Ughhhhhh sick. Just gonna post this without a “diary entry” preamble, or else it’ll never happen.

Short Stories and Essays

“Malfunctioning Sex Robot” by Patricia Lockwood

A roast of John Updike that’s laugh-out-loud funny at times. It needed to be, to make its subject matter palatable.

“Here at the Freezing End” by Benjamin C. Kinney

A reprint of an Analog story, which I really appreciate. I don’t get to read Analog on my phone at the office.

Avi and Erin are some of the last survivors on a hostile ice planet, waiting for the freezing end as supplies dwindle. A bleak story with grounded worldbuilding.

“The Pig-Botherer & the Songbird Maiden” by Ashley Cope

Unsounded is probably my all-time favorite comic. This is a side story from the perspective of the widow of the undead main character, about the happy circumstances under which she chose her husband. I especially liked all the cultural details. But if you’re not familiar with the world, it may be hard to follow along, and I think the story’s locked for non-patrons anyway.

“I Know What You Think of Me” by Tim Kreider

The famous “mortifying ordeal of being known” essay, which I reread because I was in the mood for the “we command little allegiance in other people’s heads” part.

Books

You Weren’t Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White

Oh my god??? Oh my god. This was spectacular and spectacularly fucked up.

Crane is a mentally ill, autistic trans guy who ran away from home to join a cult led by a mass of sentient flies. The flies then force him to be pregnant by his abusive, homicidal, ex-Marine boyfriend. Yikes. Content warnings: ALL OF THEM. Here’s what AJW had to say on his blog.

This was amazing?? It delivered exactly what it promised. And I think this might be the first book in years where I couldn’t find a gripe about the pacing. AJW nailed it. Crane is vividly realized, and simultaneously unique and true to life. Like, I have NEVER seen this guy as a character before, but boy do I ever recognize him. I can’t believe how AJW so masterfully framed his perspective for a normie like me, who doesn’t feel like half the horrible ways Crane’s felt. I walked away understanding something I had no business understanding. That’s incredible.

 PS: This book wins the award for “Most awkward to talk about at a neighborhood Christmas party populated by curious septuagenarians.” In my defense, I thought, “Oh I happened to read a good horror book this year, but what do you read?” would work as a pivot. I did not expect the laser-focused interest from the grayhair crowd. I told them read the content warnings. We’ll have to see if that, uh, sufficed.

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

A story about letters told through letters. Aka, “a progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable.” Ella Minnow Pea is a young woman from the letter-loving island community of Nollop, founded by the ‘great’ Nevin Nollop. He was allegedly the creator of the pangram “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” which is immortalized in tiles on a cenotaph. Until the glue for the tiles breaks down, and they start falling.

Naturally, the island’s fascist council declares that this means it’s Nollop’s divine will to eliminate the fallen letters from use. Offenders using the forbidden letters, even by accident, will be exiled or executed. As the book goes on, Ella and the dwindling survivors persist in communicating with an increasing number of restrictions, all while hunting for a superior pangram to Nollop’s, as the council has left that as the only legal route to roll back their tyranny.

The juxtaposition of the silliness in the premise with the very real, very relevant way that authoritarianism imposes itself sure did something to my brain chemistry. This book is grade-A assigned reading for students, imo, up there with Animal Farm.

Tragically, a lot of the negative Goodreads reviews are from people who disdain everything the book tells you it’s out to do. What I want to say to them is, then why are you here?! Don’t read the clever wordplay book if you think clever wordplay is obnoxious.

Comics

Children of Orbit by Na Yoonhee and GooKim

This is a coming-of-age story set in high school. Not normally something I would read, but I really liked it! The story centers on the siblings Seong Ryu and Bin Ryu, who are both crushing on the valedictorian of their class, a hardworking girl from an impoverished family. The relationship dynamics were fresh, interesting, and thoughtfully developed. I enjoyed the decisions the author made for the characters. They felt very real and I was rooting for all of them.

Love Me to Death by Toonimated

A hecking awesome premise with lackluster execution. This story is doing a three-way romance between a necromancer, a woman he half-resurrected, and the fiancé she can’t remember. I loved the main cast. Unfortunately, the writing devolves into melodrama, there are a load of side characters (largely expies from the creators’ last comic), and the pacing is noooot great. The story often sets up tension, but then overexplains what’s happening and squashes that tension flat. This becomes especially obvious once the romance arc is resolved by the main characters all getting together, which happens early on. Anyway, I’m still glad I read it.