A noir detective story with a speculative backdrop, Off-Time Jive is a pleasant surprise. It's based in an alternate Harlem Renaissance where black joA noir detective story with a speculative backdrop, Off-Time Jive is a pleasant surprise. It's based in an alternate Harlem Renaissance where black joy can create magic, and follows investigator Bessie Knox who has had enough heartbreak in her past that conjuring up feelings of joy is difficult at the best of times. When a murder occurs, Bessie begins to investigate and cracks open a connection to her past.
There's some interesting magic here, and a decent mystery. The writing was the strongest part, giving Bessie a pretty good voice and anchoring it firmly in this alternate Harlem Renaissance. I think the mystery itself kind of fell apart toward the end, not really making any sense to me a reader - Bessie comes up with ideas and clues that never felt like they were concretely tied too what I was reading on the page at the time. The ending felt a little confusing as well, but also left things tied off with a great deal of hope.
It's still a lovely and unique novella, well worth giving it a good try.
Squid Game meets The Left Hand of Darkness meets Under the Skin
Squid Game?? I am begging people to expand their minds and find other South Korean mediSquid Game meets The Left Hand of Darkness meets Under the Skin
Squid Game?? I am begging people to expand their minds and find other South Korean media to compare books to. The only similarity this book has to Squid Game is that they're both South Korean. That's it.
This was a weird fucking book, but it used its weirdness to great effect. We follow the life of a shapeshifting alien stranded on Earth, who must shift into a man or woman to meet up with humans for sex before eating them. The alien reflects on gender roles and expectations, on being separate from humans because it can't always meet those gender roles (and also, it's an alien), and on social and cultural expectations people place on each other. All of this, of course, from a South Korean lens - but you can extrapolate it to any culture.
The book also uses the physical form of the text, sometimes using extra spacing in words for emphasis and disorientation. I liked how the author played with the text in that way.
Overall this wasn't quite as satisfying a read for me, but it did what it set out to do really well. If you like weird literary fiction and want to branch into translated fiction, this is a pretty good book to check out.
Content warnings for gore and explicit sexual activity.
No author is as compulsively readable as Stephen King is for me. I’m 39 years old now, but reading this took me right back to when I was 15 - devourinNo author is as compulsively readable as Stephen King is for me. I’m 39 years old now, but reading this took me right back to when I was 15 - devouring every single King book I could get my hands on, staying up late at night and scaring the shit out of myself, constantly fighting with my little sister because I still wanted the lights on at 2am when she was trying to sleep.
This is not his best but it’s still a good book and was a damn good reading experience for me, and sometimes that’s all I need....more
The Butcher of the Forest is a lush, dark fantasy novella, reading more like a dark fairy tale than a full on horror story. A woman is forced into a dThe Butcher of the Forest is a lush, dark fantasy novella, reading more like a dark fairy tale than a full on horror story. A woman is forced into a dark, enchanted wood to find the children of a tyrant who wandered into it, and a vivid, confusing, dark, fever dream ensues.
I wish I could have enjoyed this much more, but I think stories that lean toward being told as fairy tales just aren't for me. I couldn't get a good grip on the story being told, nor figure out why I should care.
Premee Mohamad is certainly a fantastic writer with some great ideas - but this one didn't land for me. ...more
Skin Thief is that rare anthology that, despite the natural result of liking some stories more than others, is so strong in theme and tone that it earSkin Thief is that rare anthology that, despite the natural result of liking some stories more than others, is so strong in theme and tone that it earns a full five stars.
What Suzan Palumbo has done here is just wonderful. Each story is a speculative feast, various ideas toying with themes of love, bodily autonomy, connection, familial relationships, and much more. The strongest theme that I enjoyed was the theme of bodily autonomy, or our connections to our bodies as we are either stuck in place or go through great change.
Every story feels incredibly well crafted, doing exactly what Palumbo intends to show in exactly the right amount of page space needed. No story felt too short or too long. The lows in my reading of this entire collection only meant I liked a story instead of all out loving it, or being very moved by it.
Palumbo's author's note is also incredibly enlightening; I'd only just barely noticed the thematic movement on a superficial level, but didn't really think about it until I saw that it was intentional. Love it.
Skin Thief is a fantastic collection, and if you enjoy speculative short stories at all, then give it a try.
Many, many thanks to Neon Hemlock Press for giving the opportunity to read this. Skin Thief is now available on their website....more
Oh, this is a conflicting one, but I am leaning toward a higher score because for all the issues I had with the book at times, it was engaging, hard tOh, this is a conflicting one, but I am leaning toward a higher score because for all the issues I had with the book at times, it was engaging, hard to put down, and so wildly imaginative and unique.
When I first picked this up at the bookstore today, I intended only to read a chapter or two to see if I liked it - and I ended up reading 200+ pages. I bought the book, obviously, and finished it this same day. It really is easy to be enthralled by, and the pacing is so swift that it pulls you along whether you like it or not.
The world building is highly imaginative; I can easily say I haven't read anything like this before. There is a lot of Hindu philosophy built into the story as well, and that was a breath of fresh air. There were many moments when the narrative became painful to read through as it had to do a lot of heavy lifting with the world building - especially at the end, when puzzle pieces were being put together during the climax of the whole story. The come down after the climax was also a whole lot of world info dumping, which felt awfully strange. Actually, everything having to do with the climax on to the end of the book felt like a severe let down.
Because this story, with all the heavy world building and incorporation of the philosophy of the mind and of reincarnation, becomes an absolutely frustrating mess of Words being Thrown Around as the characters struggle through the climax. Despite having followed these characters through their investigation and ostensibly understanding the journey they went on, the climax was just...word salad. It was a strange, frustrating experience. Perhaps part of this is because of my aphantasia; when I read, I don't picture anything. At most, I see a black background with gray outlines and shading. If I think of an apple, I know what an apple is supposed to look like, intellectually, but I can't actually picture it in my mind. So this climax, which is almost entirely about a mental, emotional, existential crisis, did absolutely nothing for me. I just felt so frustrated. I wanted to feel what the book wanted me to feel for the characters, but nothing connected.
Speaking of the main characters, oh boy. Oh man. Oh wow. What a wildly brave thing Rao did here with Ahilya and Iravan. The book starts out with them basically estranged, and Rao really digs into their strengths and weaknesses both as individuals and as a married couple. They hurt each other and allow their insecurities to drive them, and they're not exactly easy to follow. I actually kind of hated one of them at the start, but a lot of what I was getting through the writing felt purposeful; what I disliked about the character was called out in the text, and I felt so validated. I don't think I could ever believe these two people actually loved each other, though. The book kept trying to convince me that they loved each other madly despite how fractured their relationship was, but I just wasn't buying it. They needed therapy, LOADS OF IT.
I know I've just unloaded quite a bit of my frustrations with the book, but I did really appreciate what The Surviving Sky was doing. Rao created an incredibly interesting and compelling world and story here, centering two characters and a version of a relationship that I don't often see in fantasy. Seeing this story unfold through the lens of their fractured relationship was SO interesting. I think all of the other characters could have used a bit more development, but they all served their narrative purposes very well.
The Surviving Sky, flaws and all, is a deeply imaginative and enthralling novel....more
This was fine. I wish it had done more to go all out in every aspect, but it was a perfectly serviceable story for a YA novel and what it was trying tThis was fine. I wish it had done more to go all out in every aspect, but it was a perfectly serviceable story for a YA novel and what it was trying to do.
As far as being a kpop novel goes...nah, this is barely kpop. It's kpop lite. The diet Sprite of kpop....more
I grabbed pomegranates because it's shortlisted in the 2023 World Fantasy Awards for Best Novella, and I'm glad I did. While the story didn't quite hiI grabbed pomegranates because it's shortlisted in the 2023 World Fantasy Awards for Best Novella, and I'm glad I did. While the story didn't quite hit for me, it was still incredibly interesting and well written. Plus, it's a version of the Persephone myth that hasn't annoyed me.
It's hard to summarize this novella more than the official synopsis does, because doing anything more than that would give too much away. Essentially, massive climate change and the near end of the human race are a backdrop for the stories of Persephone, Demeter, and their fucked up Greek gods family. This novella plays around with interesting versions of the goddesses and their history, making for a pretty unique spin on the Greek gods. It's visceral in how it portrays female rage and how each character deals with it in their own way.
Priya Sharma is a very talented writer and that shines through. However, some of the choices made in the way the character narratives are told didn't quite work for me. I loved the interspersed Chorus sections, but I disliked how confusing it was jumping from Bear to Persephone (at times I couldn't tell who was narrating as we got back into it), and Demeter's storyline was alright.
There are some absolutely lovely, lyrical passages in this. The emotional heft and theming absolutely shines through despite my issues. I think this is worth a read, if sounds at all interesting. It may work for someone else much better than it did for me. ...more
Hmm I feel like this would have had more of an impact on me if I was better acquainted with the history of gothic horror and early speculative fictionHmm I feel like this would have had more of an impact on me if I was better acquainted with the history of gothic horror and early speculative fiction that other reviewers and cover blurbs mention.
As it is, Helpmeet is a very strange journey following a wife taking care of her husband as he wastes away from an unknown disease. The body horror in this is A+ top tier madness....more
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