Goblin finished reading There Should Be Flowers by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza
Powerful poetry about trans survival
Reviews and Comments
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Pronouns: she/they
Living in occupied ancestral lands of the Osage nation (St. Louis, Missouri)
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Goblin rated There Should Be Flowers: 5 stars
Goblin finished reading The World We Make by N. K. Jemisin (The Great Cities, #2)
All is not well in the city that never sleeps. Even though the avatars of …
This sequel to The City We Became doubles down on the anti-racist anti-capitalist queer themes. So good!
Goblin finished reading The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin (The Great Cities Duology, #1)
In Manhattan, a young grad student gets off the train and realizes he doesn't remember …
This book is so damn good. It’s a work of fantasy set in New York City. It features an enemy that’s Lovecraftian in multiple ways. Yes Lovecraftian in the sense that the enemy attacks with tentacles and madness-inducing otherworldliness. But also Lovecraftian because the enemy attacks with racism, patriarchy, colonialism, and other insidious traits we might associate with H. P. Lovecraft himself.
Related to Jemisin’s excellent short story “The City Born Great” published in the How Long Til Black Future Month? collection
Goblin finished reading In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado’s engrossing and wildly innovative account of a …
One of my favorite books I finished this year. Memoir of an abusive lesbian relationship. Experimentally written, changes style every chapter. Blew my mind.
Goblin reviewed The Seep by Chana Porter
A blend of searing social commentary and speculative fiction, Chana Porter’s fresh, pointed debut is …
The Seep
4 stars
The Seep is a story about grief, more than anything else. The description of how Trina deals with her grief is well written. But I give the book only 3 stars because it feels shallow. How do we have multiple characters who turn out to be so important to Trina and her journey, without us learning much about them? I finished the book in an evening, and felt that perhaps something important had gone over my head because the story just seemed to be missing something. Trina is native, and Jewish, and trans. Does any of her identity and cultural background influence how she deals with the world created by the arrival of the Seep? It feels like it should be relevant, and I can speculate, but if there were hints from the author I missed them.
Despite the shallowness, the parts that are there are very good. Porter creates …
The Seep is a story about grief, more than anything else. The description of how Trina deals with her grief is well written. But I give the book only 3 stars because it feels shallow. How do we have multiple characters who turn out to be so important to Trina and her journey, without us learning much about them? I finished the book in an evening, and felt that perhaps something important had gone over my head because the story just seemed to be missing something. Trina is native, and Jewish, and trans. Does any of her identity and cultural background influence how she deals with the world created by the arrival of the Seep? It feels like it should be relevant, and I can speculate, but if there were hints from the author I missed them.
Despite the shallowness, the parts that are there are very good. Porter creates a really interesting world, a utopia where our material needs are met and the horrors of capitalism are in the past. Utopias seem like they should be dull to write about but Porter proves this wrong.
After finishing the book, I learned that a friend has a different edition that also includes a short story that goes into more detail about the boy and Horizon. Perhaps that edition would have felt more complete to me.