Fleet Sparrow

The House With Chicken Legs
Sophie Anderson

This was a really cute book about the granddaughter of a Baba Yaga. She doesn’t want to be a Yaga, even though it’s her destiny. So when her Baba goes through the veil, it’s up to her to save her, however she can. It’s really great about the boundaries between life and death, and the relationship between the granddaughter and the house. I definitely recommend it if you like Baba Yaga myths.

Guess Who
Chris McGeorge

This was a good crime thriller, even though you couldn’t figure out who the ultimate villain was because he wasn’t introduced until late in the book. Still, the mystery was intriguing and the main characters was like a train wreck you couldn’t look away from. I’d still recommend it, if only so people will talk about it with me.

Pedro Paramo
Juan Rulfo

This was a very interesting book, full of ghosts and kind of stream of consciousness writing. We follow a young man searching for his father as he travels to a literal ghost town. His father, it turns out, is dead, but so is everyone else he meets. It’s a very short book, but definitely one I’d recommend.

Mythology: The DC Comics Art by Alex Ross
Alex Ross

This was an artbook showcasing Alex Ross’ work on DC superheroes, with a major focus on how his work began and Kingdom Come. I won’t lie, I didn’t much read it so much as look at the art, because that’s what I was really there for.

I haven’t been reading as much as I’d like to over these last few month, whether because of other projects, vacations, or general depression.  Finally, I’ve pulled these reviews together to give you an idea of what I have been reading.  Hopefully the next series will come much quicker.

A Princess in Theory
Alyssa Cole

This is my very first romance read, and I have to say, it was probably the perfect one to pick up as a first-timer. Ledi is a very relatable protagonist and a joy to read and follow. The romance was measured and steady, with enough bumps to make you root for it to last. Overall, I’m enjoying this series (I’m in the middle of A Duke By Default) and I’m looking forward to the next book.

Jell-o Girls
Allie Rowbottom

This was quite the book to get through. Part memoir, part history of Jell-o, blended together excellently, it was a fascinating look into the lives of the owners of Jell-o and how the world took hold of this family. It’s definitely worth a read, and it’s a fairly easy flow, even when the subject material can be a bit heavy. It deals quite a lot with death, so be aware if that’s not something you’re into.

The Boy at the Keyhole
Stephan Giles

This was a pretty good mystery, even though I saw the biggest twist coming. It was well-paced and an easy read, each chapter leading you to read the next one and so forth. I actually like the ending twist, although it may not be to everyone’s liking. I do love writers who explore the dark side of children.

Sweet Little Lies
Caz Frear

This was a pretty solid mystery with a really big twist of an ending. I liked the style and the story was easy to follow. The text, however, is small in the hardcover, so be forewarned if you, like me, have some trouble with that. The main characters were all fairly likable and I enjoyed following them along in the story.

My Brother’s Husband Vol. 2
Gengoroh Tagame

Volume two made me cry, not just because it was a volume of partings, but because the heart of it is so earnest and sweet. The brother slowly comes to change his mind about mike and how he feels about knowing gay people in his life and there’s a real honesty to it how sometimes he worries about screwing up, but ultimately knows it’s something he can talk about.

The Personality Brokers
Merve Emre

This was a lot to get through, not because it’s necessarily a hard read, but there’s just so much information packed into it. It’s a biography both of Katharine and Isabel Briggs and a story of how their combined efforts made the Meyers-Briggs Personality test that we know today, even though it’s only loosely based on an interpretation of Jungian theory and not really based in anything solid or even repeatable.

And the Ocean Was Our Sky
Patrick Ness

A whale’s version of Moby Dick, don’t go in thinking this is going to be the whale’s side of the story. This is Moby Dick as written by whales searching for their own “white whale” as it were (a man named Toby Wick, get it?) The illustrations are beautiful and the prose is spare and neat. It’s a beautiful book that will most likely move you to tears by the end of it. It’s also a meditation on war and why we wage it.

The Chrysalis
Brendan Deneen

This is a great horror book for Halloween if you’re looking for a good old fashioned monster story. Something is growing down in the basement of this old house our couple buy, and it needs to feed. It takes hold of the husband and soon he is consumed in his effort to feed and take care of the thing. It has great personality shifts and subtle horror until the last chapter when all hell breaks loose. Really, it would make an excellent movie. I definitely recommend it.

The Retreat
Mark Edwards

This is a nice kind of spooky read where there might be a ghost or there might not, but either way, there’s something very mysterious going on. A girl goes missing in the woods, snatched from beside a river where everyone believes she drowned. Her mother turns her home into a writer’s retreat, and strange things begin happening to the people staying there, leading up to murder. There’s a mystery from 35 years before that needs solving as well, and the key to all of it just might lie in a dead man’s past. It’s very engrossing and easy to read. I definitely recommend it.

The Forbidden Place
Susanne Jansson

The bog in a small town in Sweden holds many mysteries and just as many bodies. When a man is found unconscious in the mire, the police are called out to see where he was attacked. Soon, they find other bodies, people who have gone missing who have been sacrificed to the bog. The question is who is doing it and why. There’s elements of a ghost story in here as well, including a very spooky epilogue. It’s a solid mystery only occasionally dragged down by philosophical musings from the main characters. Overall, it’s a very Swedish mystery.

Hangman
by Daniel Cole

This was the sequel to Ragdoll, last year’s debut. It was just as intense and page-turning as the first one. I actually read it about the end of July, but I forgot to log it then. It’s well-paced and takes you on a wild adventure of bodies and terrorist attacks.

Diary of a Haunting
by M. Verano

This was interestingly done. It was written in an online diary format. I wasn’t really a fan of the “twist” ending. Still, it was eerie enough, especially with duplicating entries and slight changes in text.

Campfire
by Shawn Sarles

This started a bit slow, then went balls to the wall hectic in a matter of chapters. After two days of relatively peaceful camping, bodies start dropping. I liked how this one ended a lot.

The Mere Wife
by Maria Dahvana Headley

This was an interesting one.  It actually took me a long time to finish reading it, because the switching between Gren’s mom and Dylan’s mom gets dizzying.  Like Beowulf, it doesn’t have a happy ending (if, like me, you were especially rooting for Grendel and his Mom), but it’s sort of satisfying?  I just wish Gren and Dylan had had their happy ending, because it’s just another novel where queer people get dead.  Spoiler. Alert.

An Unwanted Guest
by Shari Lapena

I finished this in one afternoon. It definitely harks back to the old school mysteries where everyone’s trapped in one place with a murderer. I really enjoyed it. The ending reveal was a bit typical for Lapena (you might remember me not being a fan of her first book The Couple Next Door and it’s bullshit ending). But on the whole, the mystery was solid and the journey through the book was good enough I recommend it as a quick read.

Bone Game
by Louis Owens

I read Bone Game after seeing it on a indigenous reading list. It’s about a centuries-old mystery, prophetic dreams, and new murders. The author himself is Cherokee-Choctaw-Irish and his lead character is Choctaw-Irish. It’s an odd sort of rambling tale, with frequent flashes to the past, to dreams, and later to other characters. Each chapter follows its own path, all of which wind up together for a rather startling climax.

Over all, I recommend it. Don’t go into it expecting it to be a traditional murder mystery, but let it flow around you and flow with it. You’ll find it’s a very good read.

Stay Hidden
by Paul Doiron

This is a more classic mystery, with a twist I can give away because it’s given away on the blurb, so nyah. Ariel Evans has been found murdered by person or persons unknown on a small Maine island. Except the next day, Ariel turns up alive and well. It’s a small mystery to figure out who the victim is, but finding the killer is the real challenge, especially on an island where no one is willing to talk.

I really love the Mike Bowditch series. The writing style is very natural, impressive for being in first-person imo, and flows easily. Every book is a unique mystery and you learn quite a lot about Maine, the wildlife, and some Maine slang. The voices are distinct and the characters are all pretty well fleshed out.
Currently, I’m in the middle (OK, first third) of The Outsider by Stephen King. It’s the closest to a typical detective story I think he’s ever written, which is what made me pick it up, but I already know we’re about to get into some kind of strange Stephen King twist. More on that next week.

Also!  If you like what I do here, check out my Patreon here or sign up for my brand new Facebook page Fleet’s Reviews.  That’s where all my reviews will be going from now on.

Caged
by Ellison Cooper

What a thrilling ride! The search for a serial killer in DC leads Senior Special Agent Sayer Altair on a hunt through mythology and science. One great thing I really loved this book for is when a transgender character was introduced, no one misgendered him even after they found out. I give major brownie points to an author who understands the right way to gender people. The mystery itself is a wild chase, with twist after twist that are all worth it. There’s no sudden out-of-nowhere plot device that figures in this book. Everything is based on deduction and science. I definitely recommend it if you’re not a big serial killer reader like me; it hits the right balance of mystery and thrills without feeling overly reliant on serial killer tropes.

Nickel and Dimed
by Barbara Ehrenreich

This book was the result of an experiment to see how long she could live on minimum wage jobs. It’s a really good look into the world of waitressing, housework, and Wal-Mart workers. A surprise to few of us, wages were too low often to cover rent plus food and other expenses. But the reason she did this was not to tell people like us, the minimum wage workers of the world, but to explain to her middle class peers what life is truly like for the bottom percent of the country. It’s a fascinating read (and one that’ll make you hate Wal-Mart even more than you probably already do).

Death Notice
by Zhou Haohui

Oh god, I could talk for days about this book. Just… everyone go out to your library and get a copy. I’ll wait.

….

Are you back? Good. Now we can dish.

The plot revolves around the return of a vigilante named Eumenides, who goes around killing those who have gotten away with crimes the police can’t touch (either because they were acquitted or never caught). Before each killing, Eumenides sends a death notice, a paper saying who is going to die, what their crimes are, and when they’re going to die. Even when the police try and protect the victim, somehow Eumenides reaches them.

But there’s more going on than just Eumenides. Each member of the newly reformed 4/18 task force has something to hide, and something to find. With secrets hidden just below the surface, ones that could bring the task force down from the inside, plus the connection between cases old and new, Death Notice has twists and turns that’ll throw you for a loop, but will keep you completely enthralled. Just beware: this is only part one.

Julian is a Mermaid
by Jessica Love

This was really cute. Julian sees three mermaids on the train and decides he’s a mermaid, too. Instead of punishing him for taking down the curtains for his mermaid tail, his abuela takes him to the parade where the mermaids were going.

The art is very lush, full of color and movement. Most of the story is told through the art, but the writing is solid, too. Definitely a good book for kids.

Undead Girl Gang
by Lily Anderson

The fat Latinx witch tale I never knew I wanted. I can’t say enough good things about it. It’s a solid mystery with a genuinely warranted twist. The friendships are solid and form naturally, and the dialogue is well done. There’s a bit of romance for those who like that, and a lot of zombies (well, three, but that’s three more than most YA novels), and a good murder mystery to be solved. Definitely check it out if you’re looking for a fun, fast read.

Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America
by Barbara Ehrenreich

I’ve now read two books by Barbara Ehrenreich and I’ve enjoyed both of them immensely. Not one to pull punches, she takes on the “positive psychology” and “positivity” world with wit and a good dose of skepticism. She talks about the history of positivity as an opposite of Calvinism, its rise through the middle and upper-classes as a way to win over illnesses, and its inevitable destruction of the economy (the housing bubble and crash of the mid-’00s). She tackles the megachurches and The Secret, the faulty science behind “positive psychology”, and the almost cult-like approach to positivity among breast cancer patients.

There’s a dark side to positivity, with its brand of “cutting out the negative” in your life and its shaky claims to give you all you want, which leads to victim blaming once things don’t go as planned. This is a brilliant book I think everyone should read. I know it’s going on my shelf.

I Really Didn’t Think This Through
by Beth Evans

In the style of Hyperbole and a Half, Beth Evans takes us through the process of adulthood, with all its fears, trials, and strengths. From not knowing exactly how to be an adult to working through mental illness, Evans intersperses her writing with comics to illustrate her points. It’s a good little book. I found it similar to a lot of that kind (particularly Everyone’s an Aliebn when You’re an Aliebn Too), but it’s unique to Evans’ experiences. Worth a read, especially if you are someone who deals with anxiety.

Blanky
by Kealan Patrick Burke

A short (73 page) story about ghosts or murderers, you get to decide. It’s a good little story with a decent, if somewhat predictable twist, that does leave an open ending as to what is real and what’s not. It was worth the money.

Sour Candy
by Kealan Patrick Burke

Another 70-odd page short story, this time about a man whose life is suddenly and abruptly changed by the appearance of a young boy. There’s more supernatural horror in this one, so if you’re down for mysterious cults of supernatural beings, this is the one for you.

Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery
by Cathryn Jakobson Ramin

A long book, but one full of information, this book tells the story of how back pain became the hottest health care issue through startling amounts of fraud, money changing, and ignorance that led to all kinds of spinal surgeries and injections. The first half of the book tells the history and corruption of the back pain industry, while the second half focuses on what can actually be done for those in pain. She has great resources for those looking to manage their back pain. I highly recommend this one.

Tin Man
by Sarah Winman

Ugh, this one made me cry, and I’m so not a crier. It’s about Michael and Ellis, two best friends and one-time lovers, and Annie, Ellis’s wife, and their relationship. It starts with Ellis alone, both of them gone, dead, as we come to find out. Then it takes us back to Michael’s diary and we learn about his life. Finally, it cuts back to Ellis to finish out the story. It’s beautiful and tragic and bittersweet all at once. It’s also short, so if you’re looking for a nice, if heartbreaking, quick read, this is the one for you.

Kwaidan
by Lafcadio Hearn

This was an interesting set of Japanese ghost stories collected back in the early 1900s by Lafcadio Hearn, a British man who moved to Japan and devoted himself to all things Japanese (the original otaku!). There were some really good ones in here, and I recommend checking it out. It’s not too Orientalist, which is a good thing, but he does explain some things that wouldn’t be known to his audience. I’m looking forward to finding more (possibly more authentic?) stories in the future.

Ghost Boys
by Jewell Parker Rhodes

This made me cry. It starts with a young Black boy getting killed by the police. You follow him as a ghost as he watches his family grieve, and goes through to meet the daughter of the cop who shot him (she’s the only one alive who can see him), and meets Emmett Till, who guides him through this new world he inhabits. It’s heart-wrenching and brutal, but it’s such an important read. I definitely recommend this one.

Natural Causes
by Barbara Ehrenreich

I really enjoyed this book. It’s a look at medical practices and how we’re sometimes killing ourselves to live longer. She talks about all the unnecessary tests doctors put patients through, the lack of understanding we have of ourselves even down to the cellular level, and the way wellness has become some kind of societal marker, all of which stems from a fear of death. It was really fascinating to read, and I definitely recommend it to anyone questioning the rationale of the new wellness trends.

White Rabbit
by Caleb Roehrig

I’ve seen two one-star reviews of this that both center on a throwaway set of lines from a pining teenage boy, that addressed absolutely nothing else about the book. The book itself is about murder, and boy is there going to be a lot of it. Rufus (our lead) gets a call from his half-sister telling him he’s the only one who can help her. When he and his ex arrive at the cabin she called from, they find her bloodsoaked and holding the knife that killed her boyfriend (and, of course, her boyfriend’s body at her feet). What follows is an all-night chase across town to find out who really is guilty, and to do so quickly, before more people are killed.

It was a solid mystery with enough clues that you could follow along easily. I recommend it for a good queer mystery that has a great balance of both romance and mystery.

Word by Word
by Kory Stamper

This was a very enlightening look into how dictionaries are made (particularly Merriam-Webster). It introduces you to lexicography, to the editing process of dictionaries, to the vetting process of words, and to the mind-boggling task of defining such words as “take” and “run”. I found it super interesting, if a little heavy at times. It’s especially good for anyone interested in words and how they work, especially how they’re defined. I recommend it to any word nerd.

The Gunners
by Rebecca Kauffman

This was an interesting novel about a group of friends whose friendship ended when one member of their group suddenly broke away from them. They come together at her funeral and one by one, secrets come out, secrets that might have had to do with her leaving. It’s a very human book full of foibles and changes. I actually really enjoyed it, which was surprising to me, since I’m mostly into books with a plot. This didn’t really have one, just a selection of life moments one after another.

We Should All Be Feminists
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The print version of her TED talk, it was very inspiring and very interesting. I can definitely see it being a staple on any feminist shelf. While she focuses strictly on cis relationships, don’t hold that against her. It’s a very good introduction to feminism.

The Princess Saves Herself in This One
by Amanda Lovelace

This was an interesting poetry collection. It deals with a lot of heavy issues, like child abuse, intimate partner abuse, death, and eating disorders, but at the end there’s a light of happiness that shines through to make it tolerable.

The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One
by Amanda Lovelace

This is the second in her poetry series. There’s a thread of hope that runs through this whole collection that was missing in the first one, a fierceness and a fire that keeps you going through the heartbreak inside. This is anger at the society we live in, and very righteous anger. I enjoyed this one a lot, and I look forward to her next collection.

Passing Strange
by Ellen Klages

A historical queer novel that ends happy? I almost couldn’t believe it. While there is plenty of period-typical racism, it’s always called out and shown as being wrong, not just a *shrug* part of life thing. The queerphobia in here is treated the same way, shown to be wrong. The little bits of magic in here are weaved in very well. The characters are very well rounded and lovely to read about. I enjoyed this one very much.

Dictionary Stories
by Jez Burrows

This was interesting collection of short stories. Some were a little random with the connecting sentences, and yet some were very poignant. There was a good selection of comedy in there as well. It’s a long way through the alphabet, but worth it for some of the stories.

Countdown City
by Ben Winters

This is the second of the Last Policeman trilogy. Doomsday is coming closer and Henry is asked to find the husband of his past babysitter. No longer officially a policeman, he does his best to track him down, with the help of his sister Nico. Nico tries to convince him of her secret plan to save the planet through a wild conspiracy. This becomes more relevant in the third book. This series was really fun. I like a detective who works because he believes in justice for everyone, even the dead in a pre-apocalyptic situation.

World of Trouble
by Ben Winters

Henry leaves safety and goes in search of his sister. I won’t lie, this was the weakest of the books, I felt, in part because it’s in the last days leading up to the meteor strike, but mostly because by the time he reaches her, his sister is already dead. There’s no real closure on that. I’d say spoiler alert, but it’s pretty obvious from the get go. Still, I recommend the whole series because once you read one, you’ll want to finish them all. I finished this one in a single day after finishing number two, so it’s a quick read.

Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I really enjoyed this. It’s a short essay (in relation to others), but it’s a good primer on feminism. I found it very refreshing and challenging, as it requires you to unlearn some of your own internal biases. It’s a good reference to have on hand when you need a refresher, or want to look up an answer to a tricky situation. I particularly liked the way she called out Feminism Lite, the so-called feminism that still puts women second to men. I definitely recommend this book. It’s short, a quick read, but a very important one.

My Brother’s Husband
by Gengoroh Tagame

This was super cute. It was written to show changing thoughts about gay people and to challenge homophobia. Every character is written so well (and Kana, the little girl, is adorable). I really recommend this one for the art (Mike is such a bear) and the story.

Bring Me Back
by B. A. Paris

Oh, how I wanted to like this one. I really, really wanted to like it. After his girlfriend disappears twelve years before, Finn begins receiving messages that she might not be dead. But what is she back for? Oh, and he’s getting married to her sister. At first, I was just a little bored, which I often find when I’m stuck reading a male perspective, especially one so caught up in himself. Then, oh god, then the ending happened.

I’m going down to spoiler town now, so follow me below the cut only if you don’t mind spoilers. Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.

Continue reading →

The Atrocities
by Jeremy Shipp

This was a short little novella about a woman who comes to tutor what turns out to be a dead girl. But is that all of what’s going on? I really enjoyed this. You slip in and out of dreams in the narrative without warning, meaning you need to be paying pretty close attention to what’s going on. The twist was well done and the descriptions of the twisted art throughout the story were very good. I definitely recommend this if you like short horror.

Long Way Down
by Jason Reynolds

What can I say about this except that I was blown away and I definitely cried. A boy’s brother has been shot and he’s determined to go and shoot the guy he thinks did it. As he takes the elevator down from his apartment, dead people close to him get on at each floor, talking to him about what he’s going to do and how they died (all by gun violence). It ends with his brother getting on and let me just say, if you’re not crying by then there’s something wrong because it is just that powerful.

I definitely recommend this to everyone. It’s all in verse, which makes the story even more stunning.

The Last Policeman
by Ben Winters

There’s a meteor headed for Earth and we have six months to live. That’s the premise of the Last Policeman series. He’s a cop who finds a death by hanging (the most popular suicide type in their city) that he just feels is wrong somehow. He investigates it as a murder and stirs up all kinds of trouble. It’s really well done with how the world might start functioning with a literal deadline and the kinds of things people might start to do. Hospitals still work, but are understaffed due to people going out to “find themselves” and do what they’ve always wanted to do before it hits.

It’s a solid murder mystery and I really recommend it. It’s fast, readable, and with good clues to help you figure out what’s going on.

I’ve had a busy week this past one, so I didn’t get as much read as I wished. That said, I did finish two books, so that’s better than none.

The Perfect Nanny
by Leila Slimani

What to say about this book? For starters, you know how it ends when it begins, which is an interesting take. The story is less about the crime that happened and more about how it got to that point. While it’s not exactly a hard read, I found I had difficulty getting through it. I came into it expecting more of a focus on the crime as opposed to the real focus, which is on motherhood, societal expectations, and class. That’s not so say it’s a bad read! I just was going in expecting something else. It’s a short read, and if you’re looking for something you can read in an afternoon, you can’t go wrong with it.

The Poet X
by Elizabeth Acevedo

This is the first novel I’ve read that’s entirely in verse, which was a very cool experience for me. Mixed in with the narrative poems are poems about Xiomara’s family, her first feelings for a guy, and her thoughts on religion. The one about her father hit me hard, because yikes if I don’t feel that in a big way. I definitely recommend it. It’s a fast read if you want another one to crank out in an afternoon, and you will cry, but you’ll end up hopeful. At least, that’s how it went for me.