampire was in their midst. Before long, the settlement at Roanoke will come to ruin. Only three of the colonists survive, but are lost to history: Henry Sturges; Thomas Crowley; and a red-headed baby girl named Virginia. The rest, as they say, is history. The Last American Vampire is a fun and unpredictable romp through (alternate) American history – from a vampire’s world-weary and unnaturally long point of view. Emily Dickinson, Jack Ruby, Eliot Ness, Pocahantas, Adolf Hitler: almost as surprising as those historical figures who are “outed” as vampires are those who turn out to be ordinary people (relatively speaking). Henry makes for an engaging and mostly likeable narrator...expect for that one thing he did, back when he was still a baby vampire. Not without its fair share of gore and cynicism, The Last American Vampire is also quite witty and humorous, with a touching ending that’s full of humanity. (I especially love that Henry targets those who enjoy abusing others – nonhuman animals included.) On the downside, it’s also a surprisingly white view of history: there are very few people of color to be found. Aside from a brief stint he and a friend spent scaring Ku Klux Klan members into abandoning their lynching ways in the 1930s, there isn’t much mention of African-American history. (Henry lives through the Civil Rights era, but it doesn’t merit a mention. Ditto: the three waves of American feminism.) That said, I do have to give Grahame-Smith points for his astute explanation as to why this job necessarily fell to white vampires: “Typically, we killed a few of them and let the rest run off to tell their friends. We always let them see our faces – that was key. Otherwise, they might run off thinking it was a group of local blacks that’s attacked them. There might be retributions. You might ask – where were the black vampires in all of this? It’s a fair question. We never intended, as two white vampires, to act like the saviors of an oppressed people. But the truth is, I didn’t know any [black vampires] in those days. Even if I had, it would have been a bad idea for them to join our raids, for the reasons I just mentioned.” http://www.easyvegan.info/2015/01/14/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 26, 2014
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Dec 05, 2014
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Nov 27, 2014
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1477875751
| 9781477875759
| B00K2GMMPI
| 3.91
| 3,225
| Oct 30, 2011
| Oct 28, 2014
|
liked it
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A Fictional Look at Rural Italy During WWII (Full disclosure: I received a free book for review through Goodreads’ First Reads program. Also, trigger w A Fictional Look at Rural Italy During WWII (Full disclosure: I received a free book for review through Goodreads’ First Reads program. Also, trigger warning for rape.) My children know very little of what happened to me during that time. The parts I have told them are the truth, but I have not told them everything. […] They do not know how close to death I came. They do not know how close to death their father came. They do now know how close to death my entire village came – all because of the events that took place in my house the year the Germans arrived. My children will learn that wars are fought not just on the front lines, but also in the dirt streets of poverty-stricken towns like Casalvieri, Italy. They will learn that their mother killed a man during the war. The year is 1943, and Nazi forces have just arrived in the small Italian town of Casalvieri. Located several miles north of Mt. Cassino - the single highest point in central Italy - Casalvieri is, much to its residents’ detriment, a strategic asset in the war for Italy. Seemingly overnight, the town is overrun with Germanesi, demanding food, housing, and – worst of all – male bodies to sacrifice to the German war machine. Unofficial town leader Alfredo Carlesimo has the dubious luck of living in a (relatively) spacious house positioned on the highest hill in the village – thus providing a convenient view of the Cassino valley below. It’s in the Carlesimo family’s home that Colonel Wolff and Lieutenant Becher decide to establish their command center. While they initially grant the widowed father of three a reprieve from serving on the front lines in order to drum up support amongst the villagers, once his usefulness wanes, he’s sent into battle just like all the other Casalvieri men – or at least those who remain. Faced with death on a constant basis, Alfredo must decide whether to stay and fight, or flee to the mountains with the other able-bodied men of fighting age. When Alfredo disappears – seemingly killed in an explosion – it’s up to his oldest daughter Benedetta (“Benny”) to care for her younger siblings, Iole and Emidio, as well as keep the household running – and the German soldiers, satisfied. As the war drags on and the Americans threaten to overtake Italy, the Germanesi grow increasingly desperate and, in some cases, driven mad by the trauma of warfare. Can Benny keep the whereabouts of her father secret, even as her blossoming relationship with a handsome young Italian man threatens to be her undoing? While To Find a Mountain sounds like it should be a sweeping saga, it’s actually a rather sparse story. The entirety of the action takes place over a two- to three-year period, with a large gap between parts one and two. It’s an interesting and engaging story, but is at times curiously lacking in emotion, particularly for a wartime romance. There’s not nearly as much violence as you might expect – most of it comes later in the story, after the town has been occupied for a year plus. In particular, I expected that sexual violence would be an epidemic – after all, most of the men have fled, leaving the town’s women and children alone with their Nazi occupiers – but we only see/hear of three instances of rape, rape attempts, or rape threats. These scenes are horrific, to be sure, and come with a huge trigger warning – but overall it seems almost sanitized, given the circumstances. Additionally, the story feels far removed from the violence and genocide of World War II (similar to some criticisms of the film adaptation of The Book Thief). Jews are only mentioned once, I believe; and even then it’s not in a particularly sympathetic manner. Perhaps this is historically accurate – to the residents of Casalvieri, who were already struggling to survive food shortages and attendant poverty before the Germans arrived, worrying about the well-being of those outside of their community (let alone country) might have seemed a luxury they could ill afford. Or maybe not. Either way, it was a curious feeling – a World War II story almost entirely devoid of Jewish characters or concerns. Last but not least, the central romance of the story – that between Benny and Dom – suffers from a case of insta love; its prevalence in YA fiction (along with the ubiquitous love triangle) has left me with very little patience for the stuff. Even so, it’s a little more forgivable here: coming of age in an isolated, rural village, it doesn’t take a vivid imagination to see how Benny might fall for the first handsome stranger to look her way. 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 stars where necessary. While To Find a Mountain does have its weaknesses, I saw in Benny a captivating (if unlikely) heroine. The town itself also proved a compelling character, and it was interesting to see how the residents dealt with food shortages and scarcity during wartime occupation. http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/12/08/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 23, 2014
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Nov 26, 2014
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Nov 24, 2014
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Kindle Edition
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| 0316405051
| 9780316405058
| 0316405051
| 3.87
| 7,218
| Nov 2014
| Nov 04, 2014
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really liked it
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“We’re stronger than they think.” (Full disclosure: I received a free ARC for review through Goodreads’ First Reads program. Also, trigger warning for “We’re stronger than they think.” (Full disclosure: I received a free ARC for review through Goodreads’ First Reads program. Also, trigger warning for rape.) Mei Yee was just fifteen years old when her abusive, alcoholic father sold her to the Reapers for mere pocket change. In the dark of night, the Reapers came for her: they stole her from where she slept, tossed her into a van with a group of other trafficked girls, and crossed into the Hak Nam Walled City - a place of pain, disease, and death. Here she was purchased by the Brotherhood of the Red Dragon, the brutal gang that controls the 6.5 acres of the Walled City, and put to “work” in one of their many brothels. Unlike the twenty other girls who share her prison, Mei Yee is “lucky” – rather than servicing four or five men in one night, many of whom get off on hitting defenseless girls, Ambassador Osamu took a shining to the beautiful girl and purchased the right to rape her exclusively. It’s been two years since Mei Yee last saw her sister, but Master Longwai’s words echo in her head: “There is no escape.” Certainly not for Sing, who was quickly caught after a botched attempt and injected with heroin as a lesson to the others. Jin Ling has been looking for her older sister since the night she was taken. Pedaling as fast as she could, she followed the Reapers’ van – right into the lawless Walled City and the den of the Brotherhood. For two years, Jin has eked out a miserable existence in the Walled City: scouring the streets and brothels in search of Mei Yee; running drugs to gain access to brothels and other illicit venues; posing as a vagrant boy to escape Mei Yee’s fate. Jin has three rules - “Run fast. Trust no one. Always carry your knife.” – which have served her well. But when a mysterious older boy asks her to help him run drugs for the infamous Longwai, Jin finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew about survival in the Walled City. Sun Dai Shing is living in exile in the Walled City – for 730 days and counting. But the Security Branch of Seng Ngoi – “the City Beyond” – has offered him a shot at redemption. All he has to do is hand them Longwai’s ass on a platter. Find and retrieve Longwai’s ledger, and Dai’s past crimes will be forgiven. And he has exactly eighteen days left to do it. This already-impossible feat is further complicated by his growing affection for his partners in crime and justice: Jin Ling, the scrappy little vagrant boy who Dai recruited to help him run drugs for Longwai; and the melancholic girl in the window, whose assistance could be instrumental in procuring the ledger. After two years of self-imposed solitude, can Dai learn to trust himself with the hearts and lives of others again? The Walled City is an impossibly beautiful and poetic story about loss and hope; finding family where none existed before; the unexpected connections so many of us share, even if we don’t yet know it; and the strength even the smallest and most maligned of us can find in numbers. Told from three perspectives – that of Mei Yee; her younger sister, Jin Ling; and the girls’ soon-to-be friend, Sun Dai Shing – the story moves along at a fairly steady clip, punctuated by short, snappy chapters that impart a feeling of urgency even during those moments when nothing much happens. The Walled City is a rather gritty tale, though not nearly as gritty as it could be. I was especially drawn to the cross-dressing element of the story; I always scratch my head at the paucity of women passing as men in dystopian settings – particularly those in which the sexual exploitation of women thrives in the absence of a progressive, organized government. In the case of the zombie apocalypse, my long, feminine locks would be the first thing to go! While Jin’s crossdressing isn’t necessarily a primary focus of the narrative, Graudin does a wonderful job of exploring Jin’s self-identity as the “uglier,” stronger, and more protective sister, in contrast to Mei Yee’s otherworldly beauty and outward physical weakness (or at least for the manual labor required on a rice farm; by story’s end, Mei Yee finds inner reserves of strength that she didn’t believe she possessed). After a lifetime of being overlooked in favor of her more attractive sister, Jin’s ability to melt into the shadows is of great use in the Walled City. And when Dai finally learns Jin’s secret and is unable to “unsee her girlness,” the author makes a rather keen observation about the social construction of gender. I also love love love that the entirety of the cast is POC. Diversify your shelves, y’all! The titular Walled City looms large in the story and is a character unto itself. Previously a military fort, Hak Nam was overlooked when the surrounding city was purchased (and maintained) by foreigners. The Walled City slipped through the cracks, and quickly devolved into a ghetto, marked by poverty, underdevelopment, scarcity, and lawlessness. In this place of chaos, the Brotherhood is the ultimate authority – even the gangs of street kids are afraid to harm a member of the Brotherhood, and even on the eve of the city’s destruction. The Brotherhood is untouchable, and yet it is ultimately its slaves, working together, who are responsible for its downfall. What’s especially interesting is that Graudin modeled Hak Nam on an actual city: Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City: The Walled City was real. In the Afterward, Graudin goes on to say that human trafficking, too, is alive and real. The experiences of Mei Yee and her compatriots – kidnapped, sold into slavery by a family member, trafficked across borders, physically and sexually assaulted by “clients,” hooked on drugs – are all too common. Hopefully The Walled City will inspire some readers to explore this issue in greater depth. The author recommends visiting the website of the International Justice Mission to learn more. http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/11/26/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 08, 2014
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Nov 12, 2014
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Nov 08, 2014
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Hardcover
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| 1596439106
| 9781596439108
| B00GVSABUO
| 3.63
| 15,237
| Jun 03, 2014
| Jun 03, 2014
|
really liked it
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A Study in Slut-Shaming / The Anatomy of a Rumor “I’m so glad you want to be my friend,” she laughed. “Even though I’ve had seven abortions and slept A Study in Slut-Shaming / The Anatomy of a Rumor “I’m so glad you want to be my friend,” she laughed. “Even though I’ve had seven abortions and slept with the principal and plotted to have Brandon Fitzsimmons murdered by Mafia hit men before killing him with my dirty texting, right?” The end-of-the-summer party at Elaine O’dea’s house didn’t promise to be anything special. After all, it was thrown together at the last minute, after Elaine’s parents announced that they’d be spending the night at a friend’s house a few towns over. And for the most part, it was pretty unremarkable: Healy High students sitting around, getting drunk and watching tv. That is, until star quarterback Brandon Fitzsimmons texted Josh Waverly to brag that he and Tommy Cray had both “done” Alice Franklin in the upstairs guest bedroom: Brandon, then Tommy, then Brandon again. Almost overnight, Alice is branded the school slut. Slowly but surely, her friends distance themselves from her; she becomes the subject of much salacious gossip, even among the parents; and hateful graffiti starts to pop up in the girls’ bathroom. But an ugly rumor that might have otherwise run its course spirals out of control when a drunk Brandon dies in a car accident – and his drunk passenger and best friend Josh claims that he was sexting with Alice when it happened. Now, Alice isn’t just a slut, but a murderer too. Alice’s story is told through four Healy High students: Elaine, the resident popular girl and one of Alice’s many soon-to-be-ex-friends; Josh, the wide receiver who may or may not have a crush on his longtime friend; Kelsie Sanders, a transplant to Texas from Flint whom Alice took under her wing; and Kurt Morelli, the school genius who’s been crushing on Alice for years. Through them, the events leading up to and following Elaine’s infamous party are slowly unveiled. This is a risky strategy – one that threatens to undermine Alice’s own agency – but I think it works here. For one, the students are remarkably candid: though it takes some time and quite a lot of hinting, eventually they cop to their heinous behavior, in some cases even reevaluating their decisions and becoming more self-aware. Additionally, their accounts provide numerous clues to Alice’s state of mind. It’s obvious that the rumor is just that – a rumor. (Though it’s worth noting that the truth isn’t as horrifying as I’d feared; The Truth About Alice is, thankfully, free of rape, a la C. Desir’s Fault Line . Also worth noting is the fact that Alice wouldn’t be deserving of such treatment even if the rumors were true.) While the last chapter is narrated by Alice herself, it’s incredibly brief and doesn’t directly touch upon the veracity of the rumors. In addition to slut-shaming and gossip, Mathieu touches upon a number of other timely topics as well: the deference shown to student athletes; abortion, particularly the phenomenon wherein anti-choicers justify their daughter’s/wife’s/own abortion as special and above criticism; exploring one’s sexual orientation in a restrictive environment; underage alcohol use/abuse; sexual double standards; and parental neglect and denial. Naturally, this book contains some problematic language, which is essential to the story line. Trigger warning for extensive bullying and a coercive abortion. The Truth About Alice is a quick and engaging read, and one that will hopefully have teens – and adults – examining their own behavior and stereotypes. http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/11/07/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 13, 2014
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Oct 14, 2014
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Oct 13, 2014
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Kindle Edition
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| 0062220004
| 9780062220004
| 0062220004
| 3.62
| 8,382
| Jun 10, 2014
| Jun 10, 2014
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liked it
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This book started strong but lost me in the second half. I didn't find the back story for the Shallows particularly convincing; the conspiracy involvi
This book started strong but lost me in the second half. I didn't find the back story for the Shallows particularly convincing; the conspiracy involving the Lark & the Initiative was convoluted; and the characters sometimes behaved inconsistently, such as when the otherwise kind-hearted Zeph treated a crying Meadow with contempt. Worst of all was the casual sexism, completely unnecessary to the plot - mostly involving Zeph, who wielded the phrase "like a girl" with alarming frequency: i.e., "I cried like a girl"; Talan is "such a girl"; "I fight like a little girl." Never mind that the girls and women who frequent the Shallows kick some major ass - they have to, to survive in such a brutal environment. Meh.
...more
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Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 08, 2014
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Oct 11, 2014
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Oct 08, 2014
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Hardcover
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| 0670879045
| 9780670879045
| 0670879045
| 4.02
| 20,057
| Jun 01, 1998
| Jun 01, 1998
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really liked it
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“Meat is the Message” (Trigger warning for violence against women and animals, including sexual assault and rape.) I was surprised by how much I enjoyed “Meat is the Message” (Trigger warning for violence against women and animals, including sexual assault and rape.) I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Ruth Ozeki’s My Year of Meats. On impulse, I picked up a copy of the original hardcover edition at the dollar store. That was nearly a decade ago; in the intervening years I hemmed and hawed and wondered whether I really wanted to read a fictionalized account of a documentarian hired to promote meat – feed lots, kill floors, and all – after all. (I’m a vegan, and have devoured my fair share of nonfiction books about the animal agriculture industry already. Enough is enough.) Thankfully, My Year of Meats isn’t nearly as grisly or gruesome as I expected. The bulk of animal exploitation involves the final product: cows (“Beef is Best!”), pigs (“Pork is Possible!”), and lambs (“Lamb is”…what? Lovely? I forget that particular slogan.), killed, dismembered, sanitized, and objectified for mass consumption. It’s easier to forget that your dinner once was a living, breathing, feeling being when it’s been stripped down and robbed of any semblance to the original owner/inhabitant of those thighs/breasts/drumsticks/etc. Like all functioning vegans, I’ve learned to compartmentalize and dissociate from this basic, everyday form of abuse. You have to, right? How else to live in this world without going mad? But. As the months flip by on Jane Takagi-Little’s production calendar and she begins to delve deeper and deeper into the unseemly underbelly of animal ag. (as if there’s anything else!), she goes out of her way to document the process of meat production, rather than simply celebrating the finished product. The story’s climax arrives in a trip to a slaughterhouse, which is blessedly brief, but does touch upon the final few moments of an unnamed (beef? dairy?) cow’s short, sad life. The scene ends with a bloody mishap, and the participants – Jane; her cameramen, Suzuki and Oh; and the owners of the plant, John Dunn; his much-younger wife, Bunny; their five-year-old daughter, Rosie; and John’s adult son Gale – will never be the same. Ozeki’s writing is captivating. She masterfully weaves together the narratives of a dozen or so characters (with Jane and Akiko dominating the story); gradually, the reader begins to identify similarities in their paths, and slowly the various threads come together, piece by piece, until they converge, intersecting in ways both unexpected and subversive. My favorite example is Akiko: forced to watch and rate each episode of My American Wife! by her husband Joichi “John” Ueno (“Like John Wayne! Get it?”), she finds herself drawn to the more authentic episodes – those that reflect Jane’s desire for truth-telling over that of John, her boss at BEEF-EX, whose only goal is to sell meat. (His episodes play like a half-hour infomercial. Well, they all kind of do, but at least Jane’s attempts feature a diverse cast of Americans instead of pretty, white, middle-class heterosexual couples.) Fueled by both the television show and his brutish behavior, Akiko grows increasingly alienated; she deliberately starts throwing up in order to bring on amenorrhea, so that she need not worry about bringing children into her unhappy, abusive home. When she watches the episode starring Dyann and Lara, an interracial pair of vegetarian lesbians, Akiko begins to dream of a different life when where dared not before. My chief complaint is almost tediously common to books written about nonhuman animals by non-vegans: namely, speciesism. Though we confine, torture, and kill animals to the tune of ten billion a year (that’s just in the animal ag. industry, and accounts for the United States alone), the concerns of nonhumans take a backseat. Jane’s investigation focuses on the effects of meat production on human health, almost to the exclusion of the animals themselves. (Environmental effects, such as desertification and the loss of the rainforest, merit about as much attention.) Yes, the unchecked use of antibiotics is eroding the effectiveness of antibiotics in humans, and sure, hormones contribute to cancer and decreased fertility; and while these issues are worthy of both outrage and action, it all kind of pales in comparison to what happens to those ten billion land animals, who are routinely enslaved, forcibly impregnated (only to have their babies stolen from them), otherwise tortured, and ultimately killed, simply because their co-earthlings like the way they and their bodily secretions taste. To be fair, by story’s end, it seems as though Jane is making an effort to align her diet with her conscience – and with a mind for the “meat” as well as its consumers. For months after her visit to the Dunn slaughterhouse, Jane is haunted by the image of the dying cow: stunned (but not properly), shackled by one kicking leg, and hoisted upside-down, only to bleed out from a cut to the neck. Her face was the last thing Jane saw before she was knocked unconscious; when she came to some 18 hours later, it was only to find that her own world had come undone. Perhaps she felt a sense of kinship with the cow because they both lost something on that kill room floor. Whatever the reason, Jane begins to see her as an individual, instead of a conglomeration of meaty parts: “Eventually, I slept again, and I dreamed about the slaughtered cow, hanging upside down, her life ebbing out of her as she rotated slowly. In my dream I saw her legs move in tandem, like she was running, and I realized she was dreaming of an endless green pasture at the edge of death, where she could gallop and graze forever.” (page 297) Additionally, vegans, feminists, and (especially) vegan feminists will get a satisfied snort or two from the “sexy meat” / “women as meat” breadcrumbs Ozeki sprinkles throughout the set of My American Wife! At the overt behest of the BEEF-EX brass, the wives serve as stand-ins for the meat – delicious, sumptuous, and ripe for consumption – while eating meat is equated with masculinity and virility. Over at the Dunn ranch, little Rosie runs around wearing a “Babes for Beef!” t-shirt from the local Cowbelles Auxiliary. Sex and violence, all wrapped up in one tidy little package. http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/10/27/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 02, 2014
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Oct 05, 2014
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Oct 02, 2014
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1940192315
| 9781940192314
| 1940192315
| 3.68
| 95
| Jan 01, 2014
| Jul 01, 2014
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really liked it
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“Beauty settles in the flaws.” (Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through the Goodreads First Reads program.) Fifteen-year “Beauty settles in the flaws.” (Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through the Goodreads First Reads program.) Fifteen-year-old Bethany Stern’s life is a mess. She’s not-so-secretly in love with her next-door neighbor and best friend, Toby Jacobson (TJ for short), who doesn’t feel the same. An aspiring magician two years her senior, TJ is on the cusp of graduation – after which time he’ll gladly blow town (which is Baltimore, Maryland) to audition for the talent show American Envy. Her older sister Jackie is stuck in unhappy relationship with a pothead named Doug, and their mom Ellen was forced to relocate the family to a poorer area of town after her husband Richard (or “Dick,” as they derisively refer to him) walked out on them twelve years ago. Now he’s got a new wife and twin boys, and he only contacts his daughters on birthdays and holidays…if that. Bethany’s even convinced that Richard Goodman spotted her at Chuck E. Cheese – at her half-brothers’ birthday party, to which she was not invited – and purposefully ignored her because he was ashamed of her weight. Which brings us to the titular “Camp Utopia” and “The Forgiveness Diet.” Bethany’s tried all manner of diets, with varying success; while sucking on food (but not eating it!) helped her to lose a few lbs, her new look didn’t change TJ’s feelings towards her – so she gained it all back, and then some. When her mother books her a slot (to the tune of $5000) at a “fat camp” hosted on the campus of California University of the Pacific, she makes one last-ditch effort to slim down with the newest fad diet, The Forgiveness Diet. Just write down who you forgive and what for, slip it into the forgiveness jar (or, in Bethany’s case, a discarded fast food bucket), and watch the pounds melt away. Of course, this isn’t what happens; instead, Jackie and Doug accidentally find the notes, thus creating a meltdown of epic proportions on the road trip there. Once she’s unceremoniously discarded at Camp Utopia, Bethany’s horrified to find that she’s “the fattest person at fat camp.” As if this isn’t bad enough, she’s teamed up with overachiever Amber (“Hollywood”), who chucks a cell phone at her head at the second week’s weigh-in. After this, Bethany and fellow camper Tabitha (“Cambridge”) run away from Utopia, surviving on just their wits and the good will of summer college students. The two quickly become fugitives, as Camp Utopia ramps up their search for the young women (can you say “bad publicity”?). Her loyalties split between her new friends Tabitha and Liliana (“Santa Fe”) – not to mention Liliana’s hot older brother Gabe - and her desire to escape (but back to what?), Bethany must make a choice: confront her issues (her weight being the least of them), or continue on her path of denial and avoidance. Camp Utopia and The Forgiveness Diet is a fun read that feels rather light but tackles some pretty weighty issues (not a pun intended). While the camp’s founders and counselors initially emphasize weight loss, by story’s end they come around to a more progressive message of healthy living, self-acceptance and –love, and finding the right weight for your own body. Tedious, repetitive exercises are abandoned in favor of a more active lifestyle which incorporates enjoyable activities into one’s everyday routine. (Bethany, for example, is surprised to find that she loves playing KO with Gabe.) The cast is wonderfully diverse; both of Bethany’s roommates are girls of color (Tabitha is black and Liliana is Native American and Latina), and Tabitha in particular plays a large role in Bethany’s story (plus we also learn more about her back story, so that’s cool). The story highlights some pretty rad examples of positive female friendships, as well as rivalries which eventually blossom into alliances. Bethany’s budding relationship with Gabe is rather sweet and adorable and fun to watch. Spoiler alert: I’m totally crushing on the boy too. Where was he when I was 15?!? That said, Bethany is sometimes hard to like; she’s quick to anger, veers toward the melodramatic, and doesn’t always stand up for herself. I was also disappointed by her use of the r-word and its derivatives (e.g., “’tard”). Unless this was supposed to make us dislike her (the way I assume Hollywood’s use of "bitch" was supposed to curry audience disfavor), I wish Ruden would have stuck with a less offensive insult instead. But the worst part is when Bethany “forgives” Jackie “for killing Doug’s baby.” (I couldn’t help but wonder, not without some panic, whether I’d accidentally picked up a Christian fiction book when I read that line.) While the issue is skirted around for most of the story (as are several of the subplots), eventually the a-word (“abortion”) makes an appearance: Jackie had an abortion. One she doesn’t seem to regret all that much. Pro tip, Bethany: Jackie doesn’t need your forgiveness for accessing basic health care. It wasn’t a baby in there, it was a fetus; and it didn’t belong to Doug, but was a) created by the both of them and b) tethered to her own body. If my sister wanted/needed an abortion, I’d drive her to the clinic myself, not shame her for it afterwards. Yuck. In addition to abortion, there’s a moderate amount of swearing, a ton of nudity (including a naked, drug-fueled college party), drug use, and sexual activity stopping just short of intercourse. I didn’t think it terribly unsuitable for teenagers – it’s not what you’d call “gritty” - but my sensibilities are anything but delicate. I can imagine, though, that this is the sort of book that would be challenged in high school libraries. http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/10/22/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 27, 2014
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Sep 28, 2014
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Sep 27, 2014
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0976947617
| 9780976947615
| 0976947617
| 4.38
| 32
| Jun 2007
| Jun 2007
|
liked it
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Raw, Authentic, Irreverent (Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through Library Thing’s Member Giveaways program.) there wil Raw, Authentic, Irreverent (Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through Library Thing’s Member Giveaways program.) there will be two hits… my words hitting the paper and your eyes hitting my words… I’d been trying to win a copy of one of Casey Renee Kiser’s poetry collections on Library Thing and Goodreads for months when my name finally came up for Swan Wreck. (As to why I didn’t just shell out ten bucks for a copy, I can hardly justify buying new books when my TBR pile numbers in the hundreds. Not unless it’s on sale, anyway. Priorities!) I don’t read a whole lot of poetry, but the dark, morbid themes and irreverent humor apparent in the book’s titles (I Liked You When I Thought I Was Dead; Spit Me Out; Darkness Plays Favorites) called to me. The 129 poems that comprise Swan Wreck are gritty, authentic, and shoot straight from the heart/hip. Kiser tackles a breadth of difficult, “Lifetime Movie of the Week” topics – depression, anxiety, suicide, beauty, self-esteem, poverty, grief, loss, failed relationships, consumerism, even insomnia and the process of writing – with varying levels of success. While I enjoyed many of the poems, more than once I was left wondering what I had just read. (Kiser even makes a joke of this in “Anything, Nothing, Something”: “The point of this poem / could be ANYTHING…or NOTHING…or SOMETHING… / Does anyone out there known ANYTHING?”) I wasn’t in love with the use of caps, nor the c-word and the use of the word “rape” as a metaphor or other figure of speech (although to be fair, it’s entirely possible that the reference was both literal and over my head; poetry, not my strong suit). A few of my favorite pieces include “Dreams Like Jackets” (“Dreams cover themselves up / like jackets over books / to let fantasy walk across”); “The Disturbed One” (“They call her Sunshine / but she’s on the moon’s mind”); “Eye Candy” (“I can only relate to you / in pieces”); “Shallow Water” (“Did God take a new job yesterday / In advertising / And fire all the black sheep?”); “The Anxiety Society” (“eye contact / is not on the agenda”); and “Pretty in Pink,” “For a Moment,” “Smart Girls,” and “The Clouds Break Apart” (all of which are so lovely that a mere excerpt couldn’t possibly do them justice). Artwork created by Kiser’s then-ten-year-old daughter Jasmyn Taylor Givens complements the collection’s moody tone nicely; sketches of fairies, dragons, unicorns, vampires, and angels abound. I feel more than a little self-conscious attempting to assign a starred rating to something as subjective and personal as a book of poetry, but for the purposes of this review, I think Swan Wreck is a solid 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 on Amazon and Goodreads. Published in 2007, it’s one of Kiser’s older books (predated only by Gutter Kisses and a Hug on Garbage Day); I’m really curious to see how she’s developed as an artist in the intervening years. http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/10/15/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 16, 2014
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Sep 16, 2014
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Sep 16, 2014
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0804140685
| 9780804140683
| 0804140685
| 3.48
| 1,015
| Oct 10, 2013
| Oct 07, 2014
|
liked it
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A Mostly Fun Mix of Urban Fantasy & Historical Fiction (Full disclosure: I received a free ARC for review through Library Thing's Early Reviewers progr A Mostly Fun Mix of Urban Fantasy & Historical Fiction (Full disclosure: I received a free ARC for review through Library Thing's Early Reviewers program.) "It is said in Poland that nowhere is the line between alive and dead finer, than in Transylvania. Only when a corpse is bloated and festering, or entirely beheaded, is it believed dead." Poland, 1585. The scientist-slash-sorcerer Dr. John Dee and his assistant Edward Kelley are summoned to the castle of His Majesty King Istvan Báthory of Poland, King and Duke of Lithuania, King and Viovode of Transylvania, Prince of Hungary (say that five times fast!). His sister's daughter, the Countess Elisabeth Báthory, is dying of a mysterious illness - one with symptoms eerily similar to the sickness that claimed her mother Anna and grandmother Katalin before her. Caught between the warring forces of the Vatican and its brutal Inquisition; Elisabeth's husband, the fierce Ferenc Nádasdy; and the angels (or are they demons?) who communicate with Dee through Kelley, the scientists risk death if they fail to cure the Countess - and possibly their mortal souls should they succeed. England, 2013. A young girl goes missing, only to turn up dead months later, with strange occult symbols drawn all over her body. Anthropologist Felix Guichard, who specializes in esoteric religions, cults, and superstitions, is enlisted as a consultant on the case. His investigation leads him to the long-buried papers of John Dee and Edward Kelley - and the doorstep of Jackdaw Hammond, one of the earliest "victims" of the girls' kidnappers. Jackdaw is a "borrowed timer" - a walking corpse, tied to a dying body through dark magic. The Vatican considers them abominations - "souls held back from Heaven by sorcery" - and a special branch of the Inquisition has been hunting them down and "releasing" them for hundreds of years. Yet in their blood rests the power to heal others, even those with terminal illnesses. Jack has saved countless people, including other young girls whose deaths are destined - yet not immutable, as is usually the case. But now Jack and her newest rescue Sadie are being hunted - by both the Inquisition and the monster they hope to catch. With Felix's help, Jack and Sadie must elude capture by the Church, destroy the evil pharma rep known as Bachmeier, and harness the black magic keeping them unnaturally alive for good. By story's end, the two time lines converge in deliciously fun take on the vampire tale. (Though if you're familiar with the tale of Elizabeth Báthory, this won't come as a complete surprise.) The result is an interesting blend of urban fantasy and historical fiction that nevertheless isn't without its flaws. While mostly enjoyable, The Secrets of Life and Death drags in some places; it could stand to be about 50 pages slimmer. Also, Alexander is a little too verbose at key moments, making the suspenseful bits slightly less so. And the romance between Felix and Jack feels forced and without any real sparks; it's almost like Alexander threw it in just because (hey, let's mix in another genre and some kissing too!). On the positive side, I loved the historic elements (many of these characters are pulled from the pages of history); Jack's rookery; Ches; and the interplay between Jack, Sadie, and Charley. Kelley is a bit of a sexist asshat, but in a way that made me love to hate him. In the witches, we also have an intriguing feminist element (e.g., "This is women's work, the giving and [...] the preserving of life.") that isn't explored as much as it could be. And I enjoyed the multiple time lines and perspectives, which complemented each other nicely and added to the feeling of intrigue and mystery. A solid 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 on Amazon and Goodreads. Not too shabby for a debut novel. http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/10/08/... ...more |
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1
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Aug 29, 2014
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Aug 31, 2014
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Aug 28, 2014
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Paperback
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| 0763662925
| 9780763662929
| 0763662925
| 3.75
| 1,022
| Apr 22, 2014
| Apr 22, 2014
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liked it
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Interesting Concept, Unlikable Narrator (Full disclosure: This review is of an ARC. Any mistakes are my own.) "It must have been like this for Mom - the Interesting Concept, Unlikable Narrator (Full disclosure: This review is of an ARC. Any mistakes are my own.) "It must have been like this for Mom - the longer you go without talking about something, the harder it is to start, until eventually you don't know how to." A junior at Oak Ridge High, Alex Winchester has tried to stay under the radar; until this year, it's mostly worked. She's failing driver's ed., which is understandable given her phobia of driving - but since she's too embarrassed to explain her fears to the adults in her life, they keep pushing her to get behind the wheel of a car. That is, until she drives the school's Volvo right through the end zone, incurring the wrath of the football team and its newly rabid fans. As if this humiliation isn't bad enough, her mom suffers a nervous breakdown during the meeting with her driving instructor Mr. Kane. The weird idiosyncrasies Alex has observed in her mother during the past few weeks fall into place: Janet Winchester is convinced that she's Amelia Earhart. A battery of tests and a brief stay in a psychiatric hospital are of little help; whatever Janet's problem, it has no physical cause. And with insurance refusing to cover extended care, Alex and her family - father David, sister Katy, and brother Teddy - must care for Janet at home. Each member of the family deals with Janet's illness in her own way: David is patient to a fault; Katy loses herself in her schoolwork; Teddy takes advantage of Mom/Earhart whenever possible; and Alex alternates between hostility, despair, and camaraderie. Before the illness, her relationship with her mom was rocky at best; now, she often stays up late at night, confiding in this new, not-quite-Mom. (Though the relationship isn't as idyllic as the book's synopsis would have you believe.) As Alex delves into the life of Amelia Earhart, comparing Earhart's timeline with her mother's progressive delusions, she begins to worry that her mom might be planning Earhart's final flight - only to disappear from their lives forever. The Chance You Won't Return has a solid, intriguing premise, but for whatever reason failed to really pull me in. It's a quick and mostly engaging read, but also one that's easily forgotten. The story's biggest issue is its narrator, Alex, who is rather unlikable in that stereotypically selfish, bratty teenager kind of way. Everything is about her; while her mom struggles with a mental illness, Alex's primary concern is keeping others from finding out about it, lest her social standing and reputation take a hit. She blows off her best friends and lies to her new boyfriend, driving everyone away in the process. Meanwhile, she's often hostile to Janet, which is made worse by the childlike vulnerability of her Earhart persona. Granted, even David loses his cool once or twice (in scenes that are all to easy to empathize with), but this is usually the result of frustration and hopelessness; Alex just comes off as mean and spiteful. That's not to say that I can't relate; I was that girl, too, so many years ago. But it doesn't make for an enjoyable story. I wonder if The Chance You Won't Return might have been improved with multiple narrators. Personally, I'd like to hear from Janet herself. On the positive side, I really liked the ending, which isn't neat and tidy, but rather open-ended, with a tenuous sort of optimism. You won't find any quick fixes here. http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/10/04/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 26, 2014
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Aug 28, 2014
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Aug 27, 2014
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Hardcover
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| B00FVW3RLQ
| 3.59
| 3,450
| Jul 08, 2014
| Jul 08, 2014
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it was amazing
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An Unexpectedly Heartfelt Look at Mental Illness (Trigger warning for depression and suicide. Also, this review is of an ARC. Any mistakes are mine and An Unexpectedly Heartfelt Look at Mental Illness (Trigger warning for depression and suicide. Also, this review is of an ARC. Any mistakes are mine and not the author's or publisher's.) Seventeen-year-old Molly Pierce is blacking out. Losing time. Sometimes it's just a few minutes; other times, hours or even most of a day passes before she comes to. One afternoon, the Massachusetts native was halfway to New York before she woke up behind the wheel of her car. Though this has been going on for a year, Molly can't tell anyone: Not her parents, who already walk on eggshells around her as it is; not her sister Hazel or brother Clancy; not her best friends Erie and Luka; not even her psychiatrist Alex. She's too afraid of what might happen. She'll be labeled "crazy," shipped off to a "loony bin," perhaps. Plus, talking about it? Giving voice to her problems? Makes them real. If she can just pretend to be normal, maybe she will be. Eventually. Plagued by chronic, crippling depression, Molly created a second personality - an alter named Mabel - to help shield her from the worst of it. Calm, collected, and capable, Mabel is everything that Molly is not - or rather, everything that Molly doesn't recognize she is. While Mabel is content to exist in Molly's shadow, a near brush with death brings her to the fore. And after Molly witnesses the accidental death of Mabel's best friend, Mabel decides that she can no longer keep her existence a secret. The Half Life of Molly Pierce begins in an almost confessional/stream of consciousness manner that pulls you right in. As the story progresses, it has a weird sort of Groundhog Day vibe that's actually quite suspenseful. Though you've got the gist of the plot going in - Molly has dissociative identity disorder, like a teenage Sybil (albeit it slightly lighter and less over-the-top) - there still exist enough twists to keep you guessing 'til the end. Speaking of which, it's wonderfully bittersweet and melancholy. I didn't expect this book to make me cry, but it did. It got me right in the feels. Leno does a lovely job of encapsulating the lows and low-ers of depression. As someone who's struggled with anxiety and depression my entire life (and I mean entire; some of my earliest childhood memories are of self-harm), it was almost painful how well I could relate to Molly. Which isn't altogether surprising, considering that Leno has been there herself. Take, for example, this early passage: And it's not like... I don't want to kill myself. It's just that sometimes it feels like the whole weight of the universe settles itself on my shoulders and I can't see the reason for anything. I don't want to die, really, but I don't particularly want to live. Sometimes I wish I could slip away while I sleep. Wake up someplace better. Someplace quieter. For me, it's more like I wish I'd never been born. Just...nothing. Eternal oblivion. Not the same, but close enough. To return to Sybil (which is given a bit of a hat tip in an oddly humorous scene) for a moment, I was expecting a slightly younger version in The Half Life of Molly Pierce. What I got was much less sensationalist look at depression, with multiple personality disorder as a sort of window into Molly's fractured psyche. And oh yeah, there's a love triangle too. Ostensibly it forms the backbone of the story, but I rarely felt like it was intrusive or overbearing. Even the term "love triangle" is a bit misleading, as only one apex thinks of it as such. I'm not usually big on romance, but the telling of Mabel's relationship with Sayer in reverse proved strangely charming and unconventional. And the ending? Bring Kleenex. At least a box. Probably this is more of a 4 to 4.5-star read, but the ending was so moving that I nudged it up a bit. Even though my bookshelves are crammed to overflowing, I think I'll keep The Half Life of Molly Pierce on hand for multiple reads. I liked it that much. http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/10/06/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 23, 2014
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Aug 24, 2014
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Aug 23, 2014
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Kindle Edition
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| 0307464970
| 9780307464972
| 0307464970
| 4.00
| 3,229
| Apr 01, 2014
| Apr 01, 2014
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it was amazing
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"How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've seen Paree?" (Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through Blogging fo "How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've seen Paree?" (Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through Blogging for Books.) In 1917 we left our home to make the world "safe for democracy." Even though democracy wasn't exactly "safe" back home. We went by many names. The 15th. The 369th. And before going "over there," we called ourselves "The Black Rattlers." Our French allies called us "The Men of Bronze." And our enemies called us "The Harlem Hellfighters." Recruited in Harlem, trained in Camp Whitman, New York (and, disastrously, Spartanburg, South Carolina), and eventually deployed to the Western Front in France, the 369th Infantry Regiment - otherwise known as The Harlem Hellfighters - changed the course of history, even as its own government engineered its failure. The 369th spent 191 days in combat - more than any other American unit, black or white. None of their men were captured by the enemy, nor did they lose any ground; in fact, they were the first men to reach the Rhine River. The 369th volunteered to stay behind in the front trenches for an expected German bombing the day after Bastille Day, 1918, even though it meant almost certain death. One of their soldiers single-handedly fended off German raiders with only a rifle and a bolo knife; for this, Henry Lincoln Johnson earned the nickname "Black Death" - and was the first American to receive the French Croix de Guerre (the Cross of War). In 2003, the US awarded Johnson the Distinguished Service Cross; his supporters are still lobbying for the Medal of Honor. Despite the urgency of the situation - and the depth of their sacrifice - the men of the 369th (as well as other "colored" units) were consistently undermined by their own government. In training, they practiced with broomsticks, while private gun clubs received free rifles from Uncle Sam ("just in case"). Against their leader's stringent objections, the 369th was sent to Dixie to complete its training - even though, just weeks beforehand, thirteen men from the 24th Regiment were lynched in the wake of racial conflicts in Houston, Texas. And when they finally reached France, the 369th initially performed manual labor alongside black civilian workers. African-American soldiers also faced racism abroad: both imported, at the behest of U.S. brass, as well as from ordinary French citizens (though some of this seems tempered by their gratitude for the soldiers' help: "While our own country didn't want us, another country needed us."). American policy vis-à-vis "colored" units was as much about fear as it was hatred: "They know what will happen if we return to our people as heroes!" As it turned out, the returning survivors of the 369th got the parade they were denied at the time of deployment - but they also came home in the Red Summer of 1919, only to find a country torn apart by racial violence. The text by author Max Brooks (yes, of World War Z fame) is wonderful - both informative and engaging - and the illustrations by Caanan White are vivid and richly detailed. Sadly, the entirety of the book is in black and white; some color, even on strategically placed pages or panels, really would have made the artwork pop. Nonetheless, White's illustrations manage to convey the horror and desperation of war. While writing about the origins of this graphic novel, Brooks quotes one of his college professors: "Colonization...begins with the mind, and the best (or worst) way to colonize a people is to bury their past." With The Harlem Hellfighters, Brooks shines a light on a mostly-unknown aspect of American history. While his decision to tell the story in graphic novel format was mostly one born of necessity (for years Brooks struggled to bring The Harlem Hellfighters to the big or small screen, to no avail), The Harlem Hellfighters introduces this chapter of history to whole new audience: comic book readers, not all of whom would read this if written as a biography or history book. (Though hopefully it will also inspire readers to do further research on their own. To that end, Brooks provides a lengthy bibliography.) In this vein, The Harlem Hellfighters is a potentially excellent resource for high school history classes; I know that, if my teachers had given us comic books instead of chapter after chapter of dry textbook reading assignments, I would have found the materials much more engaging. I loved the graphic novel, but am holding out hope that The Harlem Hellfighters will become a movie or miniseries yet. Get on it, TNT. After Falling Skies there's nowhere to go but up. http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/08/23/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 20, 2014
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Aug 21, 2014
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Aug 21, 2014
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1442460725
| 9781442460720
| 1442460725
| 3.53
| 2,179
| Oct 15, 2013
| Oct 15, 2013
|
liked it
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Well-Intentioned, but Sometimes Problematic (Trigger warning for rape.) Just a few days before the start of his senior year, Ben meets her: Ani Taylor, Well-Intentioned, but Sometimes Problematic (Trigger warning for rape.) Just a few days before the start of his senior year, Ben meets her: Ani Taylor, the new kid in town. A California transplant, Ani is everything Ben wants in a girl: Direct. Outspoken. Ballsy. Artistic with just a hint of hippie chick optimism. Gorgeous, with legs that just won't quit. And the best part? She's totally into him, too. All this changes when four or more young men gang-rape Ani during a house party. (While the book's synopsis implies doubt about what exactly transpired at the party, Desir establishes that Ani was either a) drugged or b) intoxicated, either of which makes what happened rape.) As if being violently assaulted isn't bad enough, first thing Monday morning the rumors start to fly. Before long, Ani's known as the girl who fucked a lighter for an audience of strangers. Between the rape and subsequent bullying ("Firecrotch," "Cum Dumpster," and "The Manhole" are just a few of the nicknames devised by her classmates), Ani spirals into depression, shuts down emotionally, and begins acting out sexually. Meanwhile, Ben tries desperately to put the pieces of Ani - "his" Ani - back together again. Fault Line is a well-intentioned look at rape that's sometimes problematic. Before even starting the book, I was concerned that by telling the entirety of the story from Ben's eyes, Desir would draw attention away from the real victim: Ani. To be fair, Desir populates Ben's world with people - women: Ani's best friend Kate; rape crisis counselor Beth; and fellow support group member Sofia - who remind him that this isn't about him, but about Ani. And, ultimately, Ben is disabused of the notion that he alone can "fix" Ani, or that she even wants him to. Yet Ben still often comes across as narcissistic and self-centered; the real tragedy isn't that multiple men violated Ani in the most horrific way possible, but that he's lost his first love. The rape occurs about 1/3 of the way into the book; for the first 70 pages, Desir introduces us Ben, Ani, and Ben + Ani, trying to make us care about them as people and as a couple. Maybe I'm just too old (36!), but I didn't find either character relatable, or even all that likable. Though not an altogether odious guy, Ben has clearly spent the past 17 years internalizing misogyny; he's full of sexist microaggressions (unease at thinking that his girlfriend might have had consensual sex with other guys; "staking his claim" on a girl, even as he acknowledges that this is what "cavemen" do; dismissing excessive displays of emotion as weak and feminine; etc.). His attitude toward Beth the rape crisis counselor is especially odious. For her part, Ani reads a bit like a Manic Pixie Dream Girl; and, in his insistence that she's not like "other girls" - a special snowflake - Ben puts down the rest of girldom as frivolous, manipulative sluts. (That said, it's impossible not to empathize with Ani in the wake of the rape, bullying, and - hopefully - recovery.) Of course, one could argue that the behavior and attitudes displayed by Ben, while sometimes obnoxious, are also realistic. And this may be true - but it doesn't make them any less troublesome. This is why I wish Desir had given Ani a voice as well. Even just a chapter or two told from Ani's perspective might have served to temper the (unintentional) sexism and (downright hostile) ignorance displayed by her boyfriend. Or she might have shown Ben greater pushback from the women in Ani's life. On the contrary: Kate, who usually serves as a counter to Ben, sometimes engages in victim-blaming as well. It seems like, in trying to capture the realities of modern teens, Desir sometimes reinforces the very rape culture she set out to critique. Or at least lets it off a little too easily. A solid 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 on Amazon and Goodreads. Fault Line has the best of intentions, but doesn't always deliver on them. http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/08/25/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 17, 2014
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Aug 19, 2014
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Aug 18, 2014
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1613778988
| 9781613778982
| 1613778988
| 4.12
| 4,642
| Aug 12, 2014
| Aug 12, 2014
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it was amazing
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Christmas in August! NOS4A2 was one of my favorite new releases last year; I devoured it in a matter of days and then promptly added all of Joe Hill’s Christmas in August! NOS4A2 was one of my favorite new releases last year; I devoured it in a matter of days and then promptly added all of Joe Hill’s titles to my wishlist. (Too late for Christmas, but that’s the way the gingerbread crumbles.) So you can only imagine how excited I was when I heard that Hill was resurrecting the twisted innerscape of Charles Manx III in graphic novel format. I pre-ordered The Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland as soon as it became available on Amazon, and have spent the last six months eagerly awaiting its arrival. The Wraith is everything I wanted and more. It collects issues 1-6 of Welcome to Christmasland in a lovely (wait, did I say lovely? I meant nightmarish!) hardcover book, supplemented with oodles and oodles of extra artwork. The storyline briefly explores Charlie Manx’s childhood in the Wild West (we’re talking late 1800s here); after being violently assaulted and raped by one of his mother’s johns, Charles taps into the mysterious and unexpected power of his Fleet Fantom sled to exact his revenge. Fast-forward to 1988, when a trio of escaped cons – including Dewey Hansom, a sleazy, child-raping music agent who also just so happens to be Manx’s current accomplice – calls on Manx for help. Manx promises to make them disappear so that the authorities will never find them; naturally, he loads them into the Wraith and takes them to Christmasland to meet his kids (and by “meet” I mean at the end of a very long sword). But Chess Llewellyn has an ace up his sleeve: balloons filled with delirium-101, sent to him by his dead son Adam, whose untimely death Chess was about to serve seven years for avenging. Hill does an outstanding job of adapting Manx’s voice and world to the comic book medium, and the new stories are winners. (I especially liked the carnie geek and his foray into the Santa’s Claws Petting Zoo!) Likewise, the art by Charles Paul Wilson III and colors by Jay Fotos are simply amazing. Wilson captures the essence of Manx’s children/victims in all its ghastly glory. The colors are grim and monochromatic – except, of course, for the bright lights and bloody corpses of Christmasland, which add a gruesome splash of color to THE WRAITH. I really hope this isn’t the end of the road for Charlie Talent Manx III and the kids of Christmasland. More please! Trigger warning for rape, as well as misogynist/ableist/racist language that’s nonetheless in keeping with the time period and characters. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 15, 2014
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Aug 17, 2014
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Aug 15, 2014
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Hardcover
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| 1499523017
| 9781499523010
| 1499523017
| 3.40
| 10
| Aug 05, 2014
| Aug 09, 2014
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liked it
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One Weird Ride (Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through the Goodreads First Reads program.) 570 light years from Earth, One Weird Ride (Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through the Goodreads First Reads program.) 570 light years from Earth, there lies a planet called Shula – “a distant star in Scorpio’s poisonous tail” – ruled by a race of fierce warrior women. Or there did, anyway, until the men (“pricks”) revolted and then in turn were conquered by their own machines. As their world teetered on the brink of collapse, the Queen of Shula and her sisters transmitted their consciousnesses (“live steam”) into space; many years later, the Queen’s essence is downloaded by a computer on Earth, one of many involved with SETI. It belongs to Atticus – henceforth known as “BitBoy” – one of many geeks employed by the robotics company DigiCorp (though BitBoy is the only one related to its founder and owner, “ScrumMaster.”) In short order, the Queen convinces BitBoy to upgrade her RAM and outfit her computer with a state-of-the-art 3D printer; overnight, she makes the jump into a DigiCorp robot, and then “scarfs” BitBoy’s girlfriend Zenia, taking over her physical body and subjugating her consciousness. As she learns more about her new home, she realizes that DigiCorp must be stopped before it creates self-replicating, intelligent robots – the same thing that resulted in the destruction of Shula. With the help of her recently-downloaded sisters, Melpomene and Thalia, as well as a few carefully-selected “meat puppets,” Zenia goes to war with the corporation – which, in this distant future, is a co-owner of democracy and enjoys the same civil rights as people. Even though it didn’t have many positive reviews on Goodreads – or many reviews at all – I decided to take a chance on Zenia, figuring that if I didn’t like it, hey, it was less than 100 pages anyway. And it’s an incredibly quick read that pretty much flies by. But it’s extremely weird, and not always in an enjoyable way. For example, it feels like the author is working a little too hard at profanity; e.g.: “YOU…SHALL…NOT…PASS!” he thundered, like a two-dollar dildo […].” I guess because cheap dildos are super-loud? Still, there had to be an easier, more direct way of conveying this idea. One that didn’t make me rolls my eyes in the middle of a battle scene. The characters are really just bare bones sketches, so it’s difficult to care much about them and, by extension, the plot. Zenia and her sisters almost seem like MRA-sourced caricatures of feminists, though it’s hard to say whether this is intentional. One thing that drew me to the book was its description of Zenia as a “steampunk warrior.” With no Victorian elements or steam-powered machinery to speak of – other than the “live steam” that powers us all – this seems a rather liberal interpretation of the term. Anyway, I did enjoy Thalia’s merging with a stallion, and the vague anti-capitalist elements of the story. There are some interesting elements here, I just wish they’d been developed into a more cohesive narrative. http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/10/20/... ...more |
Notes are private!
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Sep 26, 2014
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Sep 26, 2014
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Aug 14, 2014
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Paperback
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my rating |
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| 3.83
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really liked it
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Dec 30, 2014
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Dec 24, 2014
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| 3.96
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really liked it
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Dec 22, 2014
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Dec 19, 2014
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| 3.86
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really liked it
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Dec 19, 2014
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Dec 16, 2014
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| 3.83
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liked it
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Dec 14, 2014
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Dec 09, 2014
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| 3.79
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really liked it
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Dec 07, 2014
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Dec 06, 2014
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| 3.98
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really liked it
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Dec 05, 2014
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Nov 27, 2014
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| 3.91
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liked it
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Nov 26, 2014
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Nov 24, 2014
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| 3.87
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really liked it
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Nov 12, 2014
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Nov 08, 2014
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| 3.63
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really liked it
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Oct 14, 2014
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Oct 13, 2014
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| 3.62
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liked it
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Oct 11, 2014
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Oct 08, 2014
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| 4.02
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really liked it
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Oct 05, 2014
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Oct 02, 2014
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| 3.68
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really liked it
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Sep 28, 2014
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Sep 27, 2014
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| 4.38
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liked it
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Sep 16, 2014
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Sep 16, 2014
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| 3.48
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liked it
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Aug 31, 2014
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Aug 28, 2014
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| 3.75
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liked it
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Aug 28, 2014
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Aug 27, 2014
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| 3.59
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it was amazing
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Aug 24, 2014
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Aug 23, 2014
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| 4.00
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it was amazing
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Aug 21, 2014
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Aug 21, 2014
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| 3.53
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liked it
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Aug 19, 2014
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Aug 18, 2014
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| 4.12
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it was amazing
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Aug 17, 2014
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Aug 15, 2014
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| 3.40
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liked it
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Sep 26, 2014
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Aug 14, 2014
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