LRRC Week 42
I am...deeply uncomfortable with the fact that this week means there are only ten more weeks left in the year 2020
No thank you!!!
#83: THE DRAGON REPUBLIC by R.F. Kuang
So I read The Poppy War over a year ago. And then reread it a few months ago for my podcast (shameless plug: https://brodaciousbookclub.buzzsprout.com/903883/3462592-the-poppy-war-by-r-f-kuang - really though I think it's one of our best episodes, available on your fave podcatcher).
And then didn't read The Dragon Republic because I'm so gosh darn bad at getting past book 1. Listen, there's so many books out there?? Who has time??
Anyway, all this to say that The Dragon Republic is excellent. Everything that the Poppy War does well, the Dragon Republic does better, in my opinion. That might just be because the author don't have to worry about setting up the world or the characters, she can just start from go with a story that is both achingly tragic and deeply moving.
Similar warnings to The Poppy War in terms of violence, sexual assault, with newcomer "implied cannibalism", which is fun. Also, some ableism, though I think this book goes further to challenge it than its predecessor (not that the ableism in The Poppy War is, imo, portrayed as a GOOD thing).
[mild spoilers for The Poppy War]
It's hard to continue on with a series when book one ends with the protagonist committing genocide. Like, that's pretty much number one on the "unlikeable protagonist" scale. And yet, Kuang manages it. Rin is just as compelling and sympathetic as she was in the first book, in my opinion, made even more heart-wrenching because you (and she!) know what she's capable of.
The politics are more intense, the world-building really adds onto what was already established, and we get to know the characters better. I was hooked absolutely from page one, I could not put it down. Also, damn, it is super weird (in a good way!) to read the descriptions of the fantasy Europeans/white people in this.
I am absolutely on the edge of my seat for The Burning God. Like, I kind of didn't want to pick up any other books this week because my brain wants book three RIGHT NOW and was unwilling to hook itself on anything else.
#84: THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB'S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES by Grady Hendrix
Aaaaaaaaand the award for creepiest paragraph I've read in 2020 goes to........
Seriously though, when I first picked this up, I thought it would be light-hearted spooky fun. Housewives form a book club and then slay a vampire! What could go wrong! Not to say that it's NOT spooky, because it is, and not to say that it's not FUN, because I did enjoy it (though I'm not sure that fun is the word I would use). But light-hearted this book is not!
Major CW for child sexual abuse, gaslighting/manipulation, mentions of suicide and suicide attempts, ableism, and an EXTREMELY upsetting scene involving insects (feel free to DM for details).
Honestly, this book ended up being a lot slower and more thoughtful than I was expecting it to be, interspersed with moments of horrifying action. For example, very early in the book, the main character is attacked and has her ear partially bitten off by an old woman who is under vague vampiric influence. So, y'know.
I was definitely invested in the characters, and particularly, in the main character's attempts to safeguard her home and her children from a literal predator. I cared about her family life and her ongoing book club, though woof, it all got a bit rough for a while.
There's a bunch of issues that I can't really speak to in terms of how well this book handles them. For example, the vampire in question targets Black children because he knows they're less likely to be protected by the state. Obviously this is not portrayed as a good thing, but is potentially worth mentioning that it means there are more Black victims than white ones, which sat a bit uneasily with me (especially because most, though not all, of the main characters are white, as are the children who get to survive their ordeal).
Also, it is perhaps worth examining that the horror of this book hinges on an "other" moving into a primarily white neighbourhood. While it's clear that the author is aware of social issues and the ways in which the state is racist, the premise itself when looked at on a thematic level leaves me squinting, just a little. Not necessarily the author's fault, just something to be aware of with this kind of book, perhaps.
(There are also no queer people in this book. That's a little beside the point maybe, given that it's clearly going for a "small town white-bread heteropatriarchy" kind of vibe, but still. I calls it like I sees it.)
So in conclusion, I did enjoy the suspenseful, thrilling aspects, and, genuinely, also the gross-out elements, but I would definitely want to be providing a good heaping of content warnings before recommending this.
NEXT WEEK'S AGENDA
#85: The Skylark Saga by J.M. Frey
#86: Axiom's End by Lindsey Ellis