Speed-Reading Book Nerd Reviews

The Impossible Us

By Sarah Lotz.

I read about this book a few months back and pre-ordered it (something I rarely do for a new to me author) upon the premise itself, which sounded a lot like Griffin and Sabine to me. (Disclaimer: link within is my notes on the G&S plotline and what happens there.) The day I got that book, I saw this Dear Author review and was all, "This review makes it sound bad/disturbing, I'm really concerned now." But I'd just gotten it, so I forged on anyway. 

The plot: Bee, a dress re-designer (for lack of a better phrase, but that is a cool job) gets a misaimed email from Nick, a struggling writer who's ticked at a client. The two of them end up having an extraordinary correspondence over email, really enjoy it, hit it off, decide to meet...and then the other one's not there when they go. They figure out soon after that that they seem to be living in parallel worlds that branched off after Chernobyl, with different cultural references, different energy practices, different rules about reproduction, etc. Bee lives in our world, Nick is in an alternate, more eco-friendly one. Nick attempts to get some help from a strange group he finds called the Berenstain Society, i.e. the only people who believe his story because they've had some experience of this parallel world thing themselves. One member, Geoffrey, actually has memories of another life he seems to have lived in the Beeverse before dying there (note this for later). 

Now, reading this premise, I thought this was going to go into Griffin and Sabine territory (see link above), in an "find a way to be together" sort of way. But nope. Nick and Bee conclude early on that there's no way they can ever meet, Nick is told it's not an option anyway. Then Bee gets an idea: track down the in-universe equivalents of them in their own worlds, meet those people, and presumably date them. This works great for Bee, as her world's Nicolas is a prominent author and a super sweet, nice guy and single. Nick's a bit jealous of his more successful counterpart, though he ends up using that information to become a novelist in his own right, so good for him. This does not go so well for Nick, as her equivalent, Becca, is married and has a child and her husband is an abusive rich guy. Bee smells a rat about the whole thing since Becca's done things Bee would not want to do, and she does some investigation into the husband, Benedict, in her own world and finds out he's awful. So this doesn't exactly turn into an adultery plot so much as it turns into a "how do we rescue Becca?" plot. 

There are clearly plusses and minusses to both universes and their counterparts in them, I'll put it that way. Eventually they tell a few people, who think it's unethical to be seeking out the counterparts. Is it? Maybe? I'm not sure. It doesn't quite go to straight up adultery, but you certainly kind of wonder. Is it cheating if you love someone who's an alternate version of your SO that you can never meet, if you're single? Also, is it unethical to use information you learn in other worlds, like telling Geoffrey what happened to his loved ones or trying to save the planet? 

The plot eventually goes back to the idea of "can you ever go to the other world/unite with your other self?' and that's definitely handled differently than Griffin and Sabine, for sure. I concur that the ending is...ambiguous with potential, I think? I hope? It's pretty...odd. This is an odd book for sure, but interesting as heck. Definitely not any kind of conventional romance, though, and I think how it's handled isn't going to work for everyone. It's not an easy-peasy ending, for sure. I suspect this may get a lot of discussion and conflicting opinions. That's why I'm getting as openly spoiler-y in this review as I am: I feel like you may need to know more about some of the places this book goes before you decide if you're in or out. 

I'll do a spoiler discussion below the spoiler cut on this one.

Overall, I'm giving it four stars for giving me a lot to think about. This will not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you can work with what the author is giving you, you may be up for that. 

Thoughts on Griffin and Sabine, first trilogy

This is some notes I wanted to make on another book series before I talked about reading The Impossible Us. This will be spoiler territory for the first Griffin and Sabine book trilogy.  I think I read this series long before I started this blog so there shouldn't be mentions of it already around these parts. Discussion of the plot below the spoiler cut. It's not a review since I haven't reread these lately. 

How The Multiverse Got Its Revenge

By K. Eason.

Previous book here. 

This is a contradiction in which I find the narration entertaining, but I honestly don't get what the hell was going on in the book enough to explain it. Like seriously, it has been a few years since I read the first one and I felt some lag in my brain over that, but also, I just...didn't get the plot? Other than the multiverse is going to be destroyed again? Rory's off living the pirate lifestyle with her bodyguards and Jaed and they come across a friendly sentient weapon named Rose who can't speak too much but makes it clear that it doesn't actually want to be a force of destruction. That was interesting. I liked seeing Rupert and Grytt again, and that green fairy. But otherwise, there were a lot of alien species and people seemed to be at war and I just flat out didn't get what was going on, sigh. I wanted to like it and I kept going enough to finish, but I sure as heck can't explain most of it. 

I dunno on the character development? There's not much of it and even less "romance" than the last one. I still think Rory/Rupert in particular are interesting, but Thorsdottir and Rose got the most of it this time, I think.

This book feels like it's going to be a middle book setting up some major things for book 3, but....maybe the author didn't get the book deal extended or something, because the whole thing is wrapped up in epilogue in which Rory becomes a great leader and saves the multiverse. But we're not going to get there, I guess, and the way this book went, maybe it's just as well?

Two and a half stars. I wish I liked it better, or just got what was going on. This review is a better read and attempt at explaining the plot and also explains better the issues I had with it.

 

One Last Stop

By Casey McQuiston:

August has moved to NYC to attend yet another college and get away from her mom's issues. Her mom's spent literal decades looking for her missing brother, who's been missing/presumed dead since the 70's. August was brought up with no other family and living the life of Nancy Drew, which she eventually got quite sick of. 

In her new NYC life, she acquires some great new queer roommates and a job at the pancake house. And she also gets a crush on the punk girl she spots on the subway. However, Subway Girl turns out to be a mystery of her own. Jane Su is somehow trapped on the Q train in perpetuity--not having to eat or go to the bathroom or sleep, but has been in some kind of weird half-netherworld for decades, operating as kind of an angel on the subway (my interpretation, not authorial) and not really being aware that it's not the 70's any more. Until she meets August, magic happens, and Jane starts to come into more focus.

It's very romantic to be the chosen one who starts helping this hot, sweet girl get her memories back, is what I am saying here. Fortunately, August has DIY PI skills and her roommates include a psychic and a former engineer with tech skills to help solve this incredibly weird semi-metaphysical situation. 

Overall I think this is a very well done book. It's an odd situation that's not fully explained but mostly explained as things go on, and I do like how Jane's 70's life actually lined up with things that went on in August's, though I won't get into details here. Their relationship is very sweet and romantic and they agree to be together as long as they can, even if somehow they can magic Jane back to her own timeline (or not). As per her previous book that I've read, the author can sure do awesome, steamy romantic passages, even if I was too lazy to bookmark them as I read on this time :P 

About the only thing I can quibble about is one thing that hit me a little personally. There's a slight beta romance going on between August's apartmentmate Wes and their neighbor Isaiah (a.k.a. the drag queen Annie Depressant). Upon meeting Annie, August is told that Annie has been in love with Wes for years, but Wes "has this thing where he's terrified of being loved and refuses to believe he deserves it," so it hasn't gone very far. Then there's this conversation, which hit me in the feels:

"Does it ever, like...I don't know. Make you lonely? To love somebody who can't meet you there?" "Sometimes. But, you know, that feeling?" When you wake up in the morning and you have somebody to think about? Somewhere for hope to go? It's good. Even when it's bad, it's good."

Ah, yes, this is how I feel as well in my own life with my own pointless crush who said no. So I was very eager and hopeful to see how the tide would turn for Wes, as it were. However, that's about the one thing that I felt got a little short shrift--I guess Wes just saw Annie looking hot and being helpful (more or less) and is all "I love you," and there we go? It's that easy to get over his shit?! God, I wish! 

Anyway...four and a half stars from me. Good read, y'all!

A Very Punchable Face

By Colin Jost.

This book's kind of a mix between what you'd expect out of any comedian-type person's book, and some chapters that have some surprising depth. It's an autobiography of Colin's life up to engagement, and he talks more about his past and his writing career far more than his love life, so if you were expecting ScarJo dish (darn it, I was), prepare to be disappointed. He's not into that. And sure 'nuff, there's plenty of details about writing for SNL, good and bad points, and his childhood growing up on Staten Island, and how Harvard isn't necessarily all that and a bag of chips, but writing for the Lampoon is awesome. 

There is also an entire chapter dedicated to how many times Colin has shat his pants, which frankly, I concur with anyone else wondering, "Sir, do you have a medical problem, because this is not as common of an activity as you seem to think it is." (Not my favorite, but I gross out easily.)

Buuuuuuut....there's some surprising moments of depth in here. He admits to being an awkward, nerdy kid (oh, the photos). I did enjoy his bluntness as to how he thinks plenty of people could go to Harvard, and even though he got a perfect score on his math SAT, he still scored the lowest in college. He talks about being depressed (particularly when studying in Russia) and when he first started appearing on Weekend Update and how everyone hated him.

But what really got to me was the chapter in which Colin recounts his mom, a doctor, and what happened to her on 9/11 since she was the chief medical officer for the NYC Fire Department. It's totally gripping. Like I was pretty sure she probably survived, given the detail he was recounting, but I was still nervous that she might not? So, good job there.

 Overall, three and a half stars. A bit more depth than I was expecting from this, and I like that. 

Spelunking Through Hell: A Visitor's Guide to the Underworld

By Seanan McGuire.

Previous book here. 

"Spelunking Through Hell was literally the book I used to pitch this series in the first place, and everything since then has been one long con to convince you all to care about this vaguely disturbed, definitely damaged woman and her wild, possibly futile search for the man she lost fifty years before." -Seanan McGuire, in the acknowledgements.

This is THE book in this series. While the October Daye series has a ton of mysteries, the InCryptid series has had one main huge one: WHERE'S THOMAS PRICE? We know he made a deal with the crossroads after several years of happy marriage with Alice, we know he was taken by the crossroads, and we know that Alice has been literally hellbent on finding him ever since, extending her life/somehow continuing to be young even though she's been hunting for him through other dimensions/worlds/whatever for over fifty years. We know most of the family thinks this is pointless, and the last few books featuring Antimony have finally answered some questions regarding the crosssroads.

Well, here's Alice's book, FINALLY, on how she's going to find her husband and know what happened to him, once and for all. I think I'm gonna take the rest of the review below the spoiler cut...but I'll say it's 4.5 stars. This is an excellent review to read as well.

I note that there are some Alice/Thomas prequel short stories on the author's website, but I've been reading most of their entire backstory via what she's done on Patreon. You may want to do the same and sign up, because daaaaaaaaaang, the backstory!

The Book of Magic

By Alice Hoffman.

I read Practical Magic so many years ago I don't think I could even find the original review, if I ever wrote one. Ditto the movie. I know the author has been writing prequels to the book and I haven't particularly felt like reading more about the Owens Love Curse during a period of time where you know it's going to be sad. But this book takes place after Practical Magic, so then I was interested.

Since then, Sally's lost another husband to death (bummed me out) and is closed off to love again. Gillian is still with her dude, but hiding that they're married to duck the curse. Antonia, a lesbian, is having a baby with her best gay guy friend, and Kylie's still secretly in love with her best guy friend Gideon. Unfortunately, Sally being all anti-magic about things has led to Sally NOT warning the girls that the family is cursed about love, and poor Kylie finds this out when her boyfriend is hit by a car and is in a coma.

Aunt Jet dies at the beginning of this book, but has about a week of warning before she does so, so she ties up loose ends and digs up a magical book that could help someone get rid of the curse. She left it for her sister Franny, but Kylie finds it and flies off to England, where the curse began. Unfortunately, the magical ally she finds there is Tom, whose line is also cursed and he's looking to do bad things. So most of the rest of the family, including Grandpa Vincent (gay, faked his own death to be with his true love), also fly to England, where they meet some new magical allies. Antonia is stuck at home, but falls in insta-love with the lawyer handling Jet's will. Most notable in this is Sally falling in instalove with Ian, an ex-con turned professor who investigates the dark side of magic. Honestly, I don't know if I lurve that particular relationship or not, but that's the one that gets the most development here. Antonia and Vincent also find true love again, but it's not covered much. Anyway, somebody needs to sacrifice, guess who, and it's time to end this whole thing.

Overall this was a pleasant enough book. I wasn't madly in love but was entertained enough. I think I felt the romances were all pretty shsallowly established. Kylie and Gideon only get a few pages, but it seemed like the healthiest relationship of the bunch. I wasn't too into Ian as a love interest--like, I get that he's not super evil at heart, but he's dubious enough that I was all "I really don't know about this dude as a match for Sally." But it has a happy ending, so I'm good with that. Three and a half stars.