Catship started reading Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher
After years of seeing her sisters suffer at the hands of an abusive prince, Marra—the …
Love it so far
Reviews and Comments
We're a plural system who loves queer & anarchist scifi.
But recently we just read a few randomly picked up mystery books in a row, in German, and we tend to review books in the language we read them in. That or similar may happen again, be warned.
No reading goals, just feelings.
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Catship finished reading Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
It's good. But even harder to read than the first book, in which everyone has been thoroughly retraumatised, which shapes what happens in this one. But also, again, the plot knows very little mercy. If something can go horribly wrong, it probably will.
Catship started reading Vamoose by Meg Rosoff
Picture the scene, if you will – an innocent young couple have just welcomed into …
It's the blurb that caught me, in a "I feel like I relate to this on a deeper level" way, without knowing if I relate to the baby moose or the human parents, one of whom happened to birth it. So I will probably be disappointed because the book is supposed to be fun, not deep!
Catship finished reading Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (Legacy of Orïsha, #1)
They killed my mother. They took our magic. They tried to bury us.
Now we …
This one is so intense. It's a very hopeful story, but not an easy one. Don't expect anyone to be rewarded for doing the right thing. Don't expect an almost almighty kingdom to have mercy.
I'll definitely be reading the second book. That was a cruel little cliffhanger.
Catship finished reading The Near Witch by V. E. Schwab
Eh, that's not my favourite kind of story. But I still enjoyed reading it, mostly. I just felt like some of the paths it went were a little too much on the "high emotion, low story impact, just so something is happening" side.
Catship finished reading A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Cordelia knows her mother is . . . unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors …
Ok, I love this one a lot. It's an "escaping abuse" story, but while it does have its tense moments, it didn't set me on edge too much. The whole thing, except for the very beginning, felt stable and grounded and comforting. Obviously, Hester, the almost-old unmarried lady who likes poking people with her cane, used to breed geese and is trying to protect her easy to impress brother, is my favourite, but almost all the characters do their part to make this more cozy than horrifying. Bad things are done, and they're all caught in something hard to grasp and harder to research, but they're caught in it together and that's what matters. Very satisfying.
Catship finished reading Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Yes!! I'm aware that "It's just like Certain Dark Things, only without vampires" doesn't sound like praise, but it is. I loved Certain Dark Things. I liked Mexican Gothic too, but quit halfway through because I wasn't feeling up to an All Abuse All The Time story. So I was uncertain whether this one would be right for me, and yes it is. It feels very soft to me although there's a lot of violence, and I like the unusual energy of the characters and the way everything is connected in a way that's neither too subtle nor too blunt. And how the plot goes on in a pretty steady way, keeping me interested without the exciting events getting overwhelming.
Catship finished reading The Wren in the Holly Library by K. A. Linde
Thirteen years ago, monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged Kierse's world into a cataclysmic …
This was... fun. It's like teenie fantasy with teenie fantasy tropes, and toxic relationships as the norm and consent being discussed in a way that I have my issues with. But everyone is a bit older, so it's not as awkward. I actually enjoyed large parts of the main relationship despite it being quite horrible in a few ways. The erotic tension worked great for me, although I was underwhelmed by The Sex Scene. The world mostly convinced me (with some "ok ok fine") and the friendships are great.
Catship finished reading Bathysphere Book by Brad Fox
11 June, 1930. On a ship floating near the Atlantic island of Nonsuch, a curious …
I liked this one, it's a mix of diary entries and related people and concepts, not very exciting and I didn't pay constant attention, but, I enjoyed it.
Catship finished reading The Wager by David Grann
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on …
It's not as good as the book about the Erebus & Terror that I just read. I say that because it tries to tell a dramatic story rather than give me an idea of how likely which facts are to be true. But I came to appreciate it for not omitting colonialist racist bullshit, and for writing about it critically.
So my main points of frustration are actually the historical facts (of whichever level of facticity, shrug, ok we can call it the story, I don't care). I find the Erebus/Terror expeditions relatable because, while also being colonialist bullshit, they are about exploring areas unknown to the people doing the expeditions, about drawing maps and uuuuh collecting (cough eating cough) new-to-them species. I get why someone would want to do that. But this? This was some war bullshit, people were literally forced to go, and gosh "capturing the treasures from …
It's not as good as the book about the Erebus & Terror that I just read. I say that because it tries to tell a dramatic story rather than give me an idea of how likely which facts are to be true. But I came to appreciate it for not omitting colonialist racist bullshit, and for writing about it critically.
So my main points of frustration are actually the historical facts (of whichever level of facticity, shrug, ok we can call it the story, I don't care). I find the Erebus/Terror expeditions relatable because, while also being colonialist bullshit, they are about exploring areas unknown to the people doing the expeditions, about drawing maps and uuuuh collecting (cough eating cough) new-to-them species. I get why someone would want to do that. But this? This was some war bullshit, people were literally forced to go, and gosh "capturing the treasures from the Spanish" is such a petty goal.
Also! I'm irritated that this happened before people figured out how to prevent scurvy! Couldn't they just have waited until that was solved? Sounds like such an unnecessary way to suffer and die, and like, a bunch of increasingly sick people forced to keep the ship going sounds like such a nightmare.
That brings me to the island! Cold year round, bad storms, celery? Celery as the only-ish edible plant? When you're on such an island you'd better not scare off the indigenous people who know how to live with this, but also, it's such a bad place to have a shipwreck in in the first place! Who does that!
And then the big conflict is "we have to serve our country to the death" vs "I wanna go home, it's cold and there's no food". It's...... yeah idek. Did this really have to happen?? Could they not just have said "no, we're going to a warmer place with less dangerous storms"?
Catship finished reading My Presentation Today Is about the Anaconda by Nancy Forest-Flier
It's cute (I had more to say but I forgot)
Catship finished reading Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children, #10)
Giant turtles, impossible ships, and tidal rivers ridden by a Drowned girl in search of …
It didn't pull me in like many of the other books in the series, but yes I liked it.
Catship reviewed Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
Yeah no
Not my kind of book. I can appreciate a revenge story, and I like locked room situations, deserted islands and places that feel creepily off. But this didn't convince me at all. There was no building suspense for me, just single tense moments. The character motivations felt kind of random, it just didn't come together for me. And the whole story felt very long winded, the entire second half made me think "this takes too long". I finished it because the story still had all those elements that I like, and I was curious how it'd go. But yeah, no, this was not for me.
I did however have frustrated fun researching some of the things around this book.
I think the island is fictional (there is a Meroe Island, but it's somewhere else), and I didn't find a clear equivalent for it either. I think it might be partly …
Not my kind of book. I can appreciate a revenge story, and I like locked room situations, deserted islands and places that feel creepily off. But this didn't convince me at all. There was no building suspense for me, just single tense moments. The character motivations felt kind of random, it just didn't come together for me. And the whole story felt very long winded, the entire second half made me think "this takes too long". I finished it because the story still had all those elements that I like, and I was curious how it'd go. But yeah, no, this was not for me.
I did however have frustrated fun researching some of the things around this book.
I think the island is fictional (there is a Meroe Island, but it's somewhere else), and I didn't find a clear equivalent for it either. I think it might be partly inspired by Kure Atoll. The Wikipedia articles mention numerous shipwrecks (although no cannibalism), an airstrip (although not WW2, contrary to many other places in the area), thick vegetation (although much much lower, we're talking shrubs, not high trees with vines) and sharks, it's currently uninhabited, and it hasn't had nuclear or biological weapons tested on it, which wouldn't quite fit into the story.
I tried to look up the poisonous fish, but mostly found info on venomous sea creatures. However, I learned that many fish in the region have ciguatera poison in them from eating a certain microalgae.
These are two cool websites that I found on my search: www.airfields-freeman.com/HI/Airfields_W_Pacific.htm www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/visit/
Catship commented on Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
This is very frustrating to read after a non-fiction book about a ship! With the non-fiction one about the Erebus, I kept looking up all the little islands that were mentioned, and I found all of them. But this island is fictional! There is a Meroe Island, but it's at a very different place in the world. So I keep looking for islands of different names in the right place that might be this one! But yeah it might just not exist.
Catship finished reading Der Supergaul by Helene Bockhorst
Ich hab echt nicht damit gerechnet, das zu mögen, nachdem es erst mal mit Fatshaming anfing. Aber mir ist diese Geschichte dann doch sehr ans Herz gewachsen. Es ist einfach eine gute Kombi aus vielem was ich mag... Pferde-Intrigen, Betrug als Beruf, Leute die mies in Beziehungen sind aber trotzdem connecten, absurder Scheiß, ein bisschen Kitsch und Landidylle und Schadenfreude.
Einen Spinoff täte ich mir wünschen, in dem das Konzept von "mit jeder Kopfverletzung ändert sich ob du mit dem Pony reden kannst" ein bisschen düsterer ausgebaut wird. Ich mein, sie macht da schon relativ zweifelhafte Sachen dafür! Und in diesem Buch ist es lustig, aber ich fände es auch als tragisches Schicksal ziemlich cool.