Rutabaga's Reads 2022: Part 26

Can this be? A third adult fiction compilation post in 2022? If you know me, this is unusual, but it’s thanks to my local library that I’ve stepped out and read more adult fiction novels than I normally do in a year. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had enough novels to create two posts. One of the novels is a library checkout; I purchased the other two.

The Mask Falling (Jan. 26, 2021) by Samantha Shannon.

*This is the fourth novel in a series.*

*Warning: Potential spoilers included for those unfamiliar with the series.*

The Pale Dreamer is dead. That is what the Republic of Scion wants everyone to believe. But dreamwalker Paige Mahoney isn’t dead, having eluded death yet again. She’s been snatched from captivity and consigned to a safe house in the Scion Citadel of Paris with assistance from the mysterious Domino Program (a network of free-world spies). They have plans for her, but she has plans of her own. That’s to be expected from the voyant (clairvoyant) who defeated Jaxon, her previous mime-lord, to become the Underqueen of London’s voyant community. This community is one-turned-rebellion, and she’s re-made herself as the Black Moth. She’s accompanied by Warden (Arcturus Mesarthim), a Rephaim who’s her former enemy-turned-bodyguard. Paige is not accustomed to taking orders, which may contribute to the bold moves she makes as Black Moth (vs. as an agent of the Domino Program). Bold sometimes equates to foolish, and, like any human, she can also jump to conclusions that may have devastating outcomes. Scion is really a puppet of the Rephaim under Nashira Sargas, who plans to force the voyant community to unwillingly serve the Rephaim. Paige and her allies want to undercut Scion, and their adventures will lead them into the catacombs of Paris and the glittering corridors of Versailles. But it isn’t all plans, plotting and undermining, as Paige simultaneously works through the trauma of torture at the hands of the Rephaim and her feelings for Arcturus. Paige may be a dreamwalker, but this world under Scion is a nightmare.

            With traumatic memories, fresh betrayals and a weighted sense of duty, plotting, near-death escapes and gut-clenching action, this fourth in the Bone Season series is a fantasy-slash-dystopian novel that’s also a paranormal-slash-political thriller. It’s a novel with a deeply emotional arc through Paige and contains excellent world-building. It is as epic as its predecessors, and there’s no question that Shannon is an incredible storyteller with a sharp, stunning imagination, but this volume does suffer from middle-book syndrome, in which it doesn’t quite live up to the WOW! factor of the first novel. I also struggled with the length between publication dates. When I finally got around to reading it, I felt like I needed a refresh session of the previous novel, though this feeling went away the further I delved into the story and remembered other bits and pieces. New readers will definitely want to start with Book One. Overall, the inventiveness of the series will be forward momentum to await the next installment. It’s gripping and unnerving, intricate and intrepid.

            Book One: The Bone Season (not reviewed)

            Book Two: The Mime Order (not reviewed)

            Book Three: The Song Rising (not reviewed)

A Mirror Mended (June 14, 2022) by Alix E. Harrow.

*This is the second novella in a series.*

Worry not, Sleeping Beauty, Zinnia Gray is coming to rescue you again. And again. And again. She’s still Dying Girl, that Generalized Roseville Malady (GRM) will snuff her out eventually, but she’ll be the dimension-hopping, damsel-saving warrior that she can be for as long as she can. Still, if some of those princesses would start solving their own narratives without her help, more power to them and less headache for her. She’s at yet another “happily ever after” wedding when she looks into the mirror and someone else is looking back. Eyes brimming with desperate hunger, her lips moving in a plea, Zinnia reaches out to her, is pulled right into another dimension and stares at a face of evil. Truly. She’s staring at Snow White’s Evil Queen (who has no real name until Zinnia starts calling her Eva). It’s the first inter-dimensional travel that hasn’t deposited her into another Sleeping Beauty story. But it turns out that sort of strangeness is occurring with more frequency: a golden egg in the belly of a goose, a talking wolf in the woods, Zinnia’s copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales with its grape juice stain and tatty ribbon that should be at her home in her own dimension, but clearly isn’t. The Evil Queen knows how her story ends and doesn’t want to be resigned to such a fate (understandably so). But can a character plotted for a villainous role become the protagonist of one’s own story? With the curiouser and curiouser things occurring where they shouldn’t, is that a result of Zinnia’s travels messing with the fairy tale multiverse?

            The next installment in the Fractured Fables series continues its female-centric theme:  of female empowerment, autonomy, strength and friendship. Of having one’s own agency. For those who’ve read the first novella, Zinnia oftentimes remains her crass, self-involved, crude self. Her fly-by-her-own-whims, thoughtless nature is ruining her friendship with her best friend, and with story-hopping consequences showing up, she needs to find her way home, probably for good. This novella traverses worlds with darkness and danger, and Harrow isn’t afraid to point out the unattractive. The author clearly knows her fairy tales and, like the first tale, this one contains a plethora of pop culture references, but readers do see growth in Zinnia. The novella presents queer relationships as relationships, and Harrow’s academic background (“I’m sure Charm would explain about the psychic weight of repeated motifs and the narrative resonance between worlds if I asked…”) shines through in her smart writing. She efficiently packs a lot into the slim volume, limited word count be darned, and creates a story that’s lively, yet can be read in a single sitting. It’s a story where a villain has the potential to be the protagonist and where the one the villain saves may save her in return. But I’ll be honest, I didn’t love the tale. I checked it out from the library because it’s short, and I trusted that I could finish the story despite the busyness of the Christmas season.

            Book 1: A Spindle Splintered

The Wish (Sept. 28, 2021) by Nicholas Sparks.

*This is a standalone novel.*

It is 2019, and Margaret (Maggie) Dawes is a renowned travel photographer. She leads a busy life, traveling the world photographing remote locations, running a successful gallery in NYC and maintaining her social media accounts. As the year is closing, she finds herself grounded over the Christmas holiday, having to come to terms with a sobering medical diagnosis that predicts she only has a few months left. Her own family notwithstanding, she’s got a found family in her assistant, Luanne Sommers, Trinity, a famous sculpture artist who showcases pieces in Maggie’s gallery, and Mark Price, her more-recently-hired young assistant (he’s 23). Mark’s been a model assistant; he doesn’t pry into her personal life and hasn’t even watched any of her YouTube videos since he was hired on. But as Mark runs the gallery while Trinity and Luanne are away on their respective vacations, Maggie tells him the story of another time. She reminisces back to 1995, when she made a choice and wound up pregnant. Sent away to an older aunt/former nun in Ocracoke, a remote village on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Maggie is 16 in 1996 when she gives birth to a baby she immediately puts up for adoption. While there, battling loneliness and depression, she grows close to Aunt Linda (her father’s much older sister), whom she didn’t know well, and Bryce Trickett, a rare teenager on the island during the winter season. Bryce is her tutor, the one who introduces her to photography and the boy she ends up loving. But in 2019, Maggie is a 39-year-old woman who’s never married. Has Maggie been that dedicated to her passion all these years, married to her work? Or was there a course change in the intervening years that couldn’t have been predicted?

            I’ll admit that I’ve struggled to read through some of Sparks’ more recent novels, because they either haven’t been engaging to me or I didn’t like one or both lead characters, but the tide turned favorable for this novel. “The Wish” is a tale you know isn’t going to have a happy ending, but the mental toughness and physical vulnerability of a body shutting down gave it so much weight and depth. It’s an emotional novel. Just because it’s a fictional one doesn’t lessen the impact of first love or demean the choices that pave the way or make someone wonder what if? It’s bittersweet, but can also be enchanting, though the winter backdrop and Christmas decorations certainly help with that picture. This is a story of love and loss and being found. It may also be a story that makes readers pause to think of their own mortality and their humanity, too.

Rutabaga's Reads 2022: Part 18

An unusual achievement for me, here is the second adult fiction compilation post for 2022!

A Spindle Splintered (Oct. 5, 2021) by Alix E. Harrow.

*This is the first novella in a series.*

It isn’t the spindle of a spinning wheel that will be Zinnia Gray’s downfall, but industrial pollution. Zinnia has Generalized Roseville Malady, and no person diagnosed has lived to turn 22 years old; Zinnia has just turned 21. It’s her last birthday, and her best friend, Charm (Charmaine Baldwin, “best/only friend”), has pulled out all the stops for Zin’s last birthday. It’s sleeping-beauty-themed (Zin’s a bit of an expert), complete with a tower (of the old state penitentiary), a plastic princess crown and a spinning wheel. When Charm dares her to prick her finger on the spinning wheel, she does – of course she does – but something happens. Someone calls out, “Help.” And Zinnia answers that call. It turns out sleeping beauties do exist, but their stories are not necessarily the stories one’s familiar with. Bits and pieces, yes, but not the entire narrative. In helping another sleeping beauty, will Zinnia be able to alter – or escape – her fate?

            If you’re looking for a fractured fairy tale, consider picking this one up. If you’re looking for a Disney-esque fairy tale, keep looking. “A Spindle Splintered” is the first in the Fractured Fables series. A feminist story that’s acerbic but sometimes sweet, subversive but still charming in a dark, twisted way, and entertaining despite its sometimes one-dimensional feel. (I think its one-dimensional feel came from its novella size, as opposed to a full-length novel where the author could better flesh characters out, especially supporting ones). It’s a story of sisterhood and stubbornness, imagination and fracture. It’s got a queer romance-in-the-making. It is a story gone rogue that still manages to be magical.

The God of Lost Words (Nov. 2, 2021) by A.J. Hackwith.

*This is the final novel in a trilogy.*

*Spoilers included if you haven’t read the previous books in the series.*

The Library of the Unwritten is in trouble. Malphas, general of Hell and the “Grandmother of Ghosts,” is a chief demon in Lucifer’s absence. Although Hell does not govern the Unwritten and Arcane Wings of Hell’s Library, Malphas has learned that the stories are souls. She will do whatever she can, through force and cunning, to harness those souls and gain more power. If that happens, it would mean obliteration for the Library. Arcanist and former Librarian Claire, Librarian and former muse Brevity, rakish Hero and the angel-Watcher Ramiel (Rami) will have to band together to outwit Hell and start a revolution. They will traverse the libraries of other realms to try to gain allies, but the effort seems futile. The Unwritten Wing’s Librarians’ log tends to hide entries until they are needed. That is how Claire discovers the entries of Poppaea Julia. She once rebelled against Hell and almost succeeded. Claire is on the lookout for “a realm, a guide, a library, a god.” That is what will purportedly keep them safe from Hell’s grasp forever. They’ve got to write the Library a new chapter.

            The concluding novel in an inventive trilogy, the fast-paced plot, intriguing world-building and the ​standout characters coalesce into a story that journeys to a hopeful yet bittersweet end. Hackwith’s writing is striking, the prose often thoughtful and deep, but inserts cheekiness as well. The action is both colorful and dark with plenty of emotion. There is queer representation, but what’s most poignant about all the characters, be they fallen, of an unwritten story, once a muse or once a living, breathing human, is that they are complex characters with wants and fears, brave fronts and self doubts, making them feel real to the readers. Though it may sound strange to say about a series titled Hell’s Library, this saga has been a delight to read. What a journey!

            Book One: The Library of the Unwritten

            Book Two: The Archive of the Forgotten​

            Favorite lines: “But that’s what stories did. Let enough impossible things pass through you and they gain a kind of reality. Stories grant the impossible emotional gravity, create new orbits – and your mental universe expands.” (p. 239)

Pachinko (Feb. 7, 2017) by Min Jin Lee.

*This is a standalone novel.*

“A woman’s lot is to suffer.” Kim Sunja is no stranger to this when her father dies when she’s 13, and she takes on more responsibility in helping her mom manage and take care of a boardinghouse. As a teenager in the early 1930s in Yeongdo, Sunja becomes pregnant with a married man’s child, and she refuses to be his mistress. Baek Isak, a kindhearted but frail minister, feels called to marry Sunja if she’ll have him and will give their child a name, though the baby isn’t his by blood. They marry and immigrate to Osaka, Japan, where Isak’s brother and sister-in-law live (Yoseb and Kyunghee). Sunja’s son, Noa (inspired by the Bible’s Noah), is her world, and later, so is Mozasu (inspired by Moses), her son with Isak. But life in Osaka is not easy. It is difficult for Koreans in Japan to find work, as it seems impossible to any of them that they could become Japanese citizens, so even with Noa and Mozasu being born in Japan, they are treated like foreigners or worse, like scum. The boys grow up and go different directions, having families of their own, and their dynamics are so different from each other. The story goes through 1989, when Sunja is in her 70s. Through these decades, never completely out of the picture is Noa’s birth father, Koh Hansu, who married into the second most powerful yakuza (gangster) family in Kansai (a region of Japan, which includes Osaka and Kyoto).

            As a National Book Award Finalist, I expected this book to be impressive, and it is. It is amazingly well-written, but the story is replete with hardship. It isn’t only about hardship and suffering with nothing else to go on, but hardship and love, suffering and family, sacrifice and ambition. From the dusty streets of the poor in Ikaino (the ghetto where the Koreans in Osaka live) to the pachinko parlors of the gambling-obsessed and from Korea to Japan to one character’s stint in New York for school, “Pachinko” is a multifaceted story filled with strong women, devoted families, moral crises, survival and anguish, even as the characters rise to thrive. It makes a reader think about history in a way that’s harsh but exquisite. It is haunting and brilliantly presented. Those who love Korea should read this, as should those who know nothing about Korea outside of K-dramas, K-pop, kimchi, Hyundai and Samsung, because, wow, this book has soul.