I didn’t really plan that the week after I went to Comic-Con that I would be doing a post on books that either were fantasy/horror/comic book related and yet here we are. This is maybe the most interesting collection of books I’ve had so far, with one being a contender for my all time favorite list and two others that were peculiar reads.
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
I picked this book up while one day perusing The Last Book Store in downtown LA and based off of my love for the film version of Cloud Atlas. Given that love, I knew to expect a book that would be a bit confounding and strange. I have to be honest with you, of the 600+ pages in this book, I found myself only enjoying reading about 100 and perpetually frustrated with the rest. The plot meanders all over the place, with detours into characters that don’t pop up until they are needed in the climax, and characters that actually have no bearing on the plot other than to get more characters in. I understand that maybe I was reading this with film goggles ie. what is essential to tell the story should be shown, but this book desperately needed an aggressive editor who would have told David to leave out (the entire Crispin Hershey section was the most usless thing). I’d say read this at your own caution.
More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
Speaking of read at your own caution (but for an entirely different reason), More Happy Than Not marks one of the few books to render me so unable to deal, so ruined that I just sat with my thoughts for about two hours after reading it. I was looking around the empty room for someone to give me a hug and there was no one there, it was rough. Even now, thinking about parts of the book, I get wildly emotional, not all bad though, it has fun parts. And even though, this book tried my life, I was so grateful to Adam Silvera for the journey he took me on. It tells the story of a Aaron, who has a girlfriend and finds himself attracted to his straight friend. Struggling to deal with these feelings and a sphere of influence that is less than tolerant, he desires to got to the Leteo Institute and get an operation that will turn him straight. As you can tell in this paragraph, the book isn’t the most happy of tales, but what makes this story work is that it’s incredibly vibrant and full of life. Each of the characters is distinct and Aaron is a wonderful young man to follow. I love that Silvera gives you such a thorough portrait of what Aaron’s life is that you get to experience his joys (of which there are many) and hurts (of which there are also many). Getting this whole approach is necessary for when the drama comes, but it also allows us as an audience to get the character. Given the prevalence of conversion therapy and the prejudice in this country, the stakes feel very real and tangible even with the scifi world. If you’re looking for YA scifi that’s also incredibly humanist and has diversity, this is the book for you. Even if it will make you want to quit life at the end.
Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer
I honestly don’t know what to make of this trilogy. On the one hadn, its an incredibly daring piece of writing with incredibly rich language and texture, but on the other you have to slog through this language to get to the interesting stuff and the answers don’t really come. In many ways this is the True Detective of books for me, but it is so intruiging that I encourage you all to try reading it. I’m not even going to get into plot details cause I might spoil something but just check it out.