Belated reading Wednesday, 28/03
Mar. 28th, 2019 01:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livRecently read: A skinful of shadows by Frances Hardinge. (Well, actually I read this like a month ago and then didn't get round to posting a review.) (c) Frances Hardinge 2017; Pub 2017 Macmillan Children's Books; ISBN 978-1-5098-3754-0. A highly original ghost story set during the English Civil War.
I picked up A skinful of shadows in a charity shop, having heard lots of good things about Hardinge. And then I was a little reluctant to start it because I'm not keen on horror, and I read the first chapter which mostly describes the protagonist, Makepeace's abusive childhood, and put the book down again. But I took the book with me to keep me entertained at our spa day, and once I got into it I really enjoyed it.
ASoS contains pretty much all my bulletproofs, in spite of being at the intersection between two genres I read little of, YA and horror. It has well-drawn, believable characters in a magical situation (including antagonists with believable motivations), with really interesting world-building, a mix of an actual, real-world historical setting, with original fantasy elements. As a bonus it has cross-gender friendship, and a female-centric Bildungsroman structure. And having said that it's YA horror, it's not the kind of YA that's tropey and simplistic, nor the kind of horror which is grim and depressing. The protagonist is a teenager, and it doesn't contain any explicit sex, but it's as original and interesting as any book marketed to adults. And the ending is somewhat hopeful, it's not in the Lovecraft mode of everything getting inexorably worse.
I am not at all an expert on the 17th century, but the setting achieved what I want in a historical novel, it felt real, nothing jumped out as massively anachronistic, and the characters are sympathetic without automatically subscribing to right-on 21st century notions of morality, gender roles etc. I was really interested to see a portrayal of the Civil War that doesn't take a side; I've read a lot of novels which subscribe to the Right-but-Repulsive / Wrong-but-Wromantic frame, or which centre around either the poor persecuted Catholics or the poor downtrodden democrats. Basically aSoS avoids both romanticized monarchism and romanticized social equality; it's against war, it's against religious persecution (and possibly against religion altogether, though it's not shouty about it), it's against oppression of the poor by the rich and powerful but it's also against fanaticism.
I think it may be one of those books that's scarier to adults than children. Like, there is very strongly implied rape, but it happens off-stage and a naive younger teen might miss it. And I'm pretty sure that as a child I cheerfully read lots of books about kids who emerge triumphant from origins where their parents are horrible to them. The central concept of certain people having the power to absorb ghosts is explored really interestingly; being possessed is scary, and the antagonists who try to turn the ghost-hosting power to their own ends in non-consensual ways are impressively horrible, but it's not too graphic or psychologically disturbing. And I really liked the arc of how Makepeace learns to live with being possessed rather than defeating the ghosts or succumbing to them. I particularly liked that the abusive mother, and even the evil controlling noble family are complex and not just evil for the sake of it.
I will definitely be looking out for more Hardinge, because I can quite see why she's sweeping all the awards.
Currently reading: Dream Daddy: a dad dating simulator, by Vernon Shaw and Leighton Gray. Technically this is a game, but since it's a dating simulator / interactive fiction, the experience feels more like reading than like playing. I saw various controversy over trans representation on Tumblr, and can't remember the details. Anyway when it showed up for cheap in a bundle I decided to give it a go.
I like the art style a lot, particularly the fact that you've got an actual range of body types and appearances, not only skinny and really skinny white guys. I am impressed the way that the story actually explores your character's relationship with his daughter; the dad thing isn't just a frame for the dating, it's actually developed as part of the story. On a narrative level I'm interested to find out how the dating will go, how the plot will unfold with the different characters, so it's working as a story as well as just a romantic fantasy.
Up next:rysmiel gave me Moonwise by Greer Ilene Gilman. The physical book screams 80s high fantasy, so I probably wouldn't have picked it up spontaneously. But rysmiel has been recommending me excellent books for 20 years now, so I'm pretty excited to see what it's actually like.
I picked up A skinful of shadows in a charity shop, having heard lots of good things about Hardinge. And then I was a little reluctant to start it because I'm not keen on horror, and I read the first chapter which mostly describes the protagonist, Makepeace's abusive childhood, and put the book down again. But I took the book with me to keep me entertained at our spa day, and once I got into it I really enjoyed it.
ASoS contains pretty much all my bulletproofs, in spite of being at the intersection between two genres I read little of, YA and horror. It has well-drawn, believable characters in a magical situation (including antagonists with believable motivations), with really interesting world-building, a mix of an actual, real-world historical setting, with original fantasy elements. As a bonus it has cross-gender friendship, and a female-centric Bildungsroman structure. And having said that it's YA horror, it's not the kind of YA that's tropey and simplistic, nor the kind of horror which is grim and depressing. The protagonist is a teenager, and it doesn't contain any explicit sex, but it's as original and interesting as any book marketed to adults. And the ending is somewhat hopeful, it's not in the Lovecraft mode of everything getting inexorably worse.
I am not at all an expert on the 17th century, but the setting achieved what I want in a historical novel, it felt real, nothing jumped out as massively anachronistic, and the characters are sympathetic without automatically subscribing to right-on 21st century notions of morality, gender roles etc. I was really interested to see a portrayal of the Civil War that doesn't take a side; I've read a lot of novels which subscribe to the Right-but-Repulsive / Wrong-but-Wromantic frame, or which centre around either the poor persecuted Catholics or the poor downtrodden democrats. Basically aSoS avoids both romanticized monarchism and romanticized social equality; it's against war, it's against religious persecution (and possibly against religion altogether, though it's not shouty about it), it's against oppression of the poor by the rich and powerful but it's also against fanaticism.
I think it may be one of those books that's scarier to adults than children. Like, there is very strongly implied rape, but it happens off-stage and a naive younger teen might miss it. And I'm pretty sure that as a child I cheerfully read lots of books about kids who emerge triumphant from origins where their parents are horrible to them. The central concept of certain people having the power to absorb ghosts is explored really interestingly; being possessed is scary, and the antagonists who try to turn the ghost-hosting power to their own ends in non-consensual ways are impressively horrible, but it's not too graphic or psychologically disturbing. And I really liked the arc of how Makepeace learns to live with being possessed rather than defeating the ghosts or succumbing to them. I particularly liked that the abusive mother, and even the evil controlling noble family are complex and not just evil for the sake of it.
I will definitely be looking out for more Hardinge, because I can quite see why she's sweeping all the awards.
Currently reading: Dream Daddy: a dad dating simulator, by Vernon Shaw and Leighton Gray. Technically this is a game, but since it's a dating simulator / interactive fiction, the experience feels more like reading than like playing. I saw various controversy over trans representation on Tumblr, and can't remember the details. Anyway when it showed up for cheap in a bundle I decided to give it a go.
I like the art style a lot, particularly the fact that you've got an actual range of body types and appearances, not only skinny and really skinny white guys. I am impressed the way that the story actually explores your character's relationship with his daughter; the dad thing isn't just a frame for the dating, it's actually developed as part of the story. On a narrative level I'm interested to find out how the dating will go, how the plot will unfold with the different characters, so it's working as a story as well as just a romantic fantasy.
Up next:
rysmiel gave me Moonwise by Greer Ilene Gilman. The physical book screams 80s high fantasy, so I probably wouldn't have picked it up spontaneously. But rysmiel has been recommending me excellent books for 20 years now, so I'm pretty excited to see what it's actually like.
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Date: 2019-03-29 01:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-03-29 01:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-03-30 08:31 pm (UTC)