Over the past two weeks, I have read all of The Raven Cycle. I picked up the first book on a recommendation from my little sister (and the promise of a well done bisexual character) thinking that I might slowly read the series over the course of this year.

Read it? Yes. Read it slowly? Hell no. I devoured those books and am happy to have done so! Although it has left me with a distinctive reading hangover where I think I’ll need a little bit before I pick up something else to read.

What can I say? Hyperfixation’s a bitch.

Anyway, it’s a brilliant series, I love the way it in which it plays with your expectations from the start, and gets you invested in the characters first and foremost. Out of the 20 plus characters in the books, I think there were four I didn’t care for in the end and all of them were antagonists. So well done, author. Also the different types of magic were intensely fascinating to me, and I was very happy to see a household with a similar setting that I grew up with represented not as weird and out there and thus unpleasant, but just different, and interesting in its own way. That was a really nice change of pace.

I’ll probably do a few more posts about this series once I’ve recovered and had a chance to reread some of it. I definitely haven’t finished codifying my thoughts yet, and some level of reread is necessary to notice all the foreshadowing I missed the first time. But it was a relatively easy read, and a very engaging and satisfying one.

I replied to your message in my head several days ago did you not get it

And I have finished Gideon the Ninth!

Still just as spectacular as it was the first time, only now I know all the secrets and all the grief locked up that weren’t even spots on my radar the first time I read it. It is a fantastic tragedy and knowing that it’s coming doesn’t make it any less compelling all the way down.

Truly it is one hell of a book, it’s rather like a tidal wave - slow to start, impossible to stop once it gets going, and you can’t look away from it as it collapses upon you.

I very much look forward to my Harrow reread, but in the meantime, I have another book I’ve promised to read with my sister first.

One of the absolute delights about rereading a book that you read maybe a year and a half ago is that you recall just enough information to pick up on everything you missed the first time around.

This is to say that Gideon the Ninth is even deeper than it seems and both Gideon and Harrowhark are far worse at concealing their feelings than they pretend.

In other words, I just reached the line “And Harrowhark rose to the occasion like an evening star.”

“Do you want,” Gideon whispered huskily, “my hanky?”

“I want to watch you die.”

“Maybe, Nonagesimus,” she said with deep satisfaction, “maybe. But you sure as hell won’t do it here.”

Well now that’s just rude.

This has been a much more successful restart given that I’m already five chapters in. The beginning hurts way more knowing just what these girls have been through and also I caught a sneaky Roranoa Zoro reference! So, it’s been fun so far.

Trying to read Scum Villain unfortunately derailed my reading train. I guess I’m not ready to try getting back into my danmei yet. Let’s go for angsty goth lesbians instead.

Trying to read Scum Villain unfortunately derailed my reading train. I guess I’m not ready to try getting back into my danmei yet. Let’s go for angsty goth lesbians instead.

I did start reading this, it’s been slow going in part because life was hectic this week and in part because I spent my spare time writing instead.

I’m still in the very early chapters, but it is reminding me already of a few things I appreciated, including the clear delineation between what Shen Qingqiu is picking up on and what he’s missing, and (with the benefit of a reread) knowing that there are things he just never grasped about any of the characters even before they started to develop. It’s fun and shows well why and how he’ll be surprised as the story continues on with him, revealing depths he never thought to look for.

I think this is the next book I’ll be reading.

I think this is the next book I’ll be reading.

I finished Privilege of the Sword!!

So in the end, I enjoyed most of the story, but felt the ending was a little rushed. It goes from Katherine and her companion’s shenanigans and explorations leading them stumbling into the tangled web that the antagonist and her uncle have been playing with in time to save one of the minor characters, to her uncle going to confront and suddenly killing the antagonist in question to running away and making Katherine the next Duchess of Tremontaine with a few of the still dangling plot threads loosely tucked into a slim epilogue without really showing us the fallout from his actions beyond the part where he just goes “shit I’m getting out of here, summon my boyfriend from the summer estate”. Artemisia’s subplot isn’t really resolved, though she shows up there, and there’s a few others that were introduced partway through that aren’t mentioned at all.

However.

There’s one more book - I believe it’s called Fall of the Rival, that’s at least what it looks like from where it’s sitting on my bookshelf - which may clear up a lot of these grievances. I don’t think I’ll read it immediately, I’ve got something else in mind to pick up first, but I’ll give it a shot soon. I did on the whole enjoy a ton of the book too, I loved the slow escalation of the political quagmire that makes up Tremontaine versus the rest of the nobility, Katherine’s journey from farmgirl to swordfighter complete with bisexual awakening was really charming, I cared about most of the side characters at least a little bit, which is very impressive considering how many of them there are, I just wish that either there was more time to show the fallout or that there hadn’t been the epilogue that feels like it’s trying to wrap up enough of the dangling plot threads to feel like it’s a satisfying ending. I’m fine with trilogies ending with a sort of null ending in the middle, it just doesn’t really need an epilogue at the same time.

Also Artemisia and Katherine should have become girlfriends. C’mon. I deserved it.

Well I was right about Katherine at least! Now let’s see if these sparks catch fire…

I’m probably about halfway through The Privilege of the Sword now, and some plot threads are starting to tangle together, as well as I have received confirmation that my otp from the previous book are doing about as well at relationship as they were before (so not at all) but they’re still madly in love with each other, so all is well.

Also Katherine and the other focal character, Lady Artemisia finally met again after having met right at the beginning and then not at all and now I’m encouraging Katherine to go and sweep Artemisia off her feet and away from all these terrible men around her. You two clearly have similar romantic sensibilities, and Katherine could be so much a better boyfriend than your current beau, Artemisia. Just risk everything and elope with the cute swordswoman!

I’m probably about halfway through The Privilege of the Sword now, and some plot threads are starting to tangle together, as well as I have received confirmation that my otp from the previous book are doing about as well at relationship as they were before (so not at all) but they’re still madly in love with each other, so all is well.

Also Katherine and the other focal character, Lady Artemisia finally met again after having met right at the beginning and then not at all and now I’m encouraging Katherine to go and sweep Artemisia off her feet and away from all these terrible men around her. You two clearly have similar romantic sensibilities, and Katherine could be so much a better boyfriend than your current beau, Artemisia. Just risk everything and elope with the cute swordswoman!

Bah, I’m still getting the hang of this side blog stuff. So I don’t have to rewrite the whole post, we’re doing this instead.

A new book tonight, we start The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner, the sequel to Swordspoint, which was a book that I picked up for the oddest recommendation given the source material and thoroughly enjoyed and immediately bought the two following books too.

This book is about Katherine, a young woman who is suddenly brought to the city when her uncle, the Mad Duke Tremontaine, decides to have her trained as a swordswoman in exchange for erasing her family’s debts, and presumably continue to fuck with the city a lot since he’s a returning character with charisma, brains and spite. (He was probably my favorite in the previous book, but I haven’t officially been told by the book that it’s him so we shall both be coy for a bit) but I’m still too early to know all the plots spinning around and which things tie to what. I didn’t have most of the twists called till the very climax of the previous book, which is always fun.

I’m currently 80 pages in and it’s in the part of the story where it sets plot threads spinning and drops hints both about the returning characters and their current states, and establishes the new characters and their agenda, but it’s definitely a slower story than some I’ve read. I’m not complaining, I’m enjoying the slow build and time to get to know what’s going on, it’s an intrigue and swashbuckling book so the set up and the deadly dance is the point and so far I’m enjoying it a lot.

We shall see how long it takes me to read it, it would be nice if I finished it by the end of the week, but who knows! Swordspoint I read 3/4s of in less than a week and then needed a whole month to read the last chunk, so we shall see just what the future has in store.

A new book tonight, we start The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner, the sequel to Swordspoint, which was a book that I picked up for the oddest recommendation given the source material and thoroughly enjoyed and immediately bought the two following books too.

This book is about Katherine, a young woman who is suddenly brought to the city when her uncle, the Mad Duke Tremontaine, decides to have her trained as a swordswoman in exchange for erasing her family’s debts, and presumably continue to fuck with the city a lot since he’s a returning character with charisma, brains and spite. (He was probably my favorite in the previous book, but I haven’t officially been told by the book that it’s him so we shall both be coy for a bit) but I’m still too early to know all the plots spinning around and which things tie to what. I didn’t have most of the twists called till the very climax of the previous book, which is always fun.

I’m currently 80 pages in and it’s in the part of the story where it sets plot threads spinning and drops hints both about the returning characters and their current states, and establishes the new characters and their agenda, but it’s definitely a slower story than some I’ve read. I’m not complaining, I’m enjoying the slow build and time to get to know what’s going on, it’s an intrigue and swashbuckling book so the set up and the deadly dance is the point and so far I’m enjoying it a lot.

We shall see how long it takes me to read it, it would be nice if I finished it by the end of the week, but who knows! Swordspoint I read 3/4s of in less than a week and then needed a whole month to read the last chunk, so we shall see just what the future has in store.

I’ve already finished it! It was a short book, and an easy read, and also very captivating!

It’s four short stories that cover the span of a year, each about a woman in pain and the slow process of healing with the aid of a cat, with the stories told from both of their perspectives.

There’s Miyu, who finds a white kitten freezing in a box and takes him home, and he comforts her through painful breakups with her best friend and her boyfriend, while Chobi, her cat, attempts to help her while also meeting an old dog named Jon and a young cat named Mimi who live in the same neighborhood. Then there’s Reina, an artist who feeds the young Mimi and is trying to find her way in the world, which involves a run in with a sleezy boss, missing opportunities to go to college for her art and realizing that all of the talent in the world won’t help if she doesn’t aim it somewhere, while Mimi meets Kink Tail, a feral cat who dies in an autumn storm and has his kittens that winter, spurring Reina to adopt her and her kittens and take her inside. After her comes Aoi, a young woman who’s best friend suddenly died after they had a huge fight and is completely broken down by grief to the point where she can’t even leave her house and Mimi’s smallest kitten Cookie, who tries to help Aoi through her grief, then runs away to find her mom when she hears from a feral cat named Kuro that Mimi was hurt, spurring Aoi to leave the house to try and save her little kitten. It ends with Shino, an older woman who spent many years taking care of first her father in law, then her mother in law when they got sick, while her husband left her for another woman and left her with only an empty house and an old dog named Jon, as well as a stray named Kuro who comes around occasionally, and chooses to stick with her more often after her dog passes away and her nephew escapes a horrible job to come and recover with her, culminating in Shino and Kuro chasing away her nephew’s father when he came to enact punishment on his son for leaving his job.

It wasn’t what I was expecting from the synopsis, but I wasn’t disappointed by that. The stories were woven together in interesting ways and it was lovely to see the subtle effects that the characters, human and feline alike, had on each other. The stories were short and simple, yet full of so much emotion and care. I thought about putting it down when I finished the first story, then immediately tore through the rest of it.

I don’t know how often I would read this book, but it does feel like a good one to curl up in a cozy chair with fuzzy socks and a cup of tea with. Definitely it’s one I’ll be keeping around in my collection for the foreseeable future.

Tonight’s current attempt at reading: a book I picked up on a whim from a second hand bookstore.

She and Her Cat is by Makoto Shinkai and Naruki Nagakawa and translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori is at the moment a mystery to me, I saw it sitting on a display, it said it was a book of interconnected short stories about four women and their cats and it looked interesting. I’ve bought books for worse reasons, let’s see how this one turns out.

Tonight’s current attempt at reading: a book I picked up on a whim from a second hand bookstore.

She and Her Cat is by Makoto Shinkai and Naruki Nagakawa and translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori is at the moment a mystery to me, I saw it sitting on a display, it said it was a book of interconnected short stories about four women and their cats and it looked interesting. I’ve bought books for worse reasons, let’s see how this one turns out.

Looks like I’m kickstarting this blog with a post about my favorite genre type - fairy tale retellings.

So recently I had to travel by plane for reasons, and when you’re on a plane flight with nothing to do aside from write fanfic or read, sometimes you continue to procrastinate on all your writing projects and pick up an old favorite for a fresh reread.

The Black Swan by Mercedes Lackey is a book I’ve probably read about a dozen times now, enough that I’m not really picking up anything new from it, but still enjoy the journey back through familiar swamps. It’s a retelling of Swan Lake as told through the eyes of the Odile von Rothbart, along with the prince who is now known as Siegfried and his mother, the Queen Regent Clothilde.

So the main theme of the story is ~*~Misogyny~*~ and how much it sucks. The setting itself is a world in which women have no power outside of the men they are related to and are blamed for mens’ actions as well as their own. Odette, along with the rest of her flock, was turned into a swan by Rothbart due to their perceived betrayal of men and it is seen as their penance for their actions. It’s so prominent a theme in the story that it can be a little hard to read at times, especially before the viewpoint characters put in their character development and start doing things about it. For me, I’ve read the book enough that it has ceased to be shocking and instead is a nice read for a certain mood, though I can certainly see it being off putting to someone who comes to this book for the first time.

To me, it’s an interesting book in that it starts all three of its viewpoint characters in unlikeable places. Siegfried is a prince raised entirely to be hedonistic and selfish, taking what he pleases and acting without respect or care to those around him to the extent that he commits rape, Clothilde has schemed and machinated her way into keeping her son the way he is so that she can continue to rule indefinitely, even planning for such a thing as her son meeting with an accident so that she never loses her position as ruler, whatever the cost to others, and Odile has completely bought into her father’s misogyny and hatred of women and sees his capturing women and turning them into swans as a good thing for them. While each of them get touches of sympathy so that we know they could be better: Siegfried is very much a product of his mother’s manipulations, Clothilde has grown up in a world that has denied her the ability to do or be anything that she did not manipulate her way into because she was female, and Odile has grown up with her father’s poison in her ears and no experience of others to show her how toxic the things she’s internalized is, they still start at a point where it’s hard to really feel for any of them, especially Siegfried.

Siegfried in particular, who I personally think how you feel about his redemption and turn determines whether or not you can enjoy the book at all, is definitely the hardest sell of the three, given that as part of the theme of the book, he does commit a rape of a young woman and society gives him no punishment for it whatsoever, even when he starts having nightmares and believing that he has done something wrong. Whether it’s merely a product of his mind or an actual visitation, the only comeuppance the world gives him is visions of the girl he raped showing him the monster he is becoming in a mirror she holds before an Angel comes to spirit her away and shows Siegfried a more extended vision of a monster destroying and ravaging everything in its path, to which he wakes up, takes stock of himself and considers it a warning that while he is not yet that far gone, he was on that path and he himself has to be the one to stop it now because no one else will hold him accountable in this world.

It’s an interesting take to be sure, but I can definitely see that being a dealbreaker too. I’m not certain myself that the whole plot consistently works for me, but for me, the most important part is Odette and Odile’s story and so I can set aside my feelings about Siegfried’s plot and whether or not it does enough in it’s time to make it feel like it works.

What I do really love though, is the swans. Odile begins the story on the cusp of the realization she will fight for the whole story, as it is a truly painful realization to have - that her father, who she has adored her whole life and has done everything she can think of to please - does not care about her beyond as a tool to use in his schemes, and that the people who will love her are the people who she has currently rejected. Over the course of the story, through her interactions with Odette and the rest of the flock, Odile goes from distant and hostile to the other women, to finding kinship and sincerely rooting for their success in Rothbart’s plot, and devastated when Rothbart forces them to fail. Odette and the other swans are much kinder than Odile believed, and as the story progresses, she finds out why they were cursed and why they did what they did and comes to realize that she was wrong about them, and they welcome her in as one of theirs now. The swan girls are not deep characters, many of them are never named, but their quiet bravery and willingness to be kind to Odile is what really draws me into the story.

The climax of the story does contain Odette and Siegfried throwing themselves to the lake rather than be parted by Rothbart’s machinations again, but the victor and hero of the story is Odile, who finally finds the courage to pull herself free of her father, end his life and save Odette and Siegfried from the heart wrenching end of their fairytale. The moment that she chooses to act again, and again, and again, yanking a happy ending out of the jaws of misery, is my absolute favorite part of the story. I read the whole book from cover to cover just to reexperience the glee and joy I felt the first time around seeing Odile take control and say no to father and fate.

I do wish honestly that there was a book like this that was more about the swans than Rothbart or the prince. Only five of the swans besides Odette are named and many of them never get a chance to do much besides be swans and swan girls and part of Odette’s court. In addition, while the decision to not have Odette be one of the viewpoint characters makes it stand out as we see her strength and heart through the eyes of those she touches, it does sort of also make it not her story in the same way anymore. She is at the center of it, but it lacks a certain something that I think I would have really liked to have. Also, it would be fun to have a subversion of the swan lake plot where by Odette and Odile bonding and falling in love unexpectedly, even though Rothbart intends to trick Odette with the prince’s failure into staying his swan captive forever, it’s the bond he never saw coming that shatters his hold and frees the swans. Misogynists do tend to be bad at spotting lesbians after all.

(Now I wonder if this telling exists yet, there’s got to be more lesbians fairytale options than there were eleven years ago when I first found this book)

Anyway, as far as fairy tale retellings go, it’s well enough. It’s not a mind blowing or particularly original take on the story, and the themes and premise of the book can be a difficult entry. But I enjoy it enough to have given it a permanent spot on my bookshelf and regular rereads whenever I need a snarky heroine who discovers that she’s a much better person than anyone, including herself, ever gave herself credit for.