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juushikaTitle: Bloom
Author: Delilah S. Dawson
Published: Titan Books, 2023
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 210
Total Page Count: 494,450
Text Number: 1763
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A late-20s assistant professor finds her world (and sexual orientation) gently but persistently transformed when she meets the proprietor of a farmer's market stall. "Sweet sapphic romance that takes a dark turn" is an apt way to summarize this without entirely spoiling the plot. It makes for a predictable story which is nonetheless entirely my jam, despite pacing issues. I love the indulgent-but-look-out! fantasy of cottagecore vibes and new love; I tolerate the backstory-dumping that comes after the reveal and the fact that the darker elements are more of a stinger than a story. In a more perfect world, this might be in two halves, before/after the plot twist; it would be darker and require sticking to its guns. As it is, I still ate it up like candy. Delightful, ominous, idyllic, playful, and a prime candidate for a midsummer reread.
Title: The Perfect Nanny
Author: Leïla Slimani
Translator: Sam Taylor
Published: Penguin Books, 2018 (2016)
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 230
Total Page Count: 494,680
Text Number: 1764
Read Because: reviewed by literarymagpie, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A whydunnit rather than a whodunnit thriller, this opens with a nanny's murder of her charges and then backtracks to examine her employment from its beginning, searching for something to explain the bloody end. One caveat, and my bad: stories about childcare(/the social stresses revolving around childcare) aren't for me, which should have clued me in not to read this, but here we are. It's a pointed critique of the problem of childcare especially as it falls along gender and class lines, it's probably doing smart things, and it was destined to push me away.
Structurally, this is interesting but, again, destined to fail. Starting from a known conclusion creates an intensely claustrophobic interior novel that nonetheless can't help but feel anticlimactic. I like this conceptually, as it seems to insist that, even after a psychological deep dive, a crime of passion can be contextualized but can never be fully explained. On paper, insightful; as a reading experience, a thriller with an abrupt, empty ending.
Title: Jawbone
Author: Mónica Ojeda
Translator: Sarah Booker
Published: Coffee House Press, 2022 (2018)
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 270
Total Page Count: 494,950
Text Number: 1765
Read Because: personal enjoyment, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Before, a group of schoolgirls at a prestigious Catholic school experiment with dangerous games of truth or dare and heretical invention; after, their traumatized teacher holds one chained to a table in a remote cabin. I loved the hell out of this which means, like most books I love, it's not perfect, and I'll start my enumerating objective flaws: All voices, internal and external, sound the same. It comes to too cohesive an endpoint, all themes converging. It suggests thatone character is a master manipulator, which I don't buy because it negates prior, more nuanced, character development . It's all a little convenient and over-written, and I see that.
And I don't care. The lives of these girls, particularly the central dynamic, is an exploration of social deviation, and when it's experimentation and when it's identity. It's a messy and nuanced and profoundly #relatable exploration of adolescence, sexual awakening, female romantic friendship, self-harm, BDSM, and the death drive. Provoking, sexy, uncomfortably personal, and when a book hits that hard it ignores objectivity. I loved it.
Author: Delilah S. Dawson
Published: Titan Books, 2023
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 210
Total Page Count: 494,450
Text Number: 1763
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A late-20s assistant professor finds her world (and sexual orientation) gently but persistently transformed when she meets the proprietor of a farmer's market stall. "Sweet sapphic romance that takes a dark turn" is an apt way to summarize this without entirely spoiling the plot. It makes for a predictable story which is nonetheless entirely my jam, despite pacing issues. I love the indulgent-but-look-out! fantasy of cottagecore vibes and new love; I tolerate the backstory-dumping that comes after the reveal and the fact that the darker elements are more of a stinger than a story. In a more perfect world, this might be in two halves, before/after the plot twist; it would be darker and require sticking to its guns. As it is, I still ate it up like candy. Delightful, ominous, idyllic, playful, and a prime candidate for a midsummer reread.
Title: The Perfect Nanny
Author: Leïla Slimani
Translator: Sam Taylor
Published: Penguin Books, 2018 (2016)
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 230
Total Page Count: 494,680
Text Number: 1764
Read Because: reviewed by literarymagpie, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A whydunnit rather than a whodunnit thriller, this opens with a nanny's murder of her charges and then backtracks to examine her employment from its beginning, searching for something to explain the bloody end. One caveat, and my bad: stories about childcare(/the social stresses revolving around childcare) aren't for me, which should have clued me in not to read this, but here we are. It's a pointed critique of the problem of childcare especially as it falls along gender and class lines, it's probably doing smart things, and it was destined to push me away.
Structurally, this is interesting but, again, destined to fail. Starting from a known conclusion creates an intensely claustrophobic interior novel that nonetheless can't help but feel anticlimactic. I like this conceptually, as it seems to insist that, even after a psychological deep dive, a crime of passion can be contextualized but can never be fully explained. On paper, insightful; as a reading experience, a thriller with an abrupt, empty ending.
Title: Jawbone
Author: Mónica Ojeda
Translator: Sarah Booker
Published: Coffee House Press, 2022 (2018)
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 270
Total Page Count: 494,950
Text Number: 1765
Read Because: personal enjoyment, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Before, a group of schoolgirls at a prestigious Catholic school experiment with dangerous games of truth or dare and heretical invention; after, their traumatized teacher holds one chained to a table in a remote cabin. I loved the hell out of this which means, like most books I love, it's not perfect, and I'll start my enumerating objective flaws: All voices, internal and external, sound the same. It comes to too cohesive an endpoint, all themes converging. It suggests that
And I don't care. The lives of these girls, particularly the central dynamic, is an exploration of social deviation, and when it's experimentation and when it's identity. It's a messy and nuanced and profoundly #relatable exploration of adolescence, sexual awakening, female romantic friendship, self-harm, BDSM, and the death drive. Provoking, sexy, uncomfortably personal, and when a book hits that hard it ignores objectivity. I loved it.
