For several years, MultiversityComics.com was my platform for writing about comics and TV shows. Although I was initially relieved to have a break from reading webcomics, I find myself missing it. Thinking critically about something I’ve read, then writing a short review…imagine being in your 40s and longing to write book reports! It’s a mad world.
Hence, this.
Monthly digests about what I read the prior month, with zero pressure to write in depth about any of them. Comics sold separately. Vamos!
I’m not a Stephen King aficionado. I didn’t grow up on his novels or movies made from them. So I’m a latecomer and not a fangirl. But goodness, I love Holly Gibney. I haven’t read The Outsiders, but loved If It Bleeds, and that one is a necessary prerequisite before picking up this one.
The way this story examines aging and the complicated relationships between young and old is so well done. The central conflict is grotesque, but echoed in Holly’s own traumatic relationship with the adults in her life, and although the parallels are clear (and contrasted with the relationship Holly has with Jerome/Barbara, and Barbara with Olivia), they aren’t overwrought or bashing you over the head with the comparison.
The horrors are…horrific. Rodney and Emily Harris are terrifying, banal, evil.
The thing I’m still wrestling with is the Trump/MAGA angle. This book is clear in its stance on hatred, homophobia, racism, classism, and anti-vaxxers. For that, I cheer, of course. Authors have obligation to coddle or all-sides their characters. But at the same time, it’s almost like taking the ridiculous ideas behind the Clinton conspiracies, then turning it around in a “I’m rubber, you’re glue” scenario. It’s so satisfying! But something about it gives me pause. I’m still trying to figure out what.
The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell
My current WIP is a baking show romcom, so this one was both pleasure reading and comparable-book hunting. I expected it to be lighter than it was, since the other baking show-adjacent novels I’ve read leaned on light-hearted earnestness. But this one did involve a murder, so the more somber tone was perhaps justified.
The changes made to the GBBO format worked in this novel’s favor, with only 6 contestants and no hosts beside the Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood stand ins. Simplifying the show format and reducing the character count helped me keep track of everyone. They were all fairly fleshed out characters, though the switch from third-person to first-person when the narrative switched to the main judge was a little jarring. Overall, a fun read, and although the mystery wasn’t a huge surprise, the ending was left slightly unresolved. Not enough to bother me, but it did make me scratch my head and wonder if there were plans for a sequel.
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
Holy shit.
This was one of the most difficult novels I’ve ever read. It ranks with Lolita on a visceral discomfort level.
Like with Lolita, it’s useful but not easy to set aside squeamishness to look at the story, the prose (in translation), the approach to evil taken by the author. My Spanish isn’t nearly good enough for me to attempt to read this in its original form but I almost wish it was because the way language shapes flexible morality (or the other way around?) is clever and as ever-present as it is in the dystopian classics.
The ending is indeed the only ending there could have been. I should have seen it coming and didn’t. I’m glad I didn’t.
Mel Lake | Writer, etc. 