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j12i@wyrms.de

Joined 2 years, 5 months ago

Contains brainfog. I admire people who have a clear definition for what each number of stars means, but I give them out purely intuitively.

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reviewed Vampirocene by merritt k

merritt k: Vampirocene (EBook, 2025)

Someone is coming to save us, and she's not human...

When viral pop star Janie …

Vampirocene

Just your average socialist vampire novella about climate change, featuring a comfortably cynical leftist podcaster discovering his own values and what he'll do for them.

(also, lots of drugs and a shitty narrator who thinks he's a nice guy to trans women)

I will go on the record and say that I generally dislike vampire stories. I watched Sinners recently with some friends and I hated how much it was like "hey it turns out it's vampires, thank goodness everybody has already internalized vampire tropes so we can immediately deal with them". Leaning on tropes is such a lost worldbuilding opportunity.

Needless to say, I was delighted about the ideas in this book around vampires being naturally long term thinkers, concerned about how the mass of humanity was treating the planet. But also about being vampires. In some ways, this reminds me of the setup of the Philip K. Dick …

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reviewed In Universes by Emet North

Emet North: In Universes (2024, Cornerstone Publishing)

For fans of Emily St. John Mandel and Kelly Link, a profoundly imaginative debut novel …

In Universes

Incredible.

We've read a number of books for #SFFBookClub that have a short story structure with interconnecting themes and worldbuilding (How High We Go in the Dark, and Under the Eye of the Big Bird) but In Universes is my clear favorite among all of these.

Structurally, this book is a series of short stories with a single point of view. Each story takes place in different adjacent-ish branching multiverses, some of which veer into more magical realism and externalized metaphors while others are more realistic. Thematically, this book is about dealing with internalized homophobia, trauma, depression and grief. But it's also about (queer) possibility and transformation and acceptance.

It's interesting to me just how many things I underlined (virtually) while reading this book. Delicious turns of phrase. Devastating sentences seemingly directly targeted at my feelings. Interconnecting thematic ideas everywhere. I found myself utterly engaged in its …

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EbonyJanice Moore: All the Black Girls Are Activists (2023, Wheat Penny Press)

Pretty good but missing some important perspectives.

This book is another step along the path toward the formation and realization of Black womanist thought. I am 46 years old and grew up with a copy of The Color Purple in my home. I read Their Eyes Were Watching God for the first time when I was in high school and I minored in Women & Gender studies in college, reading bell hooks, Assata, Audre Lorde and so many others. In the last several years, I've become intimately familiar with the writing and work of Patricia Hersey. For someone like me, this book was mostly review--and I think that's a good thing. It was a good opportunity to refresh my memory and to witness younger generations building on the knowledge passed on by our ancestors.

That being said, I think what is needed now is the centering of the most vulnerable and oppressed among us. I think that …

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EbonyJanice Moore: All the Black Girls Are Activists (2023, Wheat Penny Press)

I don't have time to build another program to supplement the racist programs that should be doing what my supplemental programming will have to do. But those programs will not do the bare minimum of including us because systematic oppression will always make it okay to leave out marginalized folk and then gaslight us into wondering if we are asking for too much. Neither are we asking for too much, nor should we have to create our own everything to be able to experience equity. I do not have time for this.

All the Black Girls Are Activists by 

When you're reading a book, but the book is reading you.

Sangu Mandanna: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches (Paperback, 2022, Berkley)

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide …

It's a really fun book.

Pretty good examination of (family) trauma and the possibility of reconciliation (or not). Lots of cozyness. Good characterization throughout, of the children as well—it is a bit caricature-y, but, it's a short book for the count of characters. I am pretty sure the main character is intentionally autism-coded.

I liked the way magic is portrayed, even if it veers into cheesy at times.

Like @hollie@social.coop noted, the narrator, Samara MacLaren, is outstanding.

Some stuff rubs me the wrong way: the use of alcohol as a social lubricant as a matter of course, without any reflection; a child having magical powers, which their caretakers know about, and them nevertheless letting them believe in Santa Claus; a reverence for the "classics" (Austen etc.).

The sex scene is pretty hot, executed with grace and skill—I wonder if the author writes smut under another name.