“My Real Children” by Jo Walton. After plugging it to one of my friends, it seemed appropriate to read it myself. I wasn’t sure how well it would work, but it turned out fine. I started having to put it down about 40 pages from the end because watching Trish/Pat lose her memory was too distressing for sustained attention, but I pushed through. JW’s voice is so her own. There was more exposition than I thought was allowed, but it totally worked, so apparently that rule… isn’t. Whatever works for the story is how the story has to be told.
“Maplecroft” by Cherie Priest. This totally sucked me in and if I could have I would have stayed up all night finishing it. The story is told in diary entries, letters, and reports, and it was an interesting exercise in voice I think. When doing something like that it seems to me that you can’t let the different characters sound too different, or too the same. The sequel came out at the start of the month!
“Deathless” by Catherynne M. Valente. She’s one of my girl crushes. This was fun to read at the same time that I was following Steven Brust’s readalong of Trotsky’s “The Revolution Betrayed”. The fairy tale repeating patterns and layers of imagery were fantastic. Sometimes I felt like I didn’t know Russian stories or history nearly well enough to catch all the references, but what I did catch was plenty.