Double Reading Retreat - Part Three
Jul. 7th, 2025 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearThese are the remaining reviews for the books I read while on retreat last week.
The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes:
This one broke me. Admittedly, it was perfectly designed to hit me with all of the trauma and all of the feels. It's set in a realm called the Stillreal, where abandoned concepts and outgrown imaginary friends end up when their humans suffer some kind of event that changes their worldview and forces them to give up their Ideas. We follow Tippy the triceratops, who is a private detective in this realm - and who is plunged very much into the deep end, when a newly arrived Idea starts killing Friends - permanently... There is so much trauma in this book (on the part of the humans and the Ideas), so much pain and despair - but also so much love and loyalty and beautiful sacrifice and support. It even made me feel sorry for the bad guy! I wasn't wholly sold on the ending when I first finished it (after it made me cry really hard multiple times and want to hug all my teddy bears at once and never let them go) but, having reflected on it since (and I've been thinking about the book nearly every day for a week now) I've come to the conclusion that it was exactly right. A tough read but an awesome one.
The Defiant Spark by Annie Percik:
Yes, I know I probably shouldn't review my own debut novel - but I've never sat down and just read it in paperback form before - and I really enjoyed it! I'm never going to claim it's high literary art, but it's a fun ride, with characters I'm proud of having created, and it largely holds together! I was surprised I didn't find more to criticise - though there was one very annoying typo I spotted...
Chaos Vector by Megan E O'Keefe:
I remember enjoying the first book in this series - but I unfortunately left it too long to get to this next instalment and I just couldn't remember enough of the plot, characters and concepts to be able to make sense of what was going on. Definitely not the book's fault - very much mine.
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi:
I only got fifty pages into this before I had to put it down.
The world was very well described and interesting - but it was pretty grim from the start. And what happens to the girl of the title in the first of her viewpoint chapters was very graphically unpleasant. I hope, by the end of the story, she finds a better place to be and comes into her power - but I decided I didn't want to go on that journey with her because it was too distressing.
Fray by Rowenna Miller:
This is the second in a series and I remember the first one very well and definitely enjoyed it. I was glad to be back in this world of magical fashion and social upheaval. I like all the characters, the world was expanded in an interesting way, and the different demands on Sophie's time, loyalties, affections and activism were very well portrayed. A very solid middle instalment of this trilogy.
The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes:
This one broke me. Admittedly, it was perfectly designed to hit me with all of the trauma and all of the feels. It's set in a realm called the Stillreal, where abandoned concepts and outgrown imaginary friends end up when their humans suffer some kind of event that changes their worldview and forces them to give up their Ideas. We follow Tippy the triceratops, who is a private detective in this realm - and who is plunged very much into the deep end, when a newly arrived Idea starts killing Friends - permanently... There is so much trauma in this book (on the part of the humans and the Ideas), so much pain and despair - but also so much love and loyalty and beautiful sacrifice and support. It even made me feel sorry for the bad guy! I wasn't wholly sold on the ending when I first finished it (after it made me cry really hard multiple times and want to hug all my teddy bears at once and never let them go) but, having reflected on it since (and I've been thinking about the book nearly every day for a week now) I've come to the conclusion that it was exactly right. A tough read but an awesome one.
The Defiant Spark by Annie Percik:
Yes, I know I probably shouldn't review my own debut novel - but I've never sat down and just read it in paperback form before - and I really enjoyed it! I'm never going to claim it's high literary art, but it's a fun ride, with characters I'm proud of having created, and it largely holds together! I was surprised I didn't find more to criticise - though there was one very annoying typo I spotted...
Chaos Vector by Megan E O'Keefe:
I remember enjoying the first book in this series - but I unfortunately left it too long to get to this next instalment and I just couldn't remember enough of the plot, characters and concepts to be able to make sense of what was going on. Definitely not the book's fault - very much mine.
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi:
I only got fifty pages into this before I had to put it down.
The world was very well described and interesting - but it was pretty grim from the start. And what happens to the girl of the title in the first of her viewpoint chapters was very graphically unpleasant. I hope, by the end of the story, she finds a better place to be and comes into her power - but I decided I didn't want to go on that journey with her because it was too distressing.
Fray by Rowenna Miller:
This is the second in a series and I remember the first one very well and definitely enjoyed it. I was glad to be back in this world of magical fashion and social upheaval. I like all the characters, the world was expanded in an interesting way, and the different demands on Sophie's time, loyalties, affections and activism were very well portrayed. A very solid middle instalment of this trilogy.
