Reviews and Comments

This had some fascinating moments. I feel like she focused too long on Fuller, but then I think Fuller was the hub for many of the other spokes, so I guess it was inevitable. My favorites were Dickinson and Carson, but most of the lives touched on here are compelling. This book makes it easy to fall down your own wiki rabbit holes, and it also convinced me to finally pick up Emerson to read. While I appreciated the highlighting of the queer aspects, I also felt like there was a bit of conjecture in other aspects that might give a skeptic reasons to argue or doubt. (i mean, fuck those people, but yeah) The interstitial, authorial philosophizing could be a little heavy or purple at times, but it was easy enough to skim if that's not your jam. I wish more books existed that helped contextualize and connect events and people within a skein of time rather than making them all feel isolated, so I'm glad I read this.

I'd love to see someone take up the editorial mantle of Gardner and give us a more modern version that includes less white men. Otherwise, I only skipped a few. I placed around 40 post-it flags to go back and consider more fully in my reading notes. It definitely cemented my conviction to read Darwin and Oppenheimer in the future.

It's hard to top The Curse of Chalion. I really liked this, despite a few pacing oddities and some heavy-handed spots. Those actually had a whiff of Le Guin, so that's not all bad, I guess. And as an older woman, I very much liked having Ista as a main character.

This was great. I love Larson's short fiction, so I finally figured I should read his novels. I blew through this in a day. Immersive with some pretty cool twists. The balance between character and plot was fabulous, and I think that's partly why I loved it. I was really nervous about how he'd do writing Violet, but I think he did a good job, although there are several emotionally painful parts that warrant a trigger warning for transgender people to brace for. I can elaborate if anyone needs more info before they decide to read it or not.

The start of this book really dragged. I had to put in effort to keep all the people and terms and politics in order. At about pg 130-ish, I started to forget I was reading and could fall into the story itself.

I don't think this book has the same deeply worked characterization as Tchaikovsky's other works. This is much more plot-driven, and it took a lot of groundwork laid for the plot to pop off. But, when it did, it was good.

There were a few times when I was a little irritated at author-withholding that felt manipulative or inserted later to explain a small hole. I think those explanations should have been worked in much earlier to make them more seamless and not give the feel of manufactured tension.

Still really liked it, though, so I'll be getting the next one in the series.

I loved the premise of this - the idea of wish magic, its history, and the rules and privileges of the social systems. I gasped at the first image of the wish being opened. Very clever. I appreciated the clarity of the art and Mohamed's generosity with her voice on the page. Nothing felt cramped or unclear. Mohamed also does a great job at the emotions of storytelling. While the first story felt a little heavy-handed, the others struck a more realistic balance for me. (not that the injustice of the 1st story isn't realistic, it very much is, but I could have used a break in the tragedy.) Highly recommend.

I managed to read this book without any spoilers, and I believe it's best experienced that way. As a reader, you know something's not right, but it wasn't what I expected. The end made me cry, and the themes explored here won't be for everyone.

Interesting and emotional premise. I wish there'd been more. In some ways, this felt like a narrative therapy exercise, and in others, the prose outline of an intense, almost gothic novel. Glad I read it, but be forewarned it's super short and the end doesn't quite satisfy.

A strange, but compelling, collection of characters revolving around memory and bias. Not all of these felt like fully fleshed stories, but the people in them made me unable to care about narrative structure, or seeming lack thereof. There were moments that set my teeth on edge, esp the story with the mom and missing boy and how he wrote her, but I also appreciated what he was doing. It was almost this angular, awkward position held too long for even a semblance of comfort. Despite three of the stories being pretty much the same story, the last version made me a little tearful. His ability to write the funky, kinda smelly parts of people fascinates me, even when it's pushed to eleven.

The delight that Cooney took in writing this book is evident on every page. It's baroque and beribboned and only a few places sagged from the weight of the ornamentation. I think the story underneath all the gilt is solid and compelling, and I'm actually looking forward to the next one. This is not a book to read if you're in a hurry - it's very much a four-course dessert and drinks kind of read. Unapologetically indulgent.