LRRC Week 6
​So, uh, some weird ones this week. By some odd coincidence, both books I chose this week are just weird. I want to try to read things in isolation as much as possible, but sometimes comparisons become necessary, especially when one book really worked for me, and one...really didn't. Let's get to it.
#11: THE LUMINOUS DEAD by Caitlin Starling
Hot damn I really loved this book. Women who are allowed to be complicated and monstrous and also full of hurt and pain and connecting with each other over these aspects??? YES!! And ALSO they're lesbians!!!! (Er, they're both queer - neither gives an identity at any point.)
Also, the surrounding story is really interesting. I had a difficult time putting it down! It's tense and atmospheric and deeply, deeply claustrophobic (in the best of ways). I have a deep fear of caves and this book hit a really good line between freaking me out and not, y'know, being so horrifying I couldn't read it (though YMMV on this). I felt frequently stuck at nighttime between wanting to keep reading to know what happens, and not wanting to give myself nightmares.
The relationship between the two main characters, Gyre and Em, is *chef's kiss* absolutely amazing. If you know me, you know I'm here for relationships, especially queer ones, that are complex and kinda fucked up. I'm also super here for women/female characters that are allowed to be monstrous and cruel and also sympathetic and, at times, kind. Their relationship builds organically, and the internal and external tensions are tied so very well together that the story feels expansive, even though it's, in many ways, quite small.
Some of the ultimate pay-offs for the "What's Going On In The Cave" plotline I found to be a little bit disappointing, but honestly, the rest of the novel was so very well done that I kind of...don't care? That's not going to be what I walk away from this novel with, and if I reread it, I'll do it because I was drawn into the characters and the bond that they forge together.
I thoroughly recommend this book to those of you who like complicated lesbians and also spooky cave adventures.
#12: A HISTORY OF GLITTER AND BLOOD by Hannah Moskowitz
[CW if reading book for racism, anti-sex work attitudes, and infertility]
So wow, I uh, I didn't care for this book. In fact, if it had been a library book and not a Kindle download (and maybe if not for this challenge, still haven't figured out what I'm doing in that case), I probably would have DNF'd it.
A lot of it is a general sense of "not working for me". I didn't really connect to the characters, I found it difficult to get invested in the stakes, and it's completely possible that I just wasn't in the mood for a war story. It's also told very oddly. It's non-linear, for starters, and it's being written in-universe by one of the characters, but he's not writing about himself or in first person (mostly). Instead, it's this odd story that's ostensibly about a girl, but really about a guy's perception of a girl.
Which is where we start to get into problems. The book attempts to deal with a bunch of social issues and I don't know that it does so super successfully. I don't want to step outside my lane, so I'll just mention what they are without trying to pass judgment.
So a big part of the story deals with the conflict between three groups: fairies, gnomes, and tightropers. It is explicitly referred to multiple times as "racism," but without any kind of structural analysis (i.e. the gnomes are secondary to the fairies and are "the help," but also they kill and eat fairies regularly, so really, aren't both sides bad?). There seemed to be deliberate attempt at allegory here, but it feels very "racism by way of Zootopia" kind of allegory (except more violent). Every so often the story takes a turn into blood purity/miscegenation type stuff but never really goes anywhere with it.
Also, two of three main characters (or three of four, I guess, depending on how you're counting) are sex workers. They aren't referred to as sex workers within the story, which uses a lot worse language. The characters express a lot of anti-sex work sentiments, and explicitly feel "lesser" because of the fact that they do sex work. So, y'know, yikes.
Some other odd things: female fairies are infertile, and the main (?) character, Beckan, is significantly distressed by this, stating multiple times that she "wants a fucking baby", but this doesn't go anywhere and doesn't come up after the halfway point. At one point there's an exchange that is the lyrics from a Mountain Goat song, and I don't want to cast aspersions (it's not an exchange so rare nobody else could ever come up with it) but it did take me ENTIRELY out of the emotions of the scene.
Like I said, I don't want to step outside of my lane here - I'm a white woman who has never been a sex worker and has never struggled with infertility. I'm not going to analyze what's in this book because I don't think I'm the right person to do it. However, I think the purpose of a review is to give readers an understanding of what to expect, and these were the elements that struck me as odd and off-putting.
Let me know if you've read this book and/or have thoughts, I'd love to discuss further!
NEXT WEEK'S AGENDA:
#13: We Set The Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia
#14: The Last Sun by K.D. Edwards