#and i kept thinking of the creature in Pratchett's Going Postal

[ennaih]

Every Film I Watch In 2023:

173. Jeepers Creepers (2001)

[carriagelamp]

My September has been... so much. So it has also been a month of audiobooks and almost exclusively rereading Terry Pratchett novels. So like… if you’ve never read Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, consider this my loving recommendation because they are, as far as I’m concerned, the Ultimate Comfort Novels

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Through a set of treaties, humans and fairies live in two very separate worlds, divided by a magical wall that is meant to protect humans from the almost unimaginable power and cruelties of the fairies who had previously kept them as slaves. While hunting for meat to feed her family though, Feyre ends up killing a fairy and therefore breaks the treaty. To make amends, Feyre must either risk the lives of her entire family, or enter the fairy world with its hidden power struggles and strange conspiracies lurking just under the surface…

I honestly didn’t love ACOTAR the first time I read it, but I kept going because my friend swore up and down that I’d love the next book. And hot damn was she ever right, A Court Of Mist And Fury was phenomenal. The narrative pivot? The completely logical but unexpected twist on the beauty and the beast theme? An actual serious look at trauma and recovery? So good.

This was my first time rereading ACOTAR since finishing the series, and I’m shocked by the fact that knowing the entire series made Book 1 so much more enjoyable. Knowing everything that’s happening under the surface rather than taking it at face value as a rather trite, lacklustre romance novel makes it so much more compelling and the characters so much more sympathetic.

Going Postal

And so my desperate rereading of Discworld novels begins…

Moist is one of my favourite protagonists in the entire series (possibly only rivalled by Vimes) and I love his arc from the depths of my heart. The humour and satire is just completely on point through out.

Going Postal is the first Moist Von Lipwig book, in which Moist, a conman, is hung by the neck until dead. …Or nearly dead. The city’s dictator has his life spared on the condition that he accepts the position of Post Master General and revives the city’s dead postal service. It seems like it should be an easy job, until Moist realises how many people have already died in the attempt…

Making Money

The second Moist book, and oddly enough the very first Discworld book I ever read, when I found it in our middle school library. I think everyone’s first book is probably their favourite, and this one is certainly mine, I can read it over and over and over.

In this book Moist has found himself pressed into another industry in the city — this time into banking when he inherits an old woman’s dog and winds up with an entire, powerful, vicious family out for his blood.

Only You Can Save Mankind

One of Pratchett’s children novels. I really enjoy the Johnny Maxwell trilogy, and this book is honestly very impressive. It deals with some really complex, heavy topics (the main character goes to research the Geneva Convention at one point in the middle of the story in order to try to come to terms with what he’s witnessing) while wrapping it in a very fun, approachable story.

Johnny Maxwell really just wants to sit and blast some aliens in his new computer game; he’s not prepared for when the aliens suddenly surrender! Or when they request safe conduct, and Johnny finds himself obliged to keep these little creatures safe from all the other human players that want to slaughter them.

Secret Path

This is a graphic novel that tells the real life story of Chanie Wenjack, a First Nations child who was a victim of the Residential School System in the 1960s. It follows Chanie’s attempt to escape the institution and return home hundreds of kilometres away. 

Canadian Musician Gord Downey wrote a concept album called The Secret Path about the tragedy, and it was adapted into a graphic novel. It’s a very emotional, heavy read, especially with the music, but it’s well worth it. With National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Day coming up, I highly recommend finding a copy, or watching the version they have uploaded on Youtube!

Thud!

More Discworld. One of the later books in Sam Vimes' arc, in which he tries to keep his city from dissolving into chaos as racial tension between the trolls and the dwarves continues to mount with the approach of Koom Valley Day, a day that marks an ancient war that exemplifies the hatred the two races have for each other. If that wasn't enough, they now have a dead dwarf, deep in the mines beneath the city, there's potential evidence pointing towards the trolls, and no one seems to be telling Vimes the truth, not about the murder, not about the hidden machinations, and not about the ancient evil that may or may not be lurking in the dark...

The Truth

More Discworld. William is another personal favourite of mine, I really love the newspaper trio, they’re such a bunch of chaotic assholes.

 William de Worde is just trying to live a simple life and get on doing a simple job. Estranged from his family, he uses his education to record some of the interesting events that happen in the city, and then sends out letters to various foreign dignitaries who pay to have these accounts made. Things change when he — quite literally — runs into a group of dwarves and their brand new printing engine with its moveable metal typeface. All of a sudden he finds that he’s accidentally started the city’s first newspaper and that there’s quite a few people who are profoundly unhappy to have someone sticking their nose into things in order to find the truth.

Unseen Academicals

More Discworld. This is a book that I feel doesn’t get the love it deserves. It’s technically a wizard book, as the wizards at the Unseen University suddenly find themselves obliged to participate in a game of football, but it feels much more like Nutt’s book imho. The story is partially about the modernization of football (soccer) and what it means to be a part of something — a community, a neighborhood, a team, the crush, the mob-think — but it’s also about the strange little creature, Nutt, who lives and works in the candle vats deep below the university and his efforts to accrue worth and knowledge and find away to fit in. Nutt, Trev, Glenda, and Juliette are such a lovable group, I really have a soft spot for them. 

Yarichin Bitch Club 1

…Oof. I read this because I had quite enjoyed another book by this mangaka (Neon Sign Amber) and my cousin suggested I try this. She billed it as “Ouran but horny” and like… she isn’t WRONG per se but also I was not prepared for what it actually is. It followed a lot of the yaoi tropes that I really don’t like and I spent the first book and a half really uncomfortable. I will admit that towards the end of book two things got a bit more interesting, and I may read the next one but like… I would not recommend this. Unless you want really undiluted and uncomfortable smut, there’s better options out there.