The Seep | 
pickA fantastic final read for 2025. Unusually for a novella, I think it was just the right amount of plot for the page count. There are aspects to this science fictional world that I'd love to explore further, side characters I wish we'd spent a bit more time with, but the main arc for the protagonist is satisfying, and still leaves room for things to be weird and wonderful and truly eerie. 1/?
I identify as zero chill. This is indeed intrinsic to my sense of self. 😅
Published in 2020.
These times remain unbelievable. 🤨
“When the aliens first made contact, Trina and her not-yet-wife, Deeba, threw one of their famous dinner parties for a select group of friends.
#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl
These are the books that arrived on hold for me and @tiedyedude all in one day. Looks like we've got some reading to do!
panThis started out with so much promise. I was here for the alien invasion utopia and Deeba wanting to be reborn as a baby- so much potential for a longer deeply rich sci-fi novel. I was fully engrossed at first. But then it started to get a bit silly when we started hearing more from the aliens and shifted focus to the aliens not understanding what humans wanted or needed and the “vengeance quest” of Trina. I was disappointed overall.
so-soAn alien intelligence takes over, offering humans immortality and the ability to heal and transform bodies. But at what cost?
It's an interesting premise but the author didn't manage to integrate world-building, characterisation, and a story in the novella, and it was rather a slog to get through. The short story re-telling some events from another character's viewpoint, where the world-building had already been done, was much more readable.
RELAX. PEOPLE MAY think they want to indulge, get too drunk, incapacitate themselves with weed, but really they just want to appreciate this fragile moment while the outside world falls down.
pickThis is blurbed as speculative, but I'd consider it Scifi/Utopian/horror. Aliens come to earth and "peacefully" overtake humanity, basically able to grant our every wish. Trina's wife, Deeba, decides to start her life over again as a baby, and she's left alone to try to put the pieces back together. Powerful exploration of humanity, relationships, individual choice, and what it means to be happy
so-soThis tale didn‘t make much sense. The setting - a world in which an alien force called The Seep invades our water system and turns society into a utopia - is intriguing. But the story is really about the main character‘s (Trina) grief after her wife decides to be reborn as a baby. At the end I felt like the book‘s fever dream world was unnecessary and left me confused more than anything. But I liked Porter‘s writing style, hence the so-so rating.
pickA strange little book about a utopian alien invasion that causes Trina a fair amount of grief. The Seep infuses every aspect of life, healing and connecting. But it doesn't understand why pain, struggle, and mistakes are an intrinsic part of being human. When Trina's wife leaves her, Trina struggles with depression and excessive drinking--in direct contrast to the Seep way of life. Light on world-building, but deeply embedded in human experience.
Waiting around at the lab getting some routine pregnancy tests (had to drink some disgusting sugary drink as part of a gestational diabetes test) but at least I'm getting some reading done. This one is very interesting so far! I identify with Trina's hesitance about the new utopian alien invasion. #QueerBooks #TransBooks
pickA unique take on an alien invasion where an entity called the Seep erases all Earth's problems, but when artist-turned-doctor Trina's wife decides to restart life as a baby through Seep technology, all her frustrations with the present come to a head. A riveting exploration of what makes humans tick and finding happiness amidst unhappiness.
Can't express how wonderful it feels to be reading again after not feeling motivated to for a few weeks. Finished one book already today and on to another!
This was a deep book that asks if you could do it all over again, would you no matter who you leave behind? This is an unsettling book, but in a good way. Makes you look at your life and be grateful for what you have been given.
Neely and Baby Girl have gone for a walk and left me ALONE WITH MY BOOK 😮📚🎉
so-soA quick read about a benevolent (?) alien invasion that ends war, aging, environmental destruction and more...but a reminder that Utopia for some is inevitably dystopia for others. At times I thought it was satire about liberal politics but ultimately I decided it wasn't, but could have been. I felt the author could have done more with some themes and storylines, basically I wanted more than I got.
"All I have is my uncertainty. And really, that's all I've ever had. Everything else was a lie."
pickThis is an interesting and odd read. It explores our view and perspectives of life via an alien invasion of ethereal beings. It's the most non violent invasion ever, but that doesn't mean it can't cause harm. I'd give this one 3.5 stars. It does seem to lose focus a bit near the end.
#sciencefiction #scifi
so-soAfter a promising start, this book devolved into just random weirdness. I was intrigued by the concept of an invasion by an alien consciousness and the way in which we can lose someone we love when they change (in this case, it‘s a physical change). Unfortunately, the last half of the book reads like a bad drug trip mixed with some pseudo-psychology. 2⭐️
so-soI think there is some very clever stuff in here, but pitching parts of it like Trina is going on a quest seems cheapened by the fact that her quest only spans a day or two and maybe 50 pages?
pick‘ll admit, I did not want to read this book. I felt committed since it was a Goodreads giveaway. I was wrong.
I‘m not usually very interested in stories about alien invasions, but this book is so much more than that. It is beautifully written. It‘s about life, and relationships and choices. You will find that there is a moral written into this story if you give it a try. It is a very quick read, I read it in one day.
Thanks to #Netgalley I had the chance to read this weird, beautifully bizarre novella. It‘s a story about an alien invasion and how it affects the world Trina knows. It‘s a book on identity and choice and it was so wonderfully trippy and gorgeous.
My November reads. I‘ve slowed down a lot in my reading and hope to pick my pace back up again before the year is done. See how that goes.
pickImagine one day all your problems could be solved with a thought and anything you wanted could just come into existence. It's a lot less fun than you'd think. This book serves as a reminder that some problems are worth working out on your own. Loved this one.
Certain things are resolved, but Porter doesn't make the mistake of trying to wrap everything up regarding what might be termed the larger threat, because the concepts introduced are, I'm gonna say purposefully messy, a reflection of life, and it works all the better for letting it be. 4d
Stagnation in loss, grief, for a way of life, for a loved one, for an old self that resists change, is perhaps the strongest theme for the main character. 4d
A strong sense of self even if things don't work out how you planned, a recognition of the process required to acknowledge what you have to let go of.
Good lessons to take into the new year.
⚠️suicide 4d