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Geocaching® - Treasure Hunt

Navigation and Health & Fitness

9.0 (4 Ratings) Rate It

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Join the world’s largest treasure-hunting community with the official app for geocaching. Whether...

BrainPOP Featured Movie

Education

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Help kids understand their world with the BrainPOP Featured Movie app. Our free Featured Movie...

Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror in Books

May 17, 2018 (Updated May 18, 2018)

The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror

Mallory Ortberg | 2018 | Gender Studies, Science Fiction/Fantasy

5.0

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

So this JUST came out. I'd had my eye on it for a few months, and put a request in as soon as my library ordered it. The author recently came out as trans, so it's also part of my effort to read more inclusively. Ortberg definitely played with gender and sexuality in several of these tales; in one of them people decided whether to be the husband or the wife, independent of their gender, in their marriage. (One party to the marriage in the story stated "I've been trained for both roles.") In another all of a man's daughters used male pronouns and that was never explored further. That was slightly odd.

These were dark, twisted versions of these stories. "Our Friend Mr. Toad," for example, involved gaslighting and psychologically torturing poor Mr. Toad. I found that one particularly disturbing. I enjoyed the title story, Ortberg's version of Beauty and the Beast, which has a very different ending from expected. I also really liked "The Daughter Cells", inspired by The Little Mermaid. I LOVED "Fear Not: An Incident Log."

I think this was a great, albeit strange, little book. It's unique, for sure, and a quick read. If you're looking for a fairy tale collection that is VERY different, try this one.

You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com

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Dana (24 KP) rated Illuminae: The Illuminae Files: Book 1 in Books

Mar 23, 2018

This book has an interesting way it was written in the way that it is more like documents compiled together rather than being all prose. I enjoyed seeing this different style of writing, plus it made for a very quick read.

Even though we were never truly in Kady or Ezra's complete point of view, we still get their feelings in the way the characters are inhabited. They jump off the page at the readers.

The plot moved at a great pace, neither too fast or too slow. I read this book very quickly (we're talking a couple of hours here) but I felt very immersed in the story.

The way each character was introduced was very interesting as well. A lot of it was similar to an investigation log or script from an interrogation room. Even though we don't get much in the way of physical description, we still get the big picture of the characters.

The AI (AIDAN) was quite interesting itself. Even thought it was not a human, there were so many intricate parts to it that I thought it was at some point.

I don't normally enjoy or read space operas or science fiction novels much, but this book made me want to read more.

There is an awesome set up for the rest of the books, as well.