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Title: The Baby Unicorn
Author: Jean Marzollo, Claudio Marzollo
Illustrator: R.J. Blake
Published: Scholastic, 1987
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 308,565
Text Number: 1050
Read Because: personal enjoyment, from my library
Review: This is a book from my childhood, and just obscure enough that I've more than once looked it up online to see if it really existed before remembering that it's still in my collection. It's stuck with me as my first/only unicorn book and because the pale, red-maned unicorns are striking and look like me, which is probably how I ended up with the book in the first place. The art is lovely, full panels of rich detail, a saturated springtime take on unicorns rather than pastel/ethereal, with red manes contrasting vibrant green landscapes. Unfortunately, my copy is misprinted and has many blurry panels; I wish I could read a crisper imprint, but it's too obscure for my library. The narrative is less important and less successful. It has fun, weird concepts like the mother-unicorn house, ticklish trees, and flighty bird best friend, but the general thrust of the coming of age plot is unremarkable. Not every nostalgic picture book is necessarily good; this one is just okay.
Title: The Twisted Ones
Author: T. Kingfisher aka Ursula Vernon
Published: Gallery / Saga Press, 2019
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 390
Total Page Count: 308,955
Text Number: 1051
Read Because: reviewed by Kalanadi, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: While cleaning out her grandmother's house, a woman discovers strangeness in her step-grandfather's life and in the nearby woods. The first half of this is some of the most effective horror I've read. It takes inspiration from classic horror but manifests in precise and evocative ways. I expected to bounce off of the humor, but the protagonist's grounded, droll voice is in careful balance; I bounce off of most visual horror, but this has ingenious non-visual elements (namely: the jaw!). It creates something clever and enthralling and sincerely unsettling—an absolute delight.
The second half escalates into action sequences and worldbuilding reveals. I admire the follow-through, and it manages to persistently weird and maintain a balance between action and the protagonists's endless, exhausted terror. But the magic is lost—the mystery grows too concrete, and I don't love some of the reveals; much of the horror dissipates. It would have taken a miracle to sustain that first half into an entire novel, and the second half is perfectly adequate; it's worth reading. But that first half...!
Title: The Caphenon (Chronicles of Alsea Book 1)
Author: Fletcher DeLancey
Published: Heartsome Publishing, 2019 (2014)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 505
Total Page Count: 309,460
Text Number: 1052
Read Because: mentioned here, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The skeleton crew of the Caphenon find themselves stranded on an alien planet after narrowly winning the space battle to save it. This very much feels like (and is) Star Trek spin-off fanfic turned original work, reveling in all the things a show would inspire but not have room for: more complicated worldbuilding; technical difficulties and other more realistic sci-fi elements; lingering interior views and enthusiastically queer romance. It's an inherently satisfying premise, and the milieu of culture clash, empathic aliens, and soulmates is a fun playground. But in that playground I want something a little weirder. This runs overlong, answering every worldbuilding curiosity and indulging endless heart-to-hearts; the near-unflappable kindness must make for great comfort reading, but it grows cloying. (And when soulmates ( spoiler ) it feels limiting, which does an already-divisive trope no favors.) This stretched my patience, but it's still easy to like.
Author: Jean Marzollo, Claudio Marzollo
Illustrator: R.J. Blake
Published: Scholastic, 1987
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 308,565
Text Number: 1050
Read Because: personal enjoyment, from my library
Review: This is a book from my childhood, and just obscure enough that I've more than once looked it up online to see if it really existed before remembering that it's still in my collection. It's stuck with me as my first/only unicorn book and because the pale, red-maned unicorns are striking and look like me, which is probably how I ended up with the book in the first place. The art is lovely, full panels of rich detail, a saturated springtime take on unicorns rather than pastel/ethereal, with red manes contrasting vibrant green landscapes. Unfortunately, my copy is misprinted and has many blurry panels; I wish I could read a crisper imprint, but it's too obscure for my library. The narrative is less important and less successful. It has fun, weird concepts like the mother-unicorn house, ticklish trees, and flighty bird best friend, but the general thrust of the coming of age plot is unremarkable. Not every nostalgic picture book is necessarily good; this one is just okay.
Title: The Twisted Ones
Author: T. Kingfisher aka Ursula Vernon
Published: Gallery / Saga Press, 2019
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 390
Total Page Count: 308,955
Text Number: 1051
Read Because: reviewed by Kalanadi, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: While cleaning out her grandmother's house, a woman discovers strangeness in her step-grandfather's life and in the nearby woods. The first half of this is some of the most effective horror I've read. It takes inspiration from classic horror but manifests in precise and evocative ways. I expected to bounce off of the humor, but the protagonist's grounded, droll voice is in careful balance; I bounce off of most visual horror, but this has ingenious non-visual elements (namely: the jaw!). It creates something clever and enthralling and sincerely unsettling—an absolute delight.
The second half escalates into action sequences and worldbuilding reveals. I admire the follow-through, and it manages to persistently weird and maintain a balance between action and the protagonists's endless, exhausted terror. But the magic is lost—the mystery grows too concrete, and I don't love some of the reveals; much of the horror dissipates. It would have taken a miracle to sustain that first half into an entire novel, and the second half is perfectly adequate; it's worth reading. But that first half...!
Title: The Caphenon (Chronicles of Alsea Book 1)
Author: Fletcher DeLancey
Published: Heartsome Publishing, 2019 (2014)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 505
Total Page Count: 309,460
Text Number: 1052
Read Because: mentioned here, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The skeleton crew of the Caphenon find themselves stranded on an alien planet after narrowly winning the space battle to save it. This very much feels like (and is) Star Trek spin-off fanfic turned original work, reveling in all the things a show would inspire but not have room for: more complicated worldbuilding; technical difficulties and other more realistic sci-fi elements; lingering interior views and enthusiastically queer romance. It's an inherently satisfying premise, and the milieu of culture clash, empathic aliens, and soulmates is a fun playground. But in that playground I want something a little weirder. This runs overlong, answering every worldbuilding curiosity and indulging endless heart-to-hearts; the near-unflappable kindness must make for great comfort reading, but it grows cloying. (And when soulmates ( spoiler ) it feels limiting, which does an already-divisive trope no favors.) This stretched my patience, but it's still easy to like.
