Book Reviews: The Baby Unicorn, Marzollo; The Twisted Ones, Vernon; The Caphenon, DeLancey

[juushika]

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 becomes a roadblock to other/poly relationships it feels limiting, which does an already-divisive trope no favors.) This stretched my patience, but it's still easy to like.

Comments

[ambyr]

Oh, man, Baby Unicorn and it’s sequel, Baby Unicorn and Baby Dragon, were my first fantasy books and cornerstones of my childhood. I still have my copies—maybe I should do a reread.

(You’ve read Summer in Orcus, right? The werehouse stuff reminded me strongly of the mother unicorn house, and I always wondered if Vernon had read Baby Unicorn.)

[juushika]

Sorry for the delayed reply, I went off and read Baby Unicorn and Baby Dragon. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a part of my childhood because the art doesn't look familiar, but I think child-me may have concocted my own version of the book based on the afterword in The Baby Unicorn, because I have a distant, undefined memory of an unrelated plot with the same characters. Regardless, the sequel was surprisingly enjoyable!

I haven't read Summer in Orcus—Bryony and Roses is my only other Vernon.

[ambyr]

Oh, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Maybe I'll curl up under the blankets later this week and do a reread of them both.

I think you would enjoy Summer in Orcus.

[elinox]

I've never read anything by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon but have wanted to.

Have you read some of her other works? If so, which would you recommend as a first book to start with?

[juushika]

The only other Vernon/Kingfisher book I've read was Bryony and Roses, which I liked! [my review] It's a beauty and the beast retelling, and not the most robust retelling in the world, but great balance of humor to atmosphere. It got me out of a reading slump, which I think says something about a book. I've avoided Vernon's other work because she is so strongly a humor writer and I just ... don't humor; I've been looking for books where the humor was more likely to be balanced out by other elements. If you do do humor, probably lots of her stuff is good!

Of the two I've read, either would make a fine starter; she seems like a competent, consistent writer, which is a productive balance to her oddball inspirations.

[elinox]

I love Beauty and the Beast and so have wondered about 'Bryony and Roses' before. Thanks!

[thawrecka]

I remember not finishing The Caphenon, at least in part because I found the endless heart-to-hearts kind of cloying.

[juushika]

I took a break at the 50% mark to read another book which a totally different tone (actually The Twisted Ones, IIRC), which is what saved it for me—500 pages of that particular emotional register is just too much.