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veronica-soysauce · 2 months

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Book review!

The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka

I don't normally do book reviews but I thought this would be fun since I haven't read in a while

Spoilers ahead!!

TW: Mention of a school shooting, death, death of a child, mild claustrophobia.

I'd rate this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

I really enjoyed it and read it in about a day and a half (I usually start reading at like, midnight, so idk how to categorize this lol). It is 361 pages.

TLDR: Main story was pretty good, secondary fairy tale thing was kinda unrelated and took way to long for the main "lesson" it was trying to teach.

Essentially, Mad, the protagonist is going to her local library to teach a class on bath bombs/chemistry (she's a chemist). There are the librarians, a handful of book club attendees, a mom and toddler, her friend Farrah (who we learn later is pregnant), and Nash, a pediatrician and her love interest. There are also all of the kids that attended her class. Theres about 6-8 of them I think, but I'll name them as I go. There's also a cute blue lobster that they consider eating (but don't!) named Jolene. All of these people are stuck in the library when a bunch of killer owls swarm the library, and kill a librarian and a guy who both walked outside. Their city does essentially nothing, but they are delivered food and water at some point. They're also missing medication for a girl with epilepsy, which Nash tries to solve by trying to find Xanax (???) I'm not doctor so idk if that would work but it doesn't sound like the best solution. The owls break through windows and eventually only a few rooms are left for people to be in. They also try throwing flaming books out the windows at some point (because they had read articles that say that smoke scared them off), and the city also uses chemical fumes of something. The power and water also shut off about 2/3rds into the book. Throughout the story Farrah and Mad read the Silent Queen to the kids, and in-between every chapter of the book there is a chapter of the Silent Queen (once they start reading it). In the end they "suit up" in found materials to cover all of their skin (expect for their faces I guess because people regularly smile at each other as they run), and they run out together, eventually branching off and breaking into peoples homes (who have been evacuated). The owls disappear, having split up to chase the around 20 people before loosing them, and the library is fixed/rebuilt.

Overall I really enjoyed the book! I like the concept and I liked all of the characters. There was a good amount of suspense and just a bit of a horror aspect to it which made the fear of the characters feel more real. I will say however, that I found it hard to remember the names of all the characters, and a pair of characters were referred to as the Kennedy, and I have no idea which characters they are. Most of the kids were funny with distinct personalities, and Mad's relationship with Nash was nice to read. They do need to stop kissing all the time though. There are killer owls outside this is not the time.

As for the owls, they have apparently been found all over the world and seem to just migrate from place to place? The book says that they're about the size of a fist, and there are literally thousands of them outside. In all cases the building they were surrounding was burned down and they left (except for the library). When they're alone they basically act like they're drunk and it's kinda cute. When you hear them you like freeze up and re-live traumatic memories, and if you stop moving they will and can eat you alive in a couple of seconds. They feel supernatural in that way, but it's also not explained in the book how they make you re-live memories, and kinda feels like an excuse to tell the reader about the school shooting where Nash's brother and Mad's best friend died when they were in middle school.

I also do not understand the layout of the library at all, there's no mention of which rooms are connected to others, and also characters keep going into rooms that are supposed to be blocked off because of broken windows, and characters even state that they're off limits. A door is shattered at some point, what I assumed to be the main door the library, which should lead to the lobby, but then characters just hang out in the lobby later, so I don't know where the door was, or if the author just forgot about the shattered door. There is also a vault (The library used to be a bank, which, how big was the bank to begin with??) and idk if there are bookshelves in there or not.

As for the inclusion of the Silent Queen, I didn't really like it. The thing on the inside cover says that it'll be important, but honestly the connection between the two is stretched. I feel like it could have and should have been shorter and I wasn't that invested in the characters. In general I feel like the alternating chapter style it was laid out in interrupted the flow of the main story, and kinda killed suspense and fear for the characters, as well as making chapters drag on and on forever because every other chapter had to be the Silent Queen. I dreaded reading it and would have skipped ahead, but the cover flap thing says it was important, so I read it. A character states that it's a metaphor for capitalism, which I agree with, but capitalism is loosely connected to the main story, and is not the cause of the problem like it is in the Silent Queen. The closest thing I can come up with is that the owls natural habitat has been destroyed because of capitalism, but that is never mentioned in the book and is quite a stretch.

There are also a few abandoned plot threads. At one point people outside start pouring flame protectant on the building, which leads the reader and Mad to believe that they are going to set it on fire, but they they end up using chemicals of some kind? There are also hints of people having reactions to getting hurt by the birds in a way that would make them like zombies or at least affect them in some way. Nash even has an unexplained allergic reaction to the birds, which he has to spend around a month in the hospital for (I think), and Mad continues to kiss him anyways, which feels like it should have some sort of repercussions. They also eat basically nothing for the couple of days they're trapped in the library, with Mad and Nash even spitting out and wasting food because it doesn't taste good, which feels incredibly stupid seeing as Mad had only had half a granola bar the day before, and hadn't eaten anything since. Farrah, who is pregnant also isn't mentioned to have eaten the whole time, and continually vomits, which feels like it should be more plot reliant that it is. There's also mention of Mad's mother, who I think is an alcoholic? But its not further explained.

The book is also a commentary on how bad systems that should save you are, like how med that they ask for aren't delivered, and police do not open car or van doors to people who are trying to flee the library and are about to get eaten alive, as well as them shattering a large window at some point. Characters continually describe the mayor as old as fuck, and generally being unhelpful. Overtime they loose faith in the police and their local government. The commentary I think is done pretty well, very show not tell of the incompetence of systems made to protect.

Overall I enjoyed the book. Its a good read for those who like thrillers, I'd just skip the Silent Queen.

#Book review!#tw school shooting #tw death #tw child death #tw claustrophobia #watch me yap

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arg-machine · 5 months

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Books read recently...

Like he wrote in this post a couple of months back, a new Books read recently post is just about due, given that the last such post was published some six months ago. And so here’s a new one this week, folks! This new post not only features some of the books arg has read in the last few months, but also lists a few he intends to read soon.

New books… Listed below – in alphabetical order – are some of the books that arg found time to enjoy over the last few months. In the Also recommended sections are similar titles he has read or those he plans to read in the next few months.

“Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are.

With them in the room is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearance – and what has brought them back again. Desperate to reclaim their lives, the three agree to the terms of the bargain their music teacher proposes. They will be given a series of magical tasks; while they undertake them, they may return to their families and friends, but they can tell no one where they’ve been. In the end, there will be winners and there will be losers.

But their resurrection has attracted the notice of other supernatural figures, all with their own agendas. As Laura, Daniel, and Mo grapple with the pieces of the lives they left behind, and Laura’s sister, Susannah, attempts to reconcile what she remembers with what she fears, these mysterious others begin to arrive, engulfing their community in danger and chaos, and it becomes imperative that the teens solve the mystery of their deaths to avert a looming disaster.”

Also recommended: Lord of the Feast by Tim Waggoner, The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka and Children of the Dark by Jonathan Janz.

“Like his earlier novel Golden Hill, Francis Spufford’s Cahokia Jazz inhabits a different version of America, now through the lens of a subtly altered 1920s – a fully imagined world full of fog, cigarette smoke, dubious motives, danger, dark deeds. And in the main character of Joe Barrow, we have a hero of truly epic proportions, a troubled soul to fall in love with as you are swept along by a propulsive and brilliantly twisty plot.

On a snowy night at the end of winter, Barrow and his partner find a body on the roof of a skyscraper. Down below, streetcar bells ring, factory whistles blow, Americans drink in speakeasies and dance to the tempo of modern times. But this is Cahokia, the ancient indigenous city beside the Mississippi living on as a teeming industrial metropolis, filled with people of every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. But that corpse on the roof will spark a week of drama in which this altered world will spill its secrets and be brought, against a soundtrack of jazz clarinets and wailing streetcars, either to destruction or rebirth.”

Also recommended: When She Left: A Thriller by E.A. Aymar and Lone Women by Victor LaValle.

“Richmond Upon Thames is one of the most desirable areas to live in London. And Riverview Close: a quiet, gated community – seems to offer its inhabitants the perfect life. At least it does until Giles Kenworthy moves in with his wife and noisy children, his four gas-guzzling cars, his loud parties and his plans for a new swimming pool in his garden.

His neighbours all have a reason to hate him and are soon up in arms. When Kenworthy is shot dead with a crossbow bolt through his neck, all of them come under suspicion and his murder opens the door to lies, deception and further death. The police are baffled. Reluctantly, they call in former Detective Daniel Hawthorne. But even he is faced with a seemingly impossible puzzle: how do you solve a murder when everyone has the same motive?”

Also recommended: Almost Surely Dead by Amina Akhtar and No One Dies Yet by Kobby Ben Ben.

“Stevenson's brilliant and creative second closed-circle mystery featuring author Ernest Cunningham [after Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone] toys with golden age mystery tropes while delivering its own hugely satisfying whodunit.

Cunningham's published account of the murders detailed in the previous book has netted him an invitation to the 50th Australian Mystery Writers' Festival. He's been asked, along with five much-better-known authors, to be a panelist aboard the Ghan, a luxury train whose route bisects the Australian desert. Soon after the journey starts, one of the writers turns up dead, and each of the train's other panelists [including Cunningham himself] becomes both suspect and sleuth.

As the investigation unfolds, Stevenson plays scrupulously fair: as in the previous book, Cunningham addresses readers directly, promising ‘to be that rarity in modern crime novels: a reliable narrator.’ Even before the first murder, he reveals that a comma will be a crucial clue, and that there will be more than one victim. Dashes of humor [while introducing his fellow panelists, Cunningham pokes wicked fun at the publishing industry] light the way as Stevenson charges toward the deliciously clever final reveal.”

Also recommended: The Problem of the Wire Cage by John Dickson Carr and Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker

“The islands of Prospera lie in a vast ocean, in splendid isolation from the rest of humanity – or whatever remains of it. Citizens of the main island enjoy privileged lives. They are attended to by support staff who live on a cramped neighboring island, where whispers of revolt are brewing – but for the Prosperans, life is perfection. And when the end-of-life approaches, they’re sent to a mysterious third island, where their bodies are refreshed, their memories are wiped away, and they return to start life anew.

Proctor Bennett is a ferryman, whose job it is to enforce the retirement process when necessary. He never questions his work, until the day he receives a cryptic message: the world is not the world. These simple words unlock something he has secretly suspected. They seep into strange dreams of the stars and the sea. They give him the unshakable feeling that someone is trying to tell him something important. Something no one could possibly imagine, something that could change the fate of humanity itself.”

Also recommended: Past Crimes by Jason Pinter, Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase and Mister Lullaby by J. H. Markert.

“Harbor Lights is a story collection from one of the most popular and widely acclaimed icons of American fiction, featuring a never-before-published novella. These eight stories move from the marshlands on the Gulf of Mexico to the sweeping plains of Colorado to prisons, saloons, and trailer parks across the South, weaving together love, friendship, violence, survival, and revenge

A boy and his father watch a German submarine sink an oil tanker as evil forces in the disguise of federal agents try to ruin their family. A girl is beaten up outside a bar as her university-professor father navigates new love and threats from a group of neo-Nazis. An oil rig worker witnesses a horrific attack on a local village while on a job in South America and seeks justice through one final act of bravery.

With his nuanced characters, lyrical prose, and ability to write shocking violence in the most evocative settings, James Lee Burke’s singular skills are on display in this superb anthology. Harbor Lights unfolds in stories that crackle and reverberate as unexpected heroes emerge.”

“Anna Fort wants to be a supportive wife, even if that means accompanying her husband for the winter of 1918 to a remote, frozen island estate so he can finish his book as the guest of an eccentric millionaire. When she learns three girls are missing from a school run by their host, Anna realizes finding them is up to her – even if that means risking her husband’s career, and possibly her life.

Her husband’s masterpiece-in-progress features strange meteorological anomalies along with wild speculations about ‘facts’ he believes scientists hide from the public. Most people think Charles Fort is a crackpot. That’s about to change now that wealthy Claude Arkel is his patron.

Yet Anna is sure something’s not right on Prosper Island, though the alarming return of her ‘troubles’ makes her question her own sanity. Is the figure in the woods really the ghost of her long-lost friend Mary, or a product of her disturbed imagination? Accompanied reluctantly by a fellow guest, the elegant and troubled Stella Bixby, Anna embarks on a dangerous quest to find the missing girls before Arkel finds her – or her own mind unravels.”

Also recommended: The Museum of Human History by Rebekah Bergman and Diavola by Jennifer Thorne.

“Carson Newman doesn’t wear tracksuits. He doesn’t have a consigliere or operate out of the back room of a restaurant. And as evidenced by his ever-growing Boston empire, he doesn’t get his hands dirty. Usually.

Joe DeMarco, on the other hand, is paid to get his hands dirty. So, when John Mahoney, the former Speaker of the House, calls, DeMarco knows it’s time to get to work. Brian Lewis, an intern for Mahoney, has been found dead, seemingly from a drug overdose. But Brian didn’t seem like a drug user, and even more concerning, he seemed to be on the cusp of releasing a report that identified a group of politicians who had taken bribes in helping dismantle a recent bill. Brian’s mom is convinced that Brian was murdered because of what he’d learned, and it doesn’t take long for DeMarco to come to a similar conclusion.

In a city full of shadowy agreements and duplicitous deals, DeMarco will soon learn that to get to the bottom of Brian’s death, he’ll have to look at people perched the very top of the world.”

Also recommended: Next of Kin by Elton Skelter and The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden

“Fifteen-year-old Ámbar has never known any parent other than her father, Víctor Mondragón, nor any life other than his. On any given Friday night, Ámbar longs to be at the arcade or a rock concert, but she’s more likely to be patching up Víctor’s latest bullet hole in a dingy motel or creating a new set of fake identities for the both of them.

When a tattooed mercenary kills Víctor’s best friend and vows that Víctor is next, father and daughter set off on a joyride across Argentina in search of bloody retribution. But Ámbar’s growing pains hurt worse than her beloved sawed-off shotgun’s kickback as she begins to question the structure of her world. How much is her father not telling her? Could her life ever be different? And will she survive long enough to find out? It’s kill-or-be-killed in this gritty, devastating coming-of-age thriller from the king of Argentine neo-noir.”

Also recommended: The Princess of Thornwood Drive by Khalia Moreau.

Leonora has made the same move for similar reasons. She’s living a short walk from Cole’s seaside cottage, preparing for her latest art exhibition. Though Cole still can’t figure out what went wrong with his marriage, and Leonora is having trouble acclimating to the hostile landscape, the pair forges a connection on the eroding bluff they call home.

Then, two young women activists raising awareness about gendered violence disappear while passing through. Cole and Leonora find themselves in the middle of a police investigation and the resulting media firestorm when the world learns of what happened. And as the tension escalates alongside the search for the missing women, they quickly realize that they don’t know each other that well after all.”

Also recommended: The Stars Turned Inside Out by Nova Jacobs and You Know What You Did by K. T. Nguyen.

machine HQ's Retro Pick!

Bond. Ruskin Bond. A respected Indian author, Bond writes all kinds of fiction, and not just scary tales of the supernatural. But since almost all the books featured above have a predilection for the darker aspects – be it murder, evil sorcery, dystopian societies or shady political deals – arg felt this fine collection of Bond’s ghostly tales would be just the title to bring this post to a close. So here it is, as a machine HQ’s Retro Pick!

“In Ruskin Bond’s stories, ghosts, jinns, witches – and the occasional monster – are as real as the people he writes about. This collection brings together all of his tales of the paranormal, opening with the unforgettable A Face in the Dark, and ending with the shockingly macabre Night of the Millennium. Featuring thrilling situations and strange beings, A Face in the Dark and Other Hauntings is the perfect collection to have by your bedside when the moon is up.”

…and that, folks, will have to do for this installment of Books read recently… Visit The Apocalypse Project [on Mastodon, twitter/X and tumblr], check out the machinstagram [where arg posts funky machine HQ visual stuff!] and stay tuned to machine HQ blog.

#books #reviews

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bigcats-birds-and-books · 9 months

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24 in 2024

i haven't seen any of these floating around yet, so i thought i'd get one started! here are 24 books i want to read in 2024 (and a bonus readerly goal):

Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives by Sarah Williams Goldhagen

Obsolescence: An Architectural History by Daniel M. Abramson

Offended Sensibilities by Alisa Ganieva

The Night, The Night by Rodrigo Blanco Calderón

Dayswork by Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel

Dawn by Sevgi Soysal

Trashlands by Alison Stine

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

How to be Eaten by Maria Adelmann

The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories edited by Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang

The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown

Black Tide by KC Jones

A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys

The Ambergris Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer

The Great Cities Duology by NK Jemisin

The Spider and her Demons by sydney khoo

A Shining by Jon Fosse

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology edited by Vince A Liaguno and Rena Mason

Self-Portrait with Nothing by Aimee Pokwatka

Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin

Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places to Land by Malcolm Devlin

Always North by Vicki Jarrett

At the Edge of the Woods by Masatsugu Ono

Bonus Readerly Goal: i'm gonna try REALLY hard to only buy a book after i read five (5), this year (pre-orders DNI). gotta get that backlist under control SOMEhow, right??

notes on the color-coding: the green books are Just Because books (with a couple little red riding hood adjacent retellings in there, which is writing-project-related). a few of these came in a translation subscription box, and i am Interested in Architecture, and i'd love to read more of both this year.

the blue ones are bookmarked for nano prep (i wanna write something fucked up about space this year, i think, it's still cooking). i know it's early for that, but The Vibes™ have to marinate for a while. will probably add some haunted house books to this part of the list!

lastly, the purple ones are driscoll adjacent! filling my words well with related vibes worked well, this year, and i want to do that again next year. since i read through the entirety of my previous ~driscoll vibes~ stack last year, i've been restocking it, so most of these are very recently purchased.

(please note that all this color-coding/explanatory text is absolutely optional and Extra™, if you want to play--you can add it if you'd like, but by no means feel Obligated To Do So lol)

tagging @asexualbookbird, @six-of-ravens/@sixofravens-reads, @agardenandlibrary, @freckles-and-books, and anyone else who wants to play!

#books #24 in 2024 #reading goals #book talk #asexualbookbird #six-of-ravens #agardenandlibrary #freckles-and-books #if anyone would like me to remove their tag please say so! and no pressure to play #i'm just curious about what y'all want to read!#ALSO if anyone/any followers would like me to ADD you with an official tag please slide into my messages and let me know--i'm happy to add!#you can also just tag me in your own post and say 'thanks for the tag' if you're so inclined!! really whoever wants to play can #(i just know that i myself personally almost never respond because 'what if they don't really mean ME anyone')#(but i assure you that i mean --you-- anyone reading this)#(again: will also happily add you to tags if you'd like just let me know lmao)#(also also: yeah i'm making this instead of finishing off my 23 in 2023 reading list lmao)#(i got pretty far!! all that's left is bitch queen and daemon voices and both of those are literally in progress!!)#(so that's pretty good i think)#anyway ezra you're up lmaoo #not me procrastikn----booking?#procrastibooking #procrastiblogging even #in btw #driscoll

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