Review: Give the Dark My Love

Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can't remember how long it's been since Beth Revis put out a new book. Not since her Rogue One tie-in Rebel Rising, I don't think...and that was about two years ago. And this book, it seems to have somehow taken me almost six months to get around to reading, so that throws my calculations a little further off. But as for this book, it's gotta be the most unique offering I've yet seen from Revis. It's been a while since I saw a good fantasy dystopian - can we count These Rebel Waves as such? - but Revis delivers pretty well here, blending medieval-esque fantasy with necromancy to make a surprisingly topical zombie story. Perhaps it's a little underdeveloped in one of the two POVs we get - Grey gets a lot less time to offer his two cents on the page than our star of the show Nedra - but the political parallels to today are unmistakable, and with that nasty little cliffhanger, there's no way I'm not going to read the second book. Which already has a title and a cover, as I've recently noticed, so I'm getting a little more hyped now...

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Review: Death Prefers Blondes

Death Prefers Blondes by Caleb Roehrig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Caleb Roehrig's third novel is a real rule-breaker in a lot of ways. Not only because it's got a lot of key stylistic differences from his first two books - it's much less murder-oriented, being a heist story; it's told in third-person POVs by an ensemble cast, with the unquestionable main character being a bi girl as opposed to a gay boy like the rest of said ensemble; and in this case, it's a little harder to connect with our cast of characters at first, largely because most of them come from some degree of privilege which Flynn and Rufus lack. But as the story wears on over its long, long course, we come to realize that there's a reason why Margo and her crew of fellow drag queens are turning to a life of crime. So much bad shit's happening to them, or has happened to them (Leif's backstory, in particular, made me cringe from secondhand terror at his mom's conservative, religiously-influenced reasoning for Why He Shouldn't Be In The City And Exposed To Opportunities To Explore His Sexuality - especially since my actual mom was in the room at the time I was sitting and reading that scene in the book!) I'm pretty sure this episode may or may not have been at least partly inspired by a certain episode of Good Behavior, for which I'm very grateful we now have a YA equivalent. Blake Crouch and Chad Hodge would both approve, I'm 100% sure.

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Captain Marvel: Sorry Spark, But Team Instinct's Got A New Leader Now

***NO SPOILERS FOR CAPTAIN MARVEL, BUT SPOILERS FOR OTHER MCU FILMS - PARTICULARLY INFINITY WAR AND GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, AS WELL AS AGENTS OF SHIELD, APPEAR HEREIN. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.***

I've been seeing a lot of conflicting responses to Captain Marvel's official MCU intro in the days since her movie came out. A lot of people saying that it was a beautiful movie to watch, but the writing wasn't so good, or that Brie Larson was miscast. At least I don't really follow any of the whole "manbabies crying foul because they hate even the slightest whiff of feminism" crowd, so nobody I knew was complaining about the movie that unjustifiably. But I was told to lower my expectations and everything would be more enjoyable that way. Maybe I did just a little. But I still found it, like Aquaman, a case of the trailers being deceptively not the best, and the movie itself actually being pretty damn good - bar a few flaws, of course.

Ready to fly, Captain? I know I sure am.

Review: Firestarter

Firestarter by Tara Sim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tara Sim's first trilogy comes to a close, and as she promised for months before its release, it's a hell of an attack on all our feels. The biggest book of the trilogy in all the ways, Firestarter finally launches into a truly twisted endgame of forces fighting all across the world, from England to India and tons of points in between, for dominance over time - and that's even before the old gods themselves have their say.

Review: Black Leopard, Red Wolf

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I can't say I'm the biggest fan of this book, purely because of how often grossgusting it is. I mean, it's super engaging, and has the recommendations of Neil Gaiman and Roxane Gay going for it. And it's super colorful in a lot of ways. And super...well, I mean, I can totally see why Gaiman loves it, purely because it's very stylistically similar to American Gods with its sprawling road-fantasy to a lot of memorable places with a lot of memorable characters therein. But this book is also loaded with ultraviolence that puts A Clockwork Orange to shame. Hell, even Tarantino might blush at the repeated instances of child rape (among rape of adults too), people getting pissed on all over the place, and a certain preoccupation with penises as symbols of power. It's not an easy read, not by a long shot, but if you can stomach it, it's worth a shot. And I'm hoping not to have to wait too long for Book 2...though I'm not sure how much Marlon James intends to up the violence...

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Review: A Good Kind of Trouble

A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I remember meeting this author for a brief moment as she was buying Tyler Johnson Was Here, and with her book only a few days away from its launch party (which I will sadly have to miss due to commitments at my other job), I was very happy to see an ARC available in a box in the office at work. So I've taken it for a quick weekend read and review, and let me tell you, though MG isn't quite my bread and butter like YA, this is already one of the best books of the year right here.

Review: Running With Lions

Running With Lions by Julian Winters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh, Harry, I do apologize for not realizing I'd pulled one of your faves off the shelves at work. But I hope I've made up for it by reading it - and enjoying it! Julian Winters' debut is a sweet - and often sweetly grossly boyish - lighthearted YA sports romance, extra-fun for me as an #ownvoices bi reader who relates all too well to Sebastian for a lot of reasons. Not only because he and I are both bi boys, but also because the whole "Bastian the Trashcan" thing, his self-consciousness about his weight and especially his stomach not being nearly as toned as any other part of him? Yeah, I got that too, and I very much appreciate Winters for doing like Cale Dietrich and using his queer-themed YA debut to skewer unreasonable male beauty standards.