Dec. 3rd, 2024

juushika: Photograph of a row of books on a library shelf (Books Once More)
Title: Catherine, Called Birdy
Author: Karen Cushman
Narrator: Jenny Sterlin
Published: Recorded Books, 1996 (1994)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 200
Total Page Count: 522,235
Text Number: 1900
Read Because: reread as per review, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Our protagonist is thirteen in 1290, navigating life as the marriageable but spirited daughter of minor nobleman. This is a reread from my youth, but all I remembered going in was vague positive impressions, maybe that I liked the diary format. As an adult reader: I love the diary format. I'm a sucker for a justified first-person narrative, and no better justification than a journal spiced by cultural minutia and calendar-building elements, like marking time through Saint's Days. The details are dubiously accurate I'm sure, but it grounds the narrative in its setting; and, appropriately, Birdy doesn't manage some miraculous escape from her society, but finds a measure of safety and hope within it. Along the spectrum of period pieces where the heroine struggles with her contemporary social restrictions, this one is less rather than more egregious. I don't like the secondary theme of finding the hidden depths of/forgiveness for abusive family members, but it's a prevalent arc in YA, so I can overlook it. Sincerely a fun read; I'm glad I came back to this one.
juushika: Painting of multiple howling canines with bright white teeth (Never trust a stranger-friend)
Title: A Guest in the House
Author: Emily (E.M.) Carroll
Published: First Second, 2023
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 255
Total Page Count: 522,490
Text Number: 1901
Read Because: fan of the author, hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: Our protagonist finds her new marriage haunted by memories of her husband's first wife. I've been mildly dissatisfied a number of "speculative metaphors for issues of female/queer identity" narratives lately, specifically graphic novels. I'm thinking of The Low, Low Woods, Squad, The Deep Dark: all phenomenal concepts sincerely explored; but all too simple or too solved in a way that, instead of the conceit extending the issue of identity, it somehow pulls it neat and tight and resolved, which doesn't resonate with me.

And then A Guest in the House, which is distinctly not that. If anything, the resolution is too many twists not quite resolved, but I'll take that over the alternative. I still have a grip on the story, and the fact that there is no clear, solvable line from haunting to identity to plot reveals to resolution is what I've been missing in other similar stories. It keeps things weird, keeps things thorny and complicated, which does resonate. When I Arrived at the Castle does it better, is more consistent in tone & better plotted, but I like the contrast here of the protagonist's pedestrian daily life and the strangeness of her inner world.
juushika: Photo of a cat in motion, blurred in such a way that it looks like a monster (Cryptid cat)
Title: Our Share of the Night (Nuestra parte de noche)
Author: Mariana Enríquez
Translator: Megan McDowell
Published: Hogarth, 2023 (2019)
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 645
Total Page Count: 523,135
Text Number: 1902
Read Because: reviewed by [personal profile] chthonic_cassandra, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A father fights to free his son from the grip of a powerful cult and dark figure that they summon. This is long, and long always makes me worry about bloat; but there isn't much here that I'd trim back. A family saga, it unfolds in pieces, in perspectives, unlocking like a puzzlebox new information about the family, the substantial worldbuilding, and the cultural context. The focus on the perpetuation of power is ruthless, with more triggers than I could list here, but it's character-focused, not preachy, and the speculative premise gives momentum to what might otherwise be a depressing slog. I loved this: devastating, tender, captivating; one of my best reads of the year.

Profile

juushika: Drawing of a sleeping orange cat (Default)
juushika

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011 121314
1516 17 18 192021
2223242526 2728
2930     

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Tags

Style Credit