truly--the kind of book you want to carve a hole into, so you can crawl in and make a home there. everything you love about Link's short fiction--the truly--the kind of book you want to carve a hole into, so you can crawl in and make a home there. everything you love about Link's short fiction--the prose, the wonder, the proximity of the mythic and the mundane--is here, but grown huge. the back cover copy will tell you about the three teenagers who come back from the dead, but it's not about their resurrection so much as why they want to stay, and what they would leave behind: love. for each other, for friends and lovers, for books and music and good food. it's a story full of magic and fairy tales--a girl riding a bear through winter, a boy who becomes a fox, a wolf at the door--but what lingers for me is that ordinary, everyday love.
and alright, yes, it's 640 pages. is it """slow"""? sure. yeah. so is spring. so is a sunset. so is sex, if you're doing it right, and death, if you're lucky. some things are meant to be savored....more
what an absolute delight this series continues to be. footnotes! bad spooky fox fae! academic ambition! a cold, brilliant woman and her charmingly indwhat an absolute delight this series continues to be. footnotes! bad spooky fox fae! academic ambition! a cold, brilliant woman and her charmingly indolent fairy king!! and such clever little turns--you're always a step behind emily, and there are few places i'd rather be.
Merged review:
what an absolute delight this series continues to be. footnotes! bad spooky fox fae! academic ambition! a cold, brilliant woman and her charmingly indolent fairy king!! and such clever little turns--you're always a step behind emily, and there are few places i'd rather be....more
absolutely brilliant. it's really something, to be reading an author whose first book left you sobbing, and realize--with a kind of fearful awe--that absolutely brilliant. it's really something, to be reading an author whose first book left you sobbing, and realize--with a kind of fearful awe--that they were pulling their punches.
but i don't want to scare you off. this is not a book of unrelenting or senseless suffering; at even the bleakest moments, there's the heart-stopping potential for empathy, grace, connection, a vital truth-to-self-- a brightness so stunning that even when it slips past, you can see it on the backs of your eyelids....more
haunting, sumptuous, poetic, rich, vicious, upsetting, strangely but profoundly romantic, fairy tale in the old bad sense, gothic in the new subversivhaunting, sumptuous, poetic, rich, vicious, upsetting, strangely but profoundly romantic, fairy tale in the old bad sense, gothic in the new subversive sense. absolutely loved it....more
if you haven't read Griffith......i almost envy you, because oh my god, one of the greats.
this is one of my new favorites from her, and stunning reclaif you haven't read Griffith......i almost envy you, because oh my god, one of the greats.
this is one of my new favorites from her, and stunning reclamation of the arthurian mythos. the thing that has lingered with me, months and months after reading it, is the sheer sensory joy of it. peretur is so vibrant, so willfully alive, so in love with the world around her--and so was i, reading this. ...more
hahahaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaa i thought i was ready for this book! i'd read the poppy war trilogy! i'm familiar with the time period, with academia, with inthahahaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaa i thought i was ready for this book! i'd read the poppy war trilogy! i'm familiar with the time period, with academia, with interrogations of empire!
reader, i was not ready. Babel is more ambitious, more brilliant, more upsetting, more satisfying, than i could have imagined. it's a love letter and a declaration of war. it's The Secret History on the scale of empire; it's Jonathan Strange with teeth.
if you like bridgerton, but struggle to suppress that persistent little voice in your head, the one that sounds like the sweet snick of the guillotineif you like bridgerton, but struggle to suppress that persistent little voice in your head, the one that sounds like the sweet snick of the guillotine--
cat sebastian is for you.
i've loved all her books, but this one? with the two bi disasters ineptly committing crimes against the aristocracy? with the vicious cutthroat aristocratic woman and the soft highwayman with very poor self-preservation instincts???? and the epistolary blackmail letters that accidentally become love letters? absolutely everything i want in a historical romance....more
i mean--look, i know i hype a lot of books! that's because i read a lot of excellent books that deserve hype! i regret nothing! but this oneholy. god.
i mean--look, i know i hype a lot of books! that's because i read a lot of excellent books that deserve hype! i regret nothing! but this one is a goddamn barn burner. a deeply smart space opera with all the hyperactive energy of a vorkosigan book, the searing character arcs of the locked tomb series, and a moral clarity and scope all its own. you'll know you're at the halfway point when you start screaming and don't stop....more
the graphic novel that has it all: girls + swords, girls + swords realizing their heroes were manufactured imperial propaganda, girls + swords fightinthe graphic novel that has it all: girls + swords, girls + swords realizing their heroes were manufactured imperial propaganda, girls + swords fighting their way toward a different kind of heroism alongside a ragtag band of empire's exiles. i read it out loud to my 5yo. twice. in one day....more
rowe's writing is so clean and his worlds are so expansively, wonderfully weird. it's honestly wonderful to see that scope and talent applied to the browe's writing is so clean and his worlds are so expansively, wonderfully weird. it's honestly wonderful to see that scope and talent applied to the bluegrass state, to geographies i know so well. it's a glimpse of a strange future built from a familiar past, and it made me homesick as all hell.
for the last year i've been doing two things that are pretty new to me: reading romance, and watching horror. i've also been reading a ton of gothic ffor the last year i've been doing two things that are pretty new to me: reading romance, and watching horror. i've also been reading a ton of gothic fiction and trying to write a book about a spooky house rooted in local histories.
so when i tell you this book is up my alley, i mean it is PRECISELY up my alley. it puts all those things together and--crucially--adds a very hot priest. i loved it....more
i read this book in a day and have spent the rest of the week in an obsessive fog, googling the author and the book as if marianne and connell are reai read this book in a day and have spent the rest of the week in an obsessive fog, googling the author and the book as if marianne and connell are real people who might have facebook pages to stalk. i'm at the point of hate-reading negative reviews. i've annoyed all my groupchats. i'm watching the hulu show.
this book. has everything?? a nuanced and brutal view of the violence of nation-building and the complexities of cultural identity, AND ALSO a pridefuthis book. has everything?? a nuanced and brutal view of the violence of nation-building and the complexities of cultural identity, AND ALSO a prideful, tortured prince brought to his knees--his ...more
this is the kind of book that drowns you and leaves you grateful. sweltering, sexy, subversive, smart (look i have an alliteration problem), atmospherthis is the kind of book that drowns you and leaves you grateful. sweltering, sexy, subversive, smart (look i have an alliteration problem), atmospheric, haunting, dreamy. paper magic. summer in the city. complex, fraught identities negotiated in secret speakeasies and gin-soaked parlors. it was so GOOD....more
god, this book is was like watching a slow motion car crash. i feel like i held my breath for a week.
it's a deeply, almost painfully, observant look agod, this book is was like watching a slow motion car crash. i feel like i held my breath for a week.
it's a deeply, almost painfully, observant look at social media, Blackness and whiteness, a certain kind of affluent white motherhood, power, privilege, philly, the post-college blues, dating, the decisions you make because you're about to get kicked off your parents' health insurance, woke white boys, lean-in feminists, and the weird incandescence of three year olds.
i don't know how a book could be simultaneously haunting and comforting, but WHEW this is it. it's spooky and warm and specific to the upper south in i don't know how a book could be simultaneously haunting and comforting, but WHEW this is it. it's spooky and warm and specific to the upper south in ways that plucked every single one of my heartstrings. it's pitched as The Fast and The Furious but make it southern gothic, and that's the lord's own truth. get it, yall....more
gorgeous writing, aching tragedy, acres of yearning, miles of ambition, true histories mixed with true magic--this book wrecked me and it wwell, shit.
gorgeous writing, aching tragedy, acres of yearning, miles of ambition, true histories mixed with true magic--this book wrecked me and it will wreck you too....more
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