Speed-Reading Book Nerd Reviews

Chaos on CatNet

By Naomi Kritzer.

Previous book here. 

I wasn't as into the previous book, but hoo boy, did I like this book. It was on fire, plotwise! Good job!

Stephanie makes a new friend, Nell, a girl who's recently been taken out of the religious cult she was raised in after her mother disappeared. Now she has to live with her dad and his polycule, in which everyone has at least 2 girlfriends. Everybody likes each other, but nobody wants to do the dishes. Nell amusingly refers to all the girlfriends as "Thing One, Thing Two, and Thing Three" (a little rude, but also kinda fitting...and there's a cute acceptance of that at the end). Nell is weirded out being in secular life, in polyamorous life, and she wonders where her mother is. But even worse, her secret girlfriend Glynis has disappeared and is clearly being impersonated by someone else in texting. Naturally, Cheshire Cat wants to come to the rescue on this, but it's pretty hard.

Cheshire Cat has also been contacted by another AI, which they posit is one that was somehow cloned off CheshireCat and then reprogrammed by Rajiv, the fake dead/missing ex-friend of Steph's mother. The other AI appears to be running several suspiciously similar apps such as "Mischief Elves," which gives you "fun pranks" to do, and there's a suspiciously similar religious one that Nell's cult uses...and there's an "Elder" that if you get to ask it a question, gives surprisingly accurate answers--which is why Nell's mom joined the cult in the first place. I said the first book is something like "twenty minutes into the future" (really it's about ten years into the future--the author said she was writing a future Minneapolis she wants to see) but this book really feels like it with the apps and how they interact and eventually start causing mayhem and destruction when the respective users are being pitted against each other....ANARCHY! Is it the end of the world yet? Even harder, having this stuff blow up when the weather is CRAZY FREAKING FRIGID and making it hard just to be physically outside and/or on the run! 

Anyway, this is crazy fun goodness, with Cheshire Cat figuring out the other AI situation and sending robots in to help, Nell trying to figure out her new life, and Steph playing detective. There's only one thing that bothers me and I'll mention it below the spoiler cut. I enjoyed the introduction of Steph's grandmother, who turns out to be a closet badass--must run in the family. I enjoyed the polycule. I enjoyed the happy teen girl dating relationships. And I enjoyed the dilemma of the other AI, who sounds like it could be fine and dandy except for its programming..... I was really gripped by this and give it four stars. 

Fugitive Telemetry

By Martha Wells.

Previous (?) book here. 

This may be the first Murderbot book I'm not as into as the other ones. It feels more like a one-off episode rather than continuing story, and I think it takes place after the fourth novella but before the first full on book, so if you were hoping for the continuing adventures of ART and Murderbot, prepare to be disappointed. Instead, Murderbot is hired to investigate a strange murder on Preservation Station. Mensah and her people are in it a bit off and on, but mostly Murderbot is dealing with Indah, someone who isn't terribly thrilled to have Murderbot around or in her computer systems. 

There's nothing wrong with this one, other than (a) it does feel like a one-off side adventure and (b) there's not that much emotional development or relations. The fun of Murderbot is its conflicting emotions with humans, but somehow it doesn't feel like it spends enough time with anyone to really have any. Not that much super uncomfortableness (though Gurathin shows up for a bit!), Murderbot figures out mostly how to deal with Indah in a way that doesn't involve bad jokes, Murderbot figures out what's going on and who needs rescue, end of story.

I'm giving it three stars purely because I know darned well I'm not going to really remember the plot of this later, sigh.

Quotes:

• "I would have either disposed of the body so it was never found, or made it look like an accident." When asked about that, Murderbot replies, "If I told you, then you might find all the bodies I've already disposed of." Ratthi is all, "It's joking," and then privately says "Stop joking."
• Indah to Murderbot: 'You are the most paranoid person I've ever met, and I've worked in criminal reform for twenty-six years." "I don't even know how to respond to that. She's not wrong but hey, I need my paranoia."
• "All I wanted to do was watch media and not exist." YOU AND ME BOTH, MURDERBOT.
• Murderbot's response to being asked to the theater: "You know I don't like fun." Of course it goes anyway. 

Problem Child

By Victoria Helen Stone.

Previous book here.

Every review I've read of this book says "It's not as good as the first one." I disagree. Sure, it's not a revenge tale--if anything it reminds me of whichever Dexter book it was where he realized his stepchildren also had Dark Passengers or whatever--but I still enjoyed it, thought it was fitting Jane, etc.

Anyway: a few years or so later, things are going well for Jane in her relationship and she's having a good time screwing with (but not screwing) a coworker who keeps trying to take her credit and whatnot. Then her boyfriend Luke is starting to want to move in together and maybe rethink the no-kids thing, and Jane freaks out. Around this time, she gets a phone call from one of her her deadbeat convict brother's babymommas, who appears to be the only one concerned that his 16-year-old daugther Kayla has been missing for like a month. Jane obviously wouldn't normally give any kind of a shit, except for a remark that Kayla is like Jane.

Another sociopath in the family? Sounds likely. Jane is intrigued enough to go to Oklahoma--which is as awful as you'd figure--and deal with her relatives again (ditto). It helps to get to run away from her relationship stuff too, and Jane certainly enjoys detective work. I'm still not clear on why wind turbines were A Thing in the mystery here, but there is a hilarious scene with a guy named Derrick--and how she manipulates him WITHOUT putting out--that is goddamned hilarious. Eventually Jane finds Kayla and while Kayla is certainly up to some bad shit, Jane thinks she has potential to make more of herself if she's mentored. And Jane is intrigued enough to want to give this a shot. 

It is implied at the end of the book that maybe this might be a bit tricksier than Jane originally thought, though. Is Kayla moldable, or will she be independent enough to cause serious trouble that Jane can't deal with? We shall see, assuming there's a book 3. I confess I'm with Jane on the "hm, this could be interesting, let's see how it goes" category. Finding a mini-me must be intriguing, right?

Anyway, I enjoyed reading Jane's voice again and hanging out with her, and look forward to her future exploits with a teenager in tow. Four stars. 

Jane Doe

By Victoria Helen Stone.

Jane (last name unknown, duh) thinks she is a sociopath, though maybe she's not as bad as she thinks. She had a traumatic, neglectful, abusive childhood in Oklahoma and learned to shut down most of her emotions, so she feels a lot more remote compared to most people. However, she had one best friend in the world, Meg, who she loved and cared about. Unfortunately, Meg got into an abusive relationship while Jane was living in Kuala Lumpur, so Jane was only so aware of what was going on beyond the constant breakups and getting back together. And then finally, Meg killed herself because of her "soulmate" abandoning her. 

Now Jane has taken two months leave from her job and returned to Minneapolis where they went to college and gotten herself a data entry job under a fake last name (unrevealed) at Meg's ex Steven's business. She's blonded up her hair and bought a bunch of cute girly flowery dresses and lacy bras to peek out from  under them. She's going to be catnip to Steven, he will pursue her, and then she's going to take him down. Maybe she'll kill him--at least, she certainly ponders it--but her overall plan is to figure out what he loves the most and take it away from him. Pretty straightforward plot there! You want a revenge fantasy, there you go.

Jane has studied people since she doesn't get them, and she can read Steven like a book in his shitty push-pull behavior. I think any woman who's ever been in an abusive relationship or suspects she is in one should read this, because this book makes it clear that that kind of shitty man behavior is a PLAYBOOK. Steven negs Jane about her weight--she's a size ten and perfectly fine with that, thank you very much, but he'll switch between "You're a good eater" and "Do you REALLY want that dessert?" behavior.

Steven has a very obvious "every woman in the world is a dirty whore" complex, which presumably comes from (a) being raised evangelical Christian by a pastor dad and (b) his mom having an affair and leaving when he was 15. I feel sorry for him on those two points, but by now he's a manipulative asshole whos' the sort that always wants to make a woman dependent on his approval, which he'll yank away semi-frequently for his own amusement. Happily, Jane gives absolutely no fucks about Steven's approval or feelings or whatever, so in her head she's being all, "Really, dude?!" while outwardly she's pretending to be distressed by him calling her a whore again. She "makes mistakes," she plays him like a fiddle. It's brilliant. Seriously, all women should read this to know what these fuckers are like. 

But Jane's not all bad. She adopts and is fond of her (also nameless) cat. And then she runs into Luke, a brief boyfriend she had in college who's very happy to see her again. While she's "dating" Steven, she also dates Luke, who is genuinely nice, comes from a somewhat similar shitty family background, and he enjoys just like, hanging out and reading. Luke thinks Jane is perhaps a bit autistic or something, but he finds her restful compared to his mama drama that he grew up with. It's adorable. 

There's only one thing I thought didn't go as well, which I'll discuss below the spoiler cut. But I did love how the takedown went on and what she did to do it, and the ending was as good as it could get, I think.

Four stars. I really enjoyed this and recommend it.

Here are some other reviews I enjoyed reading. I also agree with this SMTB review:

As I read this book I thought, what if Jane is not a sociopath, but rather an example of a what a woman can be when all the baggage that comes from being a woman is stripped away–the doubt, the irrational sense of familial duty, the self-criticism? She has such immense power in that way. What if all women were like that? What a terrifying world that would be for so many men.

I admit that's something that also appealed to me about The Rook: what if all the shitty baggage of being yourself/a woman was stripped away and you didn't feel it and weren't affected by it any more?