#fun show. fabulous autistic rep

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

*peeks at dungeon meshi* hm cute but i'm not sure i comprehend the appeal

*keeps peering in curiosity* oh! each of these characters is, how you say. Insane

[halflingkima]

Mid Year Book Freak Out Tag

Can’t believe it’s already halfway through the year, and yet the beginning feels 800 years away. Alas, I do not comprehend the linear progression of time.

In typical fashion, stole this tag from booktube, and I can’t shut up, so stuck it below a read more. Didn’t link any of my reviews, mostly because I’ve fallen quite behind on most of them, but if you’re curious enough, those I’ve done should be find-able on my storygraph. Behold: 13 bookish questions and some freaking out about it being June.

Also not tagging anyone, but do feel free to do this yourself! And pls tag me if you do, I’d love to read them.

1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2022

You Feel it Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson wins overall not just because of the story but because of the artifice and artistry of its form. It’s an alternate US history written as the manuscript of a memoir uncovered and edited/notated by a historical society. I love when fiction is written as nonfiction and this story specifically was haunting on so many different levels. I plan to read it again soon.

Honorable mention goes to Our Bloody Pearl by DN Bryn, which is more of a personal favorite than an objective best book. I think it was legitimately spawned from a tumblr post/trend circa 2013 about an asexual pirate and a nonbinary siren. Regardless, it’s extremely well-crafted and I’m struggling to get my hands on the rest of the series. It’s one of those that feels for me – like, extremely to my taste.

2, Best sequel you've read so far in 2022

I haven’t read many sequels this year. I’ve got a lot I mean to get around to, but it has not happened yet. Remarkably, this superlative goes to How to Be a Movie Star by TJ Klune. The first book is How to Be a Normal Person, in which the (implied autistic/vaguely neurodivergent) Gustavo Tiberius obsessively googles how to be normal because he’s developed a crush on Casey, an asexual hipster who’s just moved to town.

The sequel follows Casey’s friend Josiah, who is a demisexual hipster actor (and also vaguely implied neurodivergent?) that develops a crush on an off-brand Chuck Tingle while starring in a film directed by him. I don’t totally love the whimsy of Klune’s writing style (I felt the same about Cerulean Sea), and while I appreciate the effort, they don’t feel like the best ace rep. But the books are fun and funny and the couples are cute. This one wins best sequel simply because it was precisely what I expected when I picked it up, and while I’m not obsessed with it, it’s a fun time.

3. New release you haven't read yet, but want to

I put a library hold on Hook, Line, & Sinker by Tessa Bailey in like February and I’m still 4th in line lmao. I don’t have high hopes because I really didn’t like the first book, It Happened One Summer. But because I saw people who raved about the first book were mostly disappointed by this sequel, it made me think that it might be more to my taste.

I’m also waiting on tenterhooks for my library hold on The Romantic Agenda by Claire Kann to come in – I was already ecstatic about an ace romance being mainstream published, but I’ve also only seen raving reviews about it, so I want it NOW. It’s supposedly a take on My Best Friend’s Wedding, with an ace main character (and love interest/best friend too?).

I also want to get my hands on A Lady for a Duke and Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall, but those have been out for a bit longer, I’m just broke. The first is a historical childhood friends to lovers featuring a trans woman, and the latter is a historical romance in which a duke is trying to marry a woman, but might be falling for her twin brother instead.

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

I very recently read Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall, which is a romance novel about a bisexual single mom getting caught in a love triangle while competing in an off-brand Great British Baking Show, and while I wasn’t crazy about the romance, Hall’s my favorite author atm, and I am obsessed with his fictional version of GBBO and I need more.

Thankfully, the sequel, Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble, should be released sometime in October. This one’s a m/m romance set against the same off-brand background.

5. Biggest disappointment

Hands down, my biggest disappointment was Say Yes to a Mess by Elle Brownlee, which tbh is on me for having expectations. In theory, it’s a m/m friend’s brother/childhood friends to lovers/fake engagement romance, set against a wedding reality show, and because I really like all those tropes, I was sorta saving this one like a special wine, but the actual book is possibly the worst written thing I’ve ever read while still remaining coherent.

Honorable mentions go to After Alice by Gregory Maguire and Rabbits by Terry Miles for not being nearly as weird as I had hoped they’d be.

6. Biggest surprise

This one’s definitely a tie.

Follow Me to Ground by Sue Rainsford is a very vague magical realism/fantasy about a healer/witch who physically opens patients to heal them and the toll that being so different (and immortal) takes on her. I picked up the audiobook on a whim for a drive and it gave the story a very visceral southern gothic feel. I was truly surprised to find that the story was exactly my kind of horror.

Similarly, The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas was surprising because it was much weirder than I anticipated. It’s about four women who invent time travel in the 60s, and one of their granddaughters who is trying to solve or decipher or prevent one of their deaths. It’s. Very hard to summarize. But it was shockingly easy to read while also being exceptionally strange and convoluted.

7. Favorite new author (debut or new to you)

Most of the authors I’ve read this year are new to me, and I don’t really keep track of “debuts.” I think so far Joanne Harris (who wrote the novel Chocolat, which was adapted to film in 2000) is a new favorite. Talia Hibbert, DN Bryn, Vivek Shraya, and Xiran Jay Zhao all get honorable mentions, though.

8. Newest fictional crush

None very consuming, but I did have a few crushes while reading. Captain Dejean from Our Bloody Pearl, Viane from Chocolat, Russell from Weather Girl, Ruby from The Psychology of Time Travel, to name a few.

9. Newest favorite character

I think Zetian from Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao may top my favorite characters of the year - I reveled in her rage and found it quite cathartic. I also admire her for just existing in that world, let alone rebelling within it and reshaping it. I quite look forward to the next book.

Honorable mentions to Frances from Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney and Frankie from A Line Made By Walking by Sara Baume, for their sheer relatability (for better or worse lol).

10. Book that made you cry

Most books I give 5 stars, and most romance novels in general, bring me to tears. Normally of joy/happy tears. I’ve not read a Sobber yet this year, probably due to... intentionally avoiding them lmao.

This one goes to Upside Down by NR Walker. Jordan is avoiding labeling himself as asexual, but he meets Hennessy, who is confident in his asexuality, at an ace support meeting, and the two share an immediate romantic attraction. This is by no means the best story or best writing, and the ace rep isn’t without flaws, and it’s clearly not an own voices story, but the couple communicated so well and were so unabashedly asexual and gosh darn tooth-rotting sweet,that they often brought tears to my eyes.

11. Book that made you happy

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake, How to Be a Movie Star, and Upside Down all made me exceptionally happy, but I’ve yet to mention Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon, The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun, and The Duke Who Didn’t by Courtney Milan, which also made me very happy.

Weather Girl is about.. well, a weather girl who fights her clinical/chronic depression to be with the sports caster (who is a plus size single dad) at her network. Probably ironic that it made me happy, but there were quite a few easter eggs that aligned with my own life while reading it, and I really enjoyed the love interest.

The Charm Offensive is about a The Bachelor-style show, which Charlie agrees to star in to salvage his professional reputation from the fallout of his anxiety disorder, and finds himself falling for his producer/babysitter Dev, who is an incurable romantic. This plot was a bit convoluted and Extra for me, but the extensive discussion of asexuality/demisexuality as even just a viable option really uh.. did something for me.

And The Duke Who Didn’t is a historical childhood friends to lovers featuring English characters of Asian heritage. It’s just par for the course Courtney Milan who has thus far never failed to make me cry happy (or even Overwhelmed) tears. It’s quite a layered and moving story, and it made me very happy.

12. Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received)

I’ve not really bought myself anything, let alone anything pretty, this year. I’ve also not been gifted many books. I’ll say the short story collection All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages is the prettiest book I’ve gotten recently, and it was a secret santa gift last December. It’s a collection of queer historical fiction and fairytale retellings that I’ve wanted to read for quite a while, but it wasn’t out in paperback for a bit and then it was THIS which I think is gorgeous.

13. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

I’ve borrowed The Bluest Eye and Beloved by Toni Morrison and Dark Places by Gillian Flynn from a friend, and I need to read and return them.

The library books I have out right now are The Seep by Chana Porter, Archive of the Forgotten by AJ Hackwith, the anthology Love After the End, and In Deeper Waters by FT Lukens, and I should finish those by the end of July let alone the end of the year lol.

And then the books from Christmas/my birthday that I still have to read are How to Ruin Everything by George Watsky, American Pop by Snowden Wright, White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi, and All Out (linked in 12).