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#SpeculativeFiction
review
PirateJenny
The Bog Wife | Kay Chronister
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Pickpick

The Haddesleys are an old family that has a compact with the bog they live on: they take care of the land and the bog will provide the eldest male nd heir with a wife. But now the family home is in disrepair and the heir, well, he isn't so into the bog.

I felt a general sense of unease and uncomfortableness while reading and I mean that in the best way. Plus bog. We know how I feel about bogs.

review
vlwelser
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Pickpick

I like dystopian fiction. Like please give me all of it right now. This one has an interesting concept. Basically all of the white people have drowned themselves in a mass event. The ones left behind are a mix of joyful and lost. It reminded me weirdly of Underground Airlines.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Great progress!! 1mo
35 likes1 stack add1 comment
blurb
rachelsbrittain
State of Paradise | Laura van den Berg
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Went to pick up a bunch of holds from the library (research for some BR end of the year lists) and couldn't help snagging one bonus book and checking out the gorgeous new art they've added in a recent (and on-going) remodel

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Kitta
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October wrap up from StoryGraph.

November is going to be much slower. I am travelling a lot and just came back from a conference really sick 🤒 it sucks. I can‘t concentrate to read.

Rapid tested for both Covid and flu, because this feels like the flu (although I did get my vaccine), I was wondering if this was a different strain. Negative for both. Day off today to Veterans Day but I‘ll have to take more time off this week I think.

Dilara Oh dear! Get well soon... 1mo
BarbaraBB Sending positive vibes 🍀💚 1mo
Bookwomble I hope you're feeling more comfortable soon ❤️‍🩹 1mo
Kitta @Dilara @BarbaraBB @Bookwomble Thanks all, went to the doctor and got some meds (steroids, cough suppressants) but there‘s not much they can do since it‘s viral. I gotta ride it out. 😢 1mo
26 likes4 comments
review
Megabooks
State of Paradise | Laura van den Berg
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Mehso-so

Going to try to come back to reviews. Of course, I‘m starting with a hard book I didn‘t understand. I just couldn‘t grasp the why of this book. The Blake Crouch-ish aspects started way too late to pack a punch.

A woman moves back to Florida with her husband to care for her parents. She flashes back to times in an asylum there and works on her relationship for her sister but is flummoxed when the sister goes missing.

Chelsea.Poole I‘ve missed you ♥️ 1mo
Megabooks @Chelsea.Poole thanks! I‘ve missed being here. 💙 1mo
AmyG Hope you are well. Nobody makes me add to my TBR…like you! 1mo
See All 8 Comments
Megabooks @AmyG thanks! I‘m starting to have a bit more energy, so hopefully that holds. I wish I had better books to talk about so far this month! 1mo
marleed Welcome home💕 1mo
BarbaraBB Happy to see you‘re reviewing again! I have a mixed relationship with Van den Berg, the blurb is always great yet the execution lacks a bit imo 😘 1mo
Megabooks @marleed thank you! Glad to be back! 💙 1mo
Megabooks @BarbaraBB same! Her novels sound so good but rarely deliver for me. Glad to be back! 💜😘 (edited) 1mo
74 likes8 comments
review
Kitta
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Pickpick

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Great debut novel set in a slightly dystopian world where you get another shadow if you are convicted of a crime or hurt someone. Shadesters have reduced rights, wish extra time for healthcare and pay more for everything.

Kris (a shadester) and Beau (a NoShad), a lesbian couple, have a baby with a sperm donor and Beau dies during the birth. Kris and is left to raise the baby, who has a second shadow, on her own.

#lgbtbookbingo2024

LeeRHarry This sounds really interesting. 😊 2mo
Kitta @LeeRHarry it‘s very heavy on the grief, I really enjoyed it though! I love this kind of speculative fiction. 2mo
27 likes2 comments
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Kitta
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“Had she been paying attention, she would have known it hadn‘t happened overnight, that it took a million tiny stabs to bleed democracy dry.”

That hit home a little too hard.

US friends, please VOTE!! I cannot as I‘m here on a visa but I‘m very concerned about the future of the country.

BarbaraBB In Europe I am very concerned too. So yes, please vote 🗳️ 2mo
BarbaraJean Ugh, yes! I dropped off my ballot this week 🗳️💙 2mo
Kitta @BarbaraJean 😀 yay!! 2mo
25 likes3 comments
review
Robotswithpersonality
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Mehso-so

The fact that this book sent me into a reading slump kind of says it all. Of the 19 'stories' included in this anthology, 13 of them are excerpts from larger works, not full short stories or even chapters, just moments. Each entries prefaced by a page and a half discussing and introducing the material, and the overall structure is divided into themes discussed further in the introduction. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? All of which leads me to conclude this would have worked better as an essay/thesis that discussed and referenced the works, than it does as an anthology. Regrettably, I didn't really come away with the need to follow up on any of the stories excerpted, perhaps I'm the kind of reader who can't get a good feel for things even with extra context provided, I want to start at the start! 2mo
Robotswithpersonality 3/? Perhaps the content, understandly, universally grim, just doesn't invite further reading in my current headspace. Social commentary is an important part of storytelling and Indigenous stories reflecting lived experience is something the publishing world needs more of; I'll admit to a bias for hopeful if not happy narratives, and if an entire collection doesn't shift mood at any point from the more dire predictions and speculations 2mo
Robotswithpersonality 4/4 I find it more difficult to stay engaged in the material. I'd like to speak more about the creativity and the range indicated by the writing, but that 'cut off' sense the excerpts provided left me feeling like I didn't really have a handle on any of them. 🤷🏼‍♂️

⚠️racism, child abuse, SA
2mo
4 likes3 comments
review
DrasticallyJill
State of Paradise | Laura van den Berg
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Pickpick

A lush And deeply idiosyncratic book, State of Paradise is a post-Florida pandemic world, but feels so intimate that you can be in this quirky and mournful book. A ghost(writer), pet ghosts, cats, VR meditations (portals?), and family. The observational diary prose is what sold me; I was already hooked on what bizarre Florida story this would be…but bizarre is a beautiful way. A must read!

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Kitta
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#hyggehourreadathon (from last night!).

I started this book about grief. It was on my StoryGraph recommendations and I plowed through about a third of it yesterday.

Beautifully written and devastating depiction of losing your wife at a vulnerable time, during childbirth. The main character struggles as a new mother, alone.

It‘s got a dystopian flavour, and is lgbtqia. Definitely up my alley, thanks StoryGraph algorithm.

#lgbtqbookbingo2024

24 likes1 stack add