mariebrunelm's Reviews (478)

 McGuire's Wayward Children is to me the definition of whimsical fantasy. It goes in unexpected directions, and tells the story with a storyteller type of narrative, which highlights the fairy-tale aspect. It makes it charming, but doesn't prevent the author from touching on very dark themes.

This is the 4th volume in the series, and like the 2nd, it focuses on one character, telling her story before we meet her in the first tome. I won't tell you much about the contents, except that it follows Lundy and that it is heavily inspired by Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, but you don't need to have read this 19th-century poem to enjoy the story (I hadn't).

McGuire's inventiveness really shines through in this series, and I highly recommend it!

Rep: there is no obvious rep , but the theme of belonging and finding a place to call home, both in one's body and in one's environment, feels rather queer to me. And McGuire's series is joyfully inclusive anyway. 

Reading a book by someone I've met before tends to make it more difficult for me to lose myself in the story because I'm constantly looking for the person behind the words. But with Sophie's book, I was instantly hooked. The fluidity of the prose captivated me, and the unique atmosphere of the Mariana Islands she conjures soothed my need for fresh air. 
Into the Deep is first a character study - that of Sam, an oceanographer who has a passion for the Mariana Trench. He's also a champion of free diving haunted by the memories of a tragedy. It's also a wonderful fantastical novel in which our main character finds something in the Trench - something with the potential of overturning centuries of knowledge. 
Despite knowing next to nothing about the ocean, I was gripped from the first couple of pages and raced through the book. The pace helped, keeping me guessing while taking time to explore the character's thoughts. I was really satisfied to guess some of the revelations, and to witness the plot unfolding so smoothly. So even though I was a bit biased at first, I quickly forgot why I'd picked this book (sorry Sophie) and just marveled at the craft of the writer. 
Rep: Tahitian main character. 

This book is so meta it's delightful. It's a book about writing and telling stories, mostly, but it also touches on so many different subjects including immortality and knitting. The main character is Meg, a writer who barely making ends meet writing genre fiction under her pen name. Her ambition is to write her "real" novel, the one in which she'll break free from expectations, story structure and genre. In a way, some of what she thinks about really echoed in me. Well, in the first dozen pages I kept exclaiming mentally or out loud that I couldn't believe this book was real because there were just too many coincidences with my life. I'd just finished The Umbrella Academy in which, and this is not a spoiler, a team tries to fend off the end of the world. And on the first page of Our Tragic Universe, Meg is reading a book about surviving the end of the universe. Then of course there's the fact that she's a writer who overthinks her project so much she never actually writes it (touché), and then there are plenty of references including some to Tolkien.
There isn't really a plot here. This book feels more like a conversation with the reader, and I was kind of sorry to read it so fast because I didn't really take time to stop and consider the myriad fascinating writing questions it asked. But I absolutely see myself re-reading it, so it's not really an issue. Writers, this is a book for you! 
Rep: the main character felt like she could be on the ace spectrum but it's never said. One secondary character has OCD. 
CW : a couple of mentions of HP. 

It's funny how memories of a book get distorted with time. I would have sworn the events happening towards the end of book 2 (no spoilers) happened in fact in book 3. And so, while I get a tiny bit tired of Robin Hobb's habit of repeating herself, and her entish ability to take a very long time to say things, I'm actually surprised to see the plot pick up pace in this volume. Well, towards the end at least. I think the Rain Wild Chronicles is the most queer-friendly of all her series even though the world isn't queer-friendly, because it's all about becoming one's true self and taking back one's independence. It feels both invigorating and sadly necessary in our day and age.
Rep: gay characters. 

I don't read a lot of classics. School has clearly put me off reading them, and I don't see why I would relate more to a book written a hundred years ago than one written ten years ago. Yet from time to time I'm intrigued, like with Wide Sargasso Sea, which retells the story of Bertha, Mr Rochester's first wife in Jane Eyre.

First of all, the introduction to this book was really well written and helped me make the most of my reading by highlighting a few important themes and setting the scene. It helped me because I have to admit I struggled a bit with the narration to begin with. It feels very much like a dream - I didn't always knew where or when I was, or what was happening. But there was a beauty to the language, and a life, that kept me going. Jean Rhys was from Dominica, and she drew from her culture elements of language which makes the whole prose sing, even though I didn't find it always easy to grasp. As a result, I felt a little detached from the story, but at the same time I felt how necessary it was. This is clearly about flawed and unreliable narrators (we get the story from a few different characters's points of view) trapped in a flawed and unsatisfying relationship.

Rep: white Creole main character. 

Every time I read a thriller, I remember why I don't read thrillers.
Do I really need a reminder that humans are capable of the worst things? I'm not sure. What I know is that the premisse of this book intrigued me because it's set in an American boarding school and centers around the creative writing teacher. Well, Ms Witt applied as literature teacher, but her classes were switched just before the first day of school, so she has to manage. When she asks the student for an anonymous portrait in 4 simple questions, she's not expecting to dig out the school's darkest secret.
I don't know if it's my asexuality speaking, but I found it super annoying that all characters thought constantly about was sex. I know consent is one of the central themes of the book, but that wasn't clear on the back cover. I did finish it because it was quick, and I enjoyed the feminist uprising taking place, but I won't be reading this again. And I'll stay away from thrillers for a while. 
As a side note, I'm not sure having one character with an Asian name be the best student is particularly welcome. Especially when there's zero diversity in the cast. 
Rep: one gay character. 

Despite reading a lot of fantasy, I haven't been that attracted to dragon stories because the creatures have always felt a little too perfect and fantastical for my taste. But that's not the cause with Robin Hobb's dragons. These are sick, pitiful creatures who, yes, may gulp down a human in a heartbeat, but also need their help to survive. Yet the humans don't see kindly to them. When the dragons don't fill the roles they'd been ascribed by legends and folk tales, when they keep to the ground and only consume precious resources, the Rain Wild Traders decide to drive them away. A group of misfits is hired to accompany them, just as undesirable as the dragons. 
Dragon Keeper opens the Rain Wild Chronicles and shows another facet of Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings. Where Fitz's books are about identity and Liveships about freedom, I find this series to be about ableism & free will. Dragon Keeper is more like Liveships than Farseer because of the wide array of narrators we get, but here they're all traveling together and so I find it easier, upon first reading it, to get one's bearings and dive in the story. While it's not my favourite of Robin Hobb's stories, I love how her characters interact and how she makes us love some of them and absolutely hate others. My favourite may be the quiet dragon scholar lady... 
Rep: one of the MCs is gay, but the atmosphere of the book feels quite queer in general. 

Djaël écume les galaxies depuis bien trop longtemps. Ce pilote vétéran, augmenté pour échapper à l'étau des années, se contente de brèves rencontres familiales, amicales ou sensuelles pour apaiser sa solitude. Pourquoi alors se sent-il obligé d'acheter la liberté d'an esclave et de l'emmener sur son vaisseau? Et pourquoi son fils trouve-t-il la trace génétique de son père dans le corps malmené d'un adolescent échoué à la morgue?
Fans de Becky Chambers, rassemblez-vous! Luce Basseterre nous offre avec Les Enfants du Passé un space opéra à la française, profondément queer et divers, peut-être pas aussi optimiste que son homologue américaine, mais débordant tout autant de respect pour les êtres vivants quels qu'iels soient, jusqu'à le refléter dans le langage. L'usage de "an esclave" dans mon résumé n'est pas une faute de frappe, mais reflète la neutralité du langage de l'autrice, qui a publié son roman en 2017 sous une première forme, et l'a remanié à l'occasion de sa sortie en poche pour le rendre complètement inclusif. Dans son futur, c'est le neutre qui est la norme et les genres masculins/féminins les exceptions.
Je dois avouer que les pronoms et déterminants neutres, qui vont bien au-delà du "iel", m'ont demandé un temps d'adaptation, et m'ont parfois distraite de l'intrigue. Mais quel bonheur de lire un roman qui innove sur la forme pour refléter la vision du futur de l'autrice! Je me suis prise à penser, il y a quelques mois, que le futur serait non-binaire, et en trouver une incarnation aussi poussée dans ce livre me ravit.
Rep : PP noir et pansexuel.
Avertissement de contenu supplémentaire : eugénisme

What a weird, weird book! 
This novel, part Sci-fi, part fantasy, part political fiction, tells the trial of a Sybil in 2062, judged for taking part in the collective amnesia decided shortly after a feminist party won the French presidential elections in 2017. 3 years of blank, no archives, no memories. Why such a decision? What has possibly happened in those 3 years to make 98% of the French population consider oblivion? 
In chapters alternating with a journalist commenting the trial, the Sybil tells us about her life, started 2913 years ago, and how the Party of the Circle came to existence, bringing to the forefront of French politics the voices of modern-day witches. 
This book is absolutely puzzling. It's told in reported speech, in theatre, in email exchanges, with the odd ad break here and there. It shows women (the author makes it clear we're talking about all women here, cis and trans) taking back power, but also how such a power escalates into chaos. I don't really know what to think about it, except that it's like nothing I've ever read. 

It took me about two pages to fall in love with this book. Clark's writing style is flawless, so rich and luscious without being overwritten. He makes you notice all the details, all the nuances of his steampunk Cairo and the dozens of cultures making its identity.
We follow a classic duo of seasoned detective + new recruit, investigating, as the title suggests, the haunting of an aerial tram car in the midst of political unrest, the women of Cairo demonstrating for the right to vote. Clark's 1920s steampunk Cairo is absolutely vibrant and filled with colourful characters. A quick, fun read in which we get to meet the heroine of A Dead Djinn in Cairo. I'm really excited to read A Master of Djinn one day and get back to this universe. 
CW: except a case of haunting and a spooky sort-of-ghost, I didn't notice any content warning.