brgntteva's Reviews (939)

[iIT SOTTO] I fell for this book hard. I wasn’t immediately caught up. It grows on you, you see layers grow one over the other, one under the other, and narratives interlacing, and by the end you’re caught.
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You meet a couple, a woman and a man, both with children from previous relations, a 5-yo and a 10-yo, living in New York, recording noises as a job, specifically the >800 languages spoken in NYC. You meet them when they’re about to change their lives. The man is about to start a research on echoes of Apaches in Arizona while the woman wants to reach the deportation centers of Mexican children in Texas. So they leave everything and set off for a month-long trip through the US. I followed their journey through g-maps, and it was so fascinating and real, I was moving with them, trying bars and motels, getting lost, losing it. I was with them when they saw Mexican children being deported, when the boy decided he wanted to be found in Echo Canyon with his young wild sister, when they argued and screamed and met ppl.

I love it when writers quote other writers especially when they’re translated (say French writers, Czech writers, Spanish ones) so when she quoted Hrabal my heart melted (and that’s something I noticed in not-American writers)(Valeria Luiselli is Mexican living in the US).

It’s a book made of fragments, and extracts, photos and schemes and lists, drowned in nostalgia. And the voice. The voice of Valeria Luiselli is perfection, smooth and lyrical and felt. Read it please?
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L’archivio dei bambini perduti è bellissimo. Potrei smettere qui. Affogato nella nostalgia, fatto di frammenti e liste e foto, punti di vista che si scambiano. La voce di questa scrittrice messicana che vive negli Stati Uniti è una meraviglia.

Inizia come la storia di una donna e un uomo, ognuno con un figlio da precedenti relazioni, che partono per un viaggio attraverso gli Stati Uniti, da New York (dove per lavoro registravano i rumori e le voci e le lingue parlate a New York), per per iniziare altri progetti. Lui per registrare gli eco degli Apaches in Arizona, lei per documentare le deportazioni dei bambini messicani che hanno attraversato il confine attraverso il deserto e messi nei centri di detenzione. E dal principio lo sai, e in qualche modo lo sanno tutti, che sarà l’ultimo viaggio, le ultime esperienze come una famiglia. Però non è affatto un drammone, c’è solo questa nostalgia per un futuro che non sarà più che trasuda dai frammenti.
E poi c’è questo fatto, che gli autori americani non fanno, di citare altri autori che parlano altre lingue (francesi, spagnoli o cechi, quando ha citato Hrabal sono morta e risorta). 

I think I’ve met my new auto-buy author. I mean it. After Charlotte Stein and Talia Hibbert and possibly Olivia Dade, here we go with Molly O’Keefe. 

#MollyOKeefe has this thing, that her characters are REAL. Not real as in “accidentally joining a (kinda)(technically not) orgy”, but real as in introvert in an honest, freaking relatable way, doing real stuff (not exactly as in a “fight club” situation) but in not living in fancy places, rather in sort of dodgy ones near dodgy basements, going to a 7/11 to buy wine, working like mad bc you don’t like people and you don’t really know how to be with people. This kind of real.

And mostly, oh so mostly, I live for the kind of relationship that enhances both people's potentials, helps both become who they really are, unmask them, get them raw and naked. The kind of relationship that gets an extremely self-conscious introverted people-pleaser to finally state what they want, in and out of bed. The kind of relationship that pushes to go grab what they want because they finally see their own worth.

And that’s it, really. Must I add that Charlotte is an overweight illustrator working on a Where’s Waldo book, where Waldo is Jane Austen? Or that Jesse is a bossy, mono-syllabic brute (not always of course) who seems to see through everything bc he’s an introvert too, and he’s actually The Cinnamon-roll (who could easily kill you)? And the writing style reminds me of Charlotte Stein, and for me it's huge, in fact the whole book reminds me a bit of Never sweeter. Oh, and it’s hot, vividly, acutely, realistically hot.

GIDEON THE NINTH by Tamsyn Muir is a freaking gem. "Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space" is probably the catchiest concept I've ever seen.
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Gideon is the orphan cavalier of the Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus, the most powerful necromancer of them all. They set for a deadly challenge for mysterious reasons in the abovementioned palace, which turns out to be a "and then there was none" kind of play. The thing is: this novel is hilarious, and full of twists and turns, it's gory, bizarre, queer, fun af. The cavalier and her necromancer hate each other but they actually don't, of course, and the story is choke full of banter and cynicism and duels, and riddles, blood, feelings! You might not make much sense out of it but you won't care bc what a freaking fun ride.
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It's the book which made me want to break the posting slump bc you must go and read it and thank me later
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on @scribd the narrator is awesome!

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Pub Day: June 1.

If you are into dark romances, Stern Brunch Daddies, some voyeuristic kink, plotting, forced proximity, and Persephone and Hades retelling, go straight for it.

We’re in a (sort of) contemporary world, where Persephone is caught up in the intrigues set up by her mother, Demeter, the most ambitious fierce woman ever. Persephone has to play naive and sunshine to survive her surrounding while she  hates the spotlight, and the Thirteen who rule the Upper City, except Hades, who is supposed to be a myth, except he isn’t. So when she finds herself crossing the River Styx, straight towards the dark figure, and strikes a deal for a winter, you know what follows.

I like the arc of both MCs: how the more Persephone got to know Hades, the more she left her sweet, naive, protective mask behind and owned her own strength. How you get to see Hades peel himself off his own walls to show his feelings and his true caring self. I loved his thoughtful nature so much (the “overprotective mother bear”), definitely a Stern Brunch Daddy, all care during the day and domineering at night.

There is relatively low angst, except for a very specific sex scene. It’s not too wild either. I mean, of course it’s hot, it’s Katee Robert we’re talking about, there is voyeurism and all the range of “carnal activities”, just not much kink. Maybe that is why, although I loved the characters, and the overall arc, I felt like the peaks are missing. There are important dramatic scenes (violent ones as well), but not the emotional ones I expected. It still is a solid dark hot retelling of Persephone and Hades.