#published: 2023

[ashs-reviews]

Webcomic Review: Runaway To The Stars by Jay Eaton

I was a little confused about how reviewing something that's still updating would work, but I've decided I'll review all of what's out now and then when more is added if I have additional thoughts, I'll reblog with them.

First time read at Anon's suggestion, read on the website, took me about a week to finish. It's been updating since 2023. The genre is sci-fi.

Main characters in most to least favorite: Gillie, Talita, Idrisah, Bip, Mel.

- Bip seems like it has alterier motives of some sort. It feels like something's going to blow up (hopefully not literally) eventually, and maybe that will be what pushes Talita to finally quit?

- Estradiol in Gillie's cabinet makes me suspect (because it could also belong to Idrisah) she's either trans or intersex. Intersex is likely, I think, since her being off-model already seems like a metaphor for it, but her being trans would be really cool, too (and also could be metaphor for that).

- Gillie tackling Talita to teach her sign lmao. They're so silly. That scene was actually fairly emotional, though, it was nice.

- I don't normally like romance but Gillie and Idrisah are fun together.

- I really like the way the centaurs are designed, specifically the facial anatomy. Reminds me a bit of anteaters.

- I really thought Cal would be a bigger plot point? Maybe he'll show up more later.

- It's so refreshing to find writers who know/can make terms for species that don't have the same sex traits as humans that aren't blatantly intersexist. I know it's like bare minimum but it's very rare to see, and made me happy.

- Mel is enraging. When they took in a centaur, they should've read up about them so that they'd actually understand how to accommodate for them and deal with bigots. I really hope the new centaur temps work out well, though.

- Really well thought out, there's so much world building.

- The orbiter polycule is so cool??

A lot of questions about race are ambigous, depending on whether you're counting certain species as races. Because of that, I left out non-human characters for those ones.

Bechdel test: pass. Advanced Bechdel: pass. Ali Nahdee test: N/A. Deggans test: fail. Kumbalangi test: pass. Sexy lamp test: pass. Shukla test: fail. Sick dog test: pass. Vito russo test: pass.

8/10, here's the website!

[ashs-reviews]

Book review: All These Sunken Souls

Re-read it for the first time because I just got a physical copy, which took me nine days to read. It was published in 2023. It's a horror anthology.

Chapters listed in most to least favorite: All My Best Friends Are Dead, The Landscape Of Broken Things, Be Not Afraid, Lights, The Teeth Come Out At Night, Papa Pearlie, I Love Your Eyes, Mother Daughter And The Devil, No Harm Done, The Consumption Of Vienna Montrose.

"But," he begins. "But you are an angel." Her mouths open. She speaks her first words. "No," she says from her many throats. "You named me that."

- Anthologies are cool because you get to see so many different writing styles and how they contrast with and compliment each other.

- Devil as an allegory for abuser sometimes gets weird but it's done well in Mother, Daughter, And The Devil I think. I really like that Lily kills him.

- I like that most of the stories aren't romance focused and that in the ones that do include that, the romances are absolutely doomed.

- I love social commentary horror. Be Not Afraid is such a perfect story.

- I think The Landscape Of Broken Things and All My Best Friends Are Dead are the scariest to me, because they play on fears I have I guess lol. The Landscape Of Broken Things is so cool to me also because too often when psych wards and the like are involved in horror, the horror is based around the fact that mentally disabled people live there, and in this one the horror is directly tied to the loss of self and autonomy associated with being in one.

- It's so hard to pick a favorite. They're all so well written and there are a lot of really powerful stories in this. A lot of them are pretty relatable, too.

- I wish that Zeke would've killed Papa Pearlie instead of himself, or found a way to safely destroy the dolls or something, but it makes sense why he would do what he did.

- Lights does Not go how you think it would, or at least I didn't expect the twist the first time I read it. I really like the biased narrator trope, he's giving us hints at the danger and he's completely misinterpreting them.

- No Harm Done is just sad all over. The title is lying to you, there is very much harm afoot.

- Small pointless detail but I enjoy that more than one of the stories featured has a scene where characters eat soup.

- The cover art is so pretty, by the way. I don't normally mention the covers when reviewing them (never judge a book by its cover yk) but for this one I have to because I really really like it.

- The only chapter I don't like is The Consumption Of Vienna Montrose. It's gross to me lol, which I guess is the point but it makes me dislike it. The like, taken by/manipulated into loving a monster trope isn't fun for me.

- There's a lot of good foreshadowing in I Love Your Eyes, and reading that while knowing what's gonna happen is the best thing ever. The dialogue gets kind of eccentric after the masks are dropped but it's pretty fun.

- There's a nice balance of tragicness and creepiness throughout the book that I enjoy.

- This book introduced me to one of my favorite authors, Liselle Sambury. Her writing style is awesome. All My Best Friends Are Dead jumps from past to present, which was a little confusing the first time I read it, but it made reading it this time so fucking fun?? Books with shifting narrators and/or times are cool.

The book does really well on the tests, passing all of the ones it qualifies for (the only other one being the Ali Nahdee test). Whether or not the sick dog test is applicable depends on whether we're counting Clairvoyancy or persistant tooth pain as disabilities. If we are, then it passes.

10/10. Here is the Storygraph for the book !!

[ashs-reviews]

Book review: Pageboy by Elliot Page

I read on Queer Liberation Library. Half re-read, half first time read. Last year I started reading it and got around halfway through before the borrow time was up, and I've been meaning to finish it since then. I decided to just start it over. It took me six days. It's a memoir that was published in 2023.

A bunk bed was a kingdom, I was a boy. My imagination was a lifeline.

- A lot of it's relatable and at the same time a lot of it isn't, which I find comforting in a way. The spectrum of experiences within similar or even the same identities always makes me feel seen. Our differences bring us together, or whatever.

- It gives me hope. The feeling of seeing real life trans people being able to live as themselves and reading about their lives is really unmatched.

- The majority of viewpoints expressed in the book are very agreeable. I think this is a good starter book for queer topics.

- The Umbrella Academy was one of the first shows I ever hyperfixated on, so it was fun learning some more about the process that went into making it.

- The writing style in the beginning is pretty rambly but it levels out well throughout the book.

- Very silly at times, yet personal. I enjoy the way everything is told.

7/10. Here's the book's Wikipedia!

[ashs-reviews]

Book review: Pixar Storybook Collection

Written by lots of different authors, it's a collection of short stories. I've been reading this to my little siblings for a couple weeks now I think, one story per night. My grandma's friend bought it for them. Published in 2023.

I don't think they liked it as much as the other books they have, but there were stories that they got excited over within it.

3/5