The Whatnot of TJ

APRIL 2024 READS

Such a roller coaster of a book. I had some of the same feelings about this main character as I did about Linus Baker in The House in the Cerulean Sea and even came up with a theory about the main characters in a Klune book based off of it. But, like Linus, Wallace somehow worms himself into my heart and I was INVESTED by the end. So much so that I had such a headspace of how it was going to end based on some glaring (to me anyway) context clues and familiarity with his other works and how the rules of storytelling work, that what actually transpired (while absolutely amazing and the best possible scenario) felt like...a cheat I guess? IDK. It just wasn't how I would have ended it, but A) it's not my story to tell so 🤷 and B) I'm an angst-monster so I'd have milked the pain for all its worth. But that's just me.

This was really adorable and I can see why people love it so much. Very cozy and also very Dungeons and Dragons and sort of Shrek and I was smitten. I think it might also be one of the first books I've listened to where the author was the narrator (not counting memoirs) and damn! He's definitely a storyteller in every sense of the word.

Please don't let the fact that this book took a LONG time to read take away from how very good it was. It just takes me longer to read physical books anyway and also because it's a genre that scares me (not the indigenous part, obviously, but the horror part). But it wasn't as horrific as it was described, or more, it was horror steeped in native culture and myth, with just the right amount of NDN humor that I was enchanted and enthralled with.

I remember when I was editing an anthology of creepy and weird for Ink Stains (oh, the things I do for friends!) I specifically asked for Indigenous Horror and there was none. Nobody could even point me in the right direction. I wish someone would have pointed me to this author. 😭😭

So, last year when I discovered Alexis Hall and read a handful of his books and fell in love, I remember talking to someone about him, and them remarking that he used to be so much better in his earlier work. I remember being indignant and thinking “Okay, Boomer Hipster, whatever.”

But now, after Glitterland, and now this…I sort of get it. Not that it's better, it just hits different. Don't get me wrong, I still love 10 Things That Never Happened, and I will take a bullet for Luc and Oliver, but there is just something… grittier? Deeper? Well for me, this one (especially the short story that was the original story) is just so delicately beautiful and every word had purpose and thought and I was smitten.

Then (and I didn't realize this was a re-release with a whole other story with a counterpoint POV that was actually longer than the original) comes Chasing the Light and JFC. Never have I hated and loved the same character so much! One of the cool things about this edition, is that it had author annotations, and Hall gives the best insight into writing asshole characters. I'm paraphrasing slightly, but it goes something like this: If you want your reader to be sympathetic to a dick, you have to make the only person who hates them more than the reader is themselves.

Hall is so good at that! The only person who hates Marius more than me is Marius. Just like in Glitterland the only person who thinks Ash can be a dick more than me is Ash. ❤️❤️

I found this independent new author on Facebook, and he's lovely, and this book is lovely, and he gave me a copy and I promised an honest review and I mostly did that on Amazon and Goodreads because I don't want to crush his dream. But here, where it's just us… it was… lovely, but it could have been So. Much. More. He had this really creepy premise of robot sex-slaves almost and it could have been subversive as hell, but it really wasn't…or if it was trying to be, it missed the mark. And there were typos and I would never mention those in a review, but I also have a hard time recommending it on that alone.

I'm going to read one more of his books (he really is a nice guy and I want to support actual queer content creators) and I'll let you know how it goes. ❤️

I am, apparently, a glutton for punishment. Due to some life events that I won’t go into here, this was NOT the time to be reading so many books about death, but here we are. This one was almost an even more powerful story about grief than Under the Whispering Door. Probably because it was steeped in reality and relevance to me. It was sad, yes, but it was also really, really funny.

Listening to this was like watching a movie in my mind. I even cast all the characters. Sean Hayes will play the Guncle, of course. Tony Goldwyn will be the brother. Porsche DiRossi the sister. The children will be played by… hmmm, really cute child stars even though I cast it with actual kids I know. I imagine it’s only a matter of time before it hits the theaters. And I can’t wait to read the sequel.

I really don’t know what to think of this book. But the fact that I still think about it almost daily says a lot. Though, it was a slow read, so these characters were in my periphery for a long time so it sort of makes sense.

It was one of the first books I’ve read since reading almost exclusively queer books where the sexuality of the characters weren’t the focus, or really anything at all, except the MC was hopelessly in love with his best friend and conman cohort and you don’t ever really get to know if his affection was recebercated due to true affection of if the MC was being played and manipulated all along. It had a very Catch Me if You Can/ The Talent Mr. Ripley/ I Love You Phiip Morris feel to it. I don’t know that I’ve ever read a book about conmen that wasn’t written by Elmore Leonard, and so, it wasn’t as great a read as Elmore is. This would have probably made a better movie than book. As a book, I feel sort of flat about the ending that I worked so hard to get to. As a movie, it would have been 2 hours of my life and I could have moved on easily.

Wow was this great! There was actual story outside the romance and the character development. There was mystery and intrigue and the two main characters were so different, but adored each other so much and worked through their differences in such a mature real way. And there was a lot of delightful sex, which I don't actually need, but appreciate when it's given to me.

Plus, the cool thing about the audio version (at least to me) is that he * sometimes * sounds like Colin Firth, so it was great fun to imagine Mr. Darcy reading you porn. 😉😉

Alright, remember when I said I really needed to stop reading sad books? I really should, but then I would have missed this absolute gem of a book. I remember liking the first book, but I'm in a different place in my reading journey now, and this book hit WAYYY more fiercely than the first. I was a mess.

I mean, it is sad (that's not a spoiler I don't think, it mentions it vaguely on the back cover, so I'll keep it vague too) but it's also beautiful. Just such lovely language and deep, soulfulness that just sometimes took my breath away (and it helps that the beautiful is read by Lin Manuel Miranda, which is a great).

It's also feels a bit like queer historical fiction as it takes place in the late 80s, which in the grand scheme of things, isn't a long time ago, but in the timeline of being gay in America, it's like a completely different world. Fascinating how that works.

This was such a nice reprieve of a book. It very much reads like a YA book in a way that most of the YA I've been reading lately doesn't. It's all about fitting in while staying true to your authentic self and how sometimes the way you think people are going to react to you, and the assumptions you make, and the walls you build based on those assumptions are the only thing holding you back.