Well.

Yeah.

So.

It’s been a month, hasn’t it?

I have been ridiculously busy, more so than my usual due to some exciting developments from a plan I set in motion 6+ months ago. I know that’s irritatingly vague, but I really can’t say anything conclusive yet. I promise I will update everyone soon.

So, with that in mind, let’s detract ourselves from the trash fire that is global politics, shall we? YES LET’S DO THAT.

Sadly nothing I read this month blew me out of the water.

THE DIABOLIC, S. J. Kincaid

This new-ish release follows a genetically-modified bodyguard and her struggle against a failing, decedent dictatorship in space. As one might suspect, the most interesting part of this far-future sci-fi thriller was the world-building. The main characters were passable, the narrator grew on me, and the nascent romance followed YA tropes–but in way that actually made sense in context. I’m not sure I’ll read the sequal, but it was an enjoyable ride.

Rating: ****

YOU ARE A BADASS, Jen Sincero

See, here’s my problem with self-help books. As well-meaning and energetic as this one is, it’s fundamental goal is to motivate the reader to DO THE THING. Well, I don’t really have a problem motivating myself to DO THE THING. In fact, I need more help SAYING NO to too many things. As far as self-help books go, this one’s not the worst, but just not terribly useful for me.

Rating: **

HOW TO BUILD A GIRL, Caitlin Moran

This is a coming-of-age story, one that I probably would not have picked up if not for the Banging Book Club–a monthly podcast/bookclub about sex, sexuality, and gender run by three Brits in London. As such, GIRL suffers from a bit of cultural insider-knowledge–I don’t have a good an understanding of class struggles in England as UK readers, so some of the references and nuance were lost on me. Still, it’s entertaining, if not overly memorable.

Rating: ***

THE QUEEN OF BLOOD, Sarah Beth Durst

Finally, we’re back to fantasy. This new release follows a world where humans and aggressive elemental spirits live in a rapidly deteriorating peace. I enjoyed a lot more that I anticipated from the first few pages.  I’ll be honest–the writing isn’t great. It’s passable, but not particularly quote-able or memorable. What was interesting about this was the plot and the world-building. I’m on this quest to read every fantasy/historical fiction book I can with the word ‘queen’ in the title, and the queens in this volume did not disappoint.

Rating: ****

THEN WE CAME TO THE END, Joshua Ferris

This one’s a weird one. It’s a slightly surreal look at office life in the early 2000’s, and as someone who currently is living the office life, there’s more than a few scenarios to laugh at. But it suffers from length, and drags out longer than necessary. It’s never good when I pinpoint a scene near the end and think “that should be the last sentence” only to continue on twenty more page.

Rating: ***

THE HOUSE OF GOD, Samuel Shem

Here’s another weird one. A slightly dated, slightly surreal look at the insanity of the medical residency life, this book weaves in and out of dream and fantasy and reality to tell the story of several interns at a hospital in the Northeast. Apparently this book kick-started the movement for reasonable treatment of those underlings on their way to being full-fledged doctors. I found the distorted reality a bit hard to follow, but it solved in the end in such way that I could why we had taken that route. It also contains a sizable amount of what’s basically medical erotica–which, given your persuasions, is either a pro or a con.

Rating: ***

And that’s a wrap! Go worth, read lots, and try not to scream too much into the void!