“This
Census Taker” by China Mieville. Got it for my birthday. It was
on my list. The worldbuilding is so good.
“Goldenhand”
by Garth Nix. Got it for my birthday. I’d mentioned to the boy probably two
months ago that it was coming out and that it would make a good gift, so he did
very well remembering. This was unputdownable.
“Disappearance
at Devil’s Rock” by Paul Tremblay. Gemma Files mentioned it on
Twitter, and her taste and mine often align (she’d probably feel weird to know
how often I buy music she mentions, but sometimes you just need a black mass
when you’re on crunch time at work, you know?) I borrowed it from the library,
just to mix things up a bit. My sister and I were chatting about horror novels
versus horror movies, and how the latter leave you messed up but the former not
so much. This book had some really creepy moments – there’s one where a
character refers to another one looking in their window, and then I had to go
to bed… well, that wasn’t the best. The gradual unpeeling of the truth of what
the boys had been up to all summer was really messed up in the most
well-written way. I googled the state park too, which really exists. And the
rock. It didn’t need to be, but it was neat to see that it was real.
“The
Tropic of Serpents” by Marie Brennan is book 2 in the series. Ed
got books 3 and 4 for his birthday back in September, and I got book 1 for
Christmas the year it came out. This year I got book 2 for my birthday so I can
read them in the proper order. I found this a little bit plot-free, but I
really liked the female perspective on Victorian adventuring. It seemed more
real than most of the fantasy I’ve read before, menstruation being more than
just a mild inconvenience, etc. Usually the only inconvenience is clothing, and
women apparently don’t menstruate in fiction like ever.