booksthatburn's Reviews (1.46k)

BLACK TIDE features two almost-strangers suddenly trying to survive after a meteor shower that left behind very strange things on the beach. 

Early on I realized what it's horror novel treatment of, and I don't really want to spoil it except to say that any of my fellow exvangelicals might find something you recognize. You don’t need to figure it out to understand the book, however, since it’s using that sequence of events as the bones in a wonderfully horrific creation. It's from the perspective of two characters who aren’t already familiar with the shape of what’s to come, who have no way to guess the truly twisted shit that’s going down. 

The characters have the kind of communication errors which completely fit people who met yesterday and have very little emotional energy to navigate interpersonal dynamics in addition to trying to stay alive. It's just enough to feel real but doesn't bog down the story. The worldbuilding is very good, with the characters slowly figuring out what's happening and some strategies to deal with immediate dangers, but lacking any ability to fix things more broadly. This is a very good horror novel and I'm quite pleased overall. 

DEAD COLLECTIONS is an exploration of memories and identity via a Jewish trans vampire living in his office as an archivist, falling in love with a widow who drops off a collection for the archive.

I love this book. The explorations of gender and identity follow a general template that feels meant to open the door for the reader to ask themselves questions, while also being deeply specific to the characters (a trans man who’s also Jewish and a vampire, a person who begins the story identifying as a bisexual woman) and the setting (USA, circa 2018). The romance is intimate and erotic, with an intensity which comes from two people exploring themselves as much as they're getting closer to each other. 

This feels so wonderfully believable and specific in every little detail, from the attempt at safety which led to Sol living at work, to the messiness of Elsie exploring new love as she deals with the stuff left behind after her wife’s passing. Sol and Else talking, laughing, and fucking, with the background issue of Sol dealing with things at work. 

The worldbuilding is subtle and minimalistic, basically modern times but where vampires exist and are known to medical science. It grounds itself in a time and a place (but with vampires) and then doesn't try to explain what the place means, but lets itself just exist.

The audiobook narrator is great. There’s a bit a little past halfway through involving several people’s emails back and forth, and it’s a pretty serious moment, but there’s a memetic quality to the way the narrator reads it. If you like audiobooks then definitely give this one a shot, as their performance works so well with the story and the characters.

I love this so much, it's a fantastic premise, well executed, and the whole thing is just so perfect.

I wanted to like this, but I generally don't like YA contemporary, and once all the weird/magic/superhero stuff is confined to brief glimpses and chapter headings, it leaves an interestingly framed YA contemporary novel where crushes, school dances, and ongoing parental neglect are the big stakes. I'm not interested in those stakes, but if you are then this might work for you. The depiction of OCD was realistic in a way that might be triggering for anyone else who has it, including a lot of ideation. I haven't read anything else I can recall with such a realistic portrayal of this condition, so I liked that inclusion, but that wasn't enough to hold my interest (especially when that started getting stressful for me). It has a very irreverent tone which is used for everything from crush woes to discussions of current and past trauma, so please check the CWs before proceeding. 

I don't like the feeling of being poised in suspense to find out whether the twist is obvious or strange. There are two main characters with two different understandings of what their reality is, and I got far enough to know I didn't care who was right, if one or both of them are actually dead, or if it's some additional permutation I didn't think of.

The island sequences were pretty cool, the world is an interesting dystopia, and I like the audiobook narrator. This just wasn't a story I like.

I don’t like the modern-day parts of the setting, and the synopsis doesn’t make me think I’ll like the rest of the plot. It's a portal fantasy, which normally I like, but this one just didn't fit me.

Don't like the style of prose, very flowy and heavy on vivid details that don't feel grounded.

Lost interest in the contemporary portion of the story.

I don't have any basis of expertise to evaluate whether the depictions of psychopathy are accurate or inaccurate. I enjoyed the book and the information fits some things I already knew, as well as explaining a bunch of new stuff, but it's not trying to be a psychopathy explainer except in as much is necessary to understand the characters.

The narrative style is a bit unusual. There are several main characters whose perspectives are shown as point-of-view characters. But only Chloe narrates in first-person, the others use third person. This creates detachment and uncertainty, which works especially well when Chloe suspects most of them of being the murderer at one time or another. I like Chloe, Charles, and Andre, they're a solid trio in the narrative, even as their individual relationships with each other are very different throughout the text. They make sense as people, which is important in a story which revolves around a bunch of characters having the same mental health diagnosis. Chloe has her own way of being a psychopath which is distinct from the others, with these traits often helping but just as frequently getting in the way of her goals. I like her as a character, and Charles has his own charm, but Andre is my favorite of the main three. 

By focusing on characters who are diagnosed with psychopathy, the narrative takes advantage of an opportunity for a wonderful mix of showing and telling. Chloe knows that certain of her traits are because of her psychopathy, but that doesn't make her better at controlling her impulsiveness (at least not this early in the program). 

This is a solid mystery, very thrilling. The twists and turns make sense without being immediately guessable. Part of what helps is there are lots of bad actors in addition to the actual murderer, so it becomes a matter of figuring out who is doing a bunch of bad things, whether they're doing one or several of them, and whether any of them are enough for that person to make sense as the killer.