Alexander, Lionni; My Sister, the Serial Killer, Braithwaite; My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Ferris

[juushika]

I fell beyond on Animorphs reviews while finishing Animorphs because I had so much to say about each book, and now I just don't want to talk about the series at all except maybe to cry. There is a void now in my life. How to process that? Anyway here's Wonderwall everything else I've been reading.

These long titles, though! Apologies to Lionni; something had to give.


Title: Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse
Author: Leo Lionni
Published: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2006 / Dragonfly Books, 1987 (1969)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 35
Total Page Count: 306,090
Text Number: 1030
Read Because: childhood favorite; my hold on the hardback from the Wilsonville Public Library on the same day that I found my paperback while unpacking my library (it was in storage at home this whole time!), so I read it in both—FWIW the new imprint is larger & more vivid but the art feels stretched (maybe my imagination but I felt like I could see the DPI); my childhood copy feels dingier but the art resolution looks better
Review: This is the collage work that I prefer (over Lionni's stamp art), with lovely details like the torn vs cut edges of the real vs toy mice, and fantastic colors—the magical lizard and purple pebble are images that held with me since childhood, and they're still just as evocative. The message—about where we fit in, and how we're loved—is surprisingly nuanced, and the Suck Fairy has yet to pay it a visit. This was one of my favorite picture books as a kid, and I'm pleased to discover how well it lives up to my memories.


Title: My Sister, the Serial Killer
Author: Oyinkan Braithwaite
Narrator: Adepero Oduye
Published: Random House Audio, 2018
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 235
Total Page Count: 306,325
Text Number: 1031
Read Because: reviewed by tamaranth, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Beautiful Ayoola has now killed three of her boyfriends, leaving her practical sister Korede to clean up the mess. I came to this because I saw it compared to Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and I agree. It lacks Jackson's charming language, and I'm not sold on the brutally short chapters and stylized one-word titles, although they make this already-short novel compulsively quick to read. But the combination of dark humor/crime thriller/domestic thriller is reminiscent of Castle, as is the compelling, uneasy, intimate dynamic between the sisters. Braithwaite nails some pivotal elements—the tension and palpable frustration of Korede's situation; Ayoola's slippery, seductive affect; Korede's slide into increasing unreliability—which is particularly impressive in a debut, and gives solid payoff to a fun premise. (I particularly love the stubborn lack of resolution in the ending.)


Title: My Favorite Thing is Monsters
Author: Emil Ferris
Published: Fantagraphics, 2017
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 415
Total Page Count: 306,740
Text Number: 1032
Read Because: reviewed by Possibly Literate, paperback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: A young monster growing up in 1960s Chicago investigates the death of her neighbor. There's elements here that I really admire, like the "monster" conceit and well-rounded protagonist, the living diversity of the world, and the frankly incredible art. Presented as a spiral-notebook diary with dimensional, crosshatched art in styles that shift to fit the inset narratives-within-narratives and copious, densely-written text, it's visually overwhelming and never grows easier to read. I kept waiting for the narrative to justify that effort, but it never does. There's plot elements that I'd've preferred to avoid for personal reasons had I known they were present (Holocaust narrative; terminally ill parent), but more the dozen subplots have minimal structure and no closure in what turns out to be the first volume in a series. This is ambitious and admirable and unsuccessful.

Comments

[starshipfox]

I didn't realise you'd finished Animorphs! Oh wow, that's such a big project to complete -- it must leave a significant gap. I'm really looking forward to hearing your thoughts when you feel up to sharing <3

[juushika]

Apologies for incipient wall of text as I process my book hangover through the most readily available outlet!

I have review notes for everything except the last book (still processing!) mostly b/c I made myself write them before I let myself start the next book—and a good thing too, because in that final stretch and with all the post-move decompressing I just wanted to read, not review.

But yeah, what a project! Almost 4 full months, and I regret nothing; it absolutely has the fannish intensity/consumability of something like TV, and I probably couldn't have picked anything better to get me through the stressful last few months. What a good impulse decision past-me made.

It's so tempting to read the Everworld series now! I read a book or two on release but IIRC did a combo of "this isn't Animorphs, so it's bad" and "I'm almost an Adult now and these are YA and so they must be Bad"--I'd love to know what I think of them with a clearer head. But I don't want to set myself up for failure by chasing an equally absorbing experience, because tbh anything else will pale in comparison right now.

So what I really should do, when I'm done reviewing and thus not tainting my opinion of canon, is read a boatload of fic. I hope there's a lot of weird things about alien biology and trauma processing and weird AF social dynamics, because the series had a lot but honestly could not, given its content, ever have enough.

[starshipfox]

I've enjoyed reading your thoughts on these books so much. I've always regarded them with such fondness, and it's been so good to hear your measured and thoughtful take on them. It's really fascinating to hear the ways in which they worked for you, and I'm glad it was such an immersive and compelling experience. I kind of want to read them myself and kind of feel like I don't need to? My curiosity about what they like and how they've stood up to time is satisfied, although I would at some point like to go through the experience of the story again, particularly as I read them in such a haphazard way as a child.

I hope there is good fic! I hope it truly embraces the weirdness of the books!

[juushika]

I didn't read beyond the halfway point in my childhood; I assume you finished the series, however haphazardly you read? That's was the real tipping point for me re: being curious enough to reread or being satisfied by someone else's reread—I didn't know enough to have an external view confirm or deny my memories.

The second half of the series was fascinating insofar as it didn't ping my nostalgia in the same way, but the way characters devolved/Flanderized/in particular how what stopped, what characters or dynamics came to a crashing halt ... that built on my nostalgia and in a way even subverted/inverted it, like my nostalgia were a trope & the series were showing me a new way to view it. I'm not sure that makes any sense! But it felt like surprisingly robust storytelling, especially given the caveats of "ghostwritten episodic MG series."

[starshipfox]

You mentioned you wanted to read some Animorphs fic ... I was reading some Magicians fic by this author, and some Leverage fic, and noticed they'd written a tonne of Animorphs fic: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poetry/pseuds/Poetry/works?fandom_id=131276 Their work in the fandoms I mentioned is really good, so maybe their Animorphs stuff would be a good place to start?

I never got to the end of the Animorphs series as a kid. In fact, I don't remember being that interested in the overall story-arc: I was more into the individual characters and the morphs. It's funny that you've found the Ax books to be generally not so good on your reread of them, because I remember them most fondly.

It's really amazing that it manages to be such good storytelling, despite everything. Shows how solid Applegate's premise was, I think.