Emily May's Updates en-US Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:51:34 -0700 60 Emily May's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7461131190 Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:51:34 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil']]> /review/show/7461131190 Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by Victoria E. Schwab Emily May marked as dnf Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (Hardcover) by Victoria E. Schwab
bookshelves: 2025, fantasy, arc, dnf
DNF - approx 25%

I really couldn't get into this one. Can't say if it picks up later, but the 150 pages I read were very slow. There have also been three different perspectives and multiple timelines so far, which doesn't help when the pace is dragging because it gives us less time to become invested in any one of the stories.

Also-- and I really do wonder if this is a way in which my preferences have changed, as opposed to the author's style -- this book felt very juvenile. It read like YA with a bit of sex and cussing thrown in (so, basically, like most YA these days). The characters were very basic, especially in Maria's chapters, where she fits every headstrong, obstinate heroine trope while still coming across as emotionally immature. Her husband and in-laws are such sexist caricatures, devoid of nuance, that it was hard to take them seriously (please do inform me if they experience some interesting growth later).

I have enjoyed Schwab's books in the past but it's been a good six or seven years since one wowed me. Perhaps I have just outgrown her work. ]]> Review4811496734 Wed, 02 Apr 2025 06:14:43 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'A Life']]> /review/show/4811496734 A Life by Guy de Maupassant Emily May gave 4 stars to A Life (Paperback) by Guy de Maupassant
bookshelves: classics, 2025
"Life, you see, is never as good or as bad as one thinks."


Whew! There is a lot going on in this little book, a lot of it depressing. I do not presume to know what a 19th century Frenchman intended, but I found this to be a fiercely feminist story. Horribly so, but a stark critique of raising naive girls then trapping them in marriages where they are miserable and powerless.

A Life (or Une vie) is a truly quite horrible story about how a starry-eyed romantic girl becomes disillusioned with life and love. Raised to be “pure� of mind-- ignorant, basically --Jeanne follows all the rules and adheres to strict morals, only to witness the weakness of everyone else. Eventually, she starts to lose faith in those around her and feel a growing contempt for humanity.

What happens to Jeanne is genuinely very upsetting. I found myself deeply invested in her story, hoping she would find happiness or, at least, peace. Her parents are absolutely useless from the get-go, and her idea of love, marriage and motherhood is quickly shattered. My one criticism is her lack of growth. I understood her naïveté as a young woman, and sympathised with her, but felt frustrated that it followed her into old age after everything she had witnessed and experienced.

Maupassant is an interesting social critic; he obviously doesn't think too highly of rigid social mores, the aristocracy, or the church. In fact, there are two priests in this book-- one of them is a hypocrite and the other is a monster.

There are a couple of other interesting themes. One is class-- when Jeanne professes her ill luck, Rosalie scolds her by reminding her how much worse it would be for a peasant woman. Another is a reflection on the value (or lack of) placed on aging unmarried women. Though a quiet minor character, Aunt Lison is a haunting presence in this book. Completely forgotten and ignored, she floats around in the background like an actual ghost, invisible to those around her.

A very compelling, if bleak, story. Please note that it contains marital sex that would not be considered consensual today, and one horrible scene of animal cruelty. ]]> Review7037910632 Fri, 28 Mar 2025 06:59:13 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'Ordinary Love']]> /review/show/7037910632 Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski Emily May gave 3 stars to Ordinary Love (Hardcover) by Marie Rutkoski
bookshelves: arc, contemporary, romance, 2025
Not sure if it’s just me, but I always find the distance between 3 and 4 stars seems like the greatest between all the star ratings. For that reason, Ordinary Love is a solid 3.5.

There's lots to like here. Rutkoski is telling two stories-- a story of an abusive marriage and tumultuous separation, and a decades-spanning love story. The problem is it's a very slow-burn tale that I feel would have benefited from losing a hundred pages.

I thought the portrait of this particularly insidious form of abuse was very powerful. The way someone can make a casually callous comment, subtly manipulate their partner, so that they end up wondering if they are being too picky, too sensitive. As the reader, we watch in horror as Jack slowly isolates Emily from her family and friends, her support network gradually falling away.

One of the ways this abuse manifests is she can never be sure what he will do and she is constantly trying to anticipate his reaction. This goes beyond dealing with the reaction itself because she must also deal with the constant anxiety. One part of the book captures this perfectly� she imagines Jack's reaction to a change in Halloween plans, her mind catastrophizes the whole thing, and it isn’t what she thinks� but it’s the fact he put that anxiety in her, that never knowing when he will blow up and punish those around him.

Another time, Jack buys Emily a bracelet and this is her reaction:
Emily could predict, though, how their happiness might sour. Maybe she wouldn’t wear the bracelet enough. Or if she wore it every day, he might say that she treated it like an ordinary object. Didn’t she think it was special enough? What more could she possibly want?


Alongside this is the broody and melancholy love story between Emily and Gen, who met as kids, became lovers, and were later pulled apart by life and misunderstanding.

In fact, the almost constant misunderstandings and miscommunications between them was one of my main grumbles and what really made the story drag. It felt like one simple conversation could have saved years of hurt, and there was enough sighing and sad silence between them to rival Sally Rooney. Still, it has to be said they had chemistry and were very sweet and sexy together.

I'm convinced a shorter book would have been an easy 4 stars for me. It just went on too long, everything dragged out beyond the point of being interesting. ]]> Review6567228102 Fri, 21 Mar 2025 06:15:22 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'Sunrise on the Reaping']]> /review/show/6567228102 Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins Emily May gave 3 stars to Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5) by Suzanne Collins
bookshelves: dystopia-utopia, young-adult, 2025
I was looking forward to this latest Hunger Games book (even though I didn't care for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes), mostly because I like Haymitch as a character, but I am now fully convinced that this series has no juice left in it. This is a fan book for fans. And, if you're a fan, it has entertaining moments, but nothing about Sunrise on the Reaping is new or necessary.

Look, I didn't hate it. The formula and themes of The Hunger Games books are all here-- dramatic reaping, infuriating parading of these kids in front of wealthy sponsors, the bloody action and danger of the games themselves --and it's a formula that has worked before. Obviously, there's less tension this time because you know how it ends. You know Haymitch's attempts to bring down the games cannot have been successful. And even the details we don't know are easy to guess.

If you want to read something very similar to The Hunger Games, this is your book. It goes reaping > dress-up > training > rating > games. The characters are different, but the plot is virtually the same.

And while I do enjoy Haymitch as a character (definitely partly thanks to Woody Harrelson), I thought there were very few new characters who were memorable. In fact, Maysilee was the only standout of the other candidates. I also could have done with a bit less of Haymitch's mooning over Lenore. She was off page for more than 90% of the book, we didn't know her very well, so it was boring hearing about her. And sorry, but I'm not enough of an Edgar Allan Poe fan for this book.

There were details about this arena that were different and cool, which I won't spoil. But overall this delivered more of the same thing we had *checks notes and dies of old age* seventeen years ago. ]]> Review7404566216 Thu, 20 Mar 2025 04:36:32 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'Uzumaki']]> /review/show/7404566216 Uzumaki by Junji Ito Emily May gave 4 stars to Uzumaki (Hardcover) by Junji Ito
bookshelves: 2025, graphic-novels, horror
It's been a long time since my manga days, but Junji ItĹŤ makes me want to get back into it.

Uzumaki is a horror graphic novel about a town that becomes obsessed with, and possessed by, spiral symbols. I imagine ItĹŤ sitting there with the phrase "spiral into madness" in his head and then running with it to the extreme. It's a combination of graphic body horror-- freakish and grotesque mutations --and a creeping, eerie sense of wrongness.

The imagery will stay with me, but so will the overwhelming sense of inevitability that permeates the book. The spiral is a force that cannot be reasoned with or escaped—it simply is, an existential nightmare that erases free will and consumes all in its path. Strangely, I never once felt like the point of this story was to overcome or escape the spirals.

Each chapter introduces new and ever more disturbing ways in which the spiral takes over the town and the minds of the residents, all of it building towards a climax that is simultaneously unsatisfying and surely the only way it could end. ]]> Review7019743142 Tue, 18 Mar 2025 02:50:37 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family']]> /review/show/7019743142 Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker Emily May gave 4 stars to Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family (Hardcover) by Robert Kolker
bookshelves: nonfiction, 2025, memoirs-or-bios
This was a fascinating read. Part biography, part history of schizophrenia and its treatments, Kolker does a great job of combining compelling narrative with science.

There were some limitations that became more obvious as the book wore on-- namely, that it is clear Kolker was only able to extensively interview a couple of members of the Galvin family, Lindsay primarily. But he did a great job with the information he had.

Hidden Valley Road tells the story of Mimi and Don Galvin and their twelve children, six of whom developed schizophrenia. We hear the story of how first Donald, then five of the other brothers, began to experience symptoms ranging from powerful delusions to hallucinations to self-harm. The home became a threatening and frightening place for the other children, some of which were sexually abused.

Alongside this, Kolker presents the history of research into schizophrenia. While it's true that schizophrenia remains a mystifying condition to this day, the progress made by researchers into genetic markers and treatments is quite fascinating and often horrifying. I am glad he highlighted the work of Lynn Delisi, a psychiatrist who has gone mostly uncelebrated despite her incredible contributions.

Delisi was just beginning her career when the "schizophrenogenic mother" became a popular theory for schizophrenia-- a way of conveniently dumping the blame on mothers who were allegedly not warm and attentive enough (i.e. working mothers). Thanks to Delisi and others, this has now been correctly filed under "nonsense."

I was also really interested in how politics and culture wars took over psychiatry, with the mentally ill being the collateral damage. Being labelled "mentally ill" became a symbol of capitalism and conformity, and some people started criticising diagnosis and waxing poetic about schizophrenics being more in tune with the world. It's the age-old romanticisation of mental illness as something deep and artistic. We still see it today.

The Big Pharma vs. hippies debate is, I think, well-balanced. As stated above, Kolker critiques the 1960s ideology of romanticising mental illness, but he also highlights the issue with drug companies. New and better treatments have not been found, not because they don't exist, but because research and trials are expensive, and drug companies already have products that kinda sorta work, mostly.

Very interesting book. I would definitely read more by this author.

Please note that it contains depictions of domestic and sexual abuse, drug use and suicide. ]]> Review6713908967 Thu, 13 Mar 2025 04:33:12 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'There Were No Windows']]> /review/show/6713908967 There Were No Windows by Norah Hoult Emily May gave 4 stars to There Were No Windows (Paperback) by Norah Hoult
bookshelves: classics, persephone, 2025
A very upsetting book about an elderly woman losing her memory. There is no plot, and it did get repetitive at times as it is just Claire Temple having interactions with different characters, but it was ultimately so affecting and awful.

Hoult portrays all aspects of Claire's memory loss-- the comical, the frustrating and infuriating clashes her carers have with her, the loneliness and the fear. It is devastating to watch this intelligent and proud woman losing grip on reality and alienating her few remaining friends and visitors. As is often the case with those suffering from dementia, Claire is not an easy or perfect victim. She is genuinely very difficult to deal with, and you can understand the frustrations of others at the same time as feeling sorry for her.

The meaning of the title is haunting. It is literal-- the disintegration of Claire's memory takes place during the London Blitz and she is confused as to why the windows are all blacked out --but also figurative, as Claire's dementia leaves her increasingly trapped in a lonely dark room into which no one else can see. ]]> Review6511777907 Sun, 09 Mar 2025 07:05:19 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'Consequences']]> /review/show/6511777907 Consequences by E.M. Delafield Emily May gave 5 stars to Consequences (Paperback) by E.M. Delafield
bookshelves: classics, persephone, 2025
Alex sometimes felt that she was not alive at all� that she was only a shade moving amongst the living, unable to get into real communication with any of them.


This powerful character portrait has to be up there with the saddest books I've ever read.

Consequences is a semi-autobiographical novel about a young woman growing up in London in the 1890s-1900s. This is a time when upper middle class girls and women like the protagonist were held back from education, and instead groomed to be wives, spending their childhood being forced into conformity in preparation for their "coming out" when they would attend dances and parties in hopes of securing a husband.

"Oh, my darling!" she exclaimed in sudden flattened tones, "don't go and get a reputation for being clever, whatever you do. People do dislike that sort of thing so much in a girl!"


This is the world Alex is born into and, with what she herself describes as "social incompetence," it quickly becomes apparent she is not well-suited to it.

Alex got to me in the same way Eleanor Oliphant, and Sally Diamond, got to me. I found her a highly sympathetic character, even if she was at times frustrating, even if I longed for her to be different, stand up for herself, something, I understood her struggles and I felt so deeply for her.

In childhood, she longs for friendship, forms attachments to her classmates, but does not know how to be someone others admire and want to befriend. As she ages, she dreams of a loving husband and family, but struggles to comprehend why, despite her pretty face, she isn't twinkly and charming and attractive like the other young women.

Like many women who failed to secure a husband at this time, she eventually turns to the convent.

Though the book didn't name it, what it depicts is long-term social anxiety that eventually develops into depression. Alex's failure time and again to form meaningful relationships leaves her ever more alone. It is truly awful to sit by and watch as she fumbles socially, making horrific mistakes that she cannot identify as such. This line perfectly encapsulates depression:

She had ceased to wonder whether life would ever offer anything but this mechanical round of blurred pain and misery[…]


I was shocked to discover how dark this book is. I have not read Delafield before, but she is most famous for her light comedy-- Diary of a Provincial Lady --and this book is horrible, vicious and heartbreaking. There can be no doubt here-- young women being raised to be paraded in front of men in the hopes that one of them will like what he sees is not a romance; it's a horror story. And yet another horror story was to be an unmarried woman in your thirties, having family members discuss what is to be done with you.

A very affecting read that may not be suitable for those sensitive to depiction of depression and/or [spoilers removed]. ]]> Review7314229310 Fri, 07 Mar 2025 04:28:26 -0800 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'A Drop of Corruption']]> /review/show/7314229310 A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett Emily May gave 4 stars to A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2) by Robert Jackson Bennett
bookshelves: fantasy, mystery-thriller, arc, 2025
4 1/2 stars. Even better than The Tainted Cup!

I am having so much fun with this series. Even though it is a high fantasy setting with an incredibly detailed world, the tone of the stories reminds me very much of urban fantasy mysteries I've enjoyed over the years. Once again, the plot is a murder mystery, and, once again, the delightfully funny banter between Din and Ana drives the narrative.

Before beginning this series I saw comparisons to Sherlock and Watson and I rolled my eyes and thought yeah, whatever, but it's actually a fairly good comparison in this case. Ana is just as brilliant as Cumberbatch's Sherlock, and even more prone to eccentricities and social faux pas. Din narrates the story Watson-style, recounting Ana's brilliance with no small amount of bafflement, while also showing ingenuity of his own.

The mysteries in both books have been really well-crafted, layered and satisfying. I've gotten much better at discovering culprits and spotting wild twists after years of reading mysteries and thrillers, but I have so far found Bennett's mysteries impenetrable. I think it is because there is so much going on and each mystery opens up to an even larger mystery before it is solved. By the time I got to the "Aha! So it's..." point, Ana was confirming what I'd figured out in the next paragraph.

But while much of this book is fun, underneath it is something deeper-- a criticism of autocracy in a genre enamored by kingdoms and divine rule. The author's note is a must-read.

Now to wait for the next book. ]]> Review6713872281 Mon, 03 Mar 2025 06:55:50 -0800 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'Fidelity']]> /review/show/6713872281 Fidelity by Susan Glaspell Emily May gave 4 stars to Fidelity (Paperback) by Susan Glaspell
bookshelves: classics, persephone, 2025
Persephone books are full of such gems. I already enjoyed Glaspell's story in The Persephone Book of Short Stories, and Fidelity really makes me want to read more of her work.

Fidelity is a fascinating book about early twentieth century America, specifically life in a small insular town in Iowa. For 1915, it's pretty outrageous. Ruth Holland was disgraced ten years before the novel's start when she ran off with an older married man. In the present of the story, she returns to the town of her birth because her father is dying. There, she faces the scorn and outrage of her former neighbours and friends.

It's a book with a lot to say-- about the necessity of destigmatizing divorce, the importance of freedom, how women got more than their share of the blame in matters of adultery --but it's also a larger meditation on the individual vs society, especially when achieving individual happiness is in conflict with societal norms and expectations.

I felt for Ruth, but I was less sympathetic to Stuart. I would have forgiven him this affair� his relationship with his wife was clearly already broken, and this was a time where divorce was not so easily obtained —but it was revealed that this was not his first infidelity and that he already destroyed his marriage by pursuing his wife’s friend. I was very glad that his wife, who is at first dismissed as cold and unreasonably bitter, was given more complex character development in the later chapters.

Also, I won't spoil anything but I want to say I LOVED the ending. It was exactly what I didn't even know I wanted, and not what I expected. ]]>