This was a tough book to read. Melbourne teen Karuna lives under the iron control of her mother, a first-generation Filipino-Australian who was abandoned by her Caucasian husband. You know that Karuna gets pregnant despite her mother’s best efforts and has a baby, because the book is narrated by Karuna and addressed to that baby (great framing device, by the way); however, you don’t know how events progress to that point, so you must read on to find out. As Karuna’s pregnancy progresses, her mother responds by exerting more and more control, until she is literally locking Karuna in their flat while she is away. On the one hand this is a touching tale of an immigrant mother’s struggle to do her best by her second-generation daughter, and her daughter’s fight to make her mother recognize her own agency; on the other hand this is also a story of toxic emotional abuse and generational pain, with the background of the sexism and racism directed at darker-skinned people in Australian society. The characters do make peace with one another eventually, but it is a hard and painful fight to get there.
Month: March 2023
More than a Little Warped, by Annette Marie and Rob Jacobsen
Novella, #3.5 in the Warped sub-series of Annette Marie’s Guild Codex. This one covers what was going on in the magical police division during the climactic battle at the end of the Spellbound and Demonized sub-series. It’s a credit to Marie and Jacobsen that they keep things tense and interesting; from the other books, you know where Agents Kit and Lienna end up, but you don’t know how they get there. A lot of the plot of this novella depends on the reader knowing what’s going on from the Spellbound series, so definitely don’t read this if you’ve only read Warped sub-series alone. I really liked Kit’s interaction with Captain Blythe and Lienna here; you don’t often get to see Blythe in action and it was as just cool as one would have hoped. Lots of good zingers from Kit as usual, and most of the plot threads get wrapped up neatly, though of course there’s still unresolved stuff at the end.
The Dawnhounds, by Sascha Stronach
One of those books so wondrously weird that you really don’t know how you got there or what is even going on, but which is written with such intensity and lush detail that you can’t stop reading it. The action opens on a boat, manned by a skeleton crew and carrying a cargo crawling with infectious poisons, with references to wars long past (but with conflicts still simmering) and mysterious weapons. Then we alternate between the viewpoints of Jyn (former street rat, current disgraced constable, disgraced because of her attraction to women) and Sen (former soldier, current sergeant, world-weary but still trying to do the decent thing) as they patrol their city, in which people live in breathing cellulose houses which consume their inhabitants’ waste matter for food. There’s a mysterious religion in which priests dress up as their sacred crane (delightfully, Jyn and Sen call them “bin chickens” under their breaths; clearly the Aussie nickname extends to Stronach’s native New Zealand as well) and seem intent on gaining power. About halfway through the book we learn that there’s a very magical element going on as well, very much tied to the outsider status that is thrust upon characters who don’t fit into the mainstream. There’s a lot going on in the background that Stronach doesn’t bother to explain: what, besides a lust for power, is driving the bin chicken religion? Why do they want to infect everyone with spores? What are they trying to accomplish? How are they related to the god-like deities who grant powers to a chosen wounded few? The reader has no idea, but the writing in the book rockets along so beautifully, the emotions of the outcast characters so strong and the descriptive prose lush and vivid, that you barely have time to wonder what happened before it’s all over and you’re left blinking, wondering what the heck you just read. Stronach is a Maori author so maybe I need to read up on Maori mythology to get a handle on things. First in a series, apparently, though honestly I don’t know how much I’ll retain by the time I pick up the next.
Delivering Evil for Experts, by Annette Marie, read by Cris Dukehart
This book overlaps Damned Souls and a Sangria by a good amount, which eases the tension level somewhat. As a reader my experience was mostly “ah ok, that’s what Robin was doing when she was offscreen,” which made the book less tense in general even though the danger level remained high. Loved that we got to see growth not just in Robin and Zylas, but in the secondary characters as well. As a series finale, excellent resolution for both the characters and the plot, with an adorable extra chapter at the end.