essjay's Reviews (635)

Genuinely creepy. The title tells you everything you need to know going in, and should indicate what's in store. I really think Page has become one of my favourite authors. Can't wait to read what they do next. 

I read this aloud to my 14y/o, the rating is an average of the total score they gave each story (44) divided by the number of stories (11). 

This is the sort of anthology that can either really work, or really doesn't, where each of the stories really contributes to the theme as a whole. Here we have a group of teen-equivalent aliens on an unsanctioned mission to Earth to rescue one of their own. The landing doesn't go as hoped, escape pods are cast off, and each crew member ends up in a different location. 

We kept yelling at them every time they revealed themselves to a new human (bc we suck and why would you take that chance) and also laughed a lot at how many of the stories seemed to revolve around the human kids hoping to get scholarships to escape their hometowns.

While we really did enjoy almost the whole thing (only one story was a dud in our opinion, but the 14y/o wouldn't let me skip it in case it was important later), the following were their favourites:

"Prologue: No Strangers to Love" by Vanya Stoyanova and Rosiee Thor - "This was a lot of fun, a great intro, and I LOVED the use of Rick Astley."

"Username: I'm An Actual Human" by Eric Smith - "I love everything about this story, it was so fun and funny, and I want to be Dexin's online friend."

"Parts of a System" by SJ Whitby - "I knew I was going to love this bc I LOVE SJ Whitby, but I wasn't prepared for how MUCH I loved it. I haven't really come across too many stories featuring enbies who were socialized male, so that was really cool. Find out if anyone has recommendations for that, please?"

We will be checking out a few of the other authors' works, and recommending this as a purchase for our local library. 

Honestly, this book was complete and utter bonkerballs and I loved every second I spent with it. It's almost impossible to talk about and be coherent (I've tried several times while reading) bc any description you give sounds like you're describing some fucked up fever dream Zillennial nonsense? Idk. I loved it, will read it again, and can't wait to see what Kemp writes next.  

This is how Cyrus Roger got sent to the school where they told him he'd never be famous. 

When you punish a person for dreaming his dream, don't expect him to thank or forgive you. 

Hail Satan. 

Add another to my list of melancholy time travel 2024 releases pile. Can't help comparing it to the other things I've read and as such, it suffers a little. Still enjoyed quite a bit (the framing device of using Wells' The Time Machine as a  non-fiction starting point was absolutely inspired), and will probably push it on a few people if asked. 

Probably my favourite alien invasion story I've read this year (which I was not expecting, given I didn't read the back copy or any reviews). 

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. Yay for queer-platonic relationships! Boo for being too handhold-y and having two PoV characters that read exactly the same. 

I love splatterpunk. I love cosmic horror. I love weird shit. 

I did NOT love this. Disjointed and difficult to follow (in a bad way) and I found myself not caring enough to keep going. 

I guess this is the year for melancholy time fuckery? Here for it.