#book critic

[yourdailyqueer]

Virginia Mathews (deceased)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: 9 March 1925 

RIP: 7 May 2011

Ethnicity: Native American (Osage Nation)

Occupation: Writer, activist, librarian, book critic

Note: Helped develop Sesame Street while serving as a consultant to Children's Television Workshop, and she promoted activities to support literacy through libraries.

[livingfictionsystem]

2.5 stars. Spoilers below.

The 'What if Peter Pan was evil?' concept is hardly new. In fact, it's essentially canon. But I decided to give this one a go since 'The Child Thief' was such an objective waste time. This was... fine. It's certainly a story and it certainly does have that premise, coming from who would grow up to be Captain Hook. And, compared to 'The Child Thief', it was an improvement.

But that isn't saying much.

Alright, so it's one of those that beat you senselessly over the head with certain concepts. 'Peter promised we would be friends forever and for always. Peter lies.' 'Peter doesn't care what happens to the rest of the boys, I do.' 'Being a boy and being a man are different.' If you read those lines, congratulations, you've now read at least 40% of the book. You understand that the story is setting the scene for the narrator, Jamie, to break ties with Peter, but then you discover that 'setting the scene' is easily 90% of the damned novel.

It's set in the very first chapters that Peter is a malicious spirit who considers the death of the boys 'all part of playing his game.' At the very start, Jamie resented this. So, then it falls into the predictable pattern of, 'Peter did this, a boy was hurt and/or died, Jamie rethinks his friendship with Peter.' 'Peter was manipulative, a boy was hurt and/or died, Jamie reconsiders his loyalty to Peter' 'Peter did this, a boy died, Jamie thinks about leaving him.' Over and over and over and over. Though it is accurately representative of what an abusive friendship can be like when someone else holds all of the power, we gET THE POINT.

And after there's a huge confrontation, Jamie runs off to join the pirates at the end and that's about as vague as an ending as is had. I enjoyed the narrative that Hook is essentially cursed to be there to be the eternal unwilling playmate to Peter, but there was a lot of potential lost with the pirates. How did the pirates react when Jamie switched sides? How did he become Captain? Why didn't Jamie try to recruit the subsequent Lost Boys, but instead, contemplated shooting them out of the sky with a canon? Where did the original pirates even come from? Were they all Lost Boys grown up? It's vaguely implied that Jamie wasn't the first Lost-Boy-Turned-Pirate, but what happened with the others?

The book has a lot of tragedy, but none that are too easy to connect to. Whether it's the primary-school aged boys dropping like flies, or the amount of times the humourless and dull narrator Jamie loses someone before he finally gets homicidal about it, it's impressive that this book makes children killing each other redundant.

Peter needed nuance other than being homicidal intent wrapped up in a child's packaging. And there were some scenes or rules that were never explained, like; why does he hate girls in this book but in none of the other canon? Does Tink not count?

The very last line in the book is 'I hate Peter Pan.' Which, honestly, about wins it for anti-climactic conclusions.

Or perhaps I'm just a jaded adult and I need pixies to sprinkle me with dust; who knows?

-Xanthe 🪶

[kjudgemental]

Valis: Classic Sci-fi Novel Review

Author: Philip K. Dick Publisher: Bantam Books (Gollancz, my copy) Country: USA Year: 1981 (2001, my copy) Valis is a uniquely strange novel in that it’s only partially fictional. And even that is only half fictional itself. Inspired largely by author Philip K. Dick’s own mental breakdown in 1974, it largely concerns itself with Horselover Fat, a split personality persona of the narrator (who…

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[homomobile9000]

Zodiac Academy fucking sucks and I’m seriously questioning your sense of taste and sanity if you say it’s good.

[princessposiex]

- Book Club -

I think I’m going to start a kind of book club, but only with myself. If anyone wants to read my current book and talk about it, that would be awesome too! For now, though, I’m just going to sort of track my journey and write out my thoughts. I’m currently reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I have wanted to read it for a while and have finally gotten around to it. I wasn’t aware, but my mom owns this beautiful copy which makes reading it all the more magical. I’m on chapter 13, page 136 at the moment. Jane just met Mr. Rochester, so I don’t have anything to say about him quite yet besides the fact that I like how he is regarded as a little odd. His first encounter with Jane certainly was strange because of how he acted like he wanted to know who Mr. Rochester was, but I think it makes him interesting. I have gotten to read all about Jane’s young life, and I really like her as a character so far. She has a short temper, and can’t stand not speaking out against injustices, which reminds me of myself. She also has made some hardcore feminist remarks, which I love, and I was happily surprised to find in such a classic book. The way that Bronte describes things is very academic and wordy yet it paints the picture clearly in my head, which I really appreciate. Overall, I like the novel so far and am excited to get into the romance aspect!

<3 Charlotte

[lostinplanetnumber5]

REVIEW: Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Here I am to write about one of the best books I read this year: Heartless, by Marissa Meyer. 

SYNOPSIS:

Long before she was the terror of Wonderland—the infamous Queen of Hearts—she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love.

Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next queen.

Then Cath meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the king and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship. Cath is determined to define her destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

I love everything related to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and I also love to read stories about villains and how they became who they are. Heartless is the perfect mix between those two.

I loved the way, Marissa Meyer wrote a whole different story about Wonderland but it felt like an original one by Lewis Carroll. The author writes in such a light and pleasant way that I didn't even see time go by during the more than 400 pages I read. I was enchanted by everything in Cath's world, and I spent the entire book wondering what would happen to a person as lovely as she was (and such a big dreamer!) become the feared queen known for the phrase: "cut off their heads!" (we have an explanation for that in the book by the way).  During a ball at the king's palace, Cath meets the famous joker. Soon something special starts to emerge between them, but nothing can happen because she is royalty, destined to get married to the king and the joker is ... well, just a joker.

I had so much empathy for Cath with all the things she was forced to go through, that I just wanted everything to work out and she would soon be able to fulfill her big dream ... but obviously, it doesn't happen. After all, we are reading the story of how she became a villain. Heartless is the kind of book I already knew that something very bad would happen in the end: I just didn't imagine what could happen to change the course of that story. The ending was very well written, surprising, and very sad. I fell in love with all the characters: The Cheshire cat, Hatta (Mad Hatter), Jest/joker (oh, how I fell in love with Jest) ... 

To sum up: this book was a roller coaster of emotions, it was a delicious reading that, ironically, broke my heart. It had a little bit of all the things I like: good writing, good character construction (I cheered and suffered for them), and I was also surprised (countless times). I also loved how the author was able to put elements and some lines from Carroll's story in that book: it made me feel like I was in Wonderland.

I gave this book five stars and also added it to my list of favorites. If you have not yet read Heartless I guarantee you will not regret it. I am soon going to start reading Cinder, by the same author, Marissa Meyer. Hopefully, It'll also surprise me. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ + ❤️

Have you read Heartless? Let me know your opinions about the book or if you're planning to read it. Thank you so much for reading this review!

(I'm also thinking about making a playlist on Spotify with songs that remind me of this book and then share it here. Is it a good idea? If so, let me know. I'll also share some of my favorite quotes about this book here, as I already did on my last post).

Bye, Sarah.

(original 📷)

[tremendoustenderness]

This passage was so unnecessary. There was no reason to include this. It makes me dislike Peter as a character and makes me question whether I should continue reading "Rivers of London" or not. I wanted an Urban Fantasy book but not one told through the eyes of a supposedly adult man who has the mind of an immature teenage boy. Very off-putting.

(Quote from "Rivers of London" by Ben Aaronovitch)