imaginary_space's Reviews (246)

 This is quite entertaining, but not better than I would expect from an rpg tie-in novel. I'm not the biggest fan of Beckett as a character and there weren't many surprises in the plot, but it was a fun ride. 

 Stephen Graham Jones touches a lot of serious topics Indigenous people face, all while crafting a truly suspenseful horror story that felt classic and fresh in all the good ways. I was entertained by this book, and I also feel I have learned so much from it, and for me, these are the best kinds of books.

Altough I love the folk horror elements, I think the true heart of this story are the characters. They are layered and conflicted and we get to see them through their own eyes as well as through the eyes of others, we get to see their expectations of themselves, the expectations that are placed on them and how that effects every single life - theirs and the ones they touch. We see different faces of intergenerational trauma, what it does to people and how it might be overcome.

It took me a minute to get used to the writing style, but it does fit the brutality and honesty of the book perfectly. And yes, this book is brutal in many ways. And honest. And I loved the ending

I wholeheartedly recommend it. 

 This is a timely read (which is in itself tragic, and I can't help but wonder for how long we will be saying this) with a very strong and personal voice.

I am very happy I read this. It isn't something I would usually chose, because it is marketed as a dystopian story and I don't lean towards this genre a lot. But there is a discussion to be had about how dystopian this story really is. I wouldn't categorize it as such, it is real, which the author has commented on himself.

The transitions are hard to follow, I didn't always know how old the protagonists were or how much time had passed between scenes. But although this was a bit confusing, I think it added to the style and voice of the narrative and put the focus on emotions. It was disjointed, very stream-of-consiousness, and it was intended to be. Nothing is polished here to make it "more pretty" or "more appealing", and I think that's a great thing. 

 For years, my headcanon has been that Peter Pan is a fairy: Not necessarily evil, but indifferent and without understanding for humans. Which means this book is right up my alley. I like the idea and the execution, it was entertaining to read and it speaks to everyone who has ever been gaslighted by a narcissist.

Unfortunately, it ignored a lot of established backstory of Captain Hook and facts about Peter Pan, Neverland, etc. I would not mind ignoring a few things, but it felt too much to me, like the author did not really care about the source material. Maybe this story would have worked better on its own, not as a retelling. Plus, there is an unneccesary romance that just does not fit into the story at all. 

This was a fast-paced, very classic vampire story that reminded me a lot of 'Dracula', in a good way.
The characters were interesting, the story was engaging, all in all, this is an entertaining read.

With delightful britishness:

"Call me Sam, for Christ's sake. You're Lucas, right?"
Avery's nose twitched, the same micro-organisms which dyed his blood blue rebelling at the casual attitude of this Colorado tumbleweed. "If you prefer."

There's also this one skeptic who annoys everybody with his scepticism and they just have no time for his bs, which is to be appreciated as well.

I didn't get much of a feeling for the villain, he seemed kind of random in his actions to me. On one hand, I get it, because

vampires are evil in this story, no debate, and that was represendetd very well and is an aspect that I like.

On the other hand,

he didn't seem to have a plan and rather seemed to make it up at random as he went along, which seemed more like a plot device to me than an evil villain.

I liked the queer representation and how it was woven into the story and the time period it takes place in, without being overly dramatic in one direction or the other. This added a lot to the feeling of a classic story, updated for a modern audience, and I appreciated that. It felt a lot like just normalizing having queer characters around and I think that's great and we need to do that more.
I do wish the author would have given the same treatment to his female characters, though. Sadly, he didnt. They do fall flat completely and there is none who really does anything. He did have a chance, and he ignored it.

'"Do you think I select just any soul to join me in eternity? It is an honour, gentlemen. A great honour."
"Why did you pick the girl, then?" Carter said. "What makes her so special?"
[The vampire] smiled, his lips thin and pale in the glum lanternlight. "Because she is young," he said softly, "and beautiful."

tldr; characterization left something to be desired, but I did like the pacing and the style, so I might check out the second book in this series.

This was an entertaining, quick read and there's a lot to like about it. I especially appreciate the absence of hormonal teenage behaviour by adult characters.

The backstory of vampires, werewolves and witches is okay, I wasn't particularly excited about it. Some things about the general setup of the story need a lot of suspension of disbelief, but that's mostly all right.

I like that the story is told from the perspective of those low on the supernatural food chain, and I like that Scarlett is not the chosen one to save the world(TM), although I didn't really understand why she was the lowest of the low with her powers. She's also a super rare urban fantasy heroine: actually acts clever most of the time and uses her common sense, she has one-night stands and sees nothing wrong with that, she doesn't let her love life take over her whole life.

Most of the secondary characters I found interesting and believable in an urban fantasy-way, especially the vampires. Scarletts housemate is refreshing and funny with a hint of tragic, and it's great to see the old, powerful boss-vampire to actually behave like one (most of the time) and not fall in love with the heroine and act like a homone-controlled teenager because of it.

The love

triangle is not my favourite trope, but it

was done okay here, and the characters behaved like the adults they are, which made me happy. Problematic romance tropes were pleasantly absent.

Pacing is good and the plot is interesting enough.

All in all, this is more of a 3-star-book, but since it didn't do so many of the things that usually annoy me to no end in urban fantasy novels, I have to give it a fourth star, simply because I am so happy about that fact.

This is a really cool book and yet, it took me a long time to get through it, because I just didn't pick it up. Why?

What I liked
- The characters - they are diverse, interesting and flawed.
- The worldbuilding - a lot of interesting ideas done well.
- The story - it's not as action-packet, but more introspect and develops slowly, but I found this was done very well and I liked it.
- James Fouhey as audiobook speaker - he's the only one I've heard so far who can read the dialogue of women without me finding it cringy. People should hire him more often.

All in all, this book should have been right up my alley.

I think what put me off a bit was something that is not the book's fault but the marketing's and my personal preference: Despite Kenna's journey being super interesting, there was a bit too much teenage angst and whining for me, combined with instalove and a lot of descriptions of how great the love interest is. On top of it, everything was very on the nose, every lession was spelled out. 
All of this makes me think this is more of a middle grade or YA book, which I just don't generally go for. In fact, I chose this book, despite its teenage protagonist, especially because it is advertised as "adult".

So I just expected something different from what I got. But I do think it is a good YA book and maybe people who like YA a lot more than I do will enjoy this.

I did like the ending a lot, though.

Not everything worked out magically by the end of the story and Kenna actually had to work for his happy end.

Exactly the kind of slow, suspense-building read I like.

If you want a <b>tldr</b> to this review, here you go: This book is...
creepy, eerie, claustrophobic, atmospheric, suspenseful, slow, terrifying.

The descriptions of the cave, the suit, and how the latter distances Gyre from the former, her slow progress down through tunnels and water, the closed environment, the struggle for control, her thoughts and the constant uncertainty, the question if something is real or not - I loved all of these.

The eerie, claustrophobic atmosphere in this book is amazing, as is the body horror, and some of those scenes are truly terrifying to read.

Sometimes I was even reminded of those story-driven videogames, which is probably because of the close one-person perspective and the alternation between more adventure-like scenes and scenes where we (or the protagonist) get more information.

I loved all the descriptions of the suit and how Gyre's thoughts towards it changed depending on her situation. Feeling trapped, then feeling protected and so on. And all those descriptions really created a barrier between Gyre in her cyberpunk-scifi-ish suit that is controlled in every aspect all the time and the completely tech-free, natural and unpredictable environment of the cave. The scenes where Gyre

interacted directly with the world outside her suit rank among the most scary ones for me, just because I, too, was so used to the suit being there. First the times where she doubted what the suit was showing her, then when she opened her helmet and in the end when the suit started to break apart. And that scene at camp six where her suit started to power down and she was trapped. That was scary!

The exploration of Gyre's psyche was both engaging and horrifying and I did find all of it truly believable. The author does not only play with Gyre's perception of reality, but with ours as well, and she does hit the mark.

Some examples: (mild spoilers here)

Trying to convince herself what a gread handler Em is, despite not trusting her and knowing perfectly well all the things Em does wrong, just because Em is the only person Gyre has to watch over her. 
Trying to find reasons to push forward and not turn around, simply because she does like the challenge and the thrill, but she knows this alone would be a rather dangerous and stupid motivation.

One of my favourite scenes was when she discovered

the line in one of those long drops that was still taut as if someone was hooked to it and she tried to decide wheter to cut it or not.

That was so good! Also, the

empty suit and feeding canister she discovered that wasn't there before.

The Tunnelers are an interesting concept and worked well for me up until a certain point - that point being the reason why I'm giving this book only four stars.

When we actually get to see the tunneler, Gyre faces it down and then kills it.

That scene really irritated me, it just didn't fit in with the rest. My least favourite. Especially disappointing directly after that super scary and well-crafted scene where

the tunneler passed right behind Gyre and everything was chaos. I remember being thankful that it passed so close and yet we didn't get to see it.

<b>Regarding the ending:</b>

I found it rushed, especially in comparison to everything else.

I liked that not everything was cleared up and I liked everything that happened until Gyre got out of the cave. For me, the book could have ended there.

I'm a bit disappointed by everything that happend afterwards and especially by the fact that the two actually ended up together. But on the other hand, it feels fitting that Gyre continues to tell herself that Em is good for her, because she got her out of the cave. So the massive power imbalance continues ... and actually, whily typing this out, I realized this book could not have a happy ending, so maybe I do like it after all. I was just angry about Gyre's interpretation of everything, the "well, we were both assholes". I guess they are both depending on each other in a very unhealthy way.

 Authors, take note: This is how you write a great story about men that is feminist at the same time!

This book was what I needed when I needed it. For Corona reasons, I can't go larping this year and was craving some larp vibes. This book delivered. Oh, did this book deliver!

 “Watch this!” he said, and what happened next might have been extraordinarily funny were their lives not at stake. But they were, so it wasn’t.”

Kings of the Wyld is about a band of retired mercenaries/heroes who, because of reasons, get together for one last heroic adventure - although it does not start out heroic, because they have become old, cranky and unfit and the world has moved on without them. Nevertheless, they were the most feared and famous band out there once, and over time, they all start remembering it.

All the while, they are allowed to have feelings and stuff, while doing heroic things! And they don't even have to be sexist to be manly!
(I was actually weary while reading this, always expecting to encounter the disappointing sexism on the next page. This is what epic fantasy books have done to me!)

“For a while no one spoke, because in the roundabout course of thirty-some years they had said just about all there was to say to one another, until finally Clay could bear the silence no longer and cleared his throat. “I love you guys,” he said, and gods-be-damned if his voice didn’t sell him out at the end and crack like a boy of twelve summers.”

So, some short facts about this book.

- It's in turns funny, heartwarming, dramatic and full of action.
- Not all the jokes do it for me, but I don't mind, humour is super hard and I don't usually read funny books, so I'm not the best judge here.
- Really cool worldbuilding.
- No teenage protagonists anywhere around, but a band of retired adventurers/heroes and that was so refreshing.
- They are full of flaws and also good.
- There are bawdy jokes and the world is not quite feminist (although more so than most other classic fantasy worlds), but the story certainly is, even though it isn't centered on women.
- Well-paced story.
- Great action sequences.
- Mood and owlbears! <3
- Manpain, but in a good way.
- Quotable sentences. This book is full of them.
- The story is equal parts epic and grounded.
- A deava in black armour and with huge black wings who can fly and is accompanied by a small army of martial arts monks. I mean, come on!
- That scene where Clay realized for the first time

that he was the leader of Saga all along!

“As individuals they were each of them fallible, discordant as notes without harmony. But as a band they were something more, something perfect in its own intangible way.”

Very early on I had started to expect this book would make me cry before the end. But then I found the ending to actually be a bit disappointing.
Here's why:

The book, although it contains a lot of humour, presents the world of Saga as gritty and dark, even grimdark. There is a lot of dangerous stuff in this world, plus a huge conflict, we meet a lot of people (and other beings) who have experienced bad things in this world, our protagonists included. People constantly worry about each other's wellbeing. There are some pretty foreshadow-y scenes. And then ... nothing bad happens. They succeed in everything. I had expected at least one of them to die, probably Clay or Gabe just when he sees his daughter but before he can reach her. The stakes were so high and then we have this feelgood-fantasy ending and it just didn't fit the rest of the story for me.

“Where you stand, I stand.”

 I expected this to be something completely different than what it was. And I liked it.

The best thing about this book is the mix of eccentric, lovable characters and their interactions with each other. I found myself rooting for them almost instantly and was invested in each of their stories. The second best thing is the exploration of institutionalization and the treatment of mental illness. When LaValle combines the very, very real horror of the institution with his bunch of lovable characters, you can't help but feel for them and with them, and be frightened by the way other people treat them.

LaValle's writing is still great in this book, although I did love it more in The Ballad of Black Tom. I enjoyed the sudden shifts in point of view, it gave the whole story a very movie-like feel. What threw me off were the addresses to the reader and the remarks in brackets, I didn't find them particularly clever, they just disturbed my reading flow.

I will definitely be reading more stories by Victor LaValle, he's becoming one of my favourite horror authors.