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Book Reviews: Gideon the Ninth, Muir; My Brother's Husband, Tagame; The Wicker King, Ancurm
Just pretend it's not technically still Wednesday, the day when everyone is inundated with Words About Books! Even though, by complete coincidence, I have a lot of Words about The Wicker King! My non-comics, non-spoopy picture books reading has been pretty solid lately.
Title: Gideon the Ninth (The Ninth House Book 1)
Author: Tamsyn Muir
Published: Tor, 2019
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 450
Total Page Count: 330,890
TText Number: 1184
Read Because: reviewed by books and pieces, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Summons from the Emperor force childhood rivals to work together, or: Necromancers, in Spaaace. This is a debut novel and sure feels like it. It has a ton going on, and the first and arguably least successful element is Gideon's snarky voice. I agree that something needs to cut the necromancer-aesthetic, which played straight would be ridiculous ... but I'm not convinced this is the right counterpoint, because it's so annoying I almost DNF'd at the 10% mark. The next element is a the lost-civilization history of the far future space necromancers, which pulled me back in—it's intriguing and works phenomenally well with the aesthetic. Then there's antagonistic-relationship feels, too easily resolved but altogether a compelling dynamic. Then rapid plot developments and escalations involving an unwieldy large cast; then a bombastic climax; then a solid ending, which is vital given the book's ambitions. It's a lot of book, running overlong and veering towards hot mess—but it's enthusiastically its own thing, while still reminiscent of the enjoyable stylized dark queer space operas of the last few years. I'm glad I stuck with it, but my recommendation comes with caveats.
Title: My Brother's Husband (Volumes 1-4)
Author: Gengoroh Tagame
Published: Pantheon Books, 2017-2018 (2014-2017)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 705 (352+352)
Total Page Count: 331,595
Text Number: 1185
Read Because:multiple recommendations, hardbacks borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This is a review of the series entire. A Japanese man reevaluates his family history and social biases when his dead brother's Canadian husband shows up to visit. This is on the nose, particularly in its depiction of social issues like culture shock and homophobia, but also in the endearing-to-cutesy cast and the borderline-saccharine heartwarming tone. But it's also balanced and assured—there's character growth and the gentle pacing of slice-of-life, there's nuance in the social criticism, and the art is clean and confident. (Even the bara style comes to feel thematically appropriate as an interrogation of the "inherent" sexual nature/inappropriateness of gay men and gay culture.) It's a sincere pleasure and has just the right length.
Title: The Wicker King
Author: K. Ancrum
Published: Imprint, 2017
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 332,390
Text Number: 1189
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A pair of teenage boys are pulled back into a childhood game when one of them begins hallucinating a fantasy world. The fuckor this gave me was profound: tortured, beautiful, enigmatic teenage boys struggling with queerness and something spooky/strange is my jam—in the sense that I'd've written it a decade ago. Now it feels a little trashy, and the writing compounds that. The addictive microchapters and underwhelming mixed media elements make for a quick, engaging read, but they still feel like gimmicks. The characters and relationships are stylized, exaggerated, never quite real—but also compelling and sympathetic. Insofar as this is trash, it's my trash and I appreciate it. And it's not bad trash, because the social/health issues are well-handled. (But it's still trash.)
Further thoughts:
1) I had to view the mixed media on my tablet because my ereader wasn't up to the task (teeny screeny), so each element gave me a few dedicated seconds to wonder, "is this worth my time?" and the answer as frequently "no." They're not meaningless, particular in their plot contribution, but that contribution could be made some other way. There's a sketchbook page or two which is evocative, a running image which is meaningful. But there's also mixtapes and bland photos of models which feel so pointless—all aesthetic, no content.
2) I've been wondering why this felt so trashy, despite that I've been contemplating a reread of Brite's Lost Souls (the library has it in audio!). Tortured queer boys is precisely my thing, and I've rarely felt embarrassed by it, despite the various valid and invalid cultural criticisms leveled at it. But The Wicker King is a smidge embarrassing.
I think, in addition to critiques addressed above & the fact that I've aged (which arguably is the most important factor), it's that books like Lost Souls feel denser and darker. There're more plot threads, more gleefully exaggerated supernatural and aesthetic aspects, and there's subtext—often not a lot of subtext, but a sort of plausible deniability, even in books like Lost Souls. So the tortured queer boy-aspects are both diluted and camouflaged, even if the camouflage isvampire also embarrassing. It's productive to centralized the tortured queer boys and their queerness in particular—it's a sign of positive change—but comparatively it feels and sometimes legitimately is simplistic, forced, obvious in a way that exacerbates that embarrassment.
Title: Gideon the Ninth (The Ninth House Book 1)
Author: Tamsyn Muir
Published: Tor, 2019
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 450
Total Page Count: 330,890
TText Number: 1184
Read Because: reviewed by books and pieces, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Summons from the Emperor force childhood rivals to work together, or: Necromancers, in Spaaace. This is a debut novel and sure feels like it. It has a ton going on, and the first and arguably least successful element is Gideon's snarky voice. I agree that something needs to cut the necromancer-aesthetic, which played straight would be ridiculous ... but I'm not convinced this is the right counterpoint, because it's so annoying I almost DNF'd at the 10% mark. The next element is a the lost-civilization history of the far future space necromancers, which pulled me back in—it's intriguing and works phenomenally well with the aesthetic. Then there's antagonistic-relationship feels, too easily resolved but altogether a compelling dynamic. Then rapid plot developments and escalations involving an unwieldy large cast; then a bombastic climax; then a solid ending, which is vital given the book's ambitions. It's a lot of book, running overlong and veering towards hot mess—but it's enthusiastically its own thing, while still reminiscent of the enjoyable stylized dark queer space operas of the last few years. I'm glad I stuck with it, but my recommendation comes with caveats.
Title: My Brother's Husband (Volumes 1-4)
Author: Gengoroh Tagame
Published: Pantheon Books, 2017-2018 (2014-2017)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 705 (352+352)
Total Page Count: 331,595
Text Number: 1185
Read Because:multiple recommendations, hardbacks borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This is a review of the series entire. A Japanese man reevaluates his family history and social biases when his dead brother's Canadian husband shows up to visit. This is on the nose, particularly in its depiction of social issues like culture shock and homophobia, but also in the endearing-to-cutesy cast and the borderline-saccharine heartwarming tone. But it's also balanced and assured—there's character growth and the gentle pacing of slice-of-life, there's nuance in the social criticism, and the art is clean and confident. (Even the bara style comes to feel thematically appropriate as an interrogation of the "inherent" sexual nature/inappropriateness of gay men and gay culture.) It's a sincere pleasure and has just the right length.
Title: The Wicker King
Author: K. Ancrum
Published: Imprint, 2017
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 332,390
Text Number: 1189
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A pair of teenage boys are pulled back into a childhood game when one of them begins hallucinating a fantasy world. The fuckor this gave me was profound: tortured, beautiful, enigmatic teenage boys struggling with queerness and something spooky/strange is my jam—in the sense that I'd've written it a decade ago. Now it feels a little trashy, and the writing compounds that. The addictive microchapters and underwhelming mixed media elements make for a quick, engaging read, but they still feel like gimmicks. The characters and relationships are stylized, exaggerated, never quite real—but also compelling and sympathetic. Insofar as this is trash, it's my trash and I appreciate it. And it's not bad trash, because the social/health issues are well-handled. (But it's still trash.)
Further thoughts:
1) I had to view the mixed media on my tablet because my ereader wasn't up to the task (teeny screeny), so each element gave me a few dedicated seconds to wonder, "is this worth my time?" and the answer as frequently "no." They're not meaningless, particular in their plot contribution, but that contribution could be made some other way. There's a sketchbook page or two which is evocative, a running image which is meaningful. But there's also mixtapes and bland photos of models which feel so pointless—all aesthetic, no content.
2) I've been wondering why this felt so trashy, despite that I've been contemplating a reread of Brite's Lost Souls (the library has it in audio!). Tortured queer boys is precisely my thing, and I've rarely felt embarrassed by it, despite the various valid and invalid cultural criticisms leveled at it. But The Wicker King is a smidge embarrassing.
I think, in addition to critiques addressed above & the fact that I've aged (which arguably is the most important factor), it's that books like Lost Souls feel denser and darker. There're more plot threads, more gleefully exaggerated supernatural and aesthetic aspects, and there's subtext—often not a lot of subtext, but a sort of plausible deniability, even in books like Lost Souls. So the tortured queer boy-aspects are both diluted and camouflaged, even if the camouflage is