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noahsbookhoard · 18 days ago

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📚January 2025 Book Review (Part 1/2)📚

I am cramming as many reading time in January and February because from March to May I will be back in school and I won't have as much time. This is driving me insane just thinking about it.

Part 2 here

Les Fourneaux de Crachemort by Raphaël Bardas

Four friends, comedians and thieves in their spare time, may have robbed the wrong house: now they are fleeing the city with nothing but the cloths on their back and the items they stole, a theater mask that makes every audience laugh, a quill which can rewrite history, a talking but cowardly rapier and a coat that can create a winter storm. They join an itinerant merchant cart, selling sausages and entertainment, and fleeing from the people who want them dead. But the items they stole might be more important than they first thought for the Witch Crachemort, which was thought dead for a thousand year, is coming back.

Weirdly enough with this premise, the book is kinda grim at times: there's massacres and beheading and just an awful lot of deaths. No plot armour for protagonists whatsoever. But the book is really good and the story is gripping.

One tiny reproach: when you put Magic Items in your fantasy book with a Big Bad Villain, your reader will expect the Magic Items to be of use to beat the Big Bad Villains. No spoilers here but they don't exactly do in this book, so the ending felt a bit odd to me. Good job challenging the reader's expectation but the reader (me) was still expecting that stuff.

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

Jam lives in a city free of monsters since before she was born. But accidentally releases a monster hunting feature from her mother's painting who reveals her terrible news: there is a monster, and it dwells in her best friend's house. How do you fight a monster who isn't supposed to exist? Who do you tell when it's one of the adults you are supposed to trust? How do you convince people when everyone believes monsters are all gone?

It's so nice to have a young trans protagonist and not have the plot revolving around her identity. She is who she is and there's no problem because the monster who would have challenged her are gone. Or are they?

This part of the book is what feels so important, especially today: you might arrest people and change laws and put better people in charge but the monsters and their ideas are never truly gone. Pretending that they are leads to granting them entry again because no one would believe the victims, after all there's no such thing anymore, right? Fighting for rights never stops, it sucks but it's true.

This is a middle grade book and a very good message for any young reader to hear.

Le Crime de l'Orient-Express by Agatha Christie

It's such a classic among classics I barely need to introduce it. It means that I already knew the culprit and therefore could try to focus on how Christie did her thing. I don't if what it says about how good she is or how bad I am that even with all the elements in hand I missed key evidences. She is brilliant and I'm loving it. 10/10 it is one of her best novel for a reason.

You Look Like Death (A Tale from The Umbrella Academy) by Gerard Way

Klaus is my favourite from the main comics so I was excited for him to have an entire spin-off. I loved it more than the Hotel Oblivion arc and maybe even the Dallas one.

I was worried at first because the trap seemed too obvious for anyone to miss but hey! It's Klaus we're talking about! But it was fun to see how the situation somehow backflipped to being in Klaus' favor without him doing anything, in true Klaus fashion.

A fun read, I really like the universe of the comic so it was good to see it again.

Les guerriers de l'hiver by Olivier Norek

This is a historical novel, I haven't read many, especially lately. And it deals with the war between Finland and Russia from 1939 to 1940 and especially with Simo Häyhä, who is considered to be the best sniper in history. This is a period I know absolutely nothing about, but I saw this book absolutely everywhere all summer and autumn last year so I caved.

It is really interesting, and apparently the author did extensive research so I trust the setting and events are accurate. I was a bit worried at first about what the tone would be like (with a war novel it can go overenthusiastic really fast) but while it faithfully represents the soldier's did it never goes around praising war.

The writing is good too, I believe the author is primarily a thriller author but the style suits historical subjects. A very informative book.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Oh this was lovely!

I loved the ghibli movie a lot as a kid and heard about the book through here, and how it was crazier even than the animated movie. So now I've finally come around to reading it and I was absolutely charmed!

Sophie is so nice and clever! I can't believe Howl managed without her at all. Calcifer and her bickering and plotting was a lot of fun. Howl is such a drama queen I love him too!

I was kinda skeptic about the whole Wales Is Real Actually part but it works! I was confused about quite a few aspects along the way but let the book do its thing and in the end I had this moment of oh, that's why.

Also the romance between Owl and Sophie is adorable. I loved that ending so much it really made the book from a good read to a favorite.

Yellowface by R F Kuang

Getting from Babel to this was kind of a leap but a good one! I really liked this.

The entire story is told through the perspective of a white woman stealing an Asian American author's work and desperately trying to get away with it. I don't know anything about the publishing world so this is a good if sometimes disturbing insight.

The unreliable narrator really is the best feature about this book, it's a malicious pleasure to see her try to work out a reason why what she did is good, actually and people are just being mean for no reason at all! As a reader you are mostly waiting for the author shie to drop.

On that part I found the ending a bit wanting. Maybe I was expecting a more spectacular downfall for June, the main character but maybe she doesn't deserve the publicity.

Cent millions d'année et un jour by Jean-Baptiste Andrea

I had read his latest book Veiller sur elle last year and I loved his writing so much I wanted to revisit it.

This one is the story of a palaeontologist chasing a dream, the story a man told to children of the skeleton of a dragon he saw twenty years prior when he was lost on the mountain. The evidence is thin and the localisation is hazy but he and his team went on the adventure anyway.

I don't want to say too much because just like Veiller sur elle there is a twist. This is both a really sad and really hopeful story and I was amazed once again at how right the character felt, they feel so human in all the good and bad. It is also a story about deep and long friendship and what you can sacrifice for your dreams and the dreams of those you love.

I definitely found one of my favourite authors. I can't wait to read more.

Les Chants de Nüying by Émilie Querbalec

I was so so so disappointed. The back cover was talking about exoplanets and first contact and alien whales and I was super hyped!

And the book begins and it's chinese-American Elon Musk (with lack of charisma and overinflated ego to match) dragging several hundred scientists to a new planet so he can test that brand new reincarnation technology that's only just for him and no one else. It goes so badly that 2/3 of the people die in space and the rest crashed on the planet and starts dying there too for good mesure. And when FINALLY the story starts giving us the goddamn aliens I was promised the book ends. I think you can sense how salty that made me feel.

The problem is that even the story the book actually tells could have been good! The ethic of cloning and transfering of consciousness of a person to a clone is interesting. And bringing the bouddhist perspective on this question could have been really refreshing! But instead we get the "religion bad science good" spiel which is as fresh as thrice over reheated leftover pasta.

Now we get to the part that made me want to tear the book to shred with my damn teeth, that's how angry I was:

The book is saturated with technical science terms which are 1) never explained or defined and 2) never repeated they are just dropped out of context and never serves any purpose in the narrative (for example there's a sentence that says something like "they set up the hydroponic farm before retreaving the subaquatic beacons and then they had dinner." and none of those shits are plot relevants. And she does that. All. The. Time.) Cramming lingo into the text don't really make your book look more scientific but whatever, that could have been a mi or hindrance

BUT

and that's why I am so mad, the book is also factually wrong on so many easily researchable aspects! There's "vapor shower" in the space ship: this is not how you shower in zero gravity. They eat strapped to chairs with plates magnetised to stay on the table, one tiny problem is your fucking lentils won't stay politely on the plate just because you said so this is zero G they'll fucking float. This is why astronaut don't eat with forks and plates in zero gravity. Checking this took me 10 minutes on YouTube, the author cites her sources at the end with like 6 or 8 books on Bouddhism and Tibet, which is cool I guess, but you are writing a sci-fi novel, research your fucking sci-fi! Another example: Two characters go on a three day trip on foot through the polar climate and unbreathable atmosphere. At some point they pause and have lunch. Quick question: how do you eat lunch with you fucking suit that you can't remove or you die? How do you do that for three fucking days? They have nothing but a camping tent how do you carry three days worth of breathing air? This is stupid as fuck. The book isn't even consistent enough to set how long a day on Nüying (the exoplanet) last!

So yeah that's not a recommendation from me, there's far better stories out there.

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studyinspectrum · 3 months ago

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Murder on the Orient Express, adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig, directed by Risa Brainin, performed at the Minneapolis Guthrie Theater

Ah, the theatre. I'm the type of person that spells it "Theatre" too, which is still technically correct in US English, because it got stuck in my brain in high school and never left. It's just in my muscle memory now and I'm not going to excise it anytime soon.

Anyway, I love the theatre. I had a fit last summer when I listened to 29/37 of Shakespeare's plays, not really feeling the vibe to listen to this historical plays because I don't exactly have that preexisting historical knowledge to enjoy them (they're very dry too, but that's beyond the point right now). I think live performances of all kinds are a lot of fun and can showcase how powerful the stories we tell can be.

I saw Hamlet at the same theatre the week before I came to see Murder on the Orient Express, so my Shakespeare tangent is appropriate. The Guthrie Theater is one of the greats of Minneapolis/Minnesota institutions, it's hard to ignore the building, half due to it's shape, but also because it's right on the river among a bunch of historic buildings, including the Mill City Museum (one of my favorites). I feel like every major US city has "The Theater" capital T and T, where you go to see some big productions, and that's the Guthrie for Minneapolis. There's plenty of smaller theatres in the city that I still patronize, but my housemate got our household tickets for Christmas for some shows, and as we're all big fans of stage productions in this house, we were all excited to go.

We all know this story, we know the author, we know it's a train. But not everyone knows it's ending. If you've never consumed the original book or adaptation of this story before, go do that first. For one, this play adaptation differs greatly enough that I think some original context will be missed in the content provided, but also, there's a reason this is a beloved story we adapt and retell hell over. It's just that good. Agatha Christie was just that Fucking good. the content warnings for Murder on the Orient Express are as follows: child death, child murder, miscarriage/death of the mother resulting in loss of the unborn child, kidnapping, racism, references to suicide, references to eugenics, murder, blackmail, drug abuse

you know this story

If you're someone under the age of 100 years old and has spent any time in the western world, you probably know that Murder on the Orient Express exists and who Agatha Christie is.

For documentation's sake, Murder on the Orient Express is a detective fiction novel written by Agatha Christie that was first published on January 1st, 1934 in the UK. It was published about 2 months later in the US under the name "Murder in the Calais Coach". This was due to the novel Stamboul Train by Graham Greene originally published in 1932 in the UK had it's title changed to "Orient Express" when published in the US.

Searching "Murder in the Calais Coach" is I think different enough of a title and this is an obscure enough fact that you'll more often than not get results about "Agatha Christie's premiere Poirot novel" and vintage copies of the book, like the one below I found on ebay.

I'm sure that everyone is familiar with the changing of titles across country lines, a trend that I believe has died out, save for titles with direct translations for example. There is probably a more well known title change with a Christie novel, that has gone under several revised titles over time. (Which is incidentally my favorite Christie novel. for better or for worse.)

But the premise of this story is well understood, Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective, boards the titular Orient Express, where therein a murder takes place. The case that is presented to Poirot is the most challenging that he admits to ever undertaking, not just intellectually taxing, but taxing on his very soul.

This story has been adapted a million times since the book's original publication. This particular play adaptation by Ken Ludwig was originally performed in 2017 at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. (Here's a really fun video interview with the costume designer for that original show, William Ivey Long, about his work on it)

Ken Ludwig has adapted several other plays, and especially notable to me, Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, which is billed as comedy. I think that in that context, it makes sense for how his adaptation of the play shook out. We'll talk about that later. it's not a christie novel without a colorful cast

The original story's cast includes 17 unique characters and 12 of which are suspects in the murder of the victim. In a book format, this works for the story being told I think. 12 suspects is a lot of people to have to keep track of. If you expect to keep track of all the suspects of a mystery story, a sweet spot number is around 5-6. You can push it as high as 10, but just so long as you can cut that down pretty quickly. It's hard to have an audience keep up with all possibilities and what makes it less fun of a game/whodunnit that we love about these kinds of stories.

Christie's work does trend on having a higher amount of suspects, to heighten the drama of the story. The way that Christie deals with these high suspect counts is to make every character incredibly unique. She excels at doing this quite honestly, especially in Murder on the Orient Express. There is an even split of men and women, every character's occupation is different, their nationalities are all different, etc. You are never going to confuse a character for another because their characterization is always incredibly strong.

The play adaptation cuts the amount of characters in the story from 17 to 12, and the suspect list from 12 to 8. Like I said earlier, the less amount of suspects to keep track of during a mystery, the better. But there's a more logical reason for this too, stages are smaller than you think. If in the final scene of the show all 12 of the original characters in their original ways were present, there would be 15 people on stage at the same time. While there's no high octane action to choreograph about, 15 people is much harder to manage as opposed to the 10 that were on stage in the final scene.

So in this adaptation, certain characters have been cut or condensed into others. They do reference the additional characters that where present in the original, however it felt like a way to satisfy those who are familiar with the original story, rather than straight up omitting their existence.

The characters of the play are as follows:

Princess Dragomiroff, played by Michelle Barber

Countess Adrenyi, played by Katie Bradley

Mary Debenham, normally played by China Brickey, in my performance the role was played by Adelin Phelps

Greta Ohlsson, played by Jane Foriland

Colonel Arbuthnot, played by Peter Christian Hansen

Samuel Rachett, played by Peter Christian Hansen

Michel, played by Robert Johansen

Monsieur Bouc, played by Gavin Lawrence

Hercule Poirot, played by Andrew May

Hector MacQueen, played by Tyler Michaels King

Helen Hubbard, played by Sally Wingert

The characters that would be notably missing from this list are as follows:

Dr. Stavros Constantine, his role as the doctor onboard the train has been added to Countess Adrenyi. She is a successful Hungarian doctor who married into royalty.

Count Rudolph Andreny, he is mentioned as still being married to Countess Adrenyi, but played as a mere legal attachment rather than a devoted couple.

Antonio Foscarelli, he was the Armstrong family driver, completely omitted.

Cyrus Hardman, lover of the nurse to the Armstrong family, omitted, however the nurse's existence and suicide is still referenced.

Hildegarde Schmidt, was the cook of the Armstrong family, talked about by Princess Dragomiroff, however only to disparage her for not being able to help her on the train. Greta Ohlsson takes over her role within the story as temporarily being the assistant/maid to the princess.

Edward Henry Masterman, Col. Armstrong's batman during the war. His character has been omitted, with the role as Rachett's valet rolled into Hector MacQueen's role.

cutting some characters and combing them is not a bad move in my opinion. The distinctions the characters carry in the story just become more distinct with their additional aspects pulled from other characters. Countess Adrenyi as the train's doctor becomes very compelling and how her role becomes much more important to the plot than it was before, where she is portrayed as a waif and her husband acts in her stead. The nastiness of Princess Dragomiroff is toned down as she now has an irregular person as her maid/assistant, she often becomes a voice of reason and keeps a lot of the other characters grounded.

Colonel Arbuthnot in the play was changed from an Englishman to a Scotsman, for some reason, however if you look at the cast list above, you can see that Rachett and Arbuthnot were played by the same person in this production. Rachett and Arbuthnot having very distinct accents and mannerisms help give the impression that they are two different people. Rachett, the murder victim, is instead presented as a dummy in the bed when he is examined so that the actor playing Arbuthnot can be present in all further scenes.

so what about the play itself?

It's funny.

I really wasn't expecting that to be so, but there was so much comedy baked into all the character interactions it was almost slapstick in how they played out. Poirot's neuroticism that you would expect of him are toned down but the ones that are there are played for laughs. All the characters are funny too, save for Rachett for obvious reasons. But in the middle of the murder investigation, while Poirot, The Countess, and Bouc are in the same room as Rachett's dead body, me and the audience were all genuinely laughing at the lines.

This was totally unexpected. I've read the original book twice, I've watched the 2017 movie with Kenneth Branagh, I've watched the TV movie from 2010 with David Suchett, I've also watched the 1974 movie with Albert Finney except I was really drunk when I watched the version so I don't really remember it all that much and probably turned it off halfway through,

The point is, I've consumed this story A Lot. All of them are incredibly dramatic and tense, the atmosphere oppressive and suspicious. This play… wasn't that. But it wasn't a bad take on the story I think. The jokes weren't distasteful or out of line, they were always contextual to the story and helped break the tension of the situation.

The original story is incredibly dark and emotional. That aspect stays in, all the plot elements stay in as intended and are represented accurately. But the ways that the characters act, interact with each other, quip with each other, are so unique and silly sometimes you can't help but crack a smile if not laugh. It's never hysterical laughter, but the humor keeps the story bright and approachable while the past events and darker plot elements creep up around the main cast.

The humor perhaps helps make the darkness feel that much darker, the swings from high emotions of laughing at how Poirot fake laughs to disarm the people he's interviewing, to three minutes later in a dark low where the interviewee talks about how the Armstrong case caused them and the people close to them irreparable harm. You have fun, but then feel that tension in your chest as you remind yourself why they're all here.

There are moments where Poirot breaks the 4th wall and addresses the audience, with his deeper thoughts about what's going on, the inferences and connections he's making. The characters replay out the events that they witnessed, stating their lines again for the sake of the audience to illustrate the though processes and clues that Poirot is reviewing.

There is also a romantic subplot with Poirot and Countess Adreyni. Probably my favorite part of the script is in this part:

POIROT. If I asked you to leave your husband and come away with me to Monte Carlo, what would you say? COUNTESS. I would say give me five minutes, I need to pack.

Poirot never marries, though has a long homoerotic tension with Captain Hastings, his best friend from Scotland Yard, if you are consuming the stories through a queer lens. This subplot is more played for a joke than something real, but it leads to some really neat character interactions between Poirot and the Countess that I don't think have ever been explored in this way before.

It seems to be Ken Ludwig's style to add humor to tense situations, from his interview on Baskerville: a Sherlock Holmes Mystery with the Washington Post, he had this to say:

“You’re not making fun of the genre, [but] at the same time, there’s a lot of laughs, because they come out of the tension,” the playwright says.

And I feel that to be the same about Murder on the Orient Express. You're tense because there's a danger facing down all of the characters in the situations they've found themselves in, trapped on a train with a murderer, if the tension breaks because of some funny character acting, then you laugh! The man knows what he's doing.

what about the set? the sounds? the sights?

Oh budddyyyy the set!!

There is a "in front of the curtain" set that a lot of plays do, but use these beautiful painted wood panels that have images projected on them to give the impression of the scene. The behind the curtain set is very impressive. It makes up the dining car in one part, and three of the sleeping cabins. Like a train, the cars slide and move, like a train car would, moving along the train as if viewing it through a cross section. Obviously it'd mean more to see the set in person, but you can see part of in these photos:

The show made use of projections and screens to help convey the extra elements of the set, such as projecting snowfall beyond the windows. The show makes good use of ambient music, sound effects of the train moving, recordings, for an experience that really does suspend the disbelief. It was minimal, but still enough to transform the story for the stage. review?

I liked it. There's a reason this story is so beloved and adapted 90 years later. While I enjoyed the humor, I think the punches felt less punchy, but when you already know the twists to the story, I think it was still very appropriate. My housemates forgot the twist at the end or had fallen asleep before the end of the movie and enjoyed the plot twist.

It's a really cool show, technically impressive, acted incredibly well, and unexpectedly funny. Ken Ludwig made some really different kinds of choices in his particular adaptation of the story and they all panned out successfully. But that's just my opinion, what do other people think?

From Broadway World (St.Paul/Minneapolis):

May utilizes every moment he has on stage (and he has a lot of it) as he truly embodies the detective that has become so etched in people's minds. Injecting moments of hilarity, only endears the audience to him more fully. As he seems to come closer and closer to revealing his suspect, May goes full out with giddiness and comedy. A far cry from the dramatic portrayal that most viewers in the audience will be familiar with by Kenneth Branagh. Rounding out the production's "leads" is the show's director, Risa Brainin who had crafted a marvelous night at the theater. It is not an easy feat, to direct a show that has hundreds of moving pieces and she has done a sublime job.

From Star Tribune:

The cast clearly is having fun and standouts include Bradley as the curt and professionally courteous countess, Froiland as the overdone Greta and Wingert as the loud, bawdy and unabashedly Minnesotan Helen Hubbard. Kudos also to Hansen, for showing range in his dual roles as the Scottish colonel and the deserving murderee, to Lawrence as the benevolent caretaker and to Barber as the grand princess. "Murder" answers a question that gets asked from time to time: How can you make entertainment about murder when, in the real world, events around such crimes bring such heartbreak? That's because the world in this "Murder" is ridiculously self-contained and the characters are over-the-top. And as all the clues of this whodunit become a puzzle, your mind gets locked into solving it, thereby offering an escape on a throwback train journey.

so what now?

Well, the show is still ongoing and if you're in the Minneapolis area and will be here at the Guthrie from May 13 - July 2, 2023. This play is likely being performed in other places too and if it's in your area, I recommend seeing it if you can!

Also, if you'd like to put on the show yourself, you can also order the script or request a license to put on the show yourself if you like via Ken Ludwig's website.

There's something I never really intentionally considered trying to do with mystery my own mystery stories is try to make them funny. I enjoy writing comedy into all of my stories, but I never thought about them in depth as a tool to control how the audience feels and lead them along the journey of the story. Being able to witness this play performed was a really good experience for things to think about in my own work going forward.

I probably won't want to write plays, I think I'm not that good at visualizing how people move around a stage, but I might pick up a copy of the play to just do a fun table read with my friends in the future.

#media review #murder on the orient express #hercule poirot #agatha christie's poirot

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threecheersforinking · 11 months ago

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Hi......If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

Hey, thanks for the ask! I don't mind at all, I love talking about my favorite things!

I actually have a post up about my top 10 favorite anime, but I don't talk much about those other types of media on this blog, so I'll just give one top favorite from each and why I like it so much.

Favorite manga: 20th Century Boys

I love Naoki Urasawa and this series is just so unique, creative, and compelling. I read each volume back to back without reading anything in between because I was so invested. it's one of the only longer form manga series I own in its entirety.

Favorite book: Murder on the Orient Express

I really love mystery novels in general but especially Agatha Christie's. For an author whose works came out literally a century ago, in my opinion she has a surprisingly modern perspective on crime, violence, and murder, and it's why so many people have tried to emulate her style in the past 100 years.

Favorite movie: When Harry Met Sally

Best rom com ever (in my opinion), flawless friends to lovers execution, I can watch it 100 times and not get sick of it. Just an excellent movie and makes me happy every time.

Favorite TV series: Twenty Five Twenty One

This show is absolutely gut wrenching, but it got me through a really difficult time in my life and truly changed my perspective on love and romance. It will always be extremely important to me.

Thanks for asking that, I hope you all got to know a little more about me through this because I normally only ever talk about anime!

Thanks for reading,

-threecheersforinking

#ask #anime review blog #top 10 anime #20th century boys #murder on the orient express #when harry met sally #twenty five twenty one

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kjudgemental · 3 months ago

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New Review

New retrospective review of mine up on TFM, go check it out.

#movies #review #movie critic #film critic #cinema #murder on the orient express #agatha christie #poirot #hercule poirot #agatha christie’s poirot #albert finney #sean connery #ingrid bergman #anthony perkins #crime thriller #thriller film

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i-live-in-my-bookshelf · 3 months ago

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Ohh im watching murder on the orient express (2017) rn and it's amazing!!!! Like I want to kiss Kenneth Branagh on the fucking mouth for rounding up these amazing actors and putting them into this film!! And the VIBES!!! NA DAME JUDI DENCH. AND MICHELLE PFEIFFER!!!!AND JOHNY DEPP AHHH

#the murder on the orient express #kenneth branagh #judi dench #michelle pfeiffer #johnny depp #movie #hercule poirot #poirot #letterboxd #movie review

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lindrill · 11 months ago

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Murder on the Orient Express

This was yet another book my boyfriend asked me to read. Mainly because I never had the mystery spoiled for me at all, I barely knew about the story.

I had a lot of fun reading this book! I even pulled out a notepad as I found myself trying to solve this mystery too.

(This is spoiler free)

Agatha Christie is a well known author for her murder mysteries. This was the first of all her books I read!

It felt like a slow start, but I understood why as I read. I knew she was building up details for what was to come. I do always struggle if multiple characters come into play right at the beginning, I was reading a lot of perspectives from lots of characters. It does continue like this a bit as well, but the main perspective is from the detectives point of view, Hercule Poirot. I did get used to the amount of people and started to get an idea of who was who.

There are parts of the book set up as if written down on notes so if you want you can write down with it coming up with your own theories. I found this super fun and interactive!

...And no I did not figure out the mystery. But it was still fun nevertheless :P

#agatha christie #murder on the orient express #book review #booklr #books and reading #books #reading #murder mystery #mystery books

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gcantread · 4 months ago

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October 2024 reads

[loved liked ok nope dnf bookclub*]

A Dark and Drowning Tide • The City in Glass • We'll Prescribe You a Cat • Five Broken Blades • The Professor • The Wood at Midwinter • Murder on the Orient Express*

October was a slooooooow reading month for me! I traveled, I hosted, I did irl stuff generally, but I didn't make much of a dent in my TBR. Oh well! One thing about living in this frozen mountain wasteland is that as soon as the weather turns, it's Reading Season. Fingers crossed I'll have more time to read in November.

A Dark and Drowning Tide ★★★☆☆ - Eh. It was fine. Nothing special, but fine. I can now definitively say that I've given Allison Saft's work a fair chance and it's not quiiiiiite my thing.

The City in Glass ★★★★1/2 - Nghi Vo never flops!! I was stoked about this new release and I was right to be. I didn't looooove the ending, but I loved the prose and really enjoyed the angel/demon "fucked up Good Omens" dynamic at the story's core.

We'll Prescribe You a Cat ★★★★☆ - This one is just fun. If you like cats even a little bit, it's a silly sweet time. I love reading works translated from Japanese/set in Japan in general for the way the cultural differences translate.

Five Broken Blades ★★★★☆ - Listen, I am Not Immune to books hyped by booktok/booktube. I 100% get the criticism of this one, but I still had a blast reading it. There are so many characters and they're all soooooo delightfully dumb in such fun ways. Also Aeri and Royo are like 80% jalice-coded and we all know I'm EXTRA not immune to that

The Professor ★★1/2☆☆ - Read this because I'm slowly making my way through the entire Brontë canon, and oof. Boy does this read like a shitty first draft of Villette (where's the beef??) I will not be inflicting this one on Bella's Book Club. That said, I had a great time laughing at the virulent Victorian xenophobia as usual (we get it, Charlotte, you hated your French boss.)

The Wood at Midwinter ★★★☆☆ - Susanna Clarke is another of those authors whose grocery lists I would treasure. This little snippet was fun in both a "picture book for adults" way and in a "Please elaborate on that" "No" way. ily Bear Jesus

Murder on the Orient Express ★★★☆☆ - A reread for Bella's Book Club's Detectober! It was fun to reread while already knowing the twist this time around.

DNFs: None, but I'm starting to stall out on The Wise Man's Fear because I suspect I'm gonna dislike the second half. Go back to the universityyyyyy I'm booooored 😞

October superlatives

Next up:

I'm currently reading my ARC of Sundown in San Ojuela, and so far it's truly the perfect "October into November" book. I'm also gonna keep on trucking through The Wise Man's Fear. In more exciting news, I get closer every SECOND to cracking open my beautiful shiny copy of Absolution—I can't wait!! I've been informed that November is The Scorpio Races month, and that one's been on my tbr since @catja recced it for BBC summer reading, so I'd love to pick that one up. Other than that, I'd just like to get to everything I didn't get to this month! (In addition to my reread of Wuthering Heights for @bellasbookclub Brontë November, of course. I'd never miss Wutherin' Time.)

previous months:

july august september

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