Reviews and Comments

i'm about 60 or 70 pages into the finale. i'm excited to see how it ends!

i'm attached to the characters and the plot so i've fully bought in by this point obviously, and persepolis is really good. it isn't my favourite in the series, and it feels a little melancholy as the characters settle into older age, dealing with all the same problems they've been trying to fix in prior entries. and the ending feels a little cut off. which would have driven me crazy if i'd read it on release.

the commentary on the cyclical nature of human problems, even in relatively short time periods during which naomi, jim, bobbi, et al are actively fighting, is molasses in my soul, but they're not wrong about it.

i rate the expanse at 3's typically bc they don't feel like, revelatory, or almost holy, the way some sci fi does. and in fairness to the series, i'm getting older, i've read more and seen more, and it's harder to break through and surprise me. but a 3 is solid. i really enjoyed each and every book in the series and i'm excited to finish it up with tiamat's wrath!

i'm finally going back to the expanse to finish it. i started ages ago, got caught up, bought babylon's ashes new, then took forever to read it and stalled again. but now i've finished persepolis and am on the last one. whoo!

persepolis was good. exciting. nerve wracking. annoying in where they left off. but i'm into tiamat's wrath already so i'll get whatever closure they provide at the end of the series soon enough. probably sad closure. oh well lol

her name is Snake and there's an offputting sexy picture of Snake, with a snake, wrapped around her naked body, as the cover page for this ebook copy i'm reading. and it's weird. but i won't hold it against the book lol. i'm excited to read this

brilliant take on colonialism, on change, on damage. it's really sad and frightening all the way through and it feels like a mudslide in that, once it's started, you know it won't stop. like, bad things will keep happening. there's no real happy ending.

but every word was worth reading.

i loved this. i'm bouncing between le guin and octavia butler right now and i feel very good about it.

i couldn't get all the way through this. it's a newer sci fi series and i wanted to like it really bad, but i couldn't sorta, internalize or connect with the writing style, and the story had some YA energy that i also struggled to get into. i kinda stalled and stopped reading for a number of months because i felt committed to finishing this, but i decided a bit ago to stop and try something else and it was the right decision

sci fi space detective book! i'm so excited!

i immediately became best friends with all of the characters. even the ones who kinda made me roll my eyes a little. everyone was so warm and vibrant and alive that i connected to all of them in some way almost immediately, and so, i really felt it when their stories were recounted. or when times got tough.

there was commentary on the welfare system in the 90s. there was some moralizing, and there were some shots at a system that seems determined to hurt and kill people. but, rather than get bogged down in frustration, the novel expresses this angst and frustration through occasional outbursts from lish. little bits of an insane response while living through insane circumstances of poverty and life on the dole. which is great, because it's hard not to become frustrated or even angry about how cruel and absurd being on welfare is. but the novel remains largely focused on the stories it tells, of lucy, of lish, and of the other women at half-a-life. and it mostly treats the hypocrisy and incongruity in the system with a quick joke for a cheap laugh. which contributes to the warmth in lucy's narrative.

it was also a loving tribute to poor single motherhood. to the joys and the hardships of surviving and taking care of your kids. the dedication of the mostly young mothers. the adversity they just kinda shrug off and live with to protect their kids, time after time after time. the stigma of being on welfare, and the consequences of that stigma in how men treat them. but also the joy in the little weird things kids do. grass tipping from dill's head and confusing him, as he leans down to pick more grass, to put more grass on his head. the little noises and quirks. lish's precocious kids absolutely loving to learn, loving school, and putting on little performances and playing games as they grow up.

this was a wonderful novel to get absorbed into and i'm very lucky that my girlfriend was sweet enough to lend it to me <3

i loved this and i'm definitely going to do a little review blurb