books i read oct 2023
Oct. 26th, 2023 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhodochrositein this month's issue of solo book club report: untethered sky, a marvellous light, a restless truth, divine rivals, skulduggery pleasant books #1-#6. not in this month's issue of solo book club report: the no joke approximately 1 million words of ff7 fic i decided to read for reasons unknown to even myself (i have never interacted with ff7 in my life).
currently reading: this is how you lose the time war, the secret history, the archive undying, kingdom of the wicked, she who became the sun. YES all at the same time NO I am not making progress in any of them.
UNTETHERED SKY – FONDA LEE
I’m so glad I found out op wrote a standalone novella because I did genuinely really like the parts of Jade City that I read and a novella would surely not run into the problem I had with jade city which is that the sheer scale of an epic fantasy trilogy was stressing me out so bad I had to drop the book halfway. This is a high fantasy dragonriding story, except that it’s rocs instead of dragons—obviously as dragonfucker69 I’ll never get tired of regular Western dragons, but it’s fun to see non-Western mythos as the inspiration for a change. The protag Ester becomes a ruhker so she can hunt manticores after a manticore kills her mum and little brother, and the book focuses mainly on the development of her relationship with her roc partner Zahra (WHICH MADE ME LITERALLY CRY). It’s kinda got that dark academia esque trope of a clique that falls apart due to a combination of unavoidable external tragedy + slow-boiling internal pressures and tensions. I think the tragedies being so seemingly arbitrary is the point—humans are petty, rocs are wild animals that cannot be anthropomorphised, no matter how human they seem to be. Still broke my heart though!!!!!!!!!!! like I need to go read a dragonriding book where the human and the dragon are soulbonded partners forever and can communicate telepathically asap.
I liked it generally although I feel conflicted about it. It’s a pretty different style from Jade City, much more… storytelly? Like in a myth or fairytale kind of way. There’s quite a lot of narration, which I know I’ve criticised books like daughter of the moon goddess for, but I think it actually works here because of the tone and the way it’s set up like the protag is recounting the story, complete with moments where she interrupts her storytelling with bleak observations made in hindsight. Some may find the flash forwards undercutting joyful memories heavy handed but I simply love DOOM and I ate that shit up. I like the rhythm and cadence of op’s prose, I think she’s great at this kind of crystal chime-esque lyrical yet clear style.
if anything i reckon it could have been a bit longer just to flesh out parts of the timeline a bit more so there’s a better sense of time passing, since the book spans like 6 years. I especially would have liked to see more of Nasmin! Her exit from the narrative was so depressing, and although it wasn’t in the scope of the story to do much more than tell us what became of her after her exile, I would’ve at least liked to see a bit more of Nasmin’s friendship with Ester, both before and after their drifting apart. The het romance with Darius was nice and lowkey and I enjoyed it overall—though again, I accept that it’s part of the storytelling conceit but I wish Ester hadn’t broadcasted the feelings development like literally And Around This Time I Began To Grow Aware That He Was A Guy And I Was A Girl. The real prize is the dynamic between Zahra and Ester, I really really loved seeing the development of their beast/tamer bond and the delicate tether of trust between them.
And like.. I know that Zahra isn’t rationally “sentient” in the sense that humans are but I CRIED over how it was Zahra leaving Ester for good that led Darius to her when Ester was trapped and injured and dying like in the end Zahra still saved her. Even Zahra’s inhuman instinct-driven abandonment of Ester for her own kind ended up being one final act of love and rescue like BRO. AGHH. It’s all LOVE. The last few pages are insanely cathartically bittersweet. I like that at the end of everything there is still hope despite the terror and grief.
Overall an easy and smooth read peppered with increasingly harrowing moments of anguish. 7/10.
Fave lines: She struggled to escape the earth, and I imagined it was me, my cruel but determined will that kept her grounded when it was clear in her heaving shoulders and piercing fixed gaze that she wanted to fly. […] She did not look back at me. I’d known she would not, yet still I wept and tried to fling my love out to her, to reel her back to me even as she soared to the horizon.
A MARVELLOUS LIGHT + A RESTLESS TRUTH – FREYA MARSKE
As soon as I found out one of my favourite fic writers had published origfic I naturally dropped everything to read it. Unfortunately, unlike the other notable case of fave author going pro ie Tamsyn Muir whose storytelling interests line up a lot more closely with mine, this series is a tragic case of id mismatch – almost every single trope it features is something I either don’t care for or actively dislike (historical setting, period-typical attitudes, male pov character, main couple switches, British slang in sex scenes, non-highranker mcs), but op is as always such a good writer and I’m sure that someone who likes these things would have a great time. I did really like the magic system, which relies on cat’s-cradle-esque elaborate hand/finger gestures to cast spells. It’s also a neat setup for hand porn, which op did follow through on.
The main couple is an extremely archetypical msf/atg style ship with cheerful stubborn good natured physically strong golden retriever jock x prissy neurotic repressed tsundere scholar black cat nerd, which also doesn’t really hit for me but it’s a great example of the trope if you like this kind of dynamic. I always say this but name desirability is very important to me in romance stories and sadly I didn’t like the character names (Robin and Edwin) and also found them really confusing at the start, which is admittedly on me but why would you give both halves of the main couple five letter names ending in -in and then also have POV alternating like I was fighting for my life trying to remember who was who. There’s some fun unrepression scenes with Edwin though, super tropey stuff where he lies about what he wants due to fear of vulnerability but eventually admits it. Ultimately I’m easy and I like bitchy tsundere twinks of any description, even if Edwin is not quite my favourite flavour (I prefer them more arrogant and more violently destabilised around their love interest, and also fixed 0. Unfortunately for me, but perhaps fortunately for the switch enjoyers out there, edwin and robin take turns topping).
I think I liked the casual self-assured toxic highranker mean girls cruelty of Edwin’s family and associated social circle, although I usually prefer reading about it from the inside than the outside because they come off like irredeemably uniformly awful which is quite miserable. The mystery plot was fine, I like a good fantasy quest for legendary objects of power though I kind of laughed over the plot/mystery reveal being done via monologue from a villain, fully detective story style. I’m most interested in the Morrissey sisters and the mystery of the Hawthorn twins—I really hope the last book features more of elsie even though her death predates the canon timeline, I will always be obsessed with a volatile god tier powerful charismatic highranker who is no longer around but looms large over the story nonetheless. And i enjoy hawthorn’s brand of caustic bitchiness.
Also I know I already mentioned this but I seriously cannot find British sex scenes hot at all despite enjoying britishocity generally… I think it’s because I think being British is inherently very funny so I can’t take it seriously when they’re trying to be sexy like words like arse and prick are just so unappealing :/
Fared better with the sequel though: locked room murder mystery (locked cruise ship murder mystery) + girl protags + magic = I’m seated!! I enjoyed this a lot more than a marvellous light, although I still didn’t love it as much as I hoped )’: Despite my aversion to her name Maud was fine, although I think the repeated comparisons of her to a charismatic war general were doing a lot of heavy lifting because I was like oh! I like those! rather than any particular feeling about maud herself tbh. Maud/violet was also fine, I don’t usually like inexperienced dom x experienced sub but it worked ok here, I thought the third act conflict was a bit stupid but what third act conflict isn’t.
BUT I loveeeee hawthorn and violets high society passive aggressive ex frenemies with benefits bisexual unsolidarity deal. Especially the parts where they converse via spell cradle hand movements without magic and it’s discussed how this is essentially a highranker nepo baby exclusive paralanguage because it relies on a shared understanding of the meaning intended to be conveyed with the particular spells signed. Kind of emerged from the book fully missing the point and shipping hawthorn/violet, but it’s also basically pickshipping bc they’re the only two characters in a restless truth I was really interested in. anyway. A marvellous light: 3/10. A restless truth: 5/10.
Fave lines:“I’m sorry I kept Robin’s visions from you,” she said. “Truly. I only...”
Hawthorn waved that aside. “My sister...” He grimaced. “She was a little like you.”
“Really?”
“I would have followed her anywhere,” he said. “Into any battle.”
DIVINE RIVALS – REBECCA ROSS
Girl who said this was enemies to lovers? This is barely even rivals to lovers. The rivalry lasts like 10 pages and then the rest is Roman being in love with iris who is falling in love with carver who is actually roman catfishing her via magic typewriter letters, except then at the 2/3 mark she suddenly decides she’s in love with roman and wants to grow old with him and it’s like damn ok what happened to carver. When did she even figure out she liked roman outside of like physical attraction. And then the drama over the catfishing thing is over so fast because of course it is AND THEN THEY GET MARRIED? I know there’s a war going on so speedrunning romance is understandable but it doesn’t mean I have to like it and again what happened to the original plot of being RIVALS. There is almost no tension between the main couple there are no sparks it’s just totally flaccid and that is not helped by op’s boring writing style. The epistolary angle should be fun but it is executed so shoddily it gave me secondhand embarrassment and I didn’t find it romantic or flirty in the slightest. Also it’s always a gamble when you set up a character as an amazingly talented showstopping writer in-universe and then include examples of the amazing talented showstopping writing in question and it’s, uh. Not. I think I just don’t like stories that are about writers maybe and ORV is the massive exception on account of being The Only Story About Writers Ever.
Honestly this book is written so poorly it’s almost charming. The narration is SO heavy-handed. Large swathes of the story are actually just guys reciting various instruction manuals to each other like I’m not kidding this book is at least 60% wikihow article. I often worry that the dialogue I write comes off like I’ve never participated in or even heard a real human conversation between real human beings before, but op is so much worse lmao her dialogue is a mix of clumsy exposition delivered through her characters as mouthpieces and awkward stock phrases that only half-heartedly commit to the fantasy 20th century setting, resulting in conversations that read like aliens trying to imitate human speech. on the bright side, somehow, despite being about writers, it’s less pretentious than daughter of the moon goddess which I guess is now my standard for mediocrity. also one of the minor female characters has a wife which was nice. Overall I felt nothing. 1/10.
No fave lines there really was nothing going for this book.
SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT SERIES (#1-#6) – DEREK LANDY
I’ve been rereading my childhood fave series and decided to tackle skulpleas next, although I don’t know that skulpleas really qualifies as a fave since I ragequit/despairquit five books in as a kid because I was so depressed about the wall to wall landmines even though they were admittedly executed very well. but when I wasn’t crying shaking throwing up I was having a fucking ball on that bitch, so it was really epic highs and lows. I think I was actually landmined more this time around as my sensibilities have only gotten more delicate over time, but that is totally personal and I firmly believe these books still hold up SO well and most importantly are really really funny. This series absolutely shaped my sense of humour and I consider skulpleas one of the shining examples of my beloved jokes/terror(/violence) genre of storytelling. Literally a Whoops All Killers cast on the kind of level only matched by tenipuri. Speaking of, these books are amazingly gory considering the target audience is like, middle schoolers. and also it explains a lot about my extremely mixed feelings about graphic depictions of violence now (ie 1800 I love violence but it also landmines me severely so who could say if it was good or bad). The level of violence/injury/ torture/indiscriminate death of major and minor characters alike is crazy like grrm gulped Stephen king shivered etc.
As a kid my 2pick were Tanith and china, so given that op has expressly said that he makes sure he puts Tanith through a gruesome and agonising near death experience in every book because his editor wouldn’t let him kill her off in the first book you can imagine my misery… these days I am an equal opportunity whump enthusiast but I still hated the remnant plotline, which kickstarted a decade long crusade against possession/mind control tropes that I’ve only come around on recently. The permanence of the remnant bodysnatching Tanith is what really upsets me though, I can deal with and even enjoy temporary possession now but aghhhhhhhh I was sooo sad. She never got to go on that damn date with ghastly either!!!
I think China might be overtaking Tanith in my bias rankings this time around tbh, I love beautiful selfish amoral cool highranker girl who is a killer, I love her history as an enemy who’s only recently gone… well maybe not good. Neutral, at least. Willing to help skulduggery even though he doesn’t trust her due to her previous heinous crimes. And most of all I LOVE HER MENTORSHIP OF VALKYRIE SOOOOOOO MUCH I love that she grows to genuinely care about Valkyrie despite being Girl Who Only Cares About Herself, I love that she thinks of Valkyrie when she’s engaging in her favourite hobby of horseriding and wants to share it with her and even already has a horse picked out for Valkyrie, I love that she actually does go out of her way to protect Valkyrie.
I just wish I’d started rereading in time for yuletide nominations because I’m seeing epic visions of yuri mentorship triangulation between china/Tanith/Valkyrie in my mind… like the way Tanith and Valkyrie adore each other and get along like a house on fire because they’re both reckless action-oriented heroine types only for everything to shatter once Tanith gets remnant-ified… the way china adds Valkyrie to her highly exclusive Favourite People circle which may actually only have Valkyrie in it but their relationship is complicated by wariness on valkyrie’s end due to china’s Never Let Them Know status as potential backstabber… the little hints of tension and dislike between Tanith and china whenever they interact that I’m convinced their respective attachments to Valkyrie play a part in even though I think the bulk of it is personality clash combined with china’s ex(?)-villain status… the way china literally steps into tanith’s big sisterly d&m role for Valkyrie in death bringer since Tanith got bodysnatched omfgggg I know china loved that. And the way Valkyrie was kind of heartbroken when she found out china’s secret because despite the warnings she had also grown to trust and like china :’) )’:
As for things I didn’t like: other than the landmine plot points (medical horror, infidelity, cool guys getting destabilised) I HATE caelan and hope he dies, I don’t care for the gay and homophobic zombies I think they’ve really outstayed their comic relief welcome, and this is not negative necessarily but I’m still working out my feelings about skulduggery – I think that, like china, he grows to care about Valkyrie although he is blatantly not giving that much of a fuck about her early on other than as like an interesting pet he is fond of whose loss he would be briefly saddened by but not that much – I think he only starts getting attached maybe around book3 and even then Valkyrie clearly loves him more on account of being 14 years old and experiencing Baby’s First Mentorship. and he is a really shit mentor and terrible role model on account of LITERALLY BEING THE KILLER who valkyrie absolutely should not be looking up to but also he knows this and everyone around him knows this and Valkyrie is starting to realise this despite her rose tinted vision of him and that’s so interesting to me! I love fucked up dynamics!! i’m especially interested in the lord vile-darquesse angle as well, I do love villainous alter egos. Although I feel like I’m being unnecessarily harsh on skulduggery because he is literally a skeleton and I know this is the central conceit of the series but I just wish he wasn’t... bones. I need handsome young man (handsome unaging man) visuals to live yk…
So far I’m gonna say 8/10 overall with the 2 points docked for unrelenting landmines from mortal coil onwards. but at least 1 of those 8 points is the legendary iconic dedication to the editor in mortal coil with all the redactions and the editor's note. one of the jokes of all time!
Fave lines:
“But of course it’s real,” she said, flourishing the rapier. “All love is real love.” She sent out a light jab that he batted away. “Otherwise it’s not love, is it? Otherwise it’s pointless. A waste of time and energy. And I despise wasting either.”
Tanith wiped blood from her lip and didn’t respond.
“And I love you, Val. I really and honestly do. Back when I was me, alone in here, without the Remnant, you were my favourite person in the whole world. I would have died for you. And now that the Remnant’s here with me, I love you even more. Now I’d kill for you.”
Valkyrie couldn’t help it. Tears came. “I know you don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“No,” Tanith smiled gently, “I really, really do.”
currently reading: this is how you lose the time war, the secret history, the archive undying, kingdom of the wicked, she who became the sun. YES all at the same time NO I am not making progress in any of them.
UNTETHERED SKY – FONDA LEE
I’m so glad I found out op wrote a standalone novella because I did genuinely really like the parts of Jade City that I read and a novella would surely not run into the problem I had with jade city which is that the sheer scale of an epic fantasy trilogy was stressing me out so bad I had to drop the book halfway. This is a high fantasy dragonriding story, except that it’s rocs instead of dragons—obviously as dragonfucker69 I’ll never get tired of regular Western dragons, but it’s fun to see non-Western mythos as the inspiration for a change. The protag Ester becomes a ruhker so she can hunt manticores after a manticore kills her mum and little brother, and the book focuses mainly on the development of her relationship with her roc partner Zahra (WHICH MADE ME LITERALLY CRY). It’s kinda got that dark academia esque trope of a clique that falls apart due to a combination of unavoidable external tragedy + slow-boiling internal pressures and tensions. I think the tragedies being so seemingly arbitrary is the point—humans are petty, rocs are wild animals that cannot be anthropomorphised, no matter how human they seem to be. Still broke my heart though!!!!!!!!!!! like I need to go read a dragonriding book where the human and the dragon are soulbonded partners forever and can communicate telepathically asap.
I liked it generally although I feel conflicted about it. It’s a pretty different style from Jade City, much more… storytelly? Like in a myth or fairytale kind of way. There’s quite a lot of narration, which I know I’ve criticised books like daughter of the moon goddess for, but I think it actually works here because of the tone and the way it’s set up like the protag is recounting the story, complete with moments where she interrupts her storytelling with bleak observations made in hindsight. Some may find the flash forwards undercutting joyful memories heavy handed but I simply love DOOM and I ate that shit up. I like the rhythm and cadence of op’s prose, I think she’s great at this kind of crystal chime-esque lyrical yet clear style.
if anything i reckon it could have been a bit longer just to flesh out parts of the timeline a bit more so there’s a better sense of time passing, since the book spans like 6 years. I especially would have liked to see more of Nasmin! Her exit from the narrative was so depressing, and although it wasn’t in the scope of the story to do much more than tell us what became of her after her exile, I would’ve at least liked to see a bit more of Nasmin’s friendship with Ester, both before and after their drifting apart. The het romance with Darius was nice and lowkey and I enjoyed it overall—though again, I accept that it’s part of the storytelling conceit but I wish Ester hadn’t broadcasted the feelings development like literally And Around This Time I Began To Grow Aware That He Was A Guy And I Was A Girl. The real prize is the dynamic between Zahra and Ester, I really really loved seeing the development of their beast/tamer bond and the delicate tether of trust between them.
And like.. I know that Zahra isn’t rationally “sentient” in the sense that humans are but I CRIED over how it was Zahra leaving Ester for good that led Darius to her when Ester was trapped and injured and dying like in the end Zahra still saved her. Even Zahra’s inhuman instinct-driven abandonment of Ester for her own kind ended up being one final act of love and rescue like BRO. AGHH. It’s all LOVE. The last few pages are insanely cathartically bittersweet. I like that at the end of everything there is still hope despite the terror and grief.
Overall an easy and smooth read peppered with increasingly harrowing moments of anguish. 7/10.
Fave lines: She struggled to escape the earth, and I imagined it was me, my cruel but determined will that kept her grounded when it was clear in her heaving shoulders and piercing fixed gaze that she wanted to fly. […] She did not look back at me. I’d known she would not, yet still I wept and tried to fling my love out to her, to reel her back to me even as she soared to the horizon.
- SoulðŸ˜weighedðŸ˜downðŸ˜byðŸ˜gravity
A MARVELLOUS LIGHT + A RESTLESS TRUTH – FREYA MARSKE
As soon as I found out one of my favourite fic writers had published origfic I naturally dropped everything to read it. Unfortunately, unlike the other notable case of fave author going pro ie Tamsyn Muir whose storytelling interests line up a lot more closely with mine, this series is a tragic case of id mismatch – almost every single trope it features is something I either don’t care for or actively dislike (historical setting, period-typical attitudes, male pov character, main couple switches, British slang in sex scenes, non-highranker mcs), but op is as always such a good writer and I’m sure that someone who likes these things would have a great time. I did really like the magic system, which relies on cat’s-cradle-esque elaborate hand/finger gestures to cast spells. It’s also a neat setup for hand porn, which op did follow through on.
The main couple is an extremely archetypical msf/atg style ship with cheerful stubborn good natured physically strong golden retriever jock x prissy neurotic repressed tsundere scholar black cat nerd, which also doesn’t really hit for me but it’s a great example of the trope if you like this kind of dynamic. I always say this but name desirability is very important to me in romance stories and sadly I didn’t like the character names (Robin and Edwin) and also found them really confusing at the start, which is admittedly on me but why would you give both halves of the main couple five letter names ending in -in and then also have POV alternating like I was fighting for my life trying to remember who was who. There’s some fun unrepression scenes with Edwin though, super tropey stuff where he lies about what he wants due to fear of vulnerability but eventually admits it. Ultimately I’m easy and I like bitchy tsundere twinks of any description, even if Edwin is not quite my favourite flavour (I prefer them more arrogant and more violently destabilised around their love interest, and also fixed 0. Unfortunately for me, but perhaps fortunately for the switch enjoyers out there, edwin and robin take turns topping).
I think I liked the casual self-assured toxic highranker mean girls cruelty of Edwin’s family and associated social circle, although I usually prefer reading about it from the inside than the outside because they come off like irredeemably uniformly awful which is quite miserable. The mystery plot was fine, I like a good fantasy quest for legendary objects of power though I kind of laughed over the plot/mystery reveal being done via monologue from a villain, fully detective story style. I’m most interested in the Morrissey sisters and the mystery of the Hawthorn twins—I really hope the last book features more of elsie even though her death predates the canon timeline, I will always be obsessed with a volatile god tier powerful charismatic highranker who is no longer around but looms large over the story nonetheless. And i enjoy hawthorn’s brand of caustic bitchiness.
Also I know I already mentioned this but I seriously cannot find British sex scenes hot at all despite enjoying britishocity generally… I think it’s because I think being British is inherently very funny so I can’t take it seriously when they’re trying to be sexy like words like arse and prick are just so unappealing :/
Fared better with the sequel though: locked room murder mystery (locked cruise ship murder mystery) + girl protags + magic = I’m seated!! I enjoyed this a lot more than a marvellous light, although I still didn’t love it as much as I hoped )’: Despite my aversion to her name Maud was fine, although I think the repeated comparisons of her to a charismatic war general were doing a lot of heavy lifting because I was like oh! I like those! rather than any particular feeling about maud herself tbh. Maud/violet was also fine, I don’t usually like inexperienced dom x experienced sub but it worked ok here, I thought the third act conflict was a bit stupid but what third act conflict isn’t.
BUT I loveeeee hawthorn and violets high society passive aggressive ex frenemies with benefits bisexual unsolidarity deal. Especially the parts where they converse via spell cradle hand movements without magic and it’s discussed how this is essentially a highranker nepo baby exclusive paralanguage because it relies on a shared understanding of the meaning intended to be conveyed with the particular spells signed. Kind of emerged from the book fully missing the point and shipping hawthorn/violet, but it’s also basically pickshipping bc they’re the only two characters in a restless truth I was really interested in. anyway. A marvellous light: 3/10. A restless truth: 5/10.
Fave lines:“I’m sorry I kept Robin’s visions from you,” she said. “Truly. I only...”
Hawthorn waved that aside. “My sister...” He grimaced. “She was a little like you.”
“Really?”
“I would have followed her anywhere,” he said. “Into any battle.”
DIVINE RIVALS – REBECCA ROSS
Girl who said this was enemies to lovers? This is barely even rivals to lovers. The rivalry lasts like 10 pages and then the rest is Roman being in love with iris who is falling in love with carver who is actually roman catfishing her via magic typewriter letters, except then at the 2/3 mark she suddenly decides she’s in love with roman and wants to grow old with him and it’s like damn ok what happened to carver. When did she even figure out she liked roman outside of like physical attraction. And then the drama over the catfishing thing is over so fast because of course it is AND THEN THEY GET MARRIED? I know there’s a war going on so speedrunning romance is understandable but it doesn’t mean I have to like it and again what happened to the original plot of being RIVALS. There is almost no tension between the main couple there are no sparks it’s just totally flaccid and that is not helped by op’s boring writing style. The epistolary angle should be fun but it is executed so shoddily it gave me secondhand embarrassment and I didn’t find it romantic or flirty in the slightest. Also it’s always a gamble when you set up a character as an amazingly talented showstopping writer in-universe and then include examples of the amazing talented showstopping writing in question and it’s, uh. Not. I think I just don’t like stories that are about writers maybe and ORV is the massive exception on account of being The Only Story About Writers Ever.
Honestly this book is written so poorly it’s almost charming. The narration is SO heavy-handed. Large swathes of the story are actually just guys reciting various instruction manuals to each other like I’m not kidding this book is at least 60% wikihow article. I often worry that the dialogue I write comes off like I’ve never participated in or even heard a real human conversation between real human beings before, but op is so much worse lmao her dialogue is a mix of clumsy exposition delivered through her characters as mouthpieces and awkward stock phrases that only half-heartedly commit to the fantasy 20th century setting, resulting in conversations that read like aliens trying to imitate human speech. on the bright side, somehow, despite being about writers, it’s less pretentious than daughter of the moon goddess which I guess is now my standard for mediocrity. also one of the minor female characters has a wife which was nice. Overall I felt nothing. 1/10.
No fave lines there really was nothing going for this book.
SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT SERIES (#1-#6) – DEREK LANDY
I’ve been rereading my childhood fave series and decided to tackle skulpleas next, although I don’t know that skulpleas really qualifies as a fave since I ragequit/despairquit five books in as a kid because I was so depressed about the wall to wall landmines even though they were admittedly executed very well. but when I wasn’t crying shaking throwing up I was having a fucking ball on that bitch, so it was really epic highs and lows. I think I was actually landmined more this time around as my sensibilities have only gotten more delicate over time, but that is totally personal and I firmly believe these books still hold up SO well and most importantly are really really funny. This series absolutely shaped my sense of humour and I consider skulpleas one of the shining examples of my beloved jokes/terror(/violence) genre of storytelling. Literally a Whoops All Killers cast on the kind of level only matched by tenipuri. Speaking of, these books are amazingly gory considering the target audience is like, middle schoolers. and also it explains a lot about my extremely mixed feelings about graphic depictions of violence now (ie 1800 I love violence but it also landmines me severely so who could say if it was good or bad). The level of violence/injury/ torture/indiscriminate death of major and minor characters alike is crazy like grrm gulped Stephen king shivered etc.
As a kid my 2pick were Tanith and china, so given that op has expressly said that he makes sure he puts Tanith through a gruesome and agonising near death experience in every book because his editor wouldn’t let him kill her off in the first book you can imagine my misery… these days I am an equal opportunity whump enthusiast but I still hated the remnant plotline, which kickstarted a decade long crusade against possession/mind control tropes that I’ve only come around on recently. The permanence of the remnant bodysnatching Tanith is what really upsets me though, I can deal with and even enjoy temporary possession now but aghhhhhhhh I was sooo sad. She never got to go on that damn date with ghastly either!!!
I think China might be overtaking Tanith in my bias rankings this time around tbh, I love beautiful selfish amoral cool highranker girl who is a killer, I love her history as an enemy who’s only recently gone… well maybe not good. Neutral, at least. Willing to help skulduggery even though he doesn’t trust her due to her previous heinous crimes. And most of all I LOVE HER MENTORSHIP OF VALKYRIE SOOOOOOO MUCH I love that she grows to genuinely care about Valkyrie despite being Girl Who Only Cares About Herself, I love that she thinks of Valkyrie when she’s engaging in her favourite hobby of horseriding and wants to share it with her and even already has a horse picked out for Valkyrie, I love that she actually does go out of her way to protect Valkyrie.
I just wish I’d started rereading in time for yuletide nominations because I’m seeing epic visions of yuri mentorship triangulation between china/Tanith/Valkyrie in my mind… like the way Tanith and Valkyrie adore each other and get along like a house on fire because they’re both reckless action-oriented heroine types only for everything to shatter once Tanith gets remnant-ified… the way china adds Valkyrie to her highly exclusive Favourite People circle which may actually only have Valkyrie in it but their relationship is complicated by wariness on valkyrie’s end due to china’s Never Let Them Know status as potential backstabber… the little hints of tension and dislike between Tanith and china whenever they interact that I’m convinced their respective attachments to Valkyrie play a part in even though I think the bulk of it is personality clash combined with china’s ex(?)-villain status… the way china literally steps into tanith’s big sisterly d&m role for Valkyrie in death bringer since Tanith got bodysnatched omfgggg I know china loved that. And the way Valkyrie was kind of heartbroken when she found out china’s secret because despite the warnings she had also grown to trust and like china :’) )’:
As for things I didn’t like: other than the landmine plot points (medical horror, infidelity, cool guys getting destabilised) I HATE caelan and hope he dies, I don’t care for the gay and homophobic zombies I think they’ve really outstayed their comic relief welcome, and this is not negative necessarily but I’m still working out my feelings about skulduggery – I think that, like china, he grows to care about Valkyrie although he is blatantly not giving that much of a fuck about her early on other than as like an interesting pet he is fond of whose loss he would be briefly saddened by but not that much – I think he only starts getting attached maybe around book3 and even then Valkyrie clearly loves him more on account of being 14 years old and experiencing Baby’s First Mentorship. and he is a really shit mentor and terrible role model on account of LITERALLY BEING THE KILLER who valkyrie absolutely should not be looking up to but also he knows this and everyone around him knows this and Valkyrie is starting to realise this despite her rose tinted vision of him and that’s so interesting to me! I love fucked up dynamics!! i’m especially interested in the lord vile-darquesse angle as well, I do love villainous alter egos. Although I feel like I’m being unnecessarily harsh on skulduggery because he is literally a skeleton and I know this is the central conceit of the series but I just wish he wasn’t... bones. I need handsome young man (handsome unaging man) visuals to live yk…
So far I’m gonna say 8/10 overall with the 2 points docked for unrelenting landmines from mortal coil onwards. but at least 1 of those 8 points is the legendary iconic dedication to the editor in mortal coil with all the redactions and the editor's note. one of the jokes of all time!
Fave lines:
“But of course it’s real,” she said, flourishing the rapier. “All love is real love.” She sent out a light jab that he batted away. “Otherwise it’s not love, is it? Otherwise it’s pointless. A waste of time and energy. And I despise wasting either.”
- China’s girl jaemin slay ngl… I’m kind of obsessed with her philosophy on love like I know she’s being simultaneously totally sincere and totally facetious here but later when she tells Valkyrie You need someone smart, and strong, and capable. Someone assured. You need someone to challenge you. You need someone better than you. That’s what love is, you know. Love is finding someone better than you are, and holding on for dear life. I was like dang… wait… did reading this at an impressionable young age accidentally shape my entire outlook on romance forever…
Tanith wiped blood from her lip and didn’t respond.
- ….. my 2pickship real……. 1800 I love ideological tension……. Also it’s so fucked up how what got Tanith essentially killed was that she sacrificed herself for VALKYRIE and could china at this point really say she wouldn’t have done the same?
“And I love you, Val. I really and honestly do. Back when I was me, alone in here, without the Remnant, you were my favourite person in the whole world. I would have died for you. And now that the Remnant’s here with me, I love you even more. Now I’d kill for you.”
Valkyrie couldn’t help it. Tears came. “I know you don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“No,” Tanith smiled gently, “I really, really do.”
- 1) I HOPE WE ALL DIE 2) the fact that Valkyrie was tanith’s favourite person even though Tanith was in love with ghastly is CRAZYYYYYYYYY this fucked me up when i was 11 and fucked me up all over again now
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Date: 2023-10-26 09:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-26 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-29 08:08 am (UTC)I also liked she who became the sun--I think I was doing my final quarter of college when I paused reading it just for like, time constraints and things on my plate lol and just haven't picked it up again since. but I definitely want to pick it up again sometime! I remember liking the prose and tropes!
very excited to hear your thoughts later if you end up finishing these!!