reading progress

Having just wrapped up some personal writing projects, I went back to my woefully neglected reading pile.

We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

 

I will have to agree with Brit Mandelo here and say that expectation is a killer. I bought a copy of We Are All Completely Fine because I just loved the premise (especially when juxtaposed with the title): it’s about a therapy support group for Final Boys and Girls. I thought of slasher flicks, and expected human antagonists instead of supernatural monsters. I expected insights about the terrible effects of trauma and violence instead of plot. I did not get what I expected, which in this case is a bummer. It’s a slim volume, less than 200 pages, and is a breezy read. I’m sure other people will enjoy the ride, as I did (I did rate it 3 out of 5 still). It was just not what I needed at the time.

Unpossible and Other Stories by Daryl Gregory

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

Another reason could be that I read Daryl Gregory’s insanely good short story collection first, which I loved so much everything else paled. There are really fresh ideas here about consciousness and physics, coupled with religion and human folly. Heartbreaking fantasy, too. My favorites are “Second Person, Present Tense”, the title story “Unpossible”, and “The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm”, which is set in a country resembling Russia and where Superman is the villain. Gregory was raised a Southern Baptist and works as a programmer, and the influence of both worlds is clear in his fiction.

The Year We Left Home by Jean Thompson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 

Other things I liked: Jean Thompson’s The Year We Left Home, a novel that centers around a family and covers a span of thirty years, the length of a generation. Each chapter can stand on its own as a short story. One can say “epic”, but Thompson chooses to focus on the small things, the unremarkable interactions between people connected by blood, and I enjoyed reading that more. I also loved Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastards Book 1)and its sequel, Red Seas Under Red Skies. A very well-written, very human secondary world saga. I’m on his third book (The Republic of Thieves), but it feels dragging right now, so I had to set it aside first.