It's less like I've had a crush on her since 1993 and more like we're good friends who found other people but you can imagine another world where things worked out differently, you know?

(and other stories)

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103) Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw, finished September 10

1) There's some weird stuff about pacing that I didn't like and even though the author thanks her editor for cleaning up plot holes, there are some other flaws that are peculiar. Just one example, at one point Sally has no bones; at two later points she has fabric bones. That sort of thing.

2) Sally's visits to the other holiday lands were well imagined though a bit hard to get enthused about. Part of that may be blamed on the demands of the plot, but those demands tie back into the pacing issue and so, ultimately, the place-to-place-to-place nature of the overlong central section makes a certain amount of sense, but trying to keep it trim left the visits cold while still feeling like of step of plot lasting waaay too long.

3) I'm not sure how I heard about this, but I put it on hold before I realized it wasn't a comic. I got it anyway with the idea it might be a good book to read to the 5yrold as this was her first favorite movie. But we're in the middle of The Little Princess and I/she didn't want to interrupt it. And since it's in demand and can't be renewed, I decided to just pick it up myself.

4) The beginning of the book was incredibly compelling. Even though I love Sally and was excited for her to have her own adventure, it ends up what I really wanted was some sexy sexy Sally/Jack scenes and this book delivers. The writing is G-rated but the passion is intense and very hot. One expects that Shea Ernshaw has some, ah, extended scenes in some scenes she cut before submission. Because this relationship is emotionally deep and the flashes of physicality that made it into this novel for children hint at something equally rich and assured. Anyway. If you've been shipping since the early Nineties, this book might be for you. At least Certain Parts.

5) The book is about Sally development from the uncertain child of abuse into the powerful and certain Pumpkin Queen. This is so-so. I wanted it to be stronger, but even as Sally is daring and brave and out on adventures, she doesn't seem to grow that much. She's just sort of stronger by the end. I wish this angle had been the real focus of developing in the editing process.

6) One thing that bugged me was this apparently inescapable theme of Disney products (I've already complained about this re Star Wars and Marvel) of important people requiring a certain geneology. Ugh.

7) Speaking of, it was startling when a real-life character appeared in the book—someone who had committer her final newsworthy act on the day before. (This link is a spoiler.)

8) This novel is totally a corporate product but you know what? Thank you, Disney. Now I want the ten-episode version. I think Henry Selick just became available.

about a week


104)Bug! The Adventures of Forager by a trio of Allreds, finished September 22

The weirder corners of the DC universe are so so weird. I've never been deep into stuff like Kirbyesque cosmology and it ain't easy to just dip into and know what's going on. And I did feel plenty lost here as well, but the wit of Lee and the beauty and vim of Mike and Laura make it a fun journey regardless. Plus, with the Allreds doing it, you get lots of cultural eastereggs (including those of the Mormon variety) and bits of wisdom—I especially liked the bit about building with your hands rather than your mind):

And, as long as we're in the neighborhood:

Anyway, do NOT ask me to explain any of this but I can testify that there are plenty of cool ideas and, I reckon, if you're steeped in New Gods mythology, you'll get more out of it than I did.

Also, I should mention that although the cover makes no mention of it, there's a short thing in the back about a guy named Midnight by a different artistic team that looks cool but has a tricky to follow panel-path, is crushed into pages that are really too small for the artistic decisions made, and is either missing a chapter or crushed the entire climactic sequence between panels.
 

That's a lot of complaints about a book that's jampacked with cool stuff, but I guess what I'm saying is that if you've never read comics before and are looking for a place to start, this ain't it. Experts only!

under a week
 

105)The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, finished September 24

So I just love her writing. It's not anything I can articulate, but just start reading her and you are immediately given the confidence that you are in the company of someone who knows what she's doing.

I loved Station Eleven, her big breakout book, and I intended to read this as soon as it came out in 2020, but Lady Steed was a tad underwhelmed so it ended up back at the library before I had a chance. When Sea of Tranquility hit earlier this year, I immediately put it on hold, but then I heard that it's connected to Glass Hotel (and, lesserly, to Station Eleven) and that it's a richer experience for having read Glass Hotel first. So back on hold went Glass Hotel.

And I loved it. I can see how, immediately following a read of Station Eleven, it might disappoint by not being big in the same ways, but with a bit of separation, it is just as impressive. So many interwoven stories, but it feels natural and organic and not workshopped and deliberated. Even its more flashy move like a switch into first-person plural and simply right.

The novel is deeply noneuclidean, by which I mean it is filled with parallel lines constantly intersecting with each other. Everything reflects everything else. And it's interesting to see how some people write about Glass Hotel as a novel of the multiverse while others see it as supernatural (or simple madness). I say,

What I like most is that every character feels fully realized. Even if they never get to be a pov character, even if we haven't been in their pov for a hundred pages. They live. And that means all the choices, crisis or not, large or small, matter. Because they matter to the characters. Now, most of them are large, at least within a character's life (ponzi schemes, mortage crises, artistic failures, dead mothers, drug addictions, suicides), but even small moments matter which is why the disasters matter as well. These people are complicated and contradictory and therefore we can hear them breathe.

maybe two weeks
 

106)Fangs by Sarah Andersen, finished October 2

A vampire/werewolf love story from the creator of Sarah Scribbles, just with more intentionally attractive art. What's not to like?

one short evening
 

107)The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, finished October 3

I heard of this book in an AML review that did a Mormon reading of the novel. I reached out to the review's author as it seemed to me he might also be interested in a similar book I admire, Replay.

I was surprised when he wrote me back, telling me he had read it on my recommendation and asking if I had read Harry August. I had not. My library didn't have it and I wasn't motivated enough to get it some other way. But now I felt obligated! So I interlibraried it and now I have read it.

Here's the concept:

Harry lives and then he dies. Then he is born again at the same moment and under the same circumstances as his first birth. He lives, dies, back to the beginning. He carries all his memories with him from previous lives.

As conceit, solid. It might seem hard to build plot-driving stakes around, but North solves that problem. The last hundred pages are filled with moments of emotional depth and excitement, but I think what I will be left with is a sense of eternity's tedium and wondering just what Harry will do next.

Without progress, what good is eternity?

two weeks


108)Brindille by Frédéric Brrémaud and Federico Bertolucci, finished October 5

It's a fine little fantasy, but it does reveal the advantage a work like Bone has that takes its sweet, sweet time over a thousand pages.

Another problem is the translation. For instance, in one panel a character is clearly reacting to some kind of a joke (probably a pun) and that is retained, but no effort was made to insert a funny where it belonged. Just a literal translation. And the the books title is Brindille but the main character is called Twig. So unless you know French, you may not make the connection between her, the title, and another character named Sir Brindille. All of which the book assumes are plain to you. So . . . shoddy work.

one night


109)Shelterbelts by Jonathan Dyck, finished date

1. My copy is apparently not the one that is normal. Looking around, it appears the book's chapters had been published in more than one form. Perhaps individually, then in volumes, then as a whole. My copy is the full thing but it looks like volume one as seen here:

2. Off and on for a few years I spent some time looking for a smaller branch of Christianity with a thriving literature all it's own ala the Latter-day Saints. I tried real hard to find a Jehovah's Witnesses literature to no avail. One Adventist writer and no more. Ends up I should have been looking at the Mennonites. This is a comic or strong literary merit. Plus, one of the characters is the librarian in her mostly Mennonite town and spends most of the budget on Mennonite romance novels because that's what the people want. Jackpot.

3. The art is simple, in the sense of clean lines and dot eyes, the only colors black and white. But Dyck makes strong use of where he spreads and does not spread his ink. He's creative with his perspectives and layouts. All the simplicity is put to work in the creation of depth. Read more about that here. Or screw theory and just check out some samples here and here.

Anyway, I found this book moving and fascinating, both accessible and alien, and thoroughly admirable.

this week