strange and random happenstance

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Published by: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Format: Kindle, 415 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Lily Hu knows she's different than other girls. It's not just that she's smarter and likes math it's that, unlike her best friend Shirley, she really doesn't have any interest in boys. Lily can use her parents' strictures as the reason why she doesn't date, but the real reason is she doesn't want to. Boys don't stir anything in her like they do Shirley. But then, one day helping out at Shirley's parents restaurant, Lily sees an ad in the paper that stirs something in her. It's for Tommy Andrews, a male impersonator at the Telegraph Club. She furtively rips the ad out and it becomes a talisman for her. A dangerous talisman. One day it slips out of it's hiding spot and her fellow classmate Kathleen Miller picks it up. Kathleen and Lily are the only two girls in the advanced math class, both with dreams in the heavens, and it turns out they have more in common than Lily thought as Kathleen says that she has been to see Tommy at the Telegraph Club. Her friend Jean took her and Kath will take Lily if she wishes. It is Lily's greatest wish to go, but the experience is more unnerving than she thought it would be. It's not lying to her parents and risking their safety, or even being in a bar with so many women free to be themselves, it's the fact that the Tommy of her imagination was a matinee idol yet the real Tommy is flesh and blood and female. How she's feeling inside is no longer hypothetical, it has shape and form, and that form is looking more and more like Kath. But there are consequences to Lily's actions, Shirley has warned her about Kathleen and in particular Kathleen's friend Jean who was thrown out of school when she was found with another girl in the band room. When she first heard the story Lily couldn't understand what could drive someone to do something so risky. Now she's endangering herself every minute with her thoughts and actions. But love, true love, is worth all the consequences.

When Last Night at the Telegraph Club was released to such acclaim, topping best of lists left and right, I thought it sounded like a rich historical fiction novel about the LGBTQ experience in 1950s San Francisco. And it is that, don't get me wrong, I just didn't think it would be so YA. And Last Night at the Telegraph Club is epicly YA in all the good and bad ways. YA, even YA done right, has a certain cringe factor, you're looking back at your teen years and you feel all the feels all over again. The sweats breaking out when you see your crush, the itch on your skin as they draw near, the horrible replay of how your tongue fumbled to form coherent words around them. It's all here. Even the horrible betrayal of a former best friend. Everyone's teenage years seem to distill down to the same level of hormonal tension and Malinda Lo has captured that universality for good and for ill. But she has also captured the deeper identity struggle that happens when you realize you're not like everyone else. I was also forcefully reminded of a situation I was in in college. One of my friends started dating a guy. She was Vietnamese and he was white. She knew her parents wouldn't approve so one day when they were on a date she told her mother she was with me. I was not informed that I was her alibi and called her house. Her cover was blown and thereafter she created a fake girl who she was hanging out with when she was really with her boyfriend. I commented that it was lucky she wasn't gay because otherwise her mom would be suspicious of this new girl friend. Her response was that "that wouldn't happen." Reading Lily's mom say there "are no homosexuals in this family" brought that moment back to me after twenty years. To have someone who you love so much deny who you are, I just don't get how anyone could be so cruel. Love is love. I'm just lucky enough to have been raised in a family that believes this.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1950s, Communism, Drag King, For the Love of Book Clubs, Historical Fiction, Kathleen Miller, Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Lesbian, LGBTQ, Lily Hu, Love, Malinda Lo, San Francisco, Tommy Andrews, YA

The Seep by Chana Porter
Published by: Soho Press
Publication Date: January 21st, 2020
Format: Kindle, 216 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

No one knows what will happen when the aliens invade. Is it the end of the world? Or the beginning of a strange new one? Trina and her partner Deeba were hosting one of their epic dinner parties to usher in whatever the future would bring. They loved to find just the perfect pairings of guests to inspire new friendships that would last a lifetime. But this time was different because the very water they were drinking would change the definition of what a lifetime is. The water was making them one with the aliens. They were creating a symbiotic relationship that would make the world a better place. No more war or poverty or death. Those who killed themselves would never know the utopia The Seep had brought. With their new lives Trina becomes an artist and then a performer, any and all of her dream careers become a reality resulting in her becoming a doctor. While her wife Deeba makes magnificent films. Their lives are perfect, The Seep has made it so. Only Deeba sees the truth, Trina isn't happy, she hasn't been happy for some time. There's only so many times you can make love and watch TV and eat ice cream before it becomes stagnant. The Seep has given them the gift of long life and change and Deeba wants to change. She wants to shed the life she has built and start again. She wants to be reborn as a baby with Trina as her mother. Trina is destroyed by this revelation. They made a commitment to each other, to be there, to love each other forever in different permutations when they married. Trina never thought her love for Deeba would last, but it hasn't just lasted, it's grown stronger. She cannot live in a world without Deeba. But now Deeba is gone, being raised by a kind family in the south of France and Trina is an alcoholic. She doesn't go to work, she doesn't pull her weight, she is a blight on The Seep's perfect world. A chance encounter will send her on a journey. She must accept that things change or she must do what she's thought of many, many times before, and end her long life.

The Seep has pretensions to be something it's not. It wants to be a different kind of alien invasion story but ends up being nothing more than basic. A basic science fiction trope; aliens arrive and want to make us happy and perfect but they can't grasp that suffering is what makes us human. But Chana Porter could have taken it in a different direction. There are characters, like Deeba, who see that they could have a life without trauma and jump at the chance, even if her request of Trina is unconscionable. This could have sparked a conversation about humans and their belief that suffering is somehow part of the journey when it doesn't have to be. Instead we suffer through the misery of Trina's journey. We're trapped with a depressive suicidal alcoholic who can not come to grips with the fact that change is part of life. When Trina asks another character to never change they rightly respond that that's "a very cruel thing to ask of anyone." That line had a sort of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland vibe, a truth spoken to the ignorant in a moment of revelation on her journey. And that is why I didn't outright hate this book, there are moments that have brilliance and such depth that I want to explore them because the author didn't seem to understand where her focus should be in this short narrative. I'm thinking in particular when her friend and fellow performer Horizon says that his face isn't his face but that of his dead lover who was a person of color while he himself is really white. That revelation again goes back to what makes us human, what makes us who we are, and while exposing him is part of Trina's journey, there seems to be so much left unsaid about appropriation. I wanted the deeper parts of Alice's journey not the visuals of a hookah smoking caterpillar. And there are so many visuals of the utopia that allows grass to be carpet and people to have horns that the human message is lost. And I can't help feeling that these characters are just so insufferably entitled that I would have gladly read about anyone else. You don't care about them. They are loosely drawn and while the opening and closing dinner parties are assuredly written, I kept thinking, but I would never want to be there. I do not like these people and never will. They are too precious for words.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alcoholic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alien Invasion, Appropriation, Chana Porter, Change, Deeba, Entitled, For the Love of Book Clubs, Horizon, Human Nature, LGBTQ, Suicidal, The Seep, Trauma, Trina, Utopia

The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: September 30th, 2021
Format: Kindle, 322 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

When Lily Armitage was growing up the whole family would gather at Endgame House for Christmas and the annual Christmas Game. She and her cousins would solve elaborate riddles and clues to find their cache of Christmas presents. But since her mother died on the grounds twenty-one years ago Lily hasn't returned. She was raised by her Aunt Liliana so of course it's because of Liliana that she's returning. Liliana's dying wish was that Lily would return for the final Christmas Game. Over the twelve days of Christmas Lily and her cousins will vie with or against each other to find twelve keys with the prize being the deeds to Endgame House. Lily doesn't want Endgame House, what she wants is answers, and that's the reason she agrees to return. Liliana has promised that the clues will reveal who killed Lily's mother. Wearing her own designer couture that is concealing a secret Lily returns to Yorkshire. There she is reunited with relatives and retainers. Liliana's children, Sara and Gray are there, as are Uncle Edward's, Tom, Rachel, and Ronnie, with Rachel's spouse Holly, and Ronnie's spouse Phillipa. Housekeeper Mrs. Castle is on hand to take care of them and provide the daily clues while Liliana's solicitor and Lily's former crush, Isabelle Sterling, is on hand to dot the i's and cross the t's. While Lily is shocked how happy she is to see all these people the warning from her aunt is clear in her mind, don't trust anyone. Because it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye, or as happens here, Ronnie ends up dead. He might be the first but he won't be the last. Because when the first corpse appears they realize that they are trapped in Endgame House with a killer. The snow is piled high and there's a tree down across the drive. And then the car batteries go missing. Someone wants them to stay and play the game and Lily is ready to play. She came to find out who killed her mother and she is not about to die like she did.

A book claiming to be Clue at Christmas that happens to be loosely a golden age locked room mystery is a must read for me. The problem is that's not what this book is, this book is more Game of Thrones murder mystery though with even more animosity, hate, and incest. I truthfully can say not only did I dislike every single character in this book I hated them. They are all horrible horrible people who I would not like to spend one single second in the presence of. And that's not the main problem of this book! The main problem is there is no motive for the deaths. We are supposed to buy into the fact that obviously anyone would want to inherit a Manor House in Yorkshire. Yet Manor Houses aren't cash cows, this one was run as a business center for years that seemed to just barely be in the black, and everyone has horrible memories of the place, yet they want it? Even if their future plans are solid the horrible memories should make them rethink their plans. But then again, they are all either sociopaths or psychopaths, throw a dart and it's one or the other. So maybe the bad memories don't bother them? Whatever way you look at it the truth is that all these relatives go to Yorkshire to slaughter each other. And Liliana had to know what she was doing. After all her own brother killed her sister! This isn't generational trauma, this is generational homicide. The only answer I have is that they are evil. Evil evil evil. Yes, I love a Christmas murder mystery, I don't want Christmas slaughter. This book has literally one and only one thing going for it, it flips the script on the bury your gays trope. The whole idea that gay characters are expendable or deserve to die is so outdated it's shocking how many people still use it. The Christmas Murder Game was the exact opposite, and for that it should be cheered. Any character who was alive at the start of the book who identifies as queer, gay or bisexual, is alive at the end. And only they are alive at the end. All the straight characters are cleared from the board. So at least that was refreshing. About as refreshing as a snowball in your face, but you take what wins you can sometimes.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alexandra Benedict, Bury Your Gays, Clue, Endgame House, Game of Thrones, Incest, Inheritance, LGBTQ, Lily Armitage, Locked Room, Manor House, Motive, Murder, Pride, The Christmas Murder Game, Tropes, Yorkshire

The Marvels by Brian Selznick
Published by: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: September 15th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 640 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

In 1766 there were many hurricanes. Billy Marvel and his beloved dog are the sole survivors of the sinking of the Kraken which was hit by this force of nature. Billy even lost his beloved brother Marcus in the wreck. When Billy gets to London he is drawn to the construction site of the Royal Theatre and is mesmerized by the painting of the ceiling. There he is recognized as the sole survivor of the wreck, as his picture is on the cover of every newspaper, and he enthralls the crew with his tales of the hurricane and of his brother Marcus. The painter hired to do the ceiling is so moved by the tale he paints Marcus as an angel looking down over the audience. This serendipitous meeting is the beginning of the Marvel theatre dynasty. Billy works as a stagehand and set designer, and soon he has a son, and then there is a marriage. Down the generations until their dynasty ends in 1900. In 1990 Joseph Jervis has run away from school. His parents are abroad so he decides that he will go to his uncle's house in London. He has only the faintest notion of where Albert Nightingale lives, but cold and ill he arrives on his uncle's doorstep thinking that he might just have seen a horse and carriage. Inside the house is even odder. It feels trapped not just in another time, but at a specific time. A dinner is on the table, but a dinner that was interrupted. A napkin lays askew, and it must always lay askew. Albert reluctantly lets his nephew stay in the dream world he has created in this house in Spitalfields. But Joseph must behave. But Joseph is a curious child and from artifacts around the house he starts to learn about the Marvel theatre dynasty. The more he learns, the more he hopes that he is related to them. Yet what he knows of his own family's history doesn't add up with the Marvels. So in this house of make-believe Joseph must distinguish fact from fiction and then decide which is the better way to live?

It's hard to pick a favorite Brian Selznick book in that he is the master of his niche of storytelling. His style of art combined with his prose never fails to entertain, inspire, and uplift. Here though he's tweaked his winning style by having almost four hundred uninterrupted pages of illustration followed by two hundred pages of prose with a coda, another fifty pages of illustration. There was just something about this twist that made me fall even deeper into it than I did with The Invention of Hugo Cabret or Wonderstruck. The Marvels might just be my favorite Brian Selznick book yet! The four hundred pages of illustrations sped by as I was swept away by the history of the Marvel theatre dynasty. By the time you hit the prose section you're so invested in the story that I don't get those who felt the shift in style and tone betrayed them and made them dismiss the book out of hand. Thankfully I believe these to be a minority, because the twist to the story, the way art mimics reality and the artifice of theatre just made me love this book even more. In fact I was sorely compelled to re-read the first four hundred pages a second time after finishing the prose so I could come to terms with the awe I felt with how everything tied together so perfectly. But I was so overcome with tears streaming down my face that actually trying to read or look at a book would have been impossible due to the deluge of tears. What makes this book even more special I feel is that it's loosely based on a real location and person, Dennis Severs' House. One of my friends went to this museum that Dennis Severs created, a place where you can journey back in time with his staged "still-life drama." This is immersive history in the extreme. Oh how I want to go there. But reading this book is literally the next best thing and “you either see it, or you don’t.”

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Billy Marvel, Brian Selznick, Dennis Severs, Dennis Severs' House, History, Hurricane, Illustration, Immersive, LGBTQ, Museum, Pride, Shipwreck, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, The Marvels, Theatre, Wonderstruck

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Published by: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Format: Kindle, 415 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Lily Hu knows she's different than other girls. It's not just that she's smarter and likes math it's that, unlike her best friend Shirley, she really doesn't have any interest in boys. Lily can use her parents' strictures as the reason why she doesn't date, but the real reason is she doesn't want to. Boys don't stir anything in her like they do Shirley. But then, one day helping out at Shirley's parents restaurant, Lily sees an ad in the paper that stirs something in her. It's for Tommy Andrews, a male impersonator at the Telegraph Club. She furtively rips the ad out and it becomes a talisman for her. A dangerous talisman. One day it slips out of it's hiding spot and her fellow classmate Kathleen Miller picks it up. Kathleen and Lily are the only two girls in the advanced math class, both with dreams in the heavens, and it turns out they have more in common than Lily thought as Kathleen says that she has been to see Tommy at the Telegraph Club. Her friend Jean took her and Kath will take Lily if she wishes. It is Lily's greatest wish to go, but the experience is more unnerving than she thought it would be. It's not lying to her parents and risking their safety, or even being in a bar with so many women free to be themselves, it's the fact that the Tommy of her imagination was a matinee idol yet the real Tommy is flesh and blood and female. How she's feeling inside is no longer hypothetical, it has shape and form, and that form is looking more and more like Kath. But there are consequences to Lily's actions, Shirley has warned her about Kathleen and in particular Kathleen's friend Jean who was thrown out of school when she was found with another girl in the band room. When she first heard the story Lily couldn't understand what could drive someone to do something so risky. Now she's endangering herself every minute with her thoughts and actions. But love, true love, is worth all the consequences.

When Last Night at the Telegraph Club was released to such acclaim, topping best of lists left and right, I thought it sounded like a rich historical fiction novel about the LGBTQ experience in 1950s San Francisco. And it is that, don't get me wrong, I just didn't think it would be so YA. And Last Night at the Telegraph Club is epicly YA in all the good and bad ways. YA, even YA done right, has a certain cringe factor, you're looking back at your teen years and you feel all the feels all over again. The sweats breaking out when you see your crush, the itch on your skin as they draw near, the horrible replay of how your tongue fumbled to form coherent words around them. It's all here. Even the horrible betrayal of a former best friend. Everyone's teenage years seem to distill down to the same level of hormonal tension and Malinda Lo has captured that universality for good and for ill. But she has also captured the deeper identity struggle that happens when you realize you're not like everyone else. I was also forcefully reminded of a situation I was in in college. One of my friends started dating a guy. She was Vietnamese and he was white. She knew her parents wouldn't approve so one day when they were on a date she told her mother she was with me. I was not informed that I was her alibi and called her house. Her cover was blown and thereafter she created a fake girl who she was hanging out with when she was really with her boyfriend. I commented that it was lucky she wasn't gay because otherwise her mom would be suspicious of this new girl friend. Her response was that "that wouldn't happen." Reading Lily's mom say there "are no homosexuals in this family" brought that moment back to me after twenty years. To have someone who you love so much deny who you are, I just don't get how anyone could be so cruel. Love is love. I'm just lucky enough to have been raised in a family that believes this.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1950s, Communism, Drag King, Historical Fiction, Kathleen Miller, Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Lesbian, LGBTQ, Lily Hu, Love, Malinda Lo, Pride, San Francisco, Science Fiction, Shirley Lum, Tommy Andrews, YA

I have so many ideas for theme months that only a fraction of them make it to fruition. That being said I feel that there are some that are so important that no matter what I have to do them; and that's how it is with Pride. I've been wanting to do this for so long and looking at the world today, at all the hate against the LGBTQIA+ community, I knew that this June, no matter what, I would celebrate pride with inclusive books; books that a lot of people would like you to not read. So with more bans and more just bullshit I wanted you all to know that I am an ally. Love is love and I love you and we all love books. So let's celebrate Pride together, and you know, if people start getting us down, throw a riot or two, because it's no longer the time for hollow gestures, it's the time for action.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ally, Asexual, Bisexual, Gay, Intersex, June, Lesbian, LGBTQ, LGBTQIA+, Pride, Queer, Questioning, Stonewall Riots, Theme Month, Trans, Transgender

A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: March 29th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Judy I. Lin's sweeping debut A Magic Steeped in Poison, first in a duology, is sure to enchant fans of Adrienne Young and Leigh Bardugo.

I used to look at my hands with pride. Now all I can think is, "These are the hands that buried my mother."

For Ning, the only thing worse than losing her mother is knowing that it's her own fault. She was the one who unknowingly brewed the poison tea that killed her - the poison tea that now threatens to also take her sister, Shu.

When Ning hears of a competition to find the kingdom's greatest shennong-shi - masters of the ancient and magical art of tea-making - she travels to the imperial city to compete. The winner will receive a favor from the princess, which may be Ning's only chance to save her sister's life.

But between the backstabbing competitors, bloody court politics, and a mysterious (and handsome) boy with a shocking secret, Ning might actually be the one in more danger."

It's like Tea Dragons meet a Cinder/Hunger Games mashup! YAS!

Evil in Emerald by A.M. Stuart
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: March 29th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Craving a change of pace, Harriet Gordon, joins a local musical theatre production but when a fellow cast member is brutally killed, Harriet and Inspector Curran must turn the spotlight on murder in this all-new mystery from the author of Revenge in Rubies.

Between working at her brother’s school and typing up Inspector Robert Curran’s police reports, Harriet Gordon has little time for personal pursuits and she has been enjoying the rehearsals for her role in the Singapore Amateur Dramatic and Musical Society’s latest production - Pirates of Penzance. But Harriet quickly discovers tensions run deep within the theatre company and when the leading man is found murdered, suspicions abound, exposing scandalous behavior as well as some insidious crimes.

Inspector Curran once again turns to Harriet for help with this difficult case, but his own life begins to unravel as a mysterious man turns up on his doorstep claiming to know more about Curran’s painful past than he himself does. And after the one person he has always counted on delivers him some devastating news, the line between his personal and professional life begins to blur. Now, more than ever, Curran needs Harriet’s steadfast assistance, and when another cast member meets a violent end, Curran and Harriet will have to close in on a killer determined to make this case their final curtain call."

Oh, as any mystery lover knows amateur dramatics lead to murder!

Danger on the Atlantic by Erica Ruth Neubauer
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: March 29th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In Agatha Award-winning author Erica Ruth Neubauer’s third wanderlust-inspiring historical mystery, young American widow Jane Wunderly, there are worse fates than adventuring aboard a transatlantic liner with the only man who could change her mind about romance. Unfortunately, her first-class itinerary has an unexpected - and deadly - addition waiting just below deck...

Atlantic Ocean, 1926: Voyaging from Southampton to New York, self-reliant Jane is determined to prove herself a worthy investigator on the stately ship - even awkwardly going undercover as the fashionable wife of her magnetic partner, Mr. Redvers. Few details are known about the rumored German spy the duo have been tasked with identifying among fellow passengers, but new troubles unfold once wealthy newlywed Vanessa FitzSimmons announces the sudden disappearance of her husband at sea...

Miles Van de Meter, the man Vanessa rushed to marry in Monte Carlo, has allegedly vanished into thin air along with his luggage. Redvers guesses the shifty heiress may be weaving tall tales for fun between flutes of champagne, yet Jane isn’t convinced - not after the stunning murder of a trusted acquaintance sends them into uncharted waters. Facing two dangerous mysteries and a boat load of suspects, Jane must navigate a claustrophobic quest for answers before the culprits can slip from her grasp on land…or, worse, ensure she and Redvers never reach their destination."

Gotta support local Wisconsin authors!

The Shop on Royal Street by Karen White
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: March 29th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Nola Trenholm is hopeful for a fresh start in the Big Easy but must deal with ghosts from her past - as well as new ones - in this first book in a spin-off series of Karen White's New York Times bestselling Tradd Street novels.

After a difficult detour on her road to adulthood, Nola Trenholm is looking to begin anew in New Orleans, and what better way to start her future than with her first house? But the historic fixer-upper she buys comes with even more work than she anticipated when the house’s previous occupants don’t seem to be ready to depart.

Although she can’t communicate with ghosts like her stepmother can, luckily Nola knows someone in New Orleans who is able to - even if he’s the last person on earth she wants anything to do with ever again. Beau Ryan comes with his own dark past - a past that involves the disappearance of his sister and parents during Hurricane Katrina - and he’s connected to the unsolved murder of a woman who once lived in the old Creole cottage Nola is determined to make her own...whether the resident restless spirits agree or not."

And I gotta support all Team W members!

A Magic Steeped in Poison by Susan Hill
Published by: The Overlook Press
Publication Date: March 29th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the newest installment of Susan Hill’s electrifying crime series, Simon Serrailler finds himself in devastating new territory as a sophisticated drug network sets its sights on Lafferton. In A Change of Circumstance, the eleventh book in Susan Hill’s acclaimed crime series featuring the enigmatic detective Simon Serrailler, Hill yet again raises the stakes.

Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler has long regarded drug ops in Lafferton as a waste of time. The small-time dealers picked up outside the local high school can’t or won’t turn in any valuable names, so they’re merely given a fine and the trail runs cold.

But when the body of a twenty-two-year-old is found in neighboring Starley, the case pulls DCS Simon Serrailler into the underbelly of an elaborate drug operation that moves narcotics from the cities into the suburbs and right down to villages. The foot soldiers? Vulnerable local kids like Brookie and Olivia, whose involvement gives Simon a bitter taste of this new landscape. It’s a harsh winter in Lafferton, and with struggles both at home and on the job, DCS Serrailler soon learns that even the familiar can hold shocking surprises...

Dark, page-turning, and rich in mood and character, Susan Hill’s A Change of Circumstance lands brilliantly as another gripping entry to the Serrailler canon, sure to enthrall fans and newcomers alike."

I am ALWAYS up for a new Susan Hill!

Tales of the City Volume 1 by Armistead Maupin
Published by: Ablaze
Publication Date: March 29th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 1332 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A Classic of LGBTQ Literature that has become a cult sensation.

San Francisco, late 1970s.

At 28 Barbary Lane, Anna Madrigal runs a boarding house. She welcomes people who have nowhere else to go: the misfits. This matriarch is known for her unending kindness and her superb marijuana crop.

Enter Mary Ann Singleton, a prudish, naive, young woman who escaped her dull Ohio hometown for San Francisco. She settles in with her other fellow tenants: Michael "Mouse," a personable young gay man, Brian Hawkins, an incorrigible Don Juan, and Mona Ramsey, a young hippyish bisexual.

Little does the group know that they will soon form a dear family together. This is the beginning of a humorous, heartfelt saga, between the summer of love and the appearance of AIDS, in the city of sexual freedom."

I LOVE the Tales of the City books and I just adore the retro style of this graphic novel approach.

How to Be a Wallflower by Eloisa James
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: March 29th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From New York Times bestseller Eloisa James, a new Regency-set novel in which a heiress with the goal of being a wallflower engages a rugged American in a scorchingly sensual, witty wager that tests whether clothing does indeed make the man - or the wallflower! A perfect companion story to Eloisa's My American Duchess.

Miss Cleopatra Lewis is about to be launched in society by her aristocratic grandfather. But since she has no intention of marrying, she visits a costume emporium specifically to order unflattering dresses guaranteed to put off any prospective suitors.

Powerful and charismatic Jacob Astor Addison is in London, acquiring businesses to add to his theatrical holdings in America - as well as buying an emerald for a young lady back in Boston. He’s furious when a she-devil masquerading as an English lady steals Quimby’s Costume Emporium from under his nose.

Jake strikes a devil’s bargain, offering to design her "wallflower wardrobe" and giving Cleo the chance to design his. Cleo can’t resist the fun of clothing the rough-hewn American in feathers and flowers. And somehow in the middle of their lively competition, Jake becomes her closest friend.

It isn’t until Cleo becomes the toast of all society that Jake realizes she’s stolen his fiercely guarded heart. But unlike the noblemen at her feet, he doesn’t belong in her refined and cultured world.

Caught between the demands of honor and desire, Jake would give up everything to be with the woman he loves - if she’ll have him!"

A perfect companion piece to my Regency Romp!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Magic Steeped in Poison, A.M. Stuart, Armistead Maupin, Eloisa James, Erica Ruth Neubauer, Graphic Novel, Judy I. Lin, Karen White, LGBTQ, Regency Romp, Singapore, Susan Hill, Tales of the City, Tea Dragon

Rules For Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall
Published by: Viking Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 24th, 2019
Format: Kindle, 416 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

In the town of Briar Glenn the kids play a game. The game is innocent enough. You hold someone's hand, close your eyes, and take thirteen steps. Then a road will appear in the woods and you'll see the ghost of Lucy Gallows. Everyone thought it was just an urban legend. Everyone except Sara's sister Becca. A year ago Becca snuck out to play the game and disappeared. Since then Sara has become withdrawn and preoccupied with the origins of Lucy Gallows. She has pushed away all their mutual friends and obsesses about finding Becca. A few days before the anniversary of Becca's disappearance everyone gets an anonymous text to find a partner, find a key, find the road. In other words, to play the game. The REAL game. This could be what reunites the group. A chance to find Becca. Anthony has been Sara's best friend longer than she can remember and he's secretly in love with Becca, so he agrees to help Sara pull this off despite them barely talking for a year. Then there's Trina and her younger brother. Nick and his girlfriend. Anthony's douchebag best friend. And Sara's crush, Mel. Though Mel has apparently brought not just one but two dates along with her! After one of Mel's dates takes offense to the menage, the group is ready to take the first step. The only problem is, they're an uneven number. The game states you HAVE to have a partner. At this point Sara doesn't care, she's willing to bend or break this rule to find Becca and get on that road and once that road appears, things get real. As real as the stones beneath their feet. From Becca's notes they have to pass through seven gates to get to the end of the road and they are returned home, hopefully finding Becca along the way. The first gate though takes a toll. They lose two people. Because they broke the rules. Which means they can not break any more. But that gets harder and harder as the tasks required of each gate get more complex and dangerous. The road might be asking too much, but if they save Becca and Lucy too, is the price worth it? Only those who love Becca most could say that for sure...

Rules For Vanishing is a YA version of Annihilation. There's even a scene in a lighthouse for Pete's sake. That is the crux of my problem with this book, it's too much other things and never it's own thing. The whole time I was reading it I kept thinking, this reminds me of something but I just can't place it. Probably because the author draws from so many sources you'll see what you connect to most. Here's a bit of Dungeons and Dragons, here's a bit of The Goonies, here's a bit of The Neverending Story, here's a bit of Labyrinth, here's a bit of some other eighties movie that didn't let you sleep for months. On a side note, what was it about "children's" movies in the eighties that they seemed to be purposefully designed to traumatize us? If the story had leaned into the urban legend part of the setup and veered away from the very Lovecraftian named city of Ys as the road's destination, maybe this would have worked for me. And yes, I know it's actually a legend from Brittany, hence all those French books in the aforementioned lighthouse, but Dahut was doing it with Cthulhu wasn't she? Also, the faux-documentary style likened to The Blair Witch Project in the book's blurb... well, I've seen it done better. I like that they try to incorporate many forms of media from recordings to written transcripts to cellphone footage, it's just, as I said, I've seen it done better. There's something a little clunky about how it's handled here. It's like Kate Alice Marshall is trying too hard to keep certain things hidden and not show her hand that the writing suffers. The story should be first, the gimmicks should be second. But what I did like was the representation in this book. In the gang of teenagers that go into the woods we have at least two LGBTQ characters, two different minorities, and two different disabilities. I felt like that this not only gave anyone reading the book someone to identify with, but it also felt more real. My friends are diverse and it's rare that we get to see this in literature. So while there where things I didn't like, tropes that were overdone, at the same time I want to point at the book and tell others that THIS is what needs to be seen more often! THIS is true representation!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Annihilation, Brittany, Cthulhu, Eighties Movies, Going Gothic, H.P. Lovecraft, Kate Alice Marshall, LGBTQ, Lucy Gallows, Representation, Rules For Vanishing, The Blair Witch Project, The Road, Tropes, Urban Legend

The Marvels by Brian Selznick
Published by: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: September 15th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 640 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

In 1766 there were many hurricanes. Billy Marvel and his beloved dog are the sole survivors of the sinking of the Kraken which was hit by this force of nature. Billy even lost his beloved brother Marcus in the wreck. When Billy gets to London he is drawn to the construction site of the Royal Theatre and is mesmerized by the painting of the ceiling. There he is recognized as the sole survivor of the wreck, as his picture is on the cover of every newspaper, and he enthralls the crew with his tales of the hurricane and of his brother Marcus. The painter hired to do the ceiling is so moved by the tale he paints Marcus as an angel looking down over the audience. This serendipitous meeting is the beginning of the Marvel theatre dynasty. Billy works as a stagehand and set designer, and soon he has a son, and then there is a marriage. Down the generations until their dynasty ends in 1900. In 1990 Joseph Jervis has run away from school. His parents are abroad so he decides that he will go to his uncle's house in London. He has only the faintest notion of where Albert Nightingale lives, but cold and ill he arrives on his uncle's doorstep thinking that he might just have seen a horse and carriage. Inside the house is even odder. It feels trapped not just in another time, but at a specific time. A dinner is on the table, but a dinner that was interrupted. A napkin lays askew, and it must always lay askew. Albert reluctantly lets his nephew stay in the dream world he has created in this house in Spitalfields. But Joseph must behave. But Joseph is a curious child and from artifacts around the house he starts to learn about the Marvel theatre dynasty. The more he learns, the more he hopes that he is related to them. Yet what he knows of his own family's history doesn't add up with the Marvels. So in this house of make believe, Joseph must distinguish fact from fiction and then decide what is the better way to live?

It's hard to pick a favorite Brian Selznick book in that he is the master of his niche of storytelling. His style of art combined with his prose never fails to entertain, inspire, and uplift. Here though he's tweaked his winning style by having almost four hundred uninterrupted pages of illustration followed by two hundred pages of prose with a coda, another fifty pages of illustration. There was just something about this twist that made me fall even deeper into it than I did with The Invention of Hugo Cabret or Wonderstruck. The Marvels might just be my favorite Brian Selznick book yet! The four hundred pages of illustrations sped by as I was swept away by the history of the Marvel theatre dynasty. By the time you hit the prose section you're so invested in the story that I don't get those who felt the shift in style and tone betrayed them and made them dismiss the book out of hand. Thankfully I believe these to be a minority, because the twist to the story, the way art mimics reality and the artifice of theatre just made me love this book even more. In fact I was sorely compelled to re-read the first four hundred pages a second time after finishing the prose so I could come to terms with the awe I felt with how everything tied together so perfectly. But I was so overcome with tears streaming down my face that actually trying to read or look at a book would have been impossible due to the deluge of tears. What makes this book even more special I feel is that it's loosely based on a real location and person, Dennis Severs' House. One of my friends went to this museum that Dennis Severs created, a place where you can journey back in time with his staged "still-life drama." This is immersive history in the extreme. Oh how I want to go there. But reading this book is literally the next best thing and “you either see it, or you don’t.”

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Billy Marvel, Brian Selznick, Dennis Severs, Dennis Severs' House, History, Hurricane, Illustration, Immersive, LGBTQ, Museum, Shipwreck, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, The Marvels, Theatre, Wonderstruck

The True Queen by Zen Cho
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: March 12th, 2019
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Two connected souls wash up on the magical shores of Janda Baik. Sakti speaks Muna's name and Muna knows that it is hers, just as she knows Sakti is her sister. But that is all. Neither girl knows any more. The powerful witch Mak Grenggang takes the girls in unperturbed by the amnesia but willing to help them with their memory when she has free time, which is rare. Sakti shows magical abilities and therefore becomes Mak Grenggang's pupil. Muna doesn't have a bit of magic in her body and therefore helps take care of Mak Grenggang's large household of supernatural beings. It is a simple and quiet life but Sakti is unsettled and mistrustful of Mak Grenggang. She wants to know who she is and why she has forgotten. Everything becomes more urgent when Sakti discovers that she literally has a hole through her body. Parts of her are fading away and she thinks this strongly indicates that she and her sister have been cursed, though Muna isn't convinced the kindly Mak Grenggang is behind it as her sister keeps insisting. They need answers and have heard that the English Raja is hoarding books on magic and therefore sneak to the British Resident's house on the settlement of Malacca where they are soon caught in the act.

Their trespass has severe political ramifications. The British in Malaysia have been waiting for any excuse to go after Mak Grenggang and take control of Janda Baik and Sakti and Muna have given them an excuse. Therefore Sakti and Muna have to be whisked away from the island through the realms of Fairy and into the protection of Mak Grenggang's friend, the Sorceress Royal of England. By Sakti being sponsored as an honored guest and pupil at the Sorceress Royal's school, The Lady Maria Wythe Academy for the Instruction of Females in Practical Thaumaturgy, the English can't justifiably seize Janda Baik. Only as they take the shortcut Mak Grenggang has laid for them through Fairy something horrible happens, Sakti is taken. Only Muna makes it to England and she has to convince the Sorceress Royal and her friend Henrietta Stapleton that she is the magical one and that their first goal is to find her sister. Things can never be that simple though. Fairy can not be accessed from England due to many ongoing issues, the most recent being the Threlfall family losing the Fairy Queen's Virtu, and an all out war with Fairy could come to pass. What is Muna to do when all she wants is her sister? The answer is whatever it takes.

In the first book in this series, Sorcerer to the Crown, we alternated between two characters, the Sorceress Royal, Prunella Gentleman, and her predecessor and now husband (sqweee) Zacharias Wythe. While The True Queen does continue their story they aren't the focus of this book and while at first I was like, I'm not sure I want the story continued in a book that isn't a direct up sequel, I've been completely won over with how Zen Cho has been able to expand her universe while remaining true to it's origins, which has that same snark I love so much from The Magicians. It's not just that we have more locations, from spending time in Janda Baik to seeing other parts of Fairy besides the quick glimpse Zacharias had previously of the court, it's that we see the story through the eyes of so many different characters. The number of POVs in this book has expanded exponentially, so Muna, Sakti, Prunella, Henrietta, Rollo, even a Midsomer, have a little slice of the story! And each character builds the narrative and it's themes, not one of them, even Clarissa Midsomer, taking away from the plot. The constant struggle between desire and duty is explored through more lives and more facets showcasing the importance of family and what sacrifice really means. I couldn't think of a better sequel.

While the character roster is expanding so is our understanding of how magic works in the world Zen Cho has created. I've always liked the idea that magic is science we don't yet understand, and while what we learn here isn't science, it does finally give us an understanding of how magic works in this world. In Sorcerer to the Crown it's clear that magic comes from the Fairy realm as they've put a block on it. Here though we see magic through the eyes of Muna who, while not magical, was taught an entirely different approach to magic in Malaysia. In fact she has many different terms and abilities that the English magicians don't have. She even calls the Queen of the Fairies the Queen of the Djinns. So it makes sense that she would see all magic differently and what she sees is that all magic is actually accomplished by invisible creatures in the air that do the magician's bidding. So all the spells and incantations are just words strung together, sometimes rather rudely, to get these invisible creatures to enact the wishes of the magician. Muna can not believe that this is how magic works! It's wonderful to think that through kindness and flattery anyone can achieve magical feats. The male English magicians who were all rather bombastic in my mind would never deign to believe that being nice can lead to magic and therefore it makes me extremely happy that this is the case.

In fact this whole book is about seeing everything differently. It's about opening up your eyes to the magic that is literally all around us. That love can come in many shapes and sizes and might not be expected or understood, but it is always welcome. This inclusivity prevalent throughout the book made me feel as if the ending was a little flat. Now I'm not going to go and spoil anything for you here, but I will explain a bit around the relationship in question in order to hopefully get my point across, but if you want to be completely ignorant feel free to skip ahead to me talking about dragons, and yes, I talk about dragons! So we have two characters of the same sex who fall desperately in love. You will be shipping them the entire book. Therefore when they don't technically end up together at the end of the book it's kind of heartbreaking. I mean, yes, it's historically accurate, being openly gay during this time in history wasn't exactly the done thing, but at the same time, this is a book about magic and dragons and actual fairies and I kind of was hoping for something more. Not a compromise, not something that will look fine to the outside world, but complete and total happily ever after. Of course seeing as this actually annoyed me so much just goes to show how much I love the characters...

Dragons! See, I told you I'd talk about them. So here's the thing, I never really thought of myself as a big dragon fan. I liked them and all, but then I started noticing things, like how I have a fair amount of stuffed animal dragons and dragon statuary and more than a few books about dragons and Falkor was easily my favorite character in The Neverending Story and then I thought on it and realized, yes, I think I'm a little obsessed with dragons. I mean, I'm not Dragonriders of Porn level obsessed, and thank you forever to whomever wrote the "Home Improvement" episode of The Magicians this season for that joke. But still, it all comes down to the fact that I love me some dragons. Which means I LOVE ME some Rollo Threlfall the familiar of Paget Damerell. The big reveal at the end of Sorcerer to the Crown is that Rollo isn't just a typical Regency buck but is actually a dragon. And therefore his Aunt Georgiana who kind of started the whole narrative going back in book one by asking Rollo to give a speech to some gentlewitches is also actually a dragon. But what I love most is that while they are dragons that doesn't change their underlying characters. Rollo is a Regency buck trapped in a dragon and Aunt Georgiana is the dragon of an aunt you always fear at the local assembly. Regency dragons, is there anything better!?! The answer is no if you were wondering.

But oddly enough it was a small plot point that was the icing on top of the cake for me and that was a hall of talking paintings. Talking paintings are pretty common in books with magic or magical schools, just look to how ubiquitous they are in Harry Potter. Though interestingly enough it's never mentioned how they came to be in Harry Potter, unless it's somewhere on Pottermore and I can't be bothered to slog through that site. I mean Dumbeldore's painting is up like minutes after he's dead, how did they swing that!?! I mean, seriously, how, I NEED to know. Therefore I was more than a little pleased that Zen Cho instead of just having talking paintings that are rude to the students of The Lady Maria Wythe Academy for the Instruction of Females in Practical Thaumaturgy she explains how they are made and why they might be a little rude. Because it's not the personality of the subject that is captured but the personality of the subject as viewed through the eyes of the artist. Oh, as an artist how I loved this. It's like instant revenge for generations on someone who is rude to you! As Mr. Wythe explained: "the paintings have little of their subjects in them - the life that animates them springs from the artist, and the artist's opinions of his subject cannot be taken as a wholly reliable guide to who they were. I am sure the real George Midsomer was much pleasanter than his likeness." Ahem, sure... a "nice" Midsomer. I'll believe it when I see it, maybe in the next book?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Dragonriders of Porn, Dragons, Falkor, Harry Potter, LGBTQ, Magical Paintings, Malaysia, POV, Regency Magic, Sorcerer to the Crown, Sorceress Royal, The Magicians, The Neverending Story, The True Queen, Zen Cho

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
Published by: Doubleday
Publication Date: July 11th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

What if your life hinged on a single night? In 1977 the Blyton Summer Detective Club, a group of kids known locally to the inhabitants of Blyton Hills for foiling those up to no good, solved their final case. After that night the four kids drifted apart but were forever haunted by what happened during their final foray into crime solving. Usually the villain turned out to be someone in a rubber mask, but they weren't too sure about what happened with the fortune hunter they thwarted looking for the famous treasure in the Deboën Mansion. Something otherworldly was going on that night and it has stalked them ever since. The four precocious kids full of potential are long gone. More than a decade later those still alive are living lives of quiet desperation, slinging drinks, fleeing arrest warrants, and trying to forget in mental institutions. But Andy, she of the arrest warrants, is sick of always being on the run. She shows up on Kerri's doorstep and says it's up to them to find out what really happened that night at the Deboën Mansion. None of them can actually have a life without closure. Of course this means breaking Nate out of an asylum in Arhkam, Massachusetts, and hoping he can keep it together.

As they travel cross-county to the sleepy mining town in the Zoinx River Valley in Oregon where they spent every summer solving crimes the ghosts of their pasts haunt them. Nate more than most because the ghost of Peter, their erstwhile leader turned famous movie star who killed himself, is literally his constant companion. Why couldn't his companion be like Kerri's? An excitable Weimaraner would be way better than a ghost! Arriving back in Blyton Hills and holing up in Kerri's old bedroom, despite all the intervening years they feel like they used to; full of righteousness and possibilities. If only this were just a trip down memory lane and not a trip to uncover the darkness that lurks in the Deboën Mansion. Yet they are determined to solve their final case properly. To trek out to the Deboën Mansion on it's deserted island and lay the evil to bed. Only jumping back into their old investigative life isn't as easy as they thought. Knowing that something evil is lurking out there is far more terrifying to adults then to kids who think they are invincible. But they've come this far! What is a journey through abandoned mine shafts and looking into the true face of evil to being forever trapped in one night in 1977?

To me the biggest mystery of 2017 was that this book was wholeheartedly embraced by booksellers and readers everywhere. I don't think the origins of it's popularity could even be solved by the Blyton Summer Detective Club. Because the nostalgia factor just can't cut it when a book is this badly written and is so insensitive to LQBTQIA issues. This book brings nothing new or interesting to the table. The writing and action is repetitive. The characters flat. As for the Big Bad? Lovecraft did it better. So that leaves nostalgia as the only logical reason people picked up this book. Nostalgia is currently playing a huge role in popular culture and media. Just look to the behemoth successes of Stranger Things and the 2017 adaptation of It, which was so popular it (haha) is getting a sequel. But the reason I have chosen these two examples is they got it so right. They bring out all the feels of a kid growing up in the late seventies and early eighties and make it somehow fresh at the same time. Whereas the nonsensical Meddling Kids seems to just be wanting to tap into that cash cow without realizing you either get it right or go home. Edgar Cantero should have gone home.

The nostalgia Meddling Kids is attempting to cash in on is the continued love of all things Scooby-Doo. OK, here's the thing with me, I've spent my entire life worshiping Scooby-Doo. Perhaps in fact this is where my love of mysteries and all things Gothic started because rumor has it that shortly after I started saying "mommy" and "kitty" I started saying "Scooby-Doo." I even had a stuffed animal of Scooby-Doo that was literally bigger than me at the time my parents bought it. I fully believe that The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show/The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries was the best incarnation of Scooby, because Fred and Velma were nixed, and if only Scrappy had met the fate Eddie Izzard suggested in his Dressed to Kill special it would have been perfection. Therefore I can, without a doubt in my mind, say that this isn't an homage to Scooby-Doo, this is just really badly written slash, aka a fanfiction subcategory pairing two male or two female characters together. This book is just Edgar writing prurient scenes of the Daphne and Velma characters for no reason other that to fulfill his own fantasies. Now I don't have a problem with fanfiction or with slash, what I have a problem with is when it's badly done and is sold as a book and is not available in some forum online, I'm looking at you Cassandra Clare. This does a disservice to nostalgia and makes it pornographic.

And for some reason this slash angle has resulted in making Kerri's hair another character. Andy has been in love with Kerri for forever and Kerri by the end of the book is willing to accept the love but not really reciprocate it, but that's an entirely different issue I have with the book. What this results in is that Andy watches the moods of Kerri's hair because it somehow embodies the essence of who Kerri really is. Andy's heightened awareness of Kerri's hair is like some weird spider-sense. I just call it Kerri's stupid ass "living" hair. If it was used once or twice, I wouldn't have had a problem with it, but again and again with the hair! The over the top descriptions of Kerri's hair get to the point where it's like a masturbatory fix for Andy. She can't just watch her hair but has to fetishize Kerri's hair. When I think of all the time wasted in this book that was in desperate need of some forward momentum spent on a character's hair it just enrages me. And what's more, I don't know what to do with this information. Why is it important? Did Edgar have a real thing about Daphne's hair on Scooby-Doo? Or does he just have a hair thing? I seriously am baffled by this choice and the fact no editor went, "What's with the hair Edgar?" But then again I had so many issues with this book if I had been it's editor I would have just thrown in on the trash heap.

Because the problematic crux of this book is that it is transphobic. At first I wasn't sure. Perhaps I was reading into something that wasn't there. Perhaps all the nasty asides about Andy wanting to be a boy was more a sign of the times, the book being set in 1990, and that Edgar figured that Andy being labelled as gay wasn't a mean enough taunt for the bullies to hurl at her. But the more this happened the more I was unnerved by the book. I started to read other reviews and saw that I wasn't the only one thinking this way. In fact, I missed something big right in front of my face. Edgar's first book, The Supernatural Enhancements, had some issues with pedophilia, and from everything I've heard about his newest book, This Body's Not Big Enough for the Both of Us deals with twincest, so I'm guessing it's a trend that his books handle big issues in a tactless manner... But that means it's even more important for the reader to call him out on this! He is a modern writer who has decided to set a book in a less enlightened time and he has a duty to be better. To call out the creeps and say that calling Andy a boy isn't right. But instead he builds it all to a reveal that shows his insensitivity and that for me makes it so that anyone who loves this book in my mind has a bigoted small-mindedness that I don't want to be around. On the surface it might look fine, but look deeper, find the monster in the lake... it's a whole lotta hate.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Dressed to Kill, Eddie Izzard, Edgar Cantero, Enid Blyton, Fanfiction, Going Gothic, H.P. Lovecraft, It, LGBTQ, Meddling Kids, Nostalgia, Scooby-Doo, Slash, Stranger Things, Transphobia

Misfortune by Wesley Stace
Published by: Back Bay Books
Publication Date: January 1st, 2005
Format: Paperback, 560 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

A young baby boy is being thrown out with the trash. Unwanted and alone a chance of fate has him picked up by the richest Lord in the land, Lord Loveall. Lord Loveall has been mourning all his life for his dear departed sister and when he sees this baby he assumes it to be a female and a chance to have his sister back. But Lord Loveall can't just miraculously have an heir, a quick marriage is arranged with his sister's old governess, Anonyma, who has stayed on as resident librarian at Love Hall to catalog the works of her icon, the poetess Mary Day. Anonyma agrees to raising "Rose" female because Mary Day had some interesting theories on gender and Anonyma sees a chance to put her heroine's thoughts into action. An experiment if you will. For many years the couple are able to keep up this farce, until one day the world crashes down on them in the form of puberty and Rose can no longer hide who he is.

Rose flees in the middle of the night without a trace, unable to face what he is or his feelings for his best friend. He takes to the continent and eventually ends up where all those pilgrims seeking answers often end up, the Levant. Rose's journey won't be an easy one, through awkward sexual awakenings, near death fever dreams, and chance encounters, Rose begins to embrace the odd life that he has been given in this strange world and the companions in his journey who truly love him. Though while he has been traveling, trying to put himself back together, things aren't going so well at home, where Rose's absence is duly noted. The familial vultures have swooped in to claim what they have always lusted after, Love Hall. A scandal would be so unbecoming so Anonyma withdraws into the works of Mary Day... what does she have now that Rose has fled? It will be up to Rose to save the day, once he saves himself.

Misfortune is a Dickensian tale with at LGBTQ mindset. Full of interesting incestuous characters I felt that it never quite lived up to it's full potential due to the shifting narrative that, in the end, opted for a shorter, sleeker story with annoying time jumps, instead of becoming a book of true Dickensian girth. Now I'm not saying that I wanted every detail on Rose's debauched journey to Turkey, but covering such an expanse of time as a fever dream seemed indulgent of the author. In fact, that might be the crux of my problem, the modern sensibilities thrust into this Victorian age by Stace's whim alienates me from the story. Stace says in an interview in the back of the book that he didn't want to be drawn into the trappings of the time period, a carriage is a carriage, not a barouche, not a gig. By having Misfortune be a modern book set in the past he seems to be wanting to make the book more of a post modern statement piece than a quality read.

By breaking convention he is writing a book that will appeal more to those who have never read Dickens or historical fiction while leaving those of us who love 19th century literature and period pieces cold. Coupled with the fact that he pulls a complete Dickensian HEA that was obvious from page one, his tendency to use some literary tropes and abandon others just goes to show that he was gratifying himself instead of his audience, plus exactly HOW was Rose to inherit... she being a she? Many such little questions bothered me throughout. Though my biggest problem with the book that has nothing to do with Stace might just be a side effect of this lack of interest in the historical details. This problem being that the cover illustration shows clothes incorrect to 1820. Yes, I know I should let this go, but the thing is, I remember the day I picked up this book on a table in Barnes and Noble and it was those lovely Regency clothes that sold me on it...

Yet in the end it's not covers nor conceits that are the root of my issues, Rose is what's problematical to me. Firstly, the sheer self-centered delusions indulged by her parents scares the shit out of me. That two adults could contrive to raise a boy as a girl is just wrong to me. I know in this day and age there are a lot of people who talk about wanting to raise their children gender neutral so that they can come into their sexuality on their own. Personally, I think this is bullshit. It takes awhile for children to become aware of things, just look to Rose for an example, and by at least not setting down for them the basics, well, you are going to get one f'd up kid, again, look to Rose. Children need to understand the world around them in order to find their place, wherever that may be. By taking away Rose's knowledge of the world around her with regard to her body, that's just so many levels of wrong. At least her father Geoffroy has some excuse, obviously being insane, but Anonyma, the cold amd calculated way she sees changing her child's sex as an experiment just makes me want to slap her so hard. While yes, this does lead to some amusing situations, in the end, I felt such sorrow and pity for Rose that at times the book became hard to read.

The collusion to keep this lie up just fills me with rage. Personally, the fact that they were able to pull it off for so long makes me a little awestruck. I personally don't see how they did it. I liked that they mentioned that all paintings with genitals shown were hidden, because that was a problem I really had. How, in an English Country House, with the great artwork that is usually in said houses, were they able to keep Rose in the dark? The secluded environment helped, but still, how? Recent studies have shown that people in the 19th century weren't so repressed sexually as we like to imagine. Yes the book has Anonyma lecturing a young Rose on what is private and what is public, and never stripping or lifting of skirts... but still... how? Rose was raised with two other children and they never once lifted a skirt or whipped it out of their pants? That is giving those kids some amazing, I would say unbelievable, restraint. Were they sewn into their clothes? Because that's the only way I see this happening, otherwise, I just don't buy it. I can't buy it. There's too much suspension of disbelief needed here and that just doesn't work for me.

And yet... if we take a step back and look at the larger picture, not those hanging at Love Hall, forcing Rose into a female role is almost equivalent to forcing any child into any role. While yes, as I've said, I do thing it's important to show kids how the world works but I also think it's important that once they grasp the basics that they be allowed to be who they are. However they want to identity themselves, dress themselves, whatever, it is important to be who you are no matter what society thrusts on you. It is your right to choose your own identity and that is the final message we are left with from Rose. He has this unique upbringing, then the upheaval and identity crisis, but in the end he finds out who he truly is. So in one regard, though I had many issues with the book, I'd kind of like to make any bigot I can find read it because the sorrow and pity that you feel for Rose as he finds himself, that might be the first step to understanding those who don't fit the binary world. So yes, issues with the book, but not issues with the message? I know, it can be as confusing as Rose's situation at times, but sometimes even a book that I just don't engage with can connect and resonate on a deeper level with regard to certain issues. Sure, this book is flawed, but so are all of us. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anonyma, Backlog Bonanza, Carriage, Charles Dickens, Child-rearing, Cross-Dressing, Dickensian, HEA, Inheritance, Levant, LGBTQ, Lord Lovall, Misfortune, Non-Binary, Orphan, Poetry, Regency, Victorian, Wesley Stace