Bookish Thoughts

My love for this book is in direct opposition to how long it took me to read it. I heard about it years ago, and I knew that I had to read it. Fairy tales and nested tales and Catherynne Valente are three of my favorite things. There was no question that I would love it. But other books always seemed to take precedence. And then the pandemic happened and Valente started reading this book a bit at a time in a nightly video. So I bought it, fully intending to read along with her. Except that in March of 2020, my life was even crazier than most peoples and committing to a 45 minute video every day was out of the question.  And so the book sat on my shelf for nearly two years. I knew I would love it. I also knew I'd want to be able to sink into it. And I could never quite find enough time to devote to it. Finally, at the beginning of this year, I decided to start watching Valente's videos. They were great, filled with behind the scenes info about the book itself. Not to mention the...

 I still love this book. I was a little worried, honestly. It's been a few years since I read it. My life has changed a lot. I think about this book a lot, and I wasn't sure if the version in my mind still resembled the actual book. It was possible that in interpreting and reinterpreting this book over the years, I'd built it up so much in my mind that re-reading it would be an exercise in disappointment. But that didn't happen. I loved this book, and I still love it. Everything I remembered was still there. And there were new things as well. References and details I didn't catch the first time through that just added even more layers. I was also surprised by the subtle ways my perspective changed. I remember not really liking the gothic section the last time I read it. It felt overdone and a little too much. This time I understood it better, and therefore I like it better. But the noir section rubbed me a little wrong. The thing about this book that has me the most...

When I really love a book, you can tell not just by how many times I've read it, but by how many copies I've bought. Space Opera was just elevated to a book I've bought more than once, simply because I needed both a physical and a digital copy of it. The thing that makes this one of my favorite books it the simple, recurring line: Life is beautiful and life is stupid. It resonates with me, especially since my husband was diagnosed with cancer while I was pregnant with twins. 2019 was a fantastic, terrible year, and 2020 even more so. My husband's death is the worst thing that's ever happened to me, but my kids are the best thing that's ever happened to me, and to have them both happening at the same time has resulted in an extreme roller coaster. This book reminds me that it's okay to be happy, to feel joy. Not just in that main theme, but because it's a hilarious book with a whole lot of heart. I keep coming back to it, as I do with most of Cat Valente...

This was a wonderful, quick read that Tor.com released for International Woman's Day. It's about 30 pages long and contains eleven super short stories. Each author was asked to use the famous admonishment of Elizabeth Warren as a prompt. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless she persisted. I liked some stories more than others. I knew most every author included in the book, and it was fun to get a little tasting menu of their styles. Not to mention that this was a particular balm to the soul, being delivered so soon after Warren dropped out of the presidential race. If you've got half an hour and a desire to try out several SFF authors, you can't go wrong with this small, free book.

It's probably because I've watched Labyrinth more times than I can count, but that's the touchstone my brain kept returning to as I worked my way through this book. What if Sarah had been a little more clever and a little less kind? What if Jareth had been more insistent, more seductive? What if the magic had been irresistible as well as frightening and Sarah had left her life behind to become the Goblin Queen? It might have turned out something like this book. Deathless is a dark fairy tale. A retelling of a classic Russian tale about Koschei Deathless and his death at the hands of Ivan. Except this one twists it around, makes Ivan's wife Marya Morevna the protagonist and gives her the magical journey. It examines why she makes her choices, what she gains and what she gives up. And it interweaves this tale with modern Russian history, taking the reader from the Russian revolution through the siege of Leningrad. Valente's command of language is what makes this...

I love this book so much. Every time I read it, I get something new out of it. It's fantastic and dense and remains a glittering kaleidoscope of a story. This time through I recognized a lot more of the references to Greek mythology, having recently read The Odyssey , and I'm a little floored by how well Valente wove all those references into her story. And I still love the way she bounces between genres while somehow creating a cohesive whole. That said, I'm not as big a fan of the Gothic section, which gets a bit unwieldy at times. But I suspect that has more to do with my own unfamiliarity with that particular genre. The fairy tale and closed-room mysteries are delightful, balancing perfectly between homage and send-up of their respective genres, and if I read a bit more Gothic literature, I'm sure I'd find that section to be equally ingenious. Valente uses all those genre trappings and tropes to remind that reader that a life is not a story. A person can...

The first time I read this book, I liked it a lot. The second time I read it, I loved it. But that's been my experience with nearly all of Catherynne Valente's work, so I should be surprised. Her books get better every time you revisit them, because the more you know about them the more they reveal themselves. Once you know where the story is going, you have a much greater appreciation for how Valente gets there. It's all about the journey with her. But that journey becomes so much richer when the destination is known. The central theme of this book pops up early: Life is beautiful and life is stupid. It has seemed particularly relevant to my life lately. Recently my husband was diagnosed with leukemia. Though he achieved remission in just a few months, the doctors are still recommending a bone marrow transplant as our best option for beating the disease. I recently gave birth to twins and was initially disappointed when it became clear that I would have to have a c-sec...

My main thought upon finishing this book was that I need to read it again. Which is what happens nearly every time I finish a Cat Valente novel and is the main reason I love her as much as I do. Unlike Radiance  and Palimpsest , the plot of this novel is obvious pretty early on. Aliens have become aware of the existence of humanity, and they're giving us a chance to prove our sentience and join the intergalactic community. There's a musical contest, based heavily on Eurovision (the book was initially conceived as "Eurovision in space"), and all we humans have to do is not come in last. They've gone through our musical archives and put together a list of possible contestants. Most of whom have died. The only one left standing is Decibel Jones, who was an international sensation before one member of his band died, resulting in an estrangement between him and the remaining band member. He's spent the last twenty years trying to recapture the glory of his yout...

I suppose you can love an author without necessarily loving all of their books. Even though Radiance  changed my world and Palimpsest  still has me thinking hard. Even though the Fairyland  series will always have a special place in my heart. This book just didn't do it for me. I might have liked it better if I were more familiar with the Brontes and their work. Or maybe my expectations were just too high, or too different from what I got. It's not that this is a bad book. It's just not really the book I was expecting. It follows the four Bronte siblings on an adventure to a magical land. One that they've created while playing with their toys. And it occupies a strange place of being an adventure for children and being chock full of the kind of Bronte trivia that requires some serious study. A series of trips to Wikipedia really only left me with the feeling that I was missing a lot. So. Not my favorite. But there are still plenty of other books by Valente that ca...

Valente's books are like gorgeous puzzles. In the beginning it's all a jumble, and I'm wondering what I've gotten myself into. The prose is lovely, but the story is elusive. The more I read, the more the picture comes into focus. But it always seems to be a bit backwards. Mood, then themes, then plot. I understand what her books are about long before I really understand what's happening in them. As pieces click into place, previous passages make more sense, and I find myself flipping back to re-read bits and pick up clues and just plain marvel at what a master of the form she is. So. Palimpsest . This is a book about a sexually-transmitted city. It's about loneliness and obsession. It's about sacrifice and change. It's about making connections and remaking yourself and finding love. Palimpsest is a fantastical city. It's filled with wonders, a new one around every corner. The only way to get there is to have sex with someone who's already bee...

The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home  is a nearly perfect ending to a nearly perfect book. I have a small quibble about September's age, which seems terribly inconsistent. But then again time passes differently in Fairyland and even moreso when you get aged up and back down. And the story resonated a bit better with her being older. But it never quite felt fully explained. The rest of the book is so good, though, that I can't be too mad. It does a great job of bringing back all the characters and places we've fallen in love with over the series. September ends the book firmly in adulthood, having taken her destiny into her own hands. She's not the queen, but where she ends up is even better. And of course this book has all the lovely narration of the previous books. It's paced a bit better than them, too. And it was nice to actually spend time with September's friends in the beginning before the adventure kicked off. And then during the adventure, t...

The fourth book in Valente's Fairyland series is a bit of a departure from the series so far. It follows a whole new cast of characters, and in some ways it acts as a mirror to the first book. This one is about Hawthorn, a troll who's plucked from his crib by a wind and taken to our world as a changeling. He has a difficult childhood. It's hard for him to figure out the rules of our world, and it's hard for his parents to relate to the new, changed him. But eventually he meets another changeling and finds his way back to Fairyland, where we start to understand the scope of the problems that September is at the root of. The beginning of the book is a lot of fun, filled with callbacks to the beginning of the first book. Hawthorn's journey to our world isn't so different than September's first journey to Fairyland. And the meddlesome winds all seem to be reading from the same script. Then again, the beginning of the book is heartbreaking. We're not follow...

Some of my favorite quotes come from the third Fairyland  book, which sees September traveling to the moon as a criminal and professional revolutionary (she has overthrown two monarchies at this point). There are a lot of lovely passages about what it means to grow up and how to navigate relationships that seem to be constantly changing. Unfortunately, all this great lyrical prose comes at the expense of the plot which is only barely there. It takes nearly half the book to get the gang back together and introduce the main conflict. And then it's resolved almost immediately, which is a bit of a letdown. This book is short, and September herself is angry about how little time she got in Fairyland this time around. But it might be my favorite for all the wisdom the narrator dispenses. There's a lot in here about the power of naming and perceiving and how you become what other people call you but it also matters what you call yourself. Saying no comes up again and again, as som...

In the second Fairyland book, September has to deal with some unintended consequences of her actions in the first book. When she sacrificed her shadow to save a child, it seemed like a purely good action. But now her shadow has crowned herself Queen of Fairyland Below and is slowly stealing everyone else's shadows (and with them, their magic). These book are all about growing up, and this one has September coming to terms with consequences, saying goodbye to friends, being introduced to betrayal, and learning how to make hard choices. September is thirteen now and getting her first taste of adulthood. The language remains as lyrical as ever, and it's a delight to see more of Fairyland with September and her friends. Of course, we've only got the shadows of her friends now. They act different, because September has suddenly become privy to the bits of themselves they usually keep hidden. It's a nice little metaphor for getting to know someone better and suddenly wond...

Usually, when I find an author I enjoy as much as Catherynne Valente, I rush out to buy and read as many of their books as I can, always searching for the next one. But that doesn't seem to be happening with this particular author. Valente has written a whole bunch of books. I've read four of them. But I've read all four of them twice. And I'll probably read them many more times. I'll get around to the rest of her work, too. Everything she's written sounds interesting, and her books are all so different from each other and from anything else I've read. Maybe that's part of it. When I find an author I like and I want to read more like that, I find the rest of the author's books. But Valente doesn't work like that. Radiance  is an entirely different book than the Fairyland  series. Her latest, Space Opera  (Eurovision in Space), is wholly different again, as are the books on her backlist like Palimpsest  (a sexually-transmitted city) and Six Gun ...

I have finally collected all five books in this series, which means I can read it straight through. I've been wanting to revisit the early ones for a while, and it's nice to finally have all my ducks in a roll. Back when Gavin was first born, I attempted to read the first book to him, but I could never get through more than a paragraph or two at a time, which got frustrating. So I've adapted and am now using the series as my bedtime book. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making  was everything I remembered and more. It's a lovely story about beginning to grow up and all the choices you make as you start to navigate that scary path of adolescence. It's about making new friends and figuring out who you are and starting to see and accept the darkness of the world. I hadn't remembered how dark this book gets at the end, and it was a nice counterbalance to all the sweetness that came before it. It grounds the book and makes it more than...

Not only are there no happy endings, she told him, there aren't even any endings  - Neil Gaiman, American Gods When I think about trying to describe this book, the word I keep coming back to is kaleidoscope. It's a shiny, glittery, swirling ride that keeps circling back on itself with slight variations in the pattern. It's dizzying and beautiful and it doesn't want to be constrained by a single beginning, a single ending. It starts over several times, introducing beginnings late in the novel. And while the ending may be a foregone conclusion, it's also blurry and messy and happens a few times in a few different ways. More than that, Valente experiments with style in a way I've never encountered in a single novel before. It steals from just about every genre you can name: noir, gothic, fairy tale, science fiction, murder mystery, western, radio broadcast, and on and on. The blurb on the back of the book begins " Radiance  is a decopunk pulp SF, alt-histo...

In the third installment of Catherynne M Valente's  Fairyland  series, September is growing up. She's worried she won't even be able to return to Fairyland this year, but that quickly becomes the least of her problems. She has to find her friends, confront her fate, battle a yeti, and deal with all the confusing emotions that come with growing up and falling in love. Valente's prose is, as always, enchanting. The narrator shares more than a few insights and jokes with the reader. There's things September isn't ready to learn. Things that children reading this book would probably skip right over. Wisdom you only really earn by growing up the hard way, which makes it all the more heartbreaking when you can't provide easy shortcuts for the younger set. This whole series is really just lovely to read. It's the sort of language you can get lost in, and I was moved to tears more than once. September's journey to adulthood is at once specific and common...

The sequel to Catherynne M Valente's The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyl and in a Ship of Her Own Making returns to a September who is a no longer quite a child. She has just turned thirteen and is staring down that twisting and treacherous path to adulthood. But just because she's grown up a bit doesn't mean she has nothing left to learn in Fairyland. Instead September must return to deal with the consequences of her first trip there. In the first book, September sacrificed her shadow to save the life of a young girl. Now that shadow has declared herself the ruler of Fairyland-Below and is stealing more shadows to be her loyal subjects. September finds herself on a quest to awaken the legendary Prince Myrrh so he can rule in he'd stead and restore the balance. The quest is fun and full of all manner of interesting characters. Through it all, September learns a lot of the lessons of early adulthood. Sometimes your friends move on to different...

I can't very well be expected to resist a title like that, can I? September, like so many other heroines in so many other stories, finds herself traveling to a magical land where she makes friends with interesting creatures and has wonderful adventures. She learns a lot along the way, and I love the way the lessons pop up throughout the text. The narrator is incredibly self-aware. This is one of those books that I had to fight not to read out loud. The language is just so much fun. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making has elements of all the childhood stories I loved growing up. September receives a pair of special shoes. She falls down a hole and travels by boat to an island full of one-legged creatures. She meets a girl who arrived via a wardrobe in an attic. She is warned to stay away from fairy food, but munches on pomegranate seeds anyway. But it has it's own charms too, setting itself apart from the other books by not forcing...