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dragonlady7Despite having followed Seanan McGuire on Twitter for years and greatly enjoying her storytelling abilities there, I had never read any of her books. i've meant to, but series can be confusing, and if you're not ready to dive into them-- and then some of her work is horror, and I am Not Allowed To Read Any Horror on account of the living in a canvas shack in the woods for a sizeable proportion of the year, and said canvas shack has no actual locking doors or windows and it gets real dark out there and the woods make scary noises, you understand--- anyway, I've explained that before.
But.
My BFF loves to read things, and has rediscovered this ability. Her taste runs largely to """"trashy"""" (I say lovingly, by which I mean, ripping yarns, not Self-Important Literature) stuff with fantasy and romance elements, which is a fine genre and one I've spent a great deal of time in and, arguably, write in, myself, so.
Anyhow, she doesn't use libraries much; she's always had disposable income, at least a modest amount, and so she prefers to buy paperbacks and then donate them to the library once she's loaned them around to everyone she thinks might like them in her circle of friends.
She's been going through somewhat of a rough patch, so when she loaned me the first four (!) books of the Incryptid series, she kept sort of desperately talking about them, and clearly wanted me to read them, so that I could talk about them with her.
So I've inhaled all four in the last two days, which... sort of worked?? But I should not have binged them like that, because now I'm like... hung-over. IDK, I tend to read quite sparingly because I kind of am addict-like about it. I can't think about anything else while I'm in the throes of it. And if it's a book I really like, I either spiral straight from the reading into obsessive fanfic, or I reread it compulsively until I starve to death or some real-life deadline intervenes.
Anyway, my review of the series is: Ripping yarns, well-told. Not going to suck me into either fic or rereading, which is merciful. They're wonderfully worldbuilt, fairly snappy, with good characterizations and consistent voices and the like, and satisfying pacing. I like them, I'm not going to melt into them, this is perfect for what they are.
Boy, I'm hung-over, literarily speaking. But I figured this week was my chance to get those books sucked down before BFF got any more sad that I didn't know what the eff she was talking about.
I would really like a little peace to get this novel started. I named about half the characters I need to, and I just need time to sit with it and let it unspool a little, and then I'll get to pick it back up and make it be something. If only I can get the time. Somehow it never seems to happen. Maybe I'm procrastinating, or maybe I'm just stuck.
But.
My BFF loves to read things, and has rediscovered this ability. Her taste runs largely to """"trashy"""" (I say lovingly, by which I mean, ripping yarns, not Self-Important Literature) stuff with fantasy and romance elements, which is a fine genre and one I've spent a great deal of time in and, arguably, write in, myself, so.
Anyhow, she doesn't use libraries much; she's always had disposable income, at least a modest amount, and so she prefers to buy paperbacks and then donate them to the library once she's loaned them around to everyone she thinks might like them in her circle of friends.
She's been going through somewhat of a rough patch, so when she loaned me the first four (!) books of the Incryptid series, she kept sort of desperately talking about them, and clearly wanted me to read them, so that I could talk about them with her.
So I've inhaled all four in the last two days, which... sort of worked?? But I should not have binged them like that, because now I'm like... hung-over. IDK, I tend to read quite sparingly because I kind of am addict-like about it. I can't think about anything else while I'm in the throes of it. And if it's a book I really like, I either spiral straight from the reading into obsessive fanfic, or I reread it compulsively until I starve to death or some real-life deadline intervenes.
Anyway, my review of the series is: Ripping yarns, well-told. Not going to suck me into either fic or rereading, which is merciful. They're wonderfully worldbuilt, fairly snappy, with good characterizations and consistent voices and the like, and satisfying pacing. I like them, I'm not going to melt into them, this is perfect for what they are.
Boy, I'm hung-over, literarily speaking. But I figured this week was my chance to get those books sucked down before BFF got any more sad that I didn't know what the eff she was talking about.
I would really like a little peace to get this novel started. I named about half the characters I need to, and I just need time to sit with it and let it unspool a little, and then I'll get to pick it back up and make it be something. If only I can get the time. Somehow it never seems to happen. Maybe I'm procrastinating, or maybe I'm just stuck.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-22 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-23 12:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-23 12:59 am (UTC)I wasn't that taken with them at first-- I was like, okay that's hilarious, I'm delighted they exist, but it's kind of a gag really-- but in I think the fourth book when they have a plot-significant role and then Alex's RIGHTEOUS ALL-BLINDING FURY when one gets killed, I'm like, okay, this is not the sort of silly set dressing they were in the first book, that was PAYOFF.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-23 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-23 01:47 am (UTC)I'm not fannish about InCryptid, but I love it rather a lot, especially when Verity or Annie narrate. (I don't dislike Alex, but I never bonded.) And if you don't know, there's also heaps of short fiction for it, much (most?) of it free on Seanan's site.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-23 03:11 pm (UTC)I really disliked Verity's narration right at the beginning of the series, but she did grow on me. (For some reason a lot of her initial self-description rubbed me the wrong way; I get that it's completely different when a female author describes a female character but it was like... who describes a woman taking a shower in a small space "saving room" by doing so with one of her feet above her head??? What the actual fuck?? No! Gross! Weird! I don't know what it was but it almost made me bounce, and I would've if I hadn't been handed the series and begged to read it. She was so sexualized at the start, it made me wonder what, or who, that was for. But it went away, and by the time she was running naked and filthy through a warehouse there was definitely nothing gross about it anymore.)
I will have to look into the short fiction; I'm sure my friend doesn't know about it.