ceraphimfalls's Reviews (319)

"The Book of Cold Cases" really surprised me. I read this as part of a book club. I'm not into true crime or mysteries, as most of the time I have them solved 50 pages and it feels like a waste of time to keep reading. But this kept me engaged. This kept me guessing right up until the author wanted me to know what was going on. Maybe it was the touch of gothic horror that made this sing and feel fresh in a rather staid genre. It has a home on my keeper shelf.

Awful. Truly truly awful. I feel bad about this review because the author clearly has love for her characters, but the best praise I can give it is it reads like a rough draft. This is like a fifth grader wrote King Arthur fanfiction, and it is not even nearly half as good as most of the stuff on AO3 written by other fifth graders.

Not for me. And mean-spirited when it didn't need to be? It felt a bit like a far too serious manga version of "The Prisoner", but without the camp or the trampolines.

A solid 3.5 star book, despite a joyful ending, for some repetition and pulled punches. But this is what a character-driven, cozy mystery should be! The characters were engaging and cute and well-rounded. Our heroine was plucky, with human level powers of perception- a necessary endearment because the author leaned heavily on the "she's not like other girls" trope.

But the real reason to read this is, well, our source of the silly title. The characterization of Julia Child was spot on! I say this as an acolyte who owns every one of her cookbooks, read every book about her I could get my hands on, watched every episode of "The French Chef", you get the picture... She wasn't in the story too much, just enough to give it proper framing and support, and allowing her to be our audience surrogate was truly a stroke of genius. Between her and Tabitha's grandpere and Oncle Rafe, the world felt real. I'm looking forward to the next book! 

Absolutely fantastic that every story in here is helmed by an indigenous author. I wish there had been more from First Nation authors in the Arctic, because there are some Inuit stories I grew up with that I wish reached more people, but that's the only drawback to this volume. I especially liked that, true to Navajo tradition, certain shapeshifting spirits names were not spoken, even in text. If there is one North American folktale that terrifies me and makes me actively sick-to-my-stomach superstitious, it's the story of those shapeshifters. But the tales to be found here are wonderful and diverse and kind. The retelling of the Rougarou as a lost soul, and how one lost their soul to The Woman in the Woods were both great heartwarming highlights.

It took me two years to finish this book. Not because it's bad or poorly written in any way. I'm just a scaredy cat with a weak stomach. But once I got my courage up... what an ending.

Updated but not reimagined folktales are exactly what I needed on this sleepy, rainy day. They were easy to read, but poignant. The art was diverse and interesting and the writing was tight, but accessible. There are parts that feel wobbly or somewhat incomplete, but it was a solid showing for the first in an anthology series- especially since I'm not a great fan of anthologies!

Highlights: Gratitude, The Lion's Whisker, and The Stranger**

I haven't been able to set this book down since page 200. It is 230 in the morning and I am wired as hell. My partner said that he hadn't heard me gasp so much while reading; truly the gasps to pages ratio of this book is off the charts. This is truly a stunning, brilliant, and important book. Frankly, I would rather this be taught in schools over The Diary of Anne Frank. There's a visceral power to this story that needs to be experienced by as many people as possible.

Some of the most naturalistic, accessible writing out there. It made the world and the love of Shane and Eva come alive. I have never had a reading experience as positively visceral as this one, and I doubt I ever will again. It is going on my forever shelf, and I am hunting down everything else Tia Williams has written.

Re-reading this eight years after publication has only cemented it as one of the greatest first volumes in modern comics. It's aged like a fine wine.