……..yeah we’re starting this batch with a DNF and I think I’m gonna be more patient about my library picks….
ANYWAY. HERE WE GO. Between AUGUST and…
READINGS CONTINUED:
84K — CLAIRE NORTH ugh..well DNFed this one. Not for any of the same reasons as most would. I actually liked the writing style but part 2 was….slow… and its slowness started really underlining a lot of political things it was trying to do and failing at. I stopped reading 100 pages to the end. I couldn’t make it. Let me know how it ends if you read it lol.
anyway.
HALF HIS AGE — JENNETTE MCCURDY oops we’re back with this one, I didn’t realise the author of I’m Glad My Mom Died was one and the same and both these books were on my list. Suffice to say her writing style continues to be gripping. I admittedly wasn’t sure where this one was going to end up and maybe it’s wrong, but I’m kinda glad it ended up where it did.
AXIOM’S END — LINDSEY ELLIS uh oh… yeah… this one was a DNF 44% in… uh… it just really wasn’t what i was expecting… but it probably should have been? I think this is really starting to put me off of: if you have cops/cia/fbi/some sort of American policing org in your book I’m just probably not gonna read it lmao. Anyway, alien abduction was pretty much right there without all that nonsense if you wanted to do a Beauty & The Beast/Phantom of the Opera But Aliens take.
THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS — URSULA K. LE GUIN ….. i really tried to like this one but I’m afraid this has put me off her writing for a while. Maybe it was a wrong-timing type thing. I had this one on hold for like 16 weeks on Libby so i might have missed my interest window.
LAURA DEAN KEEPS BREAKING UP WITH ME — MARIKO TAMAKI & ROSMARY VALERO O’CONNELL I had to go back to something I was familiar with that I know i genuinely enjoyed because I was hitting so many duds (my current read is …okay. but more on that later). This one… hMM idk it just hits a lot of the good teen-drama arcs I enjoy in movies that fit this niche? Plus Rosmary’s art is just incredible. Her use of negative space vs details is suuuch a huge envy of mine. <3
THERE IS NO ANTIMEMETICS DIVISION — QNTM uh… man i think this was like decent in concept at the get-go but I ….didn’t like the ending. Also–dear writers you can’t sit here and TELL ME that your story is so ABSTRACT in said story over and over and expect me to believe you… this was so hamfisted. The most literal ‘abstract’ story I’ve read this year alone lol. Safe to say… not really for me.
KISS NUMBER 8 — COLLEEN AF VENABLE & ELLEN T. CRENSHAW this one actually stands the test of time, (at least its been a good 7+ years since it was released). Really just a story about being so unapologetically bi?? God we get so few of those. The story Venable weaves through this whole thing is such a yummy stack of miscommunication & hurt feelings. The text DOES get a bit wordy for a comic, this is also a real lesson in “too much text on a page really makes the art suffer” especially when Crenshaw’s artwork is absolutely incredible.
THE OGRE GODS: PETIT — HUBERT & BERTRAND GATIGNOL this one was wilddd. You want weird? Lets get weird. I gotta say between my partner and I’s current reads I’m looking at a whole lot of cannibalism? Themeing? This spooky season which is wild. The artwork in this one is superb, the story/panelling did lose me a couple times but idk if that’s mostly a translation issue (yeah yeah I know its French originally I just had the English translation on hand) dug it though!!
STAGES OF ROT — LINNEA STERTE stunning artwork, what a fascinating concept, playing with rot as evolution, as a cycle, if we were just bacteria in a bigger greater scheme of life (we are, i feel like people forget that a lot). Absolutely gorgeous.
Okay look I tried to get to 10 before jumping into #myoctoberscaries challenge and i just didn’t make it so you’ll have to deal with this half-baked nonsense because August really punched me in the throat with 2 DNFs to start.