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speculativebecky
Utter favorite. Important to note that Unraveling by Karen Lord is something of a follow-up to Lord’s debut, Redemption in Indigo. Had I not realized that, I may have just read Unraveling first and that would have been a big bummer because 1) Unraveling spoils some of the events of Redemption in Indigo, and 2) Unraveling was SO MUCH more lovely because I was already acquainted with and invested in some of its characters, and it was a delight to revisit them in this very different story. If you’re interested in reading either of these novels, I would highly recommend reading the pair in order to you as well.
Unraveling is like a supernatural detective mystery that’s totally convoluted in the best way. Untwisting the knotted storylines of past/present/potential futures/dreams is well worth it, but I’m glad I wasn’t listening to the audio for this one because there were a lot of pieces to put together and information to digest, so I think that would have made it quite challenging to follow personally. The story follows Dr. Miranda Ecouvo, a brilliant and tenacious forensic therapist who’s just helped put a serial killer behind bars when that belief is thrown into question by the arrival of a slew of supernatural beings who believe something more sinister is afoot. Miranda is one of those protagonists who just lodged herself into my heart, and I adored walking the labyrinth alongside her through the course of this novel. The characters, plot, and world building are all developed with exciting details and intrigue and I loved every minute. Plus, all the beautiful little ways this book twisted back to Redemption in Indigo made my heart sing. As with Redemption in Indigo, the ending of this novel was sheer perfection, resolving every little hook that had me holding my breath in anticipation in manners both unexpected and gloriously foreshadowed. The two books are honestly so different, and yet they are so brilliantly situated together. I was stunned and delighted by these instant-favorites and I’m looking forward to diving into Lord’s sci-fi next.
Unraveling is like a supernatural detective mystery that’s totally convoluted in the best way. Untwisting the knotted storylines of past/present/potential futures/dreams is well worth it, but I’m glad I wasn’t listening to the audio for this one because there were a lot of pieces to put together and information to digest, so I think that would have made it quite challenging to follow personally. The story follows Dr. Miranda Ecouvo, a brilliant and tenacious forensic therapist who’s just helped put a serial killer behind bars when that belief is thrown into question by the arrival of a slew of supernatural beings who believe something more sinister is afoot. Miranda is one of those protagonists who just lodged herself into my heart, and I adored walking the labyrinth alongside her through the course of this novel. The characters, plot, and world building are all developed with exciting details and intrigue and I loved every minute. Plus, all the beautiful little ways this book twisted back to Redemption in Indigo made my heart sing. As with Redemption in Indigo, the ending of this novel was sheer perfection, resolving every little hook that had me holding my breath in anticipation in manners both unexpected and gloriously foreshadowed. The two books are honestly so different, and yet they are so brilliantly situated together. I was stunned and delighted by these instant-favorites and I’m looking forward to diving into Lord’s sci-fi next.
Reviews for this one have been SO mixed, even among friends who have similar taste to mine and also loved Morgenstern’s debut, The Night Circus. Ultimately I made Matthew decide and he predicted I would like it, and was vindicated once again. A few chapters after finally cracking in, I turned to him and said oh yes, this is absolutely a me book. And then I was swept into the story and didn’t surface for air until I stuffed the whole thing into my brain in one weekend.
I totally get why this book isn’t for everyone, but I loved the entire cozy magic aesthetic, the intrepid characters, the way the interlocking plots of all the fragmented stories twisted in on each other. Some parts of the ending leave something to be desired and a few questions left unsatisfyingly unanswered, but honestly I think I was too all in at that point to care. Reading this book was an enchanting experience.
I totally get why this book isn’t for everyone, but I loved the entire cozy magic aesthetic, the intrepid characters, the way the interlocking plots of all the fragmented stories twisted in on each other. Some parts of the ending leave something to be desired and a few questions left unsatisfyingly unanswered, but honestly I think I was too all in at that point to care. Reading this book was an enchanting experience.
González and Daughter Trucking Co. started out fairly unassuming for me, but WOW was it building to something special. Incarcerated in a women’s prison in Mexico, Libertad is encouraged by a fellow inmate to share her story, but she can’t find her way to the telling until she opens a random book and begins to “read.” Thus the Library Club is born, and in a play on Scheherazade’s one thousand and one nights, Libertad unfolds her life story (under the guise of fiction) in weekly installments for an eager audience of fellow inmates. Born and raised on the road, Libertad’s only connection is with her over-protective father, who’s deep seated paranoia over a frightening experience in his past keeps him changing his name and never settling down. The Library Club allows Libertad to unpack and grapple with the generational trauma handed down from her father, as she knits together the narrative of her life.
The way Libertad (and truly Escandón) reveals details is a masterclass in storytelling, and the “literary license” employed creates extremely satisfying ambiguity. I also loved the sort of mixed-media format, which intersperses conversations from the prison and the road, and snippets of Libertad’s diary into the two main narrative arcs. Libertad is a tremendous character, and I fell so in love with her over the course of this novel, a rare book I could definitely see myself reading again. I just can not recommend this book highly enough, please go read it!
Cw for violent misogyny, violence and deaths.
The way Libertad (and truly Escandón) reveals details is a masterclass in storytelling, and the “literary license” employed creates extremely satisfying ambiguity. I also loved the sort of mixed-media format, which intersperses conversations from the prison and the road, and snippets of Libertad’s diary into the two main narrative arcs. Libertad is a tremendous character, and I fell so in love with her over the course of this novel, a rare book I could definitely see myself reading again. I just can not recommend this book highly enough, please go read it!
Cw for violent misogyny, violence and deaths.
Millie and Callie have never had much in common, but an unexpected friendship takes root as they’re forced to work together, and WOW I didn’t imagine I would fall for this book as completely as I did. I love books about friendship so much, especially between women with fully realized flaws and strengths
When I flipped open the book at the library, I was sold by the intriguing author’s note that asks a favor of the reader: to read the stories comprising the book in order, “[n]ot because they follow chronologically, though there is something of that, but because that way you and I will understand each other more easily.” Something about being instructed on how to properly experience a book just gets me.
This collection consists of ten stories, each of which is told as a conversation between the book’s titular character, Trafalgar Medrano, and someone listening to his fabulous tales. Set apparently around the 1979 Argentina of the book’s publication, Trafalgar is an intergalactic traveling salesman, navigating many far-flung worlds in his ship, assuming his stories are true. At first I had a hard time feeling invested in all Trafalgar’s zany antics, but eventually this book somehow charmed me. I love the style of the storytelling, which is heavy on Trafalgar’s narration but still gives hints about his listener, the setting of their conversation, which is often Trafalgar’s favorite cafe, and the copious quantities of coffee Trafalgar consumes during the course of his long winded explanations. I definitely felt like I was missing parts of the cultural historical context that this book comes from, but while knowing more about Argentina in that time period would have surely made the experience richer, my lacking knowledge ultimately didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment. Trafalgar’s various mishaps and triumphs, and the peculiar details of each alien world he encounters reminded me of Lem’s The Cyberiad, but I enjoyed this book a little more. Definitely recommended!
This collection consists of ten stories, each of which is told as a conversation between the book’s titular character, Trafalgar Medrano, and someone listening to his fabulous tales. Set apparently around the 1979 Argentina of the book’s publication, Trafalgar is an intergalactic traveling salesman, navigating many far-flung worlds in his ship, assuming his stories are true. At first I had a hard time feeling invested in all Trafalgar’s zany antics, but eventually this book somehow charmed me. I love the style of the storytelling, which is heavy on Trafalgar’s narration but still gives hints about his listener, the setting of their conversation, which is often Trafalgar’s favorite cafe, and the copious quantities of coffee Trafalgar consumes during the course of his long winded explanations. I definitely felt like I was missing parts of the cultural historical context that this book comes from, but while knowing more about Argentina in that time period would have surely made the experience richer, my lacking knowledge ultimately didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment. Trafalgar’s various mishaps and triumphs, and the peculiar details of each alien world he encounters reminded me of Lem’s The Cyberiad, but I enjoyed this book a little more. Definitely recommended!
“Hearts that loved boys and girls were no more recklessly or easily won than any other heart. They loved who they loved. They broke how they broke.”
Wild Beauty tells the story of Estrella and her four cousins, the youngest Nomeolvides women. For generations their family has used the magic in their fingers to tend the sprawling gardens of La Pradera, their safe haven against a world ready to persecute them for witchcraft. Their home is a blessing and a curse, as the land kills them if they try to leave. Each generation consists of five women, each always bearing a single daughter, and any men that they love vanish, consumed by the magic of the land, if they don’t drive them away first. In Estrella’s generation, something new has taken root, since each of the young women are in love with Bay, their genderfluid neighbor girl. Together they offer a sacrifice to the land in hopes of protecting Bay from their cursed love, and the land stirs and offers instead a mysterious boy named Fel, bereft of his memories but no less disruptive for it.
What a premise, right? This book made my queer heart sing. McLemore is an artist of words, painting achingly magic sentences throughout this wild and beautiful novel. At times the writing felt a little redundant, but it was almost too gorgeous to mind, and I was very easily swept up in this story nonetheless. The characters, each of the cousins beyond Estrella, and even more their mothers and grandmothers, often felt undifferentiated. But while I wished their distinct personalities were more strongly developed, it didn’t feel like a barrier to falling into the story. I loved the novel’s themes, borders crossing you, persecution of the “other”, generational trauma, queer daughters trying to make their hearts understood by their mothers.
I’ve been looking forward to reading McLemore’s work for a while now, and this was a thrilling introduction. Young Adult Fantasy is a super hit-or-miss genre for me, but if you (like me) gravitate to queer lit, the gravitational pull is STRONG with McLemore’s work. I love that they center this whole slew of queer characters with no apologies, and I’m excited to read more.
Wild Beauty tells the story of Estrella and her four cousins, the youngest Nomeolvides women. For generations their family has used the magic in their fingers to tend the sprawling gardens of La Pradera, their safe haven against a world ready to persecute them for witchcraft. Their home is a blessing and a curse, as the land kills them if they try to leave. Each generation consists of five women, each always bearing a single daughter, and any men that they love vanish, consumed by the magic of the land, if they don’t drive them away first. In Estrella’s generation, something new has taken root, since each of the young women are in love with Bay, their genderfluid neighbor girl. Together they offer a sacrifice to the land in hopes of protecting Bay from their cursed love, and the land stirs and offers instead a mysterious boy named Fel, bereft of his memories but no less disruptive for it.
What a premise, right? This book made my queer heart sing. McLemore is an artist of words, painting achingly magic sentences throughout this wild and beautiful novel. At times the writing felt a little redundant, but it was almost too gorgeous to mind, and I was very easily swept up in this story nonetheless. The characters, each of the cousins beyond Estrella, and even more their mothers and grandmothers, often felt undifferentiated. But while I wished their distinct personalities were more strongly developed, it didn’t feel like a barrier to falling into the story. I loved the novel’s themes, borders crossing you, persecution of the “other”, generational trauma, queer daughters trying to make their hearts understood by their mothers.
I’ve been looking forward to reading McLemore’s work for a while now, and this was a thrilling introduction. Young Adult Fantasy is a super hit-or-miss genre for me, but if you (like me) gravitate to queer lit, the gravitational pull is STRONG with McLemore’s work. I love that they center this whole slew of queer characters with no apologies, and I’m excited to read more.
Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes feels like a D&D campaign, in the best way. I alternated reading the physical book and listening to the audiobook, narrated by Almarie Guerra, and the episodic feeling of the book’s early chapters lent itself perfectly to the audio format. The straightforward set-up builds to something more complex as the story progresses, with worldbuilding that's intriguing but not overly detailed. I just delighted in following the escapades of Captain Eva Innocente and her crew aboard La Sirena Negra; this book is a total romp, littered with references to nerd culture and a cast that easily stole my heart. I’m not often a fan of romance leaking into my SFF, but the budding romantic tension between Eva and her alien Engineer Vakar was an unexpected exception. Vakar is from a race that expresses emotions through scent the way humans change facial expressions, and I loved all the smell based details throughout. Chilling Effect is best appreciated as an adventure story set in space; it’s a good time with a dash of political intrigue, but not a book asking big questions about the way technology impacts future civilizations or requiring the reader to sort through scientific concepts. If you enjoy spacefaring adventures starring troubled good guys trying to go their own way, like Firefly if it were helmed by a badass Cuban American woman, Chilling Effect is the novel for you.
Wow. It’s hard to put into words the way that Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi is IN my heart. This book took me by surprise, not because I doubted everyone’s praise of Gyasi’s work, but because of how personally meaningful and resonant I found it. The poem Gyasi quotes in the epigraph, God’s Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins, made me sit up immediately, because that poem has been a huge favorite of mine since high school. Throughout this novel Gyasi explores Gifty's struggles between her Christian upbringing and losing faith, how she uses neuroscience so much in her understanding of the world but also grapples with how that too can fall short. It was touching the way Gifty defended religion even after she'd personally abandoned it, how she didn't like hearing people talk bad about something that was important to her mother, and how she bristles against others’ easy rejection of something that’s been a part of her life in a way they clearly do not understand.
I loved the way the story was structured, Gyasi weaves together the present and past storylines in a way that felt very organic, like the reader doesn't know everything because Gifty hasn't been able to share some things yet. It was honestly so hard to remember that this book was not a memoir written by a real Gifty person, Gyasi is clearly deeply inside her character’s story and perspective, and I loved learning from the acknowledgements about the pieces of this story that came from the real research studies of Gyasi’s close friend. This book quietly broke my heart, yet also brought me new facets of self understanding when thinking about my own journey with faith and science and understanding the world. I’m a rare rereader but I’m already looking forward to revisiting this one.
Cw for drug addiction, overdosing, depression
I loved the way the story was structured, Gyasi weaves together the present and past storylines in a way that felt very organic, like the reader doesn't know everything because Gifty hasn't been able to share some things yet. It was honestly so hard to remember that this book was not a memoir written by a real Gifty person, Gyasi is clearly deeply inside her character’s story and perspective, and I loved learning from the acknowledgements about the pieces of this story that came from the real research studies of Gyasi’s close friend. This book quietly broke my heart, yet also brought me new facets of self understanding when thinking about my own journey with faith and science and understanding the world. I’m a rare rereader but I’m already looking forward to revisiting this one.
Cw for drug addiction, overdosing, depression