I was so excited when I saw that I could get a Netgalley arc of Upgrade by Blake Crouch. I adore his newer works, and he has become an auto-buy author for me.

Unfortunately, Upgrade was a miss for me.

The Wayward Pines series, Dark Matter, and Resurgence were well written, but they also had a hook that held you until the end. When I attempted to read Crouch’s books prior to Wayward Pines I found I did not enjoy them. They were not as well written thrillers without the satisfying plots.

Upgrade was more reminiscent of Crouch’s earlier works. At its core Upgrade is a thriller. Layered over the thriller is A LOT of scientific jargon. I am not a neurologist, but I have grad school level neuropsychology training. I love learning about the brain and how genetics shape us. I will read genetic non-fiction books for fun, and the science in this book bored me to tears.

I kept hoping that there was something that would redeem this novel at the end. I kept reading because it is Blake Crouch and I respect him so much as a writer. And I finally found it. My favorite part of the book was the prologue. If that could have been the book then I think I would have loved it. But if you start this book and are not enjoying it, it isn’t worth sticking around. Just skip to the prologue and call it a night.

I have seen so many positive reviews for Upgrade, don’t let mine sway you from picking it up if it interests you. I will say it is a fast read - and you can gloss over all the science. But if you have never read Crouch before then let me guide you over to his book Dark Matter. 

I read this book via audiobook. The book is in verse, so the audiobook was like a spoken word performance. I really enjoyed it, but now I want to buy the book and read it again in print. I want to see the words on the page. I think both experiences are important in a book like this. 

 

I wasn’t exactly sure what this book was about. I just new it was a LGBTQIA must read. Now I understand why. It is a coming of age story of a Jamaican/Greek Londoner gay young man. 

 

There is so much I enjoyed about this book. I love how the main character, Michael, grows. He does so without diminishing where he has been. 

 

I love the visual of him writing poetry on his phone in a club bathroom. 

 

I love his inclusion of trans space, even though that is not a personal identity of the MC the voice is included. 

 

I loved how Michael gave tribute to everyone who stood up before us to give us our space. 

 

It was a beautiful book. One I plan on reading again.

I love Seanan McGuire and have really enjoyed the Wayward Children’s series. But, Across the Green Grass Fields is the sixth book in the series. It seemed like there is nothing that would have stopped the book from being a middle grade book, except that it is marketed towards adults, or at least young adults. 

 

I enjoyed that the story featured an intersex main character. There just isn’t enough rep or even understanding about being intersex. I also enjoyed the world of centaurs and unicorns. It is a world that I can imagine a ten year old running off to. 

 

However, the book itself seemed to lack the depth that other books in the series had. It hinted at it, but it was at the last minute. Even then it really didn’t focus on it specifically. I actually put this book down, even though it is barely any pages. I finally finished it mostly because it is so short. As part of a series I am glad I own the book, but on it’s own it just didn’t have much more to offer beyond the rep.

The reason that Star Trek is able to release so many books in the series is because they are written by different authors. There are a core group of authors that have been writing Star Trek books for years. John Jackson Miller has more Marvel and Star Wars books to his name, but he is also a veteran Star Trek writer. 

 

Rogue Elements introduces Cristóbal Ríos to the Picard book series. Like the previous books, we do not start following him until after he has been discharged from Starfleet. Looking for a future and solitude, Rios purchases a freighter ship. Instead of peace and quiet, he is thrown in on an adventure filled with nostalgic Star Trek characters and cultures. 

 

The story was engaging. It was like a space western combined with a murder mystery all set in the Star Trek universe. There are so many familiar Star Trek characters center to the plot - including the charming lotian. Interwoven through the narrative are aspects of Picard’s life. It is interesting to see how his actions ripple through the galaxy. You also have brief scenes with Picard. However, the majority of the book centers around Rios’ actions. 

 

I enjoyed the read. I was briefly confused at the beginning of the book with the lotians showed up, but then quickly figured out what was happening. The rest of the book was full of twists and turns that left me hooked. The read was nostalgic, which I think was part of the point. Every time a new character was mentioned the episode(s) they were in flashed in my head. 

 

One of the downfalls of a series with multiple writers is that the diversity representation changes through each book. Rogue Elements had great female empowerment and even touched on women’s roles in Earth history. It wasn’t a primary focus, but it was part of the story. I found it well done, especially from a male author. However, gone is the subtle LGBTQIA+ rep of the last book in the series. Now the author had Picard using gendered language. It was unnecessary - and not fitting with language in an enlightened multi-species community.

Amber Sky is the first story, chronologically, in the Dark Sky series by Amy Braun. The story is an independently published Novella that was written after the first books in the series. It is my first Amy Braun book, and my entrance to the Dark Sky world.

The novella follows Nash as he escapes from one of the last gangs in a post apocalyptic world. It was hard to get a complete sense of the world from the novella, I imagine there is more world building in the first books. From what I understand there was some storm that killed a lot of people. There are also aliens that hunt people. So, most humans live underground.

The story is interesting enough for me to continue on. I want to see how Braun writes a full length novel. I am hopeful that the characters and world will be a bit more flushed out. The novella wasn’t great, but it was good. I was interested nobly the world and wanted to see what happens. More so, I am interested to see how things developed.

Unfortunately, the formatting of the ebook (Kobo edition) was not great. I am not a fan of the spacing between paragraphs instead of indenting, especially since sentences were disconnected from paragraphs to, presumably, add emphasis. In addition, the font would randomly italicize until you were reading whole pages that way. It is not the most comfortable experience. Thankfully it would reset at the next chapter u til it happened again.

There were also noticeable grammar errors. Sentences were missing whole words. I understand the occasional errors. However, these were ones a read through should have picked up. There were also a lot of incomplete sentences. This seemed to be a choice, which I do not understand. You can add emphasis and still follow grammar rules. 

The other area of concern is the depiction of women in the story. There is only one female character, and the mention of other females. The one female character is around for the pleasure of men. She is a pretty face that needs Nash to rescue her. The other women are called wh***s and are talked about them being knocked around. There is no positive female representation. This is even more disappointing coming from a female author. 

With that being said, I do plan to continue. The books have great reviews, and I think this novella may have been a bit rushed and not as indicative of the major works. Even still, it was still an enjoyable read.

Station Eleven was a book I was both excited and apprehensive to pick up. I have yet to hear of anyone who didn’t love it, but it is also about a pandemic that whips out 99% of life. It hits a bit too close to home. Having now finished this masterpiece I will say the hype is worth, and ultimately this book is about life.

I adore the writing. I have never read anything by Emily St. John Mandel before, but I plan to pick up more. It was beautiful, but not in a flowery lyrical way. The book has multiple POVs that are not written linearly. The way it was all put together to create this story was genius. The characters are also all well constructed. This is a real world and real people. You see the complexities of human nature. 

A lot of apocalyptic books can be overly dark. They have no faith in human nature. Also, a huge pet peeve of mine is when people can only scavenge. All of humankind forgets that food existed before grocery stores. Thankfully that does not happen in this books. Instead Station Eleven shows how dynamic humans are. It shows humans moving forward because “survival is insufficient.” There is joy and pain, life and death, friendship and fanatics. It shows that we are all connected. This is a book that will leave you changed.

And a special note of appreciation to all of the Star Trek references.

I DNFed at 60%. I am trying to limit the YA books I pick up, but The Wolf and the Woodsman was presented as different and fresh. I listened to it via audio, and the narration was great. However, the book was not for me.

I try to not judge YA. It is written for young adults and not a 40 year old person. But…the main character was facing death and just kept lamenting over this guy that had shown her no interest. It was Insta lust and not well done in my opinion. Then the first half the book nothing happened. I gave it 10% more but finally decided to stop. I just didn’t enjoy the characters and the plot was boring.

Others may absolutely love this book. It all depends on what you look for in a book. If you love angst then this may be a perfect fit. The writing itself was fine, which is why I waited so long to DNF. In the end I decided to give it to others on the waitlist. 

Love & Other Disasters is a queer romance with a non-binary main character. Two contestants fall in love on a cooking show. It is a simple plot that made for a wonderful story.

Before I get into the nitty gritty I am first going to tell you why you should read this book. The non-binary rep is awesome. Seriously, amazingly awesome. It is enough for you to read this book even though I will now continue with my review.

I only pick up romance books when there is another aspect I am interested in. It was, obviously, the non-binary rep. I am aromantic and romance in books just annoy me. And there is no friendship first in this book. It is full on googly eyes from the first page. It’s a romance book so it is probably a plus for most everyone else.

The book also has some steam. So mixed in with the plot expect a play by play of some bedroom action - although not always in the bedroom. Not my favorite part, but a huge selling point for others. Again, because it is a romance book.

I have tried to pay more attention to writing structure and grammar as I am reading books in print. It is my quest to be a better reader to be a better writer. I had to stop, because I was just editing the story. It had run on sentences next to an incomplete sentence. Then a sentence was missing a comma that randomly showed up later when it was not needed. This is not Falker - the grammar should have followed rules.   They made a choice not to. I did not like the choice. It made an excellent story seem amateurish. 

It was a fun story. The cooking show structure seemed realistic (from someone who knows nothing) and the narration flowed well. The characters were fluffy and well developed. There was important rep and also important themes. If it actually followed grammar rules it would be a perfect romance book. Maybe not perfect even then, but close enough.

Except…how can you mention a binder and not once mention how horrible it is to take off and put on? I mean some of those sex scenes would have been a bit differently because binders do not just slip off with the rest of your clothes. 

All Boy’s Aren’t Blue is a young adult memoir by George M Johnson. Johnson recounts what it was like growing up queer and black in middle-class New Jersey through his college years in Virginia. While there are hard subjects addressed in this book, there is also a lot of joy. 

 

Trigger Warnings include: sexual assault, homophobia, racism, death, deadnaming, and transphobia. 

 

This book is an anti-racism book as much as it is a coming of age queer book. It is a tribute to family, and especially to Johnson’s Nanna who was an influential part of his life. It is a comping of age story, and quiet possibly a therapeutic experience for the author. It is a story that a lot of young adults need. 

 

However, Johnson includes a section about his trans cousin. His cousin did not have the opportunity to read what he wrote about her. Not having known her, I cannot imagine her response. I do know that many trans young people will see this book about gender identity and read about a young black women who is misgendered and deadnamed. I think Johnson’s idea was to show his families acceptance of his trans cousin, but he did it in such a way that emphasized the identity she was born into, and not who she actually was. I had a hard time reading this section. 

 

I read this book via audiobook. It was narrated by the author, something I prefer for memoirs. The production of the audiobook was great. I am also glad that I own the hardback to go back and reference. There were some very powerful and impactful moments of the book that I want to annotate. 

Gender Queer is a graphic novel written by Maia Kobabe a non-binary author who uses e/em/eir pronouns. It annoys me when news articles point out a non-binary person’s pronouns like it should be this grand reveal, so please know I am not putting them here because of that. I just love them. I use they/them pronouns, and those work for me. But e/em/eir pronouns are so awesome. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind going by both. But I digress. 

 

Gender Queer is a memoir about Maia’s journey with eir queerness, asexuality, and gender identity. I related to so much of it. E is pretty frank about life and the human body including gender dysphoria and sexuality, so of course, the book has been reviewed bombed by very intolerant people. Reading their hate-filled comments invalidating this person’s journey was sad. But yeah, if you give this to a younger reader you may have to have some conversations. But if you are giving this to a younger reader you probably have a reason for doing so and you should have some conversations anyway. 

 

I borrowed this book from hoopla and ended up finishing it in one sitting. I fell in love and went to add it to my shipping cart - an amazing use holiday gift card. This is a must for my self, and I really want to support the artist. But seeing all the hateful comments really sucked.