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simonlorden's Reviews (1.38k)
re-read on 2019.02.19.
I still adore this, and this time I made Kindle highlights as well. Laura is super relatable and I love the queer roommates. I still think the conflict is silly though, but at least it's addressed, so good enough for me.
--
original review in April 2018
A wonderful short story with a bisexual protagonist, a nonbinary love interest, supportive friends including a gamer girl after my own heart, a little gardening, and some magic.
I have to admit, the misunderstanding mentioned in the description ruined the magic for me a little (it felt silly and unwelcome in an otherwise really comforting story, but that's just a personal feeling I suppose), but ultimately I adored the whole story and all the characters.
It also made me really really wish I had fresh vegetables at home. Especially cherry tomatoes.
I still adore this, and this time I made Kindle highlights as well. Laura is super relatable and I love the queer roommates. I still think the conflict is silly though, but at least it's addressed, so good enough for me.
--
original review in April 2018
A wonderful short story with a bisexual protagonist, a nonbinary love interest, supportive friends including a gamer girl after my own heart, a little gardening, and some magic.
I have to admit, the misunderstanding mentioned in the description ruined the magic for me a little (it felt silly and unwelcome in an otherwise really comforting story, but that's just a personal feeling I suppose), but ultimately I adored the whole story and all the characters.
It also made me really really wish I had fresh vegetables at home. Especially cherry tomatoes.
2023.10.03.
so many complex emotions.
--
re-read on 2019.01.01.
a couple of thoughts
1) Murderbot is non-human and genderless, but pretty much every single human supporting character in the series is non-white, queer and/or polyamorous. seriously. almost all of them.
2) the scene towards the end where Murderbot has to reconstruct its memory was perfect and such a good way to end this mini-series. and on the second read, I LOVED the semi-open ending with the options.
3) I love that Murderbot returned to the original crew and they are such a family and I have feelings.
4) in case you were wondering, it's entirely possible to read all four Murderbot novellas + the prequel short in one day, if you have little else to do. not that I have experience in that or anything.
--
original review:
Abene had known I was a SecUnit, but she didn’t know I was me.
Murderbot is back, and I can only repeat myself when I say how much I adore this character: an android construct who is incredibly relatable to introvert people and people with anxiety while also being capable at its job and funny as hell. Murderbot takes several names as it pretends to be an augmented human to get around, and it insists it doesn’t get attached to humans… then does it anyway.
Since I loved the Murderbot Diaries so much, I had high expectations and I was worried throughout the last book that the ending would somehow disappoint me, but I actually loved it. I get easily attached and thus I didn’t like that Murderbot keeps making temporary friends and then leaving them, but the ending gave the possibility of reconnecting/keeping in touch with several people it made friends with during the books, and most importantly: it was an open ending where Murderbot doesn’t quite know what to do yet, but has possibilities and a choice. Open endings are difficult to get right for me because if they are too open then I just feel like I got no closure, but in this case it was just the right amount of open. (Plus, there’s a full-length novel coming out in a few years, so there’s that.)
Read the full review on my blog, A Thousand Worlds.
so many complex emotions.
--
re-read on 2019.01.01.
a couple of thoughts
1) Murderbot is non-human and genderless, but pretty much every single human supporting character in the series is non-white, queer and/or polyamorous. seriously. almost all of them.
2) the scene towards the end where Murderbot has to reconstruct its memory was perfect and such a good way to end this mini-series. and on the second read, I LOVED the semi-open ending with the options.
3) I love that Murderbot returned to the original crew and they are such a family and I have feelings.
4) in case you were wondering, it's entirely possible to read all four Murderbot novellas + the prequel short in one day, if you have little else to do. not that I have experience in that or anything.
--
original review:
Abene had known I was a SecUnit, but she didn’t know I was me.
Murderbot is back, and I can only repeat myself when I say how much I adore this character: an android construct who is incredibly relatable to introvert people and people with anxiety while also being capable at its job and funny as hell. Murderbot takes several names as it pretends to be an augmented human to get around, and it insists it doesn’t get attached to humans… then does it anyway.
Since I loved the Murderbot Diaries so much, I had high expectations and I was worried throughout the last book that the ending would somehow disappoint me, but I actually loved it. I get easily attached and thus I didn’t like that Murderbot keeps making temporary friends and then leaving them, but the ending gave the possibility of reconnecting/keeping in touch with several people it made friends with during the books, and most importantly: it was an open ending where Murderbot doesn’t quite know what to do yet, but has possibilities and a choice. Open endings are difficult to get right for me because if they are too open then I just feel like I got no closure, but in this case it was just the right amount of open. (Plus, there’s a full-length novel coming out in a few years, so there’s that.)
Read the full review on my blog, A Thousand Worlds.
This book got really creepy as time went on. Like wow.
It's always nice to read a book with LGBT protagonists where the romance is not the main thing, the protagonist just happens to be in a relationship with another girl while also being in a different genre.
This is a story of a girl's family as the apocalypse (?) breaks out, and yeah, it gets pretty stressful and disgusting at times. I liked how it was shown that the world gradually changes as the blood gets worse.
It's always nice to read a book with LGBT protagonists where the romance is not the main thing, the protagonist just happens to be in a relationship with another girl while also being in a different genre.
This is a story of a girl's family as the apocalypse (?) breaks out, and yeah, it gets pretty stressful and disgusting at times. I liked how it was shown that the world gradually changes as the blood gets worse.
(nonbinary/cis male pairing, #ownvoices for nonbinary rep)
High expectations will be the death of me. This was a perfectly good book, but it still didn't blow me away the way I expected.
I Wish You All The Best is the story of a nonbinary teen with anxiety who gets kicked out of home by their parents after coming out. The coming out scene is in the first chapter, so the book starts with a pretty big punch. Ben moves in with their sister and brother-in-law, who are both supportive, and they make new friends and continue making their art at school. Oh, yes, and there is a boy.
I loved Nathan, he was funny and bright and supportive, and I also liked the two girl side characters, although they didn't feature as much. I also loved that Ben has a nonbinary long-distance friend (who is older than them, although I'm not sure by how much) who has helped them as both a best friend and a kind of "mentor".
Ben goes to a therapist and takes anxiety medication, and while they are unsure about it at first, it's ultimately presented as a positive thing, so that was nice.
Still, this is another one of those queer books that I expected to be fluffy, and it's... not really? It has a happy ending and a cute romance, but it also has shitty parents, anxiety, panic attacks, conflict with the sibling, and I feel like there was more of that than the fluff.
What I found kind of weird is that Ben comes out to Nathan really, really late in the story. Like, you as the reader logically know that Nathan won't react badly, but it's strange to see them grow closer and have a crush and everything while Nathan doesn't know such a defining thing about them. It's understandable, with Ben's bad experiences, but it wasn't what I expected.
I also wished there was some more about what being nonbinary means for Ben. It was nice that it wasn't the only focus and they had other interests, but there was more about the negative consequences of coming out than the positive, affirming sides of being nonbinary, which I really missed.
tldr; This is a really good and important book about a nonbinary teen, and it has a happy ending with a supportive circle. However, it's not as fluffy as I expected, and it fell a little short of my expectations in other ways too. That's just me, though.
content warnings: asshole parents, being kicked out, stressful coming out situation, anxiety, panic attacks, misgendering (both intentional, and due to not being out)
EXTRA WARNING: There is a scene where Ben goes to a party and they are pressured into drinking even though they really don't want to, one of the guy's is being loud and I think actually slaps their butt, and then they have a panic attack, so yeah, it was a lot.
High expectations will be the death of me. This was a perfectly good book, but it still didn't blow me away the way I expected.
I Wish You All The Best is the story of a nonbinary teen with anxiety who gets kicked out of home by their parents after coming out. The coming out scene is in the first chapter, so the book starts with a pretty big punch. Ben moves in with their sister and brother-in-law, who are both supportive, and they make new friends and continue making their art at school. Oh, yes, and there is a boy.
I loved Nathan, he was funny and bright and supportive, and I also liked the two girl side characters, although they didn't feature as much. I also loved that Ben has a nonbinary long-distance friend (who is older than them, although I'm not sure by how much) who has helped them as both a best friend and a kind of "mentor".
Ben goes to a therapist and takes anxiety medication, and while they are unsure about it at first, it's ultimately presented as a positive thing, so that was nice.
Still, this is another one of those queer books that I expected to be fluffy, and it's... not really? It has a happy ending and a cute romance, but it also has shitty parents, anxiety, panic attacks, conflict with the sibling, and I feel like there was more of that than the fluff.
What I found kind of weird is that Ben comes out to Nathan really, really late in the story. Like, you as the reader logically know that Nathan won't react badly, but it's strange to see them grow closer and have a crush and everything while Nathan doesn't know such a defining thing about them. It's understandable, with Ben's bad experiences, but it wasn't what I expected.
I also wished there was some more about what being nonbinary means for Ben. It was nice that it wasn't the only focus and they had other interests, but there was more about the negative consequences of coming out than the positive, affirming sides of being nonbinary, which I really missed.
tldr; This is a really good and important book about a nonbinary teen, and it has a happy ending with a supportive circle. However, it's not as fluffy as I expected, and it fell a little short of my expectations in other ways too. That's just me, though.
content warnings: asshole parents, being kicked out, stressful coming out situation, anxiety, panic attacks, misgendering (both intentional, and due to not being out)
EXTRA WARNING: There is a scene where Ben goes to a party and they are pressured into drinking even though they really don't want to, one of the guy's is being loud and I think actually slaps their butt, and then they have a panic attack, so yeah, it was a lot.
The good:
This is beautifully written, like anything by Mira/Seanan. It's wonderfully creepy, and I love the mermaid lore and how it's built up.
Also, I was listening to the audiobook version, and the narrator's mermaid voices were great.
The bad:
This was also... kind of like reading another Into the Drowning Deep? I don't think we really learned anything new, and my issues with this prequel were the same as with the main book. Namely:
1) The introduction/build-up part is way too long. It was even more frustrating here, because while in Into the Drowning Deep you don't know who's going to make it out, here I knew everyone was going to die anyway.
2) I LOVE casually diverse stories where basically nobody is an abled cis white man. I loved how sign language and deafness was treated here. But I'd still prefer my diverse stories to be the ones where, you know... not everyone dies maybe?
This is beautifully written, like anything by Mira/Seanan. It's wonderfully creepy, and I love the mermaid lore and how it's built up.
Also, I was listening to the audiobook version, and the narrator's mermaid voices were great.
The bad:
This was also... kind of like reading another Into the Drowning Deep? I don't think we really learned anything new, and my issues with this prequel were the same as with the main book. Namely:
1) The introduction/build-up part is way too long. It was even more frustrating here, because while in Into the Drowning Deep you don't know who's going to make it out, here I knew everyone was going to die anyway.
2) I LOVE casually diverse stories where basically nobody is an abled cis white man. I loved how sign language and deafness was treated here. But I'd still prefer my diverse stories to be the ones where, you know... not everyone dies maybe?
This was a pretty good young adult ghost story. I liked the characters, and I'll consider picking up more of the series.
I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The good:
This is a collection of personal life stories by people who identify as nonbinary in some way. These people are a variety of identities, races, ages and assigned genders, with different opinions on transition and identity. What I really liked was that many, if not most of them are over 30 (with several over 50) which really goes against the idea that being nonbinary is just something young people made up. Also, while it is addressed that female-assigned nonbinary people seem to dominate in discourses, this book itself has many male-assigned people telling their own stories.
All in all, I loved the diversity in both writing styles and in experiences. From a Chinese mother getting English gendered pronouns wrong to pole dancing and Buddhist retreats, this collection had a lot to think about, and many parts that resonated with me.
The bad:
The lives of marginalised people are rarely easy. The stories here discuss (other than the expected transphobia and cissexism) suicide attempts, self-harm, miscarriage, drugs, graphic death threats, and more. In the entire anthology, there are only two stories that have any kind of content warnings, both for sexual assault. While I am really glad that these warnings were there, I was annoyed by them because they showed that the editors know warnings are necessary - they just... apparently didn't think anything other than sexual assault qualifies as triggering enough? I really wish content warnings were normalised.
There was one story that was by the parent of a nonbinary teen. This was already a little strange (the perspectives of parents can be important, but having only one in a collection otherwise full of nonbinary voices made it same out of place), but what really bothered me was that there's a part where the parent describes in detail private conversations by the teen, and... there is really no indication of how they read those conversations? Did their child show them willingly, or did the parent go through their messages? I couldn't really get over that question, and the chapter in general left me feeling uncomfortable. I think the collection really could have stood without that one.
The good:
This is a collection of personal life stories by people who identify as nonbinary in some way. These people are a variety of identities, races, ages and assigned genders, with different opinions on transition and identity. What I really liked was that many, if not most of them are over 30 (with several over 50) which really goes against the idea that being nonbinary is just something young people made up. Also, while it is addressed that female-assigned nonbinary people seem to dominate in discourses, this book itself has many male-assigned people telling their own stories.
All in all, I loved the diversity in both writing styles and in experiences. From a Chinese mother getting English gendered pronouns wrong to pole dancing and Buddhist retreats, this collection had a lot to think about, and many parts that resonated with me.
The bad:
The lives of marginalised people are rarely easy. The stories here discuss (other than the expected transphobia and cissexism) suicide attempts, self-harm, miscarriage, drugs, graphic death threats, and more. In the entire anthology, there are only two stories that have any kind of content warnings, both for sexual assault. While I am really glad that these warnings were there, I was annoyed by them because they showed that the editors know warnings are necessary - they just... apparently didn't think anything other than sexual assault qualifies as triggering enough? I really wish content warnings were normalised.
There was one story that was by the parent of a nonbinary teen. This was already a little strange (the perspectives of parents can be important, but having only one in a collection otherwise full of nonbinary voices made it same out of place), but what really bothered me was that there's a part where the parent describes in detail private conversations by the teen, and... there is really no indication of how they read those conversations? Did their child show them willingly, or did the parent go through their messages? I couldn't really get over that question, and the chapter in general left me feeling uncomfortable. I think the collection really could have stood without that one.
This fantasy series deserves so much love. I mean, come on! Pansexual princesses in love! Talking dragons! Goddesses and warriors! What's not to love?
The Queen of Rhodia follows the pansexual F/F couple who got together in the first book, now in an established relationship, with the F/F couple from the second book appearing as side characters.
Esofi and Adale are married now, and they never run out of things to do. Adele is finally learning how to govern from her parents, Esofi is working on establishing a university for magical students, and they are raising a son together, who just happens to be a baby dragon. But when both news of a dragon wanting to talk to Esofi AND Esofi's mother arrives in Ieflaria, they have even more to deal with than they would have thought...
I loved how realistically their differences and occasionally relationship problems were written. Esofi and Adale both have their own insecurities, and Esofi, like many abused children, has views that she doesn't even realise are wrong, because they were normal when she was growing up. I love how Adale doesn't judge her, but still makes it clear that those things are wrong, and Esofi's mother was wrong to do them.
We learn more about the dragons and also Lisette, who was one of my favourites in book one, which was great. Svana and her brother are back, which is also great! There is so much worldbuilding potential in this series, and I'm eager to learn more about the elves and the Nightshades and the Empire. I admit I skipped book two, but I'm fully intending to go back and read it eventually, and meeting the characters here only gave me more motivation (but unfortunately, not money).
That being said, there were a couple of things in the worldbuilding that felt like missed opportunities to me. In the world of the series, a third gender, here called neutroi are officially recognised - but at least in the two books I read, we don't actually meet a single neutroi who has more than a few lines.
There is a ritual called Change, where basically they can change one's sex with magic - it's something many people use to experiment or to have children, but it is mentioned that there are people who chose to stay permanently Changed, which would be equivalent of transgender people. Again, we never actually MEET anyone who is like this, or at least we don't know about it. I know it's probably a personal topic so it would be more difficult to bring up, but I don't think it would be a stretch to have someone drop a comment about it.
There is also a kind of weird scene where Adale mentally compares gay and straight people (those who are only attracted to one gender) to a woman who refuses to date taller than her. She actually corrects herself, because gay and straight people don't have a choice about their attractions, and it's clearly just Adale's opinion, but it was still weird and I want to mention it for others.
Finally, humans in the series are called Men instead of just Humans, which is... something I would have expected in a "mainstream" fantasy that replicates real-world sexism, but it was jarring to read in a book with pansexual princesses that has very different gender roles from ours. There is also a scene where Adale is speaking about a culprit whose gender she doesn't know and she defaults to saying "him" instead of "them" (even though her main suspect is a woman, so it can't even be a Freudian slip). It's not necessarily bad, but male default language in this world didn't make much sense to me.
Overall, I loved this book, and I absolutely adore this series and I'm eager to see the other countries that we'll visit in future books. The next one is titled Empress of Xytae, and the princess of Xytae was mentioned briefly in this book, so I'm excited to see more of her - although she's a liiitle too young for a YA protagonist.
NOTE: The book does give a trigger warning about past child abuse, but I didn't really feel like it was accurate/enough. It is true that Esofi is not a child anymore and currently living away from her mother, so the abuse is less obvious, but it's still clearly there in their present-time interactions, along with its effects on Esofi's own views. So, consider this an extra warning that the child abuse is a central part of the story, not just a passing thing.
The Queen of Rhodia follows the pansexual F/F couple who got together in the first book, now in an established relationship, with the F/F couple from the second book appearing as side characters.
Esofi and Adale are married now, and they never run out of things to do. Adele is finally learning how to govern from her parents, Esofi is working on establishing a university for magical students, and they are raising a son together, who just happens to be a baby dragon. But when both news of a dragon wanting to talk to Esofi AND Esofi's mother arrives in Ieflaria, they have even more to deal with than they would have thought...
I loved how realistically their differences and occasionally relationship problems were written. Esofi and Adale both have their own insecurities, and Esofi, like many abused children, has views that she doesn't even realise are wrong, because they were normal when she was growing up. I love how Adale doesn't judge her, but still makes it clear that those things are wrong, and Esofi's mother was wrong to do them.
We learn more about the dragons and also Lisette, who was one of my favourites in book one, which was great. Svana and her brother are back, which is also great! There is so much worldbuilding potential in this series, and I'm eager to learn more about the elves and the Nightshades and the Empire. I admit I skipped book two, but I'm fully intending to go back and read it eventually, and meeting the characters here only gave me more motivation (but unfortunately, not money).
That being said, there were a couple of things in the worldbuilding that felt like missed opportunities to me. In the world of the series, a third gender, here called neutroi are officially recognised - but at least in the two books I read, we don't actually meet a single neutroi who has more than a few lines.
There is a ritual called Change, where basically they can change one's sex with magic - it's something many people use to experiment or to have children, but it is mentioned that there are people who chose to stay permanently Changed, which would be equivalent of transgender people. Again, we never actually MEET anyone who is like this, or at least we don't know about it. I know it's probably a personal topic so it would be more difficult to bring up, but I don't think it would be a stretch to have someone drop a comment about it.
There is also a kind of weird scene where Adale mentally compares gay and straight people (those who are only attracted to one gender) to a woman who refuses to date taller than her. She actually corrects herself, because gay and straight people don't have a choice about their attractions, and it's clearly just Adale's opinion, but it was still weird and I want to mention it for others.
Finally, humans in the series are called Men instead of just Humans, which is... something I would have expected in a "mainstream" fantasy that replicates real-world sexism, but it was jarring to read in a book with pansexual princesses that has very different gender roles from ours. There is also a scene where Adale is speaking about a culprit whose gender she doesn't know and she defaults to saying "him" instead of "them" (even though her main suspect is a woman, so it can't even be a Freudian slip). It's not necessarily bad, but male default language in this world didn't make much sense to me.
Overall, I loved this book, and I absolutely adore this series and I'm eager to see the other countries that we'll visit in future books. The next one is titled Empress of Xytae, and the princess of Xytae was mentioned briefly in this book, so I'm excited to see more of her - although she's a liiitle too young for a YA protagonist.
NOTE: The book does give a trigger warning about past child abuse, but I didn't really feel like it was accurate/enough. It is true that Esofi is not a child anymore and currently living away from her mother, so the abuse is less obvious, but it's still clearly there in their present-time interactions, along with its effects on Esofi's own views. So, consider this an extra warning that the child abuse is a central part of the story, not just a passing thing.
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oh boy
1) Edward, this is not an appropriate story to tell to a child
2) trust me to fall in love with a character who barely even appears
3) Edward's story is way too tragic in so many ways and this book makes me sad, and it's not fair that she had to die for him to realise her words
4) they were in love, damnit! they were in love and they should have been Assassins together forever!
5) having quests in the game written down like this was a weird experience but I love it
1) Edward, this is not an appropriate story to tell to a child
2) trust me to fall in love with a character who barely even appears
3) Edward's story is way too tragic in so many ways and this book makes me sad, and it's not fair that she had to die for him to realise her words
4) they were in love, damnit! they were in love and they should have been Assassins together forever!
5) having quests in the game written down like this was a weird experience but I love it