Review: "10 Things That Never Happened" by Alexis Hall

10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall
Published October 2023 via Sourcebooks Casablanca
★★★

Partway through the book, my Spidey-senses tingled, and I checked my impressions of one of Hall's previous books...and yes indeedy! Still convinced that Hall read stacks and stacks of fanfiction as a teenager.

I love the snark and Hall's general irreverence in the writing, and I'll keep reading Hall's contemporary books, but I had a lot of trouble getting behind the characters here. We have Sam(wise), who works very hard to be the Cool Manager rather than one who is concerned with sales/his employees' basic professionalism/how often an employee destroys thousands of pounds of merchandise. We also have Jonathan, who cares very much about the bottom line and is a huge fan of micromanaging, yelling at his mother, and throwing a single Christmas party that employees at the one far-flung branch have to travel four hours on their own dime (pence?) to get to. Cue Jonathan trying to fire Sam, Sam ending up with a concussion, and Jonathan thinking that Sam has total amnesia because of it.

So...Sam ends up staying at Jonathan's swanky house for weeks(!) on end in case he takes a concussive turn for the worse—never mind that the NHS recommends 48 hours of monitoring, or that there's no way on earth that the character who is Jonathan would install an employee he actively dislikes in his house—he would hire somebody to look after Sam in Sam's own space so that Jonathan didn't have to deal with him. (He'd also maybe, like, look up amnesia? Because Sam's 'amnesia' would be much more convincing if he was claiming to forget only, say, the past two weeks and not literally everything about his entire life.) I can live with some unlikelihoods, but the amount of rude that Jonathan is to his mother (and his family more generally) is just...not on. I can't root for a character who treats his (exhausting but very well intentioned) family like that. I can't root for a character who sees all that and thinks "Yup, this is the guy I want to bang!"

Again, I'll keep reading Hall's stuff, but...maybe not any sequels to this particular book.

Review: "The Buried Hours" by R.S. Grant

The Buried Hours by R.S. Grant
Published December 2023 via Thomas & Mercer
★★★

Signe is used to dealing with criminals—as an investigative journalist, she's made them her job. But two years ago, a group of unidentified criminals made Signe their job, and her life hasn't been the same since. So when she gets a tip promising answers, she leaps for it—even when everything about the tip screams trap, and even when she's not sure answers will bring anything other than heartbreak.

Now, I am predictable: I read this less for the particulars of the mystery and more for the hiking. A big chunk of the book takes place in the Yosemite backcountry, out where there's nobody to hear you scream. Hiking isn't really Signe's thing—give her a lounge chair and a screwdriver over a camping mat and a bottle of lukewarm water, any day of the week—but if that's what it takes, well, she finds someone who understands the wilderness and throws herself into it with vigor. I don't know Yosemite and couldn't always picture the scenery, but I could feel Signe's fatigue and the relief of an icy lake after a hard day of hiking, and I'll take it.

The mystery side of things is a little hit or miss for me. Organized crime isn't usually my mystery reading style—call me basic, but I prefer a good old-fashioned serial killer stalking his victims through the woods with a knife—but thinking about all the details that go into modern-day organized crime, especially the work involved in flying under the radar, was fascinating. But the villains tend to get a bit...evil villain-y...and I never find that as interesting as a complex, flawed character. Here, when we find out who the ultimate bad guy is, it's a great twist...but then he keeps getting worse and worse and worse, without a single redeeming quality. And, partly because the villains are so Big Bad Wolf, the one character whose motives we're really supposed to question never really feels, well, questionable. (Too much an outdoorsy Ken doll—though this Ken's job is definitely not "beach".)

This will likely appeal to those who like their mysteries gritty with a splash of romance, but it was a bit of a mixed bag for me.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review (Deutsch/English): "Man liebt nicht nur zur Weihnachtszeit" / "Home Sweet Christmas" von Susan Mallery

Man liebt nicht nur zur Weihnachtszeit von Susan Mallery, übersetzt von Ivonn Senn
Hörbuch gelesen von Anna-Lena Zühlke
Herausgegeben von HarperAudio, October 2023
★★★

Camryn ist in Wishing Tree für ihre Schwestern—sie will nicht bleiben. River ist auch in Wishing Tree für ihre Schwester...und sie will bleiben, aber sie findet es schwer, einen Mann zu treffen. Und dann kommen zwei Männer, eins für Camryn und eins für River...

Das ist ein Brot-und-Butter Liebesgeschichte—nichts kompliziert. Camryn hat ihre Schwestern, die fünfzehnjährige Zwillinge sind, und River hat ihre überraschende Geschichte; der Mann für Camryn hat eine anstrengende Mutter (gute Absichten...aber...), und der Mann für River hat ein Geheimnis.

Die Figuren sind für mich nur okay—Camryn mag ich, aber River wurde ich gern schütteln. Sie hat diesen Typ nur seit ein paar Wochen getroffen, sie haben nur ein paar Dates gehabt, sie haben meistens über das Wetter gesprochen—und River denkt, dass er alle seine Geheimnisse ihr erzählen muss? (Und alle die andere Figuren stimmen zu...?) Nein. Das ist kein gesunder Anfang für eine Beziehung. (Und Jakes Mutter...oh lawdy. Run, Camryn! Run!)

Als Hörbuch war das gut gemacht: der Ton der Leserin ist ruhig und klar, und die Stimmen sind verschieden—ganz hilfreich! Manche Stimmen fand ich ein bisschen nervig (zu...gehaucht? schmollend?), aber das Buch war überhaupt ein gutes Hörerlebnis.

Mallerys Liebesgeschichten sind nicht wirklich mein Ding, aber sie sind ganz beliebt—ich bin sicher, dass diese Geschichte ein großes Publikum finden wird.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley. Deutsch ist nicht meine Muttersprache, und alle Fehler sind meine eigenen.

Home Sweet Christmas by Susan Mallery
Published October 2022 via HQN
★★★

Camryn is in the sugar-sweet town of Wishing Tree for her sisters—she doesn't plan to stay. And River does plan to stay, but her shyness makes it hard for her to connect with people, at least romantically. But just around the corner is a man for each of them...

This is a bit of an odd choice for me. Susan Mallery actually wrote the first romance novel I can remember reading, when I was maybe 10, and although that particular book still entertains me it's not what I seek out. For Home Sweet Christmas, I picked up the German audiobook because it seemed like something I could handle (it was!), but I added the original English to the mix to make sure I wasn't missing too much: I listened to a few chapters of German at a time, then read the corresponding English chapters. (Can confirm: the translation is good, and I didn't need the double dose.)

Home Sweet Christmas is of course more modern, but it's still a bread-and-butter romance, nothing too complicated. Camryn is responsible for her 15-year-old sisters and reluctant to commit to anyone else in Wishing Tree; River has a slightly surprising history; Camryn's romantic interest has a well-intentioned but terrifyingly meddlesome mother (run, Camryn! run!); River's romantic interest has a secret.

There's not a ton of story, and the characters were for me merely okay. Camryn I like well enough, but I wanted to shake River—she takes the angle that if she's ready to bare her soul after a couple of dates, her lover needs to have the exact same timeline or it's a breach of trust. (It's wild to me that the other characters seem to agree, and to wave off her own enormous violation of his trust.) For a relationship built on conversations about how River doesn't like the cold (so deep!) and Dylan doesn't cheat (...reassuring?), it's a lot. Similarly, Helen's meddling goes quickly from 'quirky' to 'deeply inappropriate', and while the twins were fine, they often felt closer to 12 than to 15.

No regrets listening to the German version—I wouldn't bother two-timing with the English next time—but overall this is a 2.5 star book for me. Does what it set out to do but doesn't go beyond the basics.

German audiobook was thanks to the publisher via NetGalley; English original was powered by the magic of my local library.

Review: "This Country" by Navied Mahdavian

This Country by Navied Mahdavian
Published September 2023 via Princeton Architectural Press
★★★★

In 2016, Mahdavian and his wife moved from a liberal city to the deep, deep sticks: rural Idaho. They had a small house trucked in, they planted gardens in raised bed after raised bed, and they slowly got to know their neighbors—and to understand just how far from home they were. They could live here, and happily...but for how long?

Mahdavian is a cartoonist, and for all that the illustrations here are simple, there's a wonderful level of whimsy to them as well. In This Country, Mahdavian's wife often plays the grounding force to his more playful flights of fancy, and my overwhelming impression is that I would like to be their neighbor, in city or in country. (Although, in country, I can imagine also wanting a crusty old oldtimer around, one who actually knew what was what, because goodness knows I wouldn't.) Mahdavian is also even-handed about the locals, who are by and large welcoming of Mahdavian and his wife—but who are also openly racist and xenophobic, among other things. As the book progresses, the question becomes less Can we build a life here?, because it becomes clear that they can, and more Should we? Because whether or not they are asked to change to fit in, it's clear that the community will not be changing.

I daydream about moving to Idaho—or Montana, or Wyoming, or rural Saskatchewan—sometimes, but I also know that I am probably not made for those places. Reading about living there, for now or forever, is probably my next best thing.

Review: "Growing Up Duggar" by Jana Duggar, Jill Duggar, Jessa Duggar, and Jinger Duggar

Growing Up Duggar by Jana Duggar, Jill Duggar, Jessa Duggar, and Jinger Duggar
First published 2013
★

I took myself on a tour of the books the Duggar family published before things got...how do I say this delicately...more complicated in the media for them. Unfortunately, Growing Up Duggar—attributed to the four oldest daughters of the family, written when they ranged between 20 and 24—is one of those books.

It is about what you might expect from a group of brainwashed young women who are spouting the things their church leaders and father have taught them to say. Among the lessons: don't ever criticise your father; niceness is more important than auto safety or being able to trust your driver; romance novels and pornography are tools of satan; musicians usually die young (good grief I want to know where they got their data—from a wisdom booklet,* or somewhere else?)...

Everyone wants to be respected, but it’s especially important for fathers. I suggested that to begin improving their relationship, the first thing she needed to work on was being positive. If she felt like she was going to say something critical or negative, I advised her that it would be better, at least for now, to choose not to say anything. Along with this goal, I encouraged her to pray for her dad and ask God to help him have more patience and kindness and to pray that he would be “slow to anger,” a phrase that occurs several times in the Bible describing a characteristic of God. (34)

Mom and Dad have stressed that there’s a distinct line between giving advice and degrading someone as a person. We have had friends overreact with some of our siblings and insinuate that they don’t want to be a passenger in the vehicle the sibling is operating—or even come right out and tell the sibling that he or she is a bad driver. That’s definitely a situation when we will speak up and say, “Aww, that’s not nice to say. He’s actually a very good driver! Probably better than I was at his age.” (79)

We have met some girls who have simply fallen in love with the idea of marriage and are just looking for a guy to fulfill their dreams. They have an image in mind of what marriage is, and they are in love with that image. One girl told us recently, “I was in love with the thought of being in love, and it consumed my every waking hour.” This is one of the greatest dangers of romance novels. They paint a picture of an unrealistic, unobtainable relationship. It’s the same thing pornography does to men. Viewing pornography gives them a distorted view of women that leads them down the path of immorality and guilt. (106)

As we have examined the lives of many of these artists, we have seen the outcome of such living. It was sad to find that on average, the life expectancy for rock artists and musicians is around forty; many of them die at a young age for reasons related to AIDS, drug or alcohol abuse, or suicides. It’s a tragic reality. (153)

Jinger** has since sought to distance herself from this book, and from the messaging in it. I'm not sure if Jill has said anything about it directly, but considering that she recently published a book in which she said that the teachings she was living under at this age constituted a cult (I agree, Jill, I agree), I think it's safe to say that this is not a work that she is proud of these days. What the other two might think is a mystery.

But folks, this book is sad. It's sad that they were taught that their parents setting aside one day a month to talk to their children was going above and beyond: Maybe in your family, there’s no way parents and kids can spend a whole day talking one-on-one. And actually, having a set day for family talk time may be the ideal... (42). It's sad that those conversations included questions about favourite colours or favourite foods or things like 'Who's your best friend?" and 'What projects are you working on right now?' (41)—questions that you wouldn't need to ask if you were only able to set aside a few minutes per child per month. It's sad (and disturbing, and gross) that their oldest brother was interviewed for this book, and his vague account of 'struggles' and 'wrong thoughts' and 'failures' when he was younger seems—now that his actions are public knowledge—like an allusion to the fact that he had abused his sisters. (He's in federal prison now for similar crimes, but at the time all that was secret, so I guess the family was still trying to position him as the Golden Boy.) It's sad that there's pretty much nothing in here that reads like an independent thought rather than something that was suggested and approved by their parents.

I'm torn between one and two stars here. It's not their fault that this is what they were taught and told to write, but...it's pretty bad. Call it 1.5 stars, with the caveat that I hope they have all grown significantly in the past decade and would cringe now to read this.

*Wisdom booklets are 'educational' materials put out by the IBLP, a homeschooling organisation (cult!) that the Duggars were heavily involved in. Suffice it to say that they did not provide a balanced education.

**Normally I'd use last names, but there are a lot of Duggars to go around here, so for the sake of clarity...

Review: "Sign of the Slayer" by Sharina Harris

Sign of the Slayer by Sharina Harris
Published August 2023 via Entangled: Teen
★★★

Conceptually, I love this: inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and numerous other bits of pop culture, Sign of the Slayer envisions something more modern (and frankly a hell of a lot more diverse). Raven's life in Texas is nothing out of the ordinary—until that all gets blown to hell, and she's hauled off to a sort of slayer academy to learn to slay and survive.

But in practice, I found this a bit of a struggle. The author clearly had so many ideas here—I imagine fingers flying on keyboard, stopping to gulp some cold coffee and jot down notes for later in the book, and then back to it—but I ended up wishing that the book would slow down and give things time to develop. At school, for example, Raven promptly learns that she's extra special (not just slayer powers, but weirdly powerful and useful slayer powers), so instead of starting to learn how much she doesn't know, she mouths off a lot, disobeys directions, uses a sledgehammer whenever a scalpel would be most useful, and is rewarded for it in the form of immediate induction to the inner circle. (And then the book kind of moves on from the whole "slayer school" concept.) Maybe if this had been broken into two books, with the first one spending more time with Raven learning things and having to get her power under control...? I'm not sure, but I could have used a bit less of a romance focus and a bit less chaos.

Review: "This Wheel of Rocks" by Sister Marya Grathwohl

This Wheel of Rocks by Sister Marya Grathwohl
Published November 2023 via Riverhead Books
★★★

In 1963, Judy Grathwohl stepped out of high school and into a convent and became Sister Marya. But hers was and is not a cloistered life: rather, she found herself taking her Catholic teachings as a starting point and then leaping into a more layered understanding of both her own spirituality and connections between the literal, physical earth.

At one point, reading about Sister Marya's work to reduce the use of fossil fuels within her community—and, perhaps more importantly, to inspire the next generation to do the same—I thought to myself that she was (is!) ahead of her time. But it would be more accurate to say that she was ahead of her time by listening to those who came before her. This is a book some twenty years in the making (per the Acknowledgements, I believe the original book contract was signed in 2003!), but also a lifetime in the making, and then some lifetimes before that.

One of the things that struck me most, reading this, was how different Sister Marya's journey as a nun has been from those described in other nuns' memoirs I've read. I'm not sure whether that's because I tend toward religious memoirs about restrictive (and often cloistered) orders or because I also tend toward religious memoirs by people who have left, whether that means 'no longer a nun but still a practicing Catholic' or 'agnostic now and haven't been to church in decades'; I imagine that both would make rather large differences! But the richness Sister Marya describes in her religious life is one that is at least partly due to the freedom she had, within the strictures of her religious order, to choose her own path: to explore the topics that called to her, work on projects that interested her, and advocate for matters that, ah, mattered to her. Just the fact that her interest in Native American spirituality raised no eyebrows amongst her Sisters is fascinating, but it goes far beyond that. On a sense of discernment/call to religious life, she says this:

The sense of call continues throughout our lives: a call to a different ministry or to a particular group of people, a call that responds to a newly emerged need in society or the Church, a call to serve in a foreign country. Call is lively and energetic; it morphs with a Sister's age, acquired skill sets, interests. It also runs deep like a river in her soul, changing but constant in its flow. (loc. 1776*)

I've never seen call described this way, and I love it. All things considered (e.g., I'm not Catholic...) I'm unlikely to ever become a nun, but in another life I might make an okay Franciscan nun.

The earlier parts of the book, describing Sister Marya's life among the Crow in Montana, interested me most. This is where she started to question what she'd been raised to believe—not to reverse her worldview but to expand it—and to learn just how much she didn't know, but also where some of the most concrete scenes and connections are described. As the book goes on (and Sister Marya moves away from Crow and Northern Cheyenne land), the book becomes more about applying some of the lessons she started learning with the Crow to her broader environmental work, and also more about her further educational pursuits. I lean towards scenes and learning more about other characters when I read, and it's hard, I think, to be quite as invested in another person's revelatory learnings as they are. Still worth the read, but if Sister Marya had written a book twenty years ago focusing exclusively on her work in Montana, I've have gobbled that up. Recommended to those who like their religion grounded in social justice and tangible action.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read this book. I received a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Review: "Praising the Surface" by Stella Lory and Tilila Relmani

Praising the Surface by Stella Lory and Tilila Relmani
Translated from the French by Anna Howell
English translation published October 2023 via Europe Comics
★★★

Yasmina is educated, with a good (and important) job—but she's not as educated or decorated (or married) as the rest of her family, and between that and her love of reality television, she feels like the black sheep of the family. So what's she to do...? Apply to be on reality TV, of course. And fail—and take a job on set instead, where she can analyze it from up close.

I appreciate the aim here—this is a blend of lighthearted poking fun at the reality TV industry (and the expectations of the participants, especially the women) and something of Yasmina's more academic manifesto about the whys and hows of reality TV—how it came about, why it attracts viewers, and the ways in which contestants (who are often white, heterosexual, thin/fit, etc.) are typecast...and in some cases choose to play to type.

The art style is not for me. The cover hints at the cartoonish art, but in the graphic novel itself it's far more exaggerated. Think Foxtrot (I'm sure there's a better comparison, but that's what I can come up with right now), but without any noses. Still miles better than anything I can draw, of course, but I read graphic novels partly for the story and partly for the art, and this is just one where the style really didn't add to my experience. Recommended for those entertained more by the industry of reality TV than by the reality TV itself, and those who appreciate a more comic-y art style.


Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Briarcliff Prep" by Brianna Peppins

Briarcliff Prep by Brianna Peppins
Published November 2022 via Disney Hyperion
★★★

It's Avi's freshman year, and she's ready for the challenge—three of her siblings are already at Briarcliff, her mother went there as a student as well, and Avi's determined to not just live up to the family name but to shine on her own as well. I (predictably) wouldn't have minded less focus on romance, but I love that Avi and her friends are all bound and determined to excel academically as well.

Briarcliff Prep takes the reader into the semi-fictional world of historically black boarding schools (HBBSs), and I am in love with the concept. HBBSs do exist, but these days in vanishingly small numbers, and Peppins has mixed something like a (historically white) New England prep school with her own experience at a historically black college (HBCU) to come up with Briarcliff Prep.

Two things I had a hard time with: first, working out the target audience. Avi's a freshman, roughly fourteen years old, which puts the book in something of a grey area between middle grade and YA—if she were in middle school, this would definitely be MG, but YA leans towards characters who are closer to sixteen. Avi's well in line with a fourteen-year-old, but we also get a fair amount of action from her seventeen-year-old sister, Belle, and between that (and romance) and the more YA cover, I'm guessing this is aimed at a more YA audience. Second, the lack of supervision at this boarding school—even before reading the author's note at the end, I was pretty sure that she hadn't been to boarding school herself, because the casualness with which Avi and her friends visit the dorms at the boys' school across the street, or go off campus, does not compute to the part of my brain that still remembers all the rules I had to follow at my relatively liberal boarding school back in the day. Quite late in the book, we learn that girls can't be in boys' rooms with the door closed, but even that seems wildly liberal to me (and I'm not exactly conservative). It's a liability thing—most students are underage, the school is in loco parentis, and their goal is to reduce the chances of kids getting in trouble and thus the school getting in trouble with parents. And a boarding school student giving his girlfriend his spare key (172)...? Who gives a boarding school student a spare key in the first place? You get one, unless you lose it, and then you probably pay for a replacement. That and some other things (like a teacher letting a tenth-grader TA "jump in" to teach the class for forty minutes) make me think that there's too much reliance on college experience here and not enough consideration for the differences between college and high school life (and rules).

All that said: the concept here is so strong, and I'd love to see something like this expanded into a light series of shorter books for middle grade or early YA readers. There are so many of that sort of series written for, presumably, a predominantly white audience, but far, far fewer books designed to let young Black (or BIPOC) readers imagine themselves within the pages.

Review: "Khamoshi" by Qudsia Akhtar

 

Khamoshi by Qudsia Akhtar
Published March 2022 via Verve Poetry Press
★★★

She is a cautionary tale of the feminine curse, / people read her like braille and spit out the words / and fill in the blanks with her name, alongside countless / women who made the same mistake. (30)

Khamoshi ("Silence" in Hindi) takes readers through a life lived in diaspora. Pulling from Muhammed Iqbal, the book seeks identity in something of a liminal space—either British and Pakistani or neither British nor Pakistani, or perhaps both and neither; defined by others based on external factors (skin color, clothing, female body); asking questions about and calling attention to the ways in which other is forced upon a person.

The poems here take various forms—some tightly corralled, two or three words per line; others sprawling across the page; a few two-line poems; a few focused on rhyme. This is not a book to be read all in one go but to take some time with—two poems here, a poem there. I returned to some pieces to pick out more details (poetry is not my first language), and I'm curious to see what will stick with me if I return to this in the future.

I do not only address today. I sing riots / for tomorrow. I interrupt the song / of change and sing my verse. I exist / to exist for us. Project our voice to say: // I carry the charge of a thousand feet. / They thrash against the barriers / of history and wake the dead / to riot, to riot with me. (64)

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Short story: Review: "The Lover" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Lover by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Published November 2023 via Amazon Original Stories

What Judith wants, her sister Alice has: the interest of a handsome young hunter, ready to step in with big promises and an eye for beauty—and an eye for money.

What Judith has, nobody wants: the interest of a scruffy stranger from the woods, one who speaks in riddles and secrets.

I haven't read any of Moreno-Garcia's full-length works, but I probably should, because this twisted little fairytale is working hard in its 40-odd pages. From the first page, you're reminded of the difference in pacing between a short story and a novel—She'd always known, says the first page, and when she awoke, and A few months later. It's much harder to pack that many time jumps into the first three paragraphs of a novel.

Nobody is altogether sympathetic here—not Alice, who treats her sister as a servant; not Judith, who lets desire blind her; not the man who is a fuckboy nor the man who promises and delivers darkness. But also: I'd read a novel about Judith, Judith and her yearning for a world beyond her poor, provincial town. This is no Beauty and the Beast story, mind, but a woman refusing to comply with convention, and lonely enough to look past whatever morals might have been instilled in her...it makes for an interesting story.

This feels very appropriate for a dark autumn night—into the woods, into the woods, to Grandmother's house we go...

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "The Denim Diaries" by Laurie Boyle Crompton

The Denim Diaries by Laurie Boyle Crompton
Published November 2023 via Zest Books
★★★

The Denim Diaries makes for a coming-of-age story in verse and in sketches, ranging from small-town Pennsylvania to the hustle and bustle of New York in the 70s and 80s. Between a discordant home life and body dissatisfaction, she had more than enough to deal with, and she chronicles years of ups and downs, fitting herself into the skintight-have-to-be-done-up-with-a-clothes-hanger jeans of the pre-stretchy sort, seeing her mother struggle to keep the family afloat while her father's alcoholism ebbed and (mostly) flowed, and on it goes.

The book covers a fairly extended time period—this isn't a story that can be wrapped up simply in a few months or a year; rather, Crompton describes a very up-and-down journey that took a long time to settle. For the most part it manages to avoid feeling repetitive, and generally speaking I much appreciate books that show the longer haul of struggle—better that than an emphasis on the difficulty and then a skip to the end, everything's fine now.

The sketches are more than an afterthought here: perhaps half of the pages include quick drawings similar to the ones on the cover. They don't expand on the details in the text, but they give the book a distinct flavor and texture, and although the style isn't usually one that I'm drawn to, I found myself looking forward to seeing what parts would be illustrated. Although the text is appropriate for both adults and teens, I can also see the drawings adding to the appeal for a teen audience in particular.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Desert Governess" by Phyllis Ellis

Desert Governess by Phyllis Ellis
First published 2000
★★★

Following her husband's death, Ellis needed both money and a new direction—and so she took up a post as a governess for some members of the royal family in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi royal family is sprawling (10,000–20,000 members, with about 2,000 of those holding the majority of the wealth and power), but she was working for people who were quite high up the chain—a position that brought certain privileges, to be sure, but also one that came with risks. A woman alone in Saudi Arabia, Ellis could not go alone to the grocery or to get her hair cut; she could not leave the palace grounds without permission; she could not leave the country without permission. And although she was never given reason to think that that permission would be unjustly denied, there's something to be said for knowing that you can go your own way if and when you wish. In Saudi Arabia, she couldn't—she was one of a mass of women covered from head to toe, anonymous but under constant scrutiny.

My weirdest experience of this anonymity is in an audience of women in an auditorium for a Health Education meeting. Amira is invited to present diplomas to newly qualified Saudi nurses. Nearly half of the women sit for the entire two and a half hours with their faces covered. The others wear their abayas and head covering.

A Saudi doctor gives a lecture advising women to use their National Health doctor, and not the traditional Bedouin women who prescribe natural cures. Next, slides instruct them on how long to boil goat, camel, sheep, or cow's milk to sterilise it for babies. There has been an outbreak of enteritis in Hail. The projector breaks down several times, and it is bizarre to witness the entire audience throwing their veils over their faces in unison when the male technician appears. (loc. 1279)

In some ways this is a rather outdated book, and there's language in here that wouldn't stand up to a round of 2023 editing (blanket statements about Arab men's sexual appetites, etc.). But for the most part, it's clear that Ellis both liked and respected her employers and was perpetually curious about the world she found herself in, and it's a more interesting book for it. As a woman passing through a land where women's options are limited, she was primed to take note of the different ways women were able to act alone versus in mixed country—and, when she went along with the family to her native England, what changed and didn't change for them there.

One not-quite throwaway thing: at one point Ellis met the first wife of her employer, now divorced. She talks a little bit about how unusual this is—that divorce was taboo, women had no right to decide to divorce, and even for a wealthy and privileged woman it would be difficult to be divorced. Ellis does not speculate about the circumstances surrounding that divorce, but she must have wondered...just as she must have wondered how the younger generation, especially, found the experience of going to places like London and then back to Hail.

Not a standout, but a quick read and an engaging one.

Review: "No Crying in the Operating Room" by Cecily Wang

No Crying in the Operating Room by Cecily Wang
Published June 2023 via Gatekeeper Press
★★★

When Cecily Wang was growing up, her mother dreamed of an easy life for her—one with fewer challenges and more luxuries; one in which she could perhaps have a family and a part-time job and busy herself with artistic pursuits. But Wang wanted more—she wanted to be a doctor, and once she was a doctor (a surgeon), she wanted to push herself beyond the norm in the US. Off to Haiti she went, then, Haiti and South Sudan and Syria and wherever she could go while juggling the pay-the-bills medical jobs in the US with relief work through the Salvation Army and, later, Médecins Sans Frontières.

No Crying in the Operating Room chronicles some of that journey—the disconnect that Wang felt between the way medicine works in the Global South and the way it works in the US and the expectations that patients have when resources are vast versus those when resources are scarce; also the disconnect between the way she envisioned her future and the way her mother envisioned her future.

The structure of the book feels a bit unresolved to me, but Wang is precise (as you might expect from a surgeon) with her language and assessments. (Also, sometimes, funny in a way that is so dry that I almost missed it—measuring the sterility of a conflict-zone operating room by the number of flies and concluding that no flies meant that "it's possible that the room cannot support life" (loc. 839)...) I'm not a medical (or relief) worker, but I'm fascinated by the ins and outs—and pitfalls—of medical relief work, so I appreciated reading about her experiences working in various far-flung places. Again, a disconnect or dichotomy: this is the work Wang feels most called to and where she feels most useful, but relief work is by definition not meant to be sustainable, and the medical jobs through MSF are generally only meant to be short-term placements. In any case, this makes for a thoughtful addition to the subgenre.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Let There Be Light" by Liana Finck

Let There Be Light by Liana Finck
Published April 2022 via Random House
★★★★

And there was light.

In Let There Be Light, Finck reimagines the Old Testament with god as a woman—a childlike woman, prone to bouts of depression and rage, who falls for the wrong men and who allows men to think that god is, in fact, male. As you might expect, either from that description or the fact that this is the Old Testament reimagined...chaos ensues.

The art style is (as you might expect from a New Yorker cartoonist) very simple, with fine lines and very limited detail. It's not really to my tastes, but tongue-in-cheek retellings of the bible are, and this doesn't disappoint. For the sake of the graphic novel, not everything entirely lines up with the original, but it's consistent within itself, and very wryly funny.

So, like...don't read this if you're religious and don't have a sense of humour about it. It probably helps to have some familiarity with the Old Testament, but it's manageable even if your biblical history is, ah, shaky. But it's a lot of fun. For a number of reasons, I doubt Finck will tackle the New Testament, but if an author with a lusher illustration style—who also has a sense of humor—wanted to have a go, I'd be all over it.

Review: "The Wild Between Us" by Amy Hagstrom

The Wild Between Us by Amy Hagstrom
Published November 2023 via Lake Union
★★★

Fifteen years ago, a girl went missing in the woods. She's never been seen since, but suspicions linger. Three other teenagers—Meg, Danny, and Silas—were in the woods with her, and they can't explain. And now, for the first time since it happened, they're all back in the same place...except Silas's young boys are lost in the woods, and it's a race against time and cold to find them.

This makes for a wonderfully solid read from a debut author. I'm a sucker for lost-in-the-woods books and gone-for-a-hike-in-the-woods books and murderer-in-the-woods books (and on and on it goes), and it's really satisfying to see so much of this book take place, well, in the woods.

The heavier emphasis is on the present-day search. Another reviewer noted that this is more a SAR book than a mystery, and that feels accurate—the search and rescue is very much the A plot to the disappearance B plot. That's partly because the search is so much more time-sensitive; there's a chance that Silas's boys can be saved, while there's no realistic good outcome for a girl who has been missing in the woods for more than a decade. But it's also because the POV characters aren't ready to share everything they know about that day fifteen years ago, when four went into the woods but only three came back out.

If there's a weak spot, that's where I see it—personal preference, but I'm generally not a fan of mysteries where POV characters know more than they're telling. It takes away a lot of the suspense for me, and I ended up wishing that we'd gotten more of that story earlier. Also, I guessed at the resolution of the years-old disappearance (or at least, the general shape of the resolution) relatively early on, and while I don't mind having guessed at it (give me a resolution that makes sense with the information you've been given rather than a twist that comes out of absolutely nowhere, any day of the week), there's a pivotal character who I would have liked to see more of in the present day.

With all that in mind: I want more of this! My rating falls somewhere between 3 and 4 stars, and I won't hesitate to pick up more of Hagstrom's books...especially if they take place in the wild.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Emmett" by L.C. Rosen

Emmett by L.C. Rosen
Published November 2023 via Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
★★★

It's been a good year for YA Austen retellings: Ghosted by Amanda Quain (Northhanger Abbey), Lola at Last by J.C. Peterson (Pride and Prejudice inspired), and now Emmett—which is, of course, an Emma retelling. Queer Emma! I'm here for it.

Emmett is blessed: he has the money, the looks, the grades, the friends. He tries to pay it forward by being nice—by volunteering and serving as his friends' sounding board and tutoring...or "tutoring". Ahem. (If some of this also benefits Emmett—increases his popularity, boosts his college applications, whatever—oh well! Nothing he can do about that.) Emmett doesn't want a boyfriend, not until he's 25 and his brain has stopped growing, but when his (*ahem*) tutoring client does want a boyfriend, well, Emmett is perfectly poised to do the nice thing and set him up with the perfect guy...whoever that might happen to be.

The book is appropriately tongue in cheek—think of Mr. Woodhouse and his obsession with eating thin gruel (itself a tongue-in-cheek characterisation—when Emma was written, gruel was purported to be healthy in any manner of situations, including when the eater had VD), and shift that to the 21st century and you get a man obsessed with green tea and cauliflower-crust pizza, and who tests his son's blood at every opportunity. Just in case. It's on point, though if anything I wanted Emmett to be a bit snarkier or a bit more...oblivious? Imagine him captioning his social media posts with #blessed, for example. He's more likeable for being a little more earnest and a little less over the top, but...I don't mind a little over-the-topness for Emma.

It may be time for me to go back and read the original, because it occurred to me at some point that I was thinking more of Clueless for context than of Emma. (I burn with shame.) In any case, nice to see another YA take that deviates from the more common retellings.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.