June’s Reads
Summer already, time for the June reading round up! Summer is supposed to mean more in the way of beach-style reads, but as many disabled people will know, days of strong sunlight and heat can be a no-go depending on the condition in question. While I love the sun, I cannot sit out in it, and I am drowsy through hot bright days, so my ‘useable hours’ or ‘number of energy spoons’ can be very limited. I also had a skin growth cryogenically burned from my face during Summer of last year, and so I am now more careful than ever before in the heat of the sun. Sleep issues are also rearing their head, I can read two pages and then wake up hours later. This is not massively helpful when you’re having a year of trying to maintain your reading habit!
I will say I kept up the numbers this month, using a combination of audiobooks, reading, and sticking to the now tried and true tack of combining full novels with shorter reads. I was a little heavy on fiction this month, but it is Summer, and accordingly there are some lighter offerings this month. I also (intentionally) tried out some of this year’s bestselling books and authors, as I am now halfway through the year, and have to say I had some surprising results.
The first book I want to talk about is taking the award for one of the best things I have read ever, period. It is Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker. I believe this is the first all out horror novel by Baker, and it is fantastic; we are seeing this on bestseller and awards lists for a reason. This book was not necessarily what I was expecting; yes it holds a mirror up to racism, and the impact of COVID-19, but it is a brilliantly written horror rather than a political reflection, and quite honestly I was fully rooting for the fabulous folkloric monsters. My only regret is they did not manage to line a few more victims up. Anyway, without ruining this for you, I’m giving it five stars and saying read it.
My second five-star read discussed has to be The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst. This is a hug in a book, and at the completely opposite end of the spectrum to the books I read up to this point. I hoped for something along the lines of my beloved Legends and Lattes, and was knocked out of the park by the warmth of feeling in this novel. It is just so sparkly. With unicorn glitter as well. Reading it in one sitting made me happier, and I have been wriggling around in my seat since waiting for the second book in this world; The Enchanted Greenhouse, which has just been released. If you have any love at all for cosy reads, you need this in your life. I’m now saving it for a re-read at Christmas, because I can. The Enchanted Greenhouse is going to be one of my next up, so look out for that in forthcoming monthly reads.
Next up is The Home by Judith Sonnet. I’m raising this one because it was a book club read, and was easily the biggest marmite read I have wandered across in a long time. Sonnet is becomingly wildly popular as an indie horror writer recently, and this was the first of this author’s books I have read. The book club comments were the best part of the whole experience; this book was either absolutely loved or absolutely hated by everyone who picked it up, and that is something I personally loved about it; whether you like this or not is completely down to personal taste. For those who love it, they are overjoyed to ignore all its flaws, and for those who hate it, those flaws are all they can see. Not going to lie, it was not for me, and if I had read it alone I might have hated it, but I think I would really have been missing out? I actually would read more of these books just for that bizarre experience. What I can say is, don’t get attached to any characters, because hell will be visited upon everyone. This is a fun read, if nothing else!
Next up is an honourable mention for Brother Maternitas, the short story available free online for all readers by Viktor Athelstan. This trans horror has one of the best, most ominous, most brooding opening paragraphs I have read, and would be worth a longer look just for that. In reality though, it is a strong horror read throughout. Content warning, this is body horror, take care if you are squeamish. If not, reading this will leave you feeling unsettled and off-kilter, to me a sign of a good horror story.
Now for the one you have been waiting for; Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab. And yes, you are not going to be disappointed. It is a beautiful, queer gothic horror that left me in mind of more traditional horror movies such as Interview With the Vampire, with a feeling almost like a love letter to Anne Rice. The characters are amazing, rendered in terrible clarity and detail, and I fully appreciated the ending. It is brilliantly written by an author at the height of their power. The one and only reason I personally reviewed this as four stars rather than five, was that I found my attention wandering at the start of the second half of the book. There is a point where the descriptions begin feeling too much like a reflection of vampire love stories, I began checking to see how far through I was, and it stopped feeling like its own thing. My daughter gave me exactly the same comment after reading, so I am also sure this was not just my own feeling. All I can say though is keep reading, it absolutely recovers, is likely going to be on your list of best books read, and any other book (minus the hype), I would probably have disregarded this, but this book, by this author, I felt should have had a little more imagination than to repeat past entertainment.
Another free novella now, in the form of the online release of Goblins and Greatcoats by Travis Baldree, in which we are given a reprieve from the wait for book three by moving back into the world of Legends and Lattes for a short read. Is it Baldree’s absolute best piece of writing? No. Did I still love it? Hell yes. I loved being back in the world, the completely new characters, and I am hoping the main character pops up again later on. The link to get this eNovella is on the book page of my reading list. And it’s free, what are you waiting for?
Now let me talk about All Systems Red by Martha Weir. This is the first book in the Murderbot diaries, which has just been serialised for television. I listened to the audiobook alongside watching the new series, and I have to say I loved it. I do not think I would have been so invested if I had not accidentally recreated this as such a great experience, but I loved both the television characters, and as a result, found the audiobook incredibly easy to visualise. The two are very close, with the audiobook perhaps giving a little more unspoken detail and background, while the visualisation provides such a great representation of the characters. I am already saving the second in the series for next year, when Season 2 is released, as it has already been confirmed. If you have not read a book alongside a great TV adaptation, this is me saying give it a go.
The final book on this list that I want to mention was my one non-fiction choice this month; this was Lucky, by Alice Sebold. As you may already be aware, there has been controversy over this book and author. The Lovely Bones (Sebold’s most famous work) cut me down when I first read it years ago, and the film based on the book is equally heart-breaking. If you have not read it, I strongly suggest doing so. A fictional crime that is viscerally real, combined with magical realism, is an odd combination but you cannot help being drawn in. Lucky is Sebold’s description of the real crime perpetrated against her, in which she was brutally raped while at college. Eventually, someone is arrested for the crime, and this book dates back to the conclusion of that life episode. It therefore includes details of the supposed perpetrator and Sebold’s point of view. In a terrible real life twist, details of the book were fact checked more recently with the aim of turning it into a film, and it was discovered that Sebold’s supposed rapist was completely innocent; the real rapist was never found, and it became known that a man’s life had been destroyed in this process. I cannot begin to imagine the fallout in real life terms, either for Anthony Broadwater, who was finally exonerated of the crime in 2021 after having served 16 years in prison, or indeed for Sebold herself, who has now been a victim twice; once of a man who is unlikely now ever to be caught, and second of a flawed justice system, and has additionally received a ridiculous level of blame for this travesty to boot thanks to the online access people have to writers in the modern world. If you are interested in the controversy, or the book, there is a wealth on information from news bulletins online; searching any of the names or the book itself will supply the details; I will not repeat it here.
One result of the tragic events has been for Lucky to be removed from shelves as a purchasable text. My interest here is to discuss my June reads, and by chance, Lucky has been one, but I have limited myself (so far) to the first half of the book, which is, let us not forget, a memoir of an horrific event in a sixteen year old child’s life. While Sebold is an adult now, she most assuredly was not when these events took place in 1981, and I am going to view both Broadwater and Sebold as victims while I consider the (first half) of this book. I am also therefore not discussing the court case apparently recorded in the second half, because I have not read it.
So, what are my thoughts of the memoir of the crime and its fallout? Sebold is a consummate writer, and holds nothing back. I cried at the damage perpetrated on a young woman on the verge of adulthood for no reason that she can possibly understand; Sebold makes this horridly real without ever adding emotional hysteria to the brutal clean descriptions. The imagery is in fact almost clinical in its memory; crystalline sharp. The crime itself has almost a real time air, with the reactions of those around her recorded with, if anything, a cold detachment. It is very easy to imagine someone who has effectively lost the ability to feel for a little while, who is now just looking at the world through a sharply defined lens while her world reshapes into a new reality. And, indeed, that is what I saw through the descriptions of what follows; the ridiculousness of the things you are told, as a ‘victim’ is something I have first hand awareness of, and the casual, accidental cruelty of passers-by is truly a sight to behold. As a crime memoir, I would easily give Lucky five stars, and call it breath taking, though I fully agree that the second half of the book should be updated to include all the victims of the piece. If we did not already know there is an issue with justice in the Western world, then Lucky and its controversy can be held up as a portrait of exactly why it needs looking at.
Rereading Alice Sebold’s ‘Lucky’
As always, my thoughts on everything I have read are available in brief on each of the book pages in my read list. Here I talk about books that have stuck out to me for some reason, but that does not mean I have not loved and enjoyed everything I have read, so if something suits you, feel free to take a look at the book pages or ask me about it.
