booksthatburn's Reviews (1.46k)

THE MISERABLE MILL turns up the cruelty and adds a new flavor of transphobia. Like many transphobic depictions, it manages this without a single (known) queer person in sight.

In addition to briefly continuing the transphobic and fatphobic descriptions of one of Count Olaf’s henchpeople, it uses a transphobic fearmongering trope of a man dressing as a woman in order to get illicit access to children (the man, of course, is Count Olaf in yet another disguise). It also adds derogatory language for little people as a bad joke about the three children not being as tall as adults, then it doubles down by continuing to use this term throughout the book for no reason other than cruelty.

This doesn’t specifically wrap up anything left hanging from the previous book, but it does reference prior events and the ongoing threat of Count Olaf’s schemes. The storyline is new, in a new setting with new cruelties. It doesn’t specifically leave anything for later, other then that Olaf gets away again and the Baudelaires are still orphans in need of a guardian. The narrator is consistent, slowly dropping hints about his own tortured past. This would mostly make sense if someone picked this up and didn’t know about the other books, or even if they only read the first book and skipped to this one.

The characterization of the kids is slowly developing, with them having to do things that one of the others is normally the one to handle. It's nice to see them growing as characters, even if just a little in the short time the book covers. The plot is fine, it incorporates a workers’ rights narrative into the ongoing child abuse saga. Unfortunately it also features malicious crossdressing, as I mentioned earlier. I liked some bits of the sawmill storyline, but am sour on the book overall.

I generally like this author's work but I just didn't get into this one.

I hadn't liked the love interest in the first book, so switching perspectives to that person and a very altered version of the previous protagonist resulted in a book where I dislike both of the point-of-view characters. That alteration fits the plot, so if you liked the first one this might work for you, it just didn't for me. I can say it starts to deal with the fallout of the protagonist's actions in the first book, so while I don't know how it ends up, I can confirm that it didn't resolve it quickly nor cheaply.

WHITE SMOKE features Mari, newly moved to small-town Ohio, trying to convince her family that she won't make the same mistakes as before. But the house is creepy, her stepsister is bratty and creepy, and weed is the only thing that might let her stop obsessing that every tiny speck is a bedbug here to ruin everything. 

Mari has anxiety and a fixation on bedbugs because of a prior incident. Throughout the story she has panic attacks and ideation about bedbugs, including but not limited to obsessing over whether she's seen them, and trying to cope with the idea of them by thinking about bedbug facts. These serve to both instruct the reader about the pests, if they're not currently aware, and to show what and how much Mari thinks about them. She's also dealing with constant cravings for weed, because it's the only thing that helps her (obviously very severe) anxiety. Half the town's Black folks were locked up years ago for anti-drug laws that aren't laws anymore, which means that even though she might be able to get some, attempting it has higher stakes than it did when she lived in California before.

Mari has a pretty good relationship with her brother, but a very tumultuous one with her stepsister, Piper. She sees everything Piper does as negative and manipulative, even though Piper's behaving well within the bounds of someone would act who is a stressed-out ten-year-old kid in a new place with no friends and a new stepsister who seems to hate her. 

One of the most basic questions in any horror story as things slowly get worse is "why don't they leave". The reasons here are relatable, basic, and immediately understandable. The first one is the house they just moved into is part of an agreement for Mari's mother to work on a project there for three years. The house is free... unless they leave early. That alone is enough to justify a hell of a lot, and then other reasons abound from there. The worldbuilding is excellent, truly magnificent. It's the foundation for a late-book reveal which had me in awe, all while being completely consistent with several possible explanations for what's happening, right up until the actual answer is made clear. 

The audiobook narrator is excellent, they were a phenomenal part of my experience of the book. Their various voices fit the characters and really brought them to life in way that suited them and the story as a whole.

I have no notes, no quibbles, no qualms. Just a damn good book which any fans of horror/thrillers should read ASAP.

A FAR WILDER MAGIC is a deliciously slow burn fantasy romance, getting well past the halfway point before the first longing touch; full of indecision, regret, and hope. Maggie needs Wes's help in order to enter the Halfmoon Hunt and bring down the hala, an immortal creature that some religions say is part of god, and others say is a gift from the divine.  

The narration is split between Wes and Maggie, and the balance is good. I like them both as narrators. This is definitely a place where the audiobook shines, as the audiobook narrator gives them distinct voices which fit the way their tone is described by the text. 

Maggie's relationship with her (currently absent) mother looms large. The reasons for her mother's absence and obsession with alchemy is gradually unfurled as Maggie gets to know Wes and begins to fall for him. Wes's relationships with his sisters and mother are also very important to the story, but as a mostly positive influence. I like Wes's family, they're pretty great and I enjoyed his rapport with them. Maggie's mother is an excellent character and a pretty frustrating person. It takes Maggie a very long time to be able to recognize her mother's treatment of her as neglect and emotional abuse, with Wes calling it out long before Maggie is ready to deal with it on those terms. 

The romance is a very slow burn. I've read slower, but only in books longer than this one. Maggie and Wes are great together, but first they have to get out of their own way about a lot of things. Maggie's anxiety felt realistic, and the romance isn't treated as a cure for it.

The worldbuilding is gradual in terms of character backgrounds, but pretty immediate for the town of Wickdon and the manor where Maggie lives. Maggie's background is definitely meant to be that she's this universe's version of half-Jewish, something that's more shown through the particularities of the bigotry against her more than its shown through any cultural or religious practices that I picked up on. She mentions a few things about her father, and most of the cultural touchstones I could recognize happened when she's thinking about him or talking about something he taught her. Wes is some version of Catholic, as best as I can tell, and the bigotry against him echoes the bits of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic bigotry that I'm aware of as someone who isn't Irish, Catholic, nor Jewish. A major part of Wes's storyline is about figuring out how to navigate the sea of local bigotry which Maggie has grown up in, informed by how he's used to handling it back home. It's very much about him and Maggie figuring out to exist together and what to do about their feelings for each other, but having to deal with bigots is a huge part of the narrative. I'm not in a position to say whether it was done well on a larger level, but I like how it worked in the story and I'm very pleased with how things turn out.

The narration is chock-full of metaphors, usually but not always similes. I didn't mind it, but by the end I was wondering if the characters were going to run out of ways that the color of each other's eyes could be like an entirely different substance, usually a pleasing food or drink. It's done well, I think, but I was starting to notice it each time as I got closer to finishing the story.

I was pleasantly surprised by the pacing. It's several weeks before the hunt begins, and the hunt itself plays out over several weeks because of various ceremonial and preparatory stages. I like the plot and I love the ending. 

It’s hazy and dream-like in a way that made it hard to hang on to what’s happening. The premise is interesting, but I expected a mystery, not an existentialist meditation.