burnt-violets-blog

[burnt-violets-blog]

Review: Isolations and (dis)place in 'The King is Always Above the People' by Daniel Alarcón

Review: Isolations and (dis)place in ‘The King is Always Above the People’ by Daniel Alarcón

Review: The King is Always Above the People by Daniel Alarcón, Riverhead Books, Oct 31 2017, 256 pages There was no moon that first night, and we spent it as we spent our days: your fathers and your mothers have always worked with their hands. THE KING IS ALWAYS ABOVE THE PEOPLE is a solid collection of stories. TL;DR – Themes: grappling with isolation, identity, belonging, the uncertainty of…

[burnt-violets-blog]

JULY, IN MUSIC The Month 'In Music' segment is where I reflect on the month's music releases and ruminate on my life.

[burnt-violets-blog]

Welcome to ‘Reviews’, the segment where I review stories I’ve read recently with varying degrees of detail and inanity. Read on to see what I’ve been enjoying and upon which writer the most illustrious and highly coveted 🏆 emoji for ‘The Best Damn Thing I Damn Did Read’ has been bestowed.

The Broken Earth Trilogy by N K Jemisin – 4 STARS

The Fifth Season (2015)

The Obelisk Gate (2016)

The Stone Sky (2017)

When the end of the world happens, which Essun plays a far greater role in than she could’ve ever anticipated, she is is a mother-of-two whose young son has just been brutally killed by her partner Jija. Essun’s son was an oregene—someone who can harness the Earth’s elemental energy, and has the ability to do things such as causing earthquakes—and with the world now literally falling apart around her, Essun can no longer be an oregene in hiding. Jija has fled with their daughter and Essun leaves her community to find her and get her revenge. That story is just one piece of a ornate puzzle. Essun’s story is joined by Damaya, who is a young girl taken from her home to receive training as an oregene, and by Syenite, a young oregene woman who has received instructions from her superiors that will have very a unexpected and transformative impact on her life and everyone else’s.

There is a lot to love about this series. This is high fantasy that makes me excited as someone who greatly appreciates the genre both as a reader and writer. The Fifth Season features very detailed, vivid, geology-based world-building that is a delight to get accustomed to. The cast of characters here live in a tough and collapsing world, and are themselves an intriguing lot damaged by an array of traumas and who over the course of the series make unpredictable decisions by grief. Without spoiling the series, there’s a few narrative tricks at play here such as the second person narration and the structure of the first book in particular that were fun. My only criticism is that especially through using second person Jemisin tells you everything about how her characters operate which can be far too much and leaves very little to the imagination. At points in the first book especially the language/dialogue also grows quite melodramatic (far too many italics and ellipsis’s) but this became less of an issue as I got more invested.

Be reassured, however, because those are small complaints. In all, there’s a slow ongoing reveal about what is going on and how everything is connected that takes place in these three books that is greatly satisfying. Once you’re under its thrall The Broken Earth trilogy is absorbing as fuck. This is for the people who love high fantasy and want a glimpse as to what the future of the genre may look like. This is also for those who want to read a high fantasy that isn’t Eurocentric. This series is enjoyable to read and features some really excellent moments to look forward to.

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera – 3 STARS

The premise is simple but engaging: a company called DeathCast exists and they give you a notification on the day you’re about to die. Because of this company we now live in a society with the blessing and curse that is having advanced warning. When you have advanced warning of your impending death, you can ensure that your last day alive is spent living life to its fullest. We follow two teenage boys marked for death, Matteo and Rufus, as they spend a whirlwind last twenty four hours together.

If a review could hurt me it would be this one. I love Adam Silvera and what his books, featuring LGBT characters of colour, represent for YA. We need him. He is for me the most interesting new YA contemporary/speculative fiction writer of the last few years. Having said that this book didn’t hit the right notes. Emotionally impacting the reader is of importance for a romance set over twenty four hours featuring two teenagers trying to live their best lives before their inevitable death by the day’s end. And to that end They Both Die at the End is underwhelming. Silvera writes simply and really inhabits the voice of his characters so his books are easy to fly through. But overall this book read a bit too juvenile and (surprisingly for a book on dying and living your best life) did not achieve the depth I was looking for. Including a twenty-four hour romance and the subsequent whistle-stop (and often cheesy) nature of all of the couple’s conversations and interactions that follow have something to do with that. You can read more about my thoughts on my review here but the short of it is that this wasn’t it for me. Silvera has promise, though, and I love that he’s achieving success with LGBT characters of colour. Make money, king.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng – 3 STARS

Another one that I was excited to read because there was lot of good things said about Celeste Ng’s debut, Everything I Never Told You. That one came out in 2014 and I still hadn’t gotten around to reading it. Then, in the weeks leading up to release, a succession of positive reviews for Little Fires Everywhere peppered my social media.

Dear reader, I was excited. I harboured no premonitions as I started with book in hand, with green tea besides. I wanted to like this.

The majority of Little Fires Everywhere is pedestrian and underwhelming. The novel is told through the perspective of white middle-class characters and I could absolutely feel it, each page had weight. I just did not care for their perspective around this novel’s interesting central issue, about a Chinese woman and her attempt to regain custody over her child where that child has been taken in by a white family. There is also so much ‘telling’ used to convey what are supposed to be close and dynamic relationships between the characters. Significant parts of chapters in this novel read like Wikipedia summaries of relationships between characters. The novel does end well and so I am glad ultimately to have stuck with it. Unfortunately, as a purported drama between two families that meet and become obsessed with each other at a devastating cost, I was bored and uninterested in the lives of the majority of the run–of-the-mill, bland characters populating this book.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward – 4 STARS, and 🏆.

The less you know about this one the better. You must simply know that Sing, Unburied, Sing is fantastically written and deals finely with an assorted bunch of issues that culminate toward an incredible piece of work. This is a story about poverty, the aftershocks of intergenerational trauma, the effects of bad(/borderline abusive?) parenting on children, and drug addiction. All set in the South and with added ghosts. It feels sweaty, grimy, and claustrophobic. Sing, Unburied Sing is what an engaging family drama (and what literary fiction, generally) should be and I didn’t even know it could be until I read it with my own eyes. You can stick a 🏆 in that pipe and smoke it.

  And that’s all from me, dear reader. Congratulations to Jesmyn Ward. I know what with the autumn months there are so many amazing books being released but you definitely want to make time for Sing, Unburied, Sing.

Until next time this is your friendly neighbourhood peruser of the written word, signing out!

      Reviews, II Welcome to ‘Reviews’, the segment where I review stories I’ve read recently with varying degrees of detail and inanity.

[burnt-violets-blog]

Review: They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Review: They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

 They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera, 384pgs, HarperTeen, September 2017 Brushes with and responses to death and dying inform Adam Silvera’s books. His currency of choice is emotional devastation. They Both Die at the End is another readable novel where on the day you’re going to die a company DeathCast sends you a notification. Picture yourself reeling and left with a conundrum, now that…

[burnt-violets-blog]

Reviews, I

Welcome to ‘Reviews’, the segment where I review stories I’ve read recently to varying degrees of detail and inanity. Read on to see what I’ve been enjoying and upon which writer the most illustrious and highly coveted 🏆 emoji for ‘The Best Damn Thing I Damn Did Read’ has been bestowed. Euphoria by Lily King (3.5 STARS) 2014, literary/historical fiction, (minimally elaborated upon) bisexual rep…

[burnt-violets-blog]

Welcome to ‘You Should Listen to This’ Thursday, known affectionately as YSL☕️, the portion where I tell you about a lesser-known artist whose music you absolutely should not sleep on on this Thursday in the year of our Lord(e). It’s time for my first indie-pop record recommendation, and all for your enjoyment this weekend! 

  The Japanese House is neither house music from Japan or a band name. It’s the solo indie/alt-pop project from Amber Bain and if I could at all describe what music by TJH sounds like, I would say it’s singer-songwriter music, each song a vignette of a poignant moment in time delivered in Amber’s low voice, with layered harmonies, and underscored by electronic beats. 

Saw You in a Dream

Pools to Bathe In

It’s music perfect to get lost in. Save this for early in the morning or for a rainy day. Or just go ahead and play it now, because it’s that good. Currently there’s 4 EPs by TJH and for a point of reference, I have previously described music by TJH as similar to when The 1975 do moodier songs like Somebody Else/Loving Someone/By Your Side, with a similar use of vocoders and synthesisers, but TJH have more abstracted lyrics. I do believe Matty contributes vocals to her song 3/3 (one of my favourites off of Saw You in a Dream), and TJH launched with help from the 1975. Know people in high places, folks.

My favourite EP is the most recent EP Saw You in a Dream followed by Pools to Bathe In. Listen to them down below! 

I recommend the songs Saw You in a Dream and Still if you’re strapped for time. They’re the most accessible and infectious of the lot.

And that’s it from me. I hope you’re well. Enjoy your weekend, and I’ll see you next time.

https://play.spotify.com/album/1K4hiGtecpTxNLajyHVX3h

https://play.spotify.com/album/5DUTNZGfNYEKAyn52GzpvY

Check out my new post! I tell you all about why you should be listening to The Japanese House. Welcome to 'You Should Listen to This' Thursday, known affectionately as YSL☕️, the portion where I tell you about a lesser-known artist whose music you absolutely should not sleep on on this Thursday in the year of our Lord(e).

[burnt-violets-blog]

Welcome to ‘You Should Listen to This’ Thursday, known affectionately as YSL☕️, the portion where I tell you about a lesser-known artist whose music you absolutely should not sleep on (for another) Thursday in the year of our Lord(e)…because this is post #2! Am I approaching maturity in this display of something resembling commitment? One can only wish. But let’s get back to some new music for your weekend. 

This Thursday you should be listening to HEAVN by Jamila Woods, available to stream as of late last week. And as you’re about to find out for that you are *very* grateful. You should also be listening to CREATURE! by Nitty Scott, which is the plot-twist nobody (I) expected or could’ve anticipated for, and which may be why this post is going out late, but cheers to finding great things scrolling on social media at 1 am.

For fans of: Erykah Badu, Solange’s ‘A Seat at the Table’, and Kendrick Lamar

Essentials: Blk Girl Soldier, Holy, LSD (Lake Shore Drive) ft. Chance the Rapper

Jamila Woods is a Chicago-born poet, singer/songwriter, and activist. HEAVN is her debut album on, as she says, black girlhood: specifically self-love, being your own key to unlocking the boundless black girl magic that’s simply a part of who you are. It’s about, in her songs Breadcrumbs and Lately, the contribution and memory of loved ones now departed. And for me while HEAVN is a personal project rooted in her growth, her family, in Chicago and how it raised her, it’s also looking outward: with songs by  a  young black woman conscious of the current abuses and systems unchecked that surround her.

So, HEAVN has tracks that feel intimate and light and tracks that feel charged and defiant. That charge and defiance comes across in her lyrics, never in tone: perhaps because all of her words are truth, she’s not here to be convincing anyone of shit, and accordingly she protests against police brutality on VERY BLK and the ill-treatment against her sisters ‘last century, last week’ in Blk Girl Soldier with the rage wrung out; Jamila Woods chooses to elevate the indomitable spirit of her sisters, and their resilience, always.

Holy is one of my favourite tracks this week, and as with all her music videos, this one’s just as free-spirited, organic, and creative.

This week you should check out HEAVN by Jamila Woods for sweet harmonies, sharp commentary, and to soundtrack a journey toward self-love in fraught, turbulent times. 

Now, onward to my early morning find!

Essentials: La Diaspora (ft. Zap Mama), In the Water, Pxssy Powah! 

CREATURE! is a immersive hip-hop/rap record by an Afro-Latina for Afro-Latina’s. I found out about this record last night on Twitter via an article written by Raquel Reichard from Fierce. And she does a great job of going track-by-track, so I’d prefer that you check out her article rather than talking myself.

This week you should also listen to Nitty Scott because her sound and story is so uniquely her own. If you want a preview of what you can expect, however, I’d say her flow is like a progeny of M.I.A. Azealia Banks, and A Tribe Called Quest. And I’ll mention only how, listening to CREATURE!, I get the impression that this record was a very freeing record to make. Very cool and worth the listen.

You get a better idea for the concept running through CREATURE! from this interview with Nitty:

What else can you tell us about Negrita and where the inspiration came from to create a character in order to tell the story?

It’s also taking some inspiration from Alice in Wonderland. So you have Negrita in Wonderland and in this story, she is walking through the Bronx and she is all of these things. She’s oppressed as a Black person and a woman and a bisexual and a Zen Buddhist and all of these communities that she belongs to that are very much marginalized. She is pretty exhausted and feeling very detached from the real her. She is walking through the Bronx and falls down this manhole, which is kind of like the ghetto rabbit hole.

The alternate Wonderland that she ends up in is a tropical dreamland that is pre-colonized Puerto Rico. When she lands there, she is then exposed to her indigenous tribe, as well as is exposed to their practices, their wisdom and all of the things that we have essentially been cut off from as modern day Black and Brown women in the diaspora.

As you’re moving through the album, the music represents the different moods and conversations that represent this experience of Negrita being in Wonderland and coming into contact with this tribe.

And that’s all from me. If you reached the end, know that I love you very much.

If you’re so inclined, like this post by clicking the button down below!

Until next time.

https://play.spotify.com/album/5cQWDZTw5RabIXZpwtD3Vw

You Should Listen to This Thursday #2: HEAVN and CREATURE! Welcome to 'You Should Listen to This' Thursday, known affectionately as YSL☕️, the portion where I tell you about a lesser-known artist whose music you absolutely should not sleep on (for another) Thursday in the year of our Lord(e)...

[burnt-violets-blog]

You Should Listen to This Thursday: Cruel Youth

You Should Listen to This Thursday: Cruel Youth

Welcome to ‘You Should Listen to this Thursday’, known affectionately as YSL ☕️, the portion where I tell you about a lesser-known artist whose music you should absolutely not be sleeping on on this Thursday of our Lord. Because who else but yours truly would so systematically purvey the annals of pop in search for that most elusive and universally rewarding find: the excellent pop album? And who…

[burnt-violets-blog]

[burnt-violets-blog]

Dragon Age Knight Errant #4 for Dark Horse Comics

Lots of Symbolism here, but I don’t want to give anything away. Just look at the creatures haha Hope you like it guys!

[burnt-violets-blog]

Saint George

If you can hardly see it, then you are viewing it correctly. >:}

[burnt-violets-blog]

Ad for Hilti equipment, 1988.

Scan

[burnt-violets-blog]

二人で踊る　どこまでも一緒

[burnt-violets-blog]

Tanihara Natsuko, Paintings.

Nightmarish, intriguingly complex visions seemingly plucked from something to the likes of Hieronymus Bosch’s mind but unable to create himself, by artist Tanihara Natsuko.

Be sure to follow Supersonic Art on Instagram!

[burnt-violets-blog]

[burnt-violets-blog]

[burnt-violets-blog]