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juushikaTitle: Ghost Wall
Author: Sarah Moss
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019 (2018)
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 150
Total Page Count: 326,500
Text Number: 1148
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This has a unique and precise inspiration and an accomplished balance of elements: the concept and sense of place, the symbolic interpreting and being interpreted by the actual, themes and cultural criticism that are explicit without being simplified. It's a neat, tight package, but I quibble with the prologue/ending—the way they tie together is clever, inevitable, but cerebral, and the actual effect on the text is a rushed ending, especially alongside the intentional ambiguity of the resolution.
Title: Darker Than You Think
Author: Jack Williamson
Published: Berkley, 1969 (1948)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 270
Total Page Count: 326,770
Text Number: 1149
Read Because: fan of werewolves, borrowed from OpenLibrary
Review: Don't let the book & chapter titles fool you, because this is more pulpy than evocative and the writing is sometimes just bad, like the comical (albeit sympathetic—they are great words!) overuse of "taut" and "consternation." But kudos that the cliché "naked lady with sabertooth tiger" covers actually reflects a scene in the book, and what fails to be good can still be interesting: This develops werewolf/shapeshifter science fantasy lore rooted in quantum physics and genetics, and while it's never convincing and the genetic elements are as problematic as you'd expect, it's wildly unique. Obviously it didn't go on to become a standard element of the werewolf trope, but the way it reflects (and perhaps instigates) the trope's relationship with internal logic and scientific explanation is engaging. The unreliable narrator-cum-sympathetic antagonist is less successful because the modern reader, equipped with genre knowledge, is forever a step ahead; perhaps in 1948, it felt fresh.
Title: So Lucky
Author and Narrator: Nicola Griffith
Published: MacMillan Audio, 2018
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 180
Total Page Count: 326,950
Text Number: 1150
Read Because: fan of the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This is immediate and visceral, forcing immersion into the individual, private experience of becoming disabled; the battles with both external and internalized ableism are unflinching, and anger is a vibrant, clarifying force that retains its sometimes-dangerous brutality. Pity, then, that the short length forces a quick ending that wraps plot up in a neat package with the emotional arc; it comes to feel constructed, undermining that messy immediacy.
Author: Sarah Moss
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019 (2018)
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 150
Total Page Count: 326,500
Text Number: 1148
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This has a unique and precise inspiration and an accomplished balance of elements: the concept and sense of place, the symbolic interpreting and being interpreted by the actual, themes and cultural criticism that are explicit without being simplified. It's a neat, tight package, but I quibble with the prologue/ending—the way they tie together is clever, inevitable, but cerebral, and the actual effect on the text is a rushed ending, especially alongside the intentional ambiguity of the resolution.
Title: Darker Than You Think
Author: Jack Williamson
Published: Berkley, 1969 (1948)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 270
Total Page Count: 326,770
Text Number: 1149
Read Because: fan of werewolves, borrowed from OpenLibrary
Review: Don't let the book & chapter titles fool you, because this is more pulpy than evocative and the writing is sometimes just bad, like the comical (albeit sympathetic—they are great words!) overuse of "taut" and "consternation." But kudos that the cliché "naked lady with sabertooth tiger" covers actually reflects a scene in the book, and what fails to be good can still be interesting: This develops werewolf/shapeshifter science fantasy lore rooted in quantum physics and genetics, and while it's never convincing and the genetic elements are as problematic as you'd expect, it's wildly unique. Obviously it didn't go on to become a standard element of the werewolf trope, but the way it reflects (and perhaps instigates) the trope's relationship with internal logic and scientific explanation is engaging. The unreliable narrator-cum-sympathetic antagonist is less successful because the modern reader, equipped with genre knowledge, is forever a step ahead; perhaps in 1948, it felt fresh.
Title: So Lucky
Author and Narrator: Nicola Griffith
Published: MacMillan Audio, 2018
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 180
Total Page Count: 326,950
Text Number: 1150
Read Because: fan of the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This is immediate and visceral, forcing immersion into the individual, private experience of becoming disabled; the battles with both external and internalized ableism are unflinching, and anger is a vibrant, clarifying force that retains its sometimes-dangerous brutality. Pity, then, that the short length forces a quick ending that wraps plot up in a neat package with the emotional arc; it comes to feel constructed, undermining that messy immediacy.
