Posting early because there is zero chance I get to read anything else this month. March always sucks for me. Note that February’s post didn’t get to go up till tonight either. I’m stealing time from sleep to do this.
A short story
Feels like a grim, modern fairytale. Your demanding ex-husband keeps sending you back to the bodega to get him cures that exact strange costs.
A book
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
A book club pick by a friend who’s wanted me to read this for yeaaaars. It read like what I think fixit fanfic for Firefly is: friend-family-roommates in space, cruising around, having spaceship adventures! I did enjoy the aliens and the attention to cultural details; the world feels like people live in it.
However, it’s funny to me that this galactic adventure operates off smalltown expectations. People whose work takes them on a year-plus long space trip at faster-than-light speed can expect to revisit their favorite watering holes, shops, lovers, and old friends. Cozy is the word for it. Not really what I go in for, but I think it’s a solid 4 out of 5. My kid would love reading this if there wasn’t any sex or romance. My husband freaking hated it.
The eponymous ‘long way to a small, angry planet’ description is accurate, but the important part of that is the ‘long way,’ not the ‘small, angry planet.’ The latter gets like, 8% of the narrative focus, if that, though a new POV character is introduced for the purpose. I was glad the book was in third person close, because doing like…seven POVs (!?!?) from first person would’ve annoyed the crap out of me.
Dr. Chef (crew member, but not a POV character (that I remember)) was my favorite, obviously.
A comic
Marriage Blues by I SOON KI and OH5HO
A relatively short, just-finished Webtoon about two goofs trying to escape unhappy relationships via taxi-based time travel. This was fun, though I got bored during the part of the plot where the MCs fall in love, because their romance starts/re-starts/loops back in high school. (Ughhhhh teenagers kissing ughhhhh.) Overall, it felt like a high concept, literary spec fic novel.