What happened to Mel Talks Books? Life. Burnout. Travel. You name it. But let us not dwell on the past! Instead of catching up on everything I read, here are thoughts on some notable books from the past three months.
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
Space opera with gorgeous writing and an effective skewering of Amazon and capitalist colonialism. Slow pacing, but this is expected for the genre. I did struggle in the first third, not knowing where the build was going, but once the megalomaniac damaged bird in question was introduced, I knew it was headed somewhere.
Amongst Our Weapons (Rivers of London #9) by Ben Aaronovitch
I picked up this book to see if the series is a good comparable title for my vampire detective series—and it is! And I loved it! Even not reading the books in order, this world felt like coming home. It felt lived-in and comfy. I then picked up book #2, because 1 is hard to find via the library, and had the same feeling.
Peter Grant is such a fun protagonist and it’s just the kind of series where you know what you’re going to get from the first chapter and then you get it. It doesn’t disappoint. The voice is irreverent but not disrespectful or angry. It’s a procedural that feels true to the nitty-gritty of police work but doesn’t get bogged down in the details. It’s a progressive vision of policing without being preachy, and it’s a world that makes room for all kinds of people, monsters, ghouls, catpeople, magicians, etc.
It’s like The Dresden Files without all the cringey sexism.
It took me embarrassingly long to realize that the title and chapter headings are from Monty Python. Duh.
This novel went all kinds of places I didn’t expect it to go, then ended up pretty much exactly where I expected it to end up. Major props to the author for both surprising me a bunch and fulfilling the promise of the premise and the back-cover copy!
It’s horror, but also kinda not. It’s psychological suspense, but also kinda not. It’s a domestic thriller, but also kinda not. I love the blend of these things, even if it did require a big leap of faith in the first third or so, before the plot really started cooking. It has two elements that intrigue me and can also be a non-starter for me: damaged sisters, and dogs. Both elements are tragic, but the sister relationship at the core of the novel ends somewhat hopefully, even while leaving open the possibility for more horror. I’m ambivalent about the ambiguous ending—it works, but I also could’ve appreciated a more definitive ending, so long as it was the bad one.
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
My comic club is discussing this one later in July, and I’ll be very curious to see what everyone thought. I read it in a very short time due to airplane travel, and I’m glad it worked out that way. I was compelled to keep going and had the time to keep going. This is one of those stories that also went places I wasn’t expecting, but I do think if I’d put it down for a long stretch, I might have had trouble picking it back up.
I don’t know that I have a ton of strong feelings about it, other than I’m glad it exists. Contemporary fantasy that isn’t second world, doesn’t involve existing creature archetypes (fairies, elves, etc.), and that isn’t terribly dense? Yes, please!
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And now, two very different historical novels with vampires!
Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
This one blends romance with historical fiction, and adds a dash of vampire horror for flavor.
As a vampire lover, I was all in on the vampires, and had less patience for the romance. It was well done, and I was rooting for the main couple, but got very tired of the main female character’s stubbornness being the main obstacle to their reunion. But I get it — the tropes are what they are! I have a hard time maintaining my patience with the “keeping them apart” part of romances, because it can start to feel forced or awkward. With so many other elements in the novel that worked, that’s the part that stood out to me. The historical setting was great, and really added to the restrictions on the characters’ actions. The white colonialist forces as a villain/metaphor for the rapacious appetite for vampires was also really fun, but the vampires themselves were a bit underdeveloped to me.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Another historical novel with vampires, this one set in Wyoming instead of Texas. Definitely no romance here, this is Stephen Graham Jones and this is brutal. It’s unrelenting. It’s bloody. It doesn’t flinch away from violence inflicted on and by humans. Flipping back and forth between time periods and POVs, it tells multiple stories of the same man who becomes a vampire and avenges (in his own way) the massacre of his people, the buffalo, and his way of life.
This is a very difficult read, and, honestly, it should be. It is a horror novel based on horrors. That said, I did find it to be a bit overly long in places, and the modern-day timeline didn’t keep my interest in the same way the other parts did. It’s a worthwhile read, but not an easy one.
Another, shorter, vampire story by Stephen Graham Jones is Mapping the Interior.
Mel Lake | Writer, etc. 