I think upper elementary and middle schoolers will love this original, magic boarding school tale that is rooted in Creole and Black American culture of the Deep South. It has a fresh and mesmerizing magic system, and taps into relevant social, family, and friend issues. As an adult reader, I felt like there were some pacing issues and then realized that I was just frustrated by the way Hasani has to struggle to piece together information about the school, her magic, the social cues of her classmates, and even what's going on in her own family — which is a pretty realistic portrayal of a middle schooler's life. 

Golly! What a ride! If you can get into the Roaring Twenties flapper slang, embrace the feminist vigilante justice, and not think too hard about the whys and the hows of the paranormal elements — you'll going to have a lot of fun with this genre-bending, sweetly romantic, kick-butt, noir mystery!

Whew. Complicated, raw, sensual, powerful, romantic, redemptive, messy as hell ... kind of amazing?

When Alexis Hall describes his book as "a big gay regency romp about a overly dramatic beautiful rainbow sunshine unicorn + a overly dramatic demisexual grumpy duke, going on a cross-country chase" and adds that the unofficial subtitle is "Dude, Where's My Curricle?" and it's the "campiest and silliest and most fun thing" he's ever written — believe him. 

The grumpy/sunshine combo is gold. I disagree with reviewers who felt Bonny Mr. Sunshine was overly mean to His Grace Valentine Grumpy Pants, but he was certainly in an unenviable position between his best friend and sister, His Grace, and his own, you know, precarious existence. And while a zero to 100 relationship for a demisexual main character doesn't quite work for me, I also disagree that His Grace was "just fine the way he was, oh em gee, just leave him alone already." He was not quietly content — he was miserably unaware and misguided and headed for further misery. Most of the side characters are great, though the satirized gothic heroine sister is just grating. And the plot is, well, a careening mess that's somewhat too driven by the bullying sexism of the day, anachronistic overcorrections, and aro understandings clashing with gothic dramatics, but mostly it's just a vehicle for fun shenanigans in the countryside. It's all undeniably over the top, British, queer, chaotic, funny, annoying, graphic, and sometimes genuinely touching and lovely.

This feels like a book that didn't age well, but it was just published in 2015 (and made National Book Award finalist), so... I dunno. 

The author is a talented memoirist and travel/nature writer and is clearly having a love affair of sorts with octopuses. However, although much of the book personalizes and attempts to empathize with these incredibly intelligent octopuses (which the author literally calls "inmates" when in aquariums — definitely a tone), there seems to be a sharp limit to the implications considered. For example, they get bored and enjoy interacting with puzzles and humans, but it's okay to leave a young octopus in a plain, dark, boring, solitary barrel for weeks (months?) — and then wonder about her behavioral issues? Similarly, is the end of life "dementia" they experience really inevitable or is a life in captivity and on display contributing to it (and what a flippantly brutal comment about how we "take humans with dementia 'off display'" and hide them away so it's probably okay to do that with octopuses too!)? Octopus lives are short, so grief is probably inevitable while studying them and becoming attached, but the tragic outcomes for the octopus inmates here don't seem inevitable. And while there is genuine grief in those moments, the overall tone is blithely upbeat.

The author struggled, due to an ear condition, to deep dive on her forays to see octopuses in the wild. She seems to have similarly struggled to deep dive in her examinations of their lives in captivity. Overall, it's an interesting, informative, touching observation of the lives of captive octopuses but it's not a satisfyingly full exploration of those lives or their potentials. 

Stern brunch daddy vibes — Linden has them in spades. This didn't really work for me, but not because of the characters sexuality (it's a m/f relationship but they both identify as pansexual). Since some reviewers are deducting a star for the mention of pansexuality and the very brief "I like the person, not the label" discussion, I went ahead and added a star to my rating.

I'm not sure I entirely understand what I just read, but I kinda loved it anyway — the 80s nostalgia, the kid perspective, the creep, the cringe, the snark, the hint of a multiverse, the memoirishness, the awesome art... I'll definitely look for the next installment.

My favorite Grant Snider collection so far. I love the playful, sincere tone and the thoughtful way he shifts perspectives here. There's something unexpected and delightful in just about every frame.