Reviews and Comments

Alex Cabe

CitizenCabe@books.theunseen.city

Joined 1 week, 2 days ago

It's not like I'm a preachy crybaby who can't resist giving overemotional speeches about hope all the time.

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Malka Older: Mimicking of Known Successes (2023, Tordotcom)

The Mimicking of Known Successes presents a cozy Holmesian murder mystery and sapphic romance, set …

A promising setting, a little light on mystery

The world building here doesn't fundamentally make sense, there's no universe in which building 200,000 mile rails to colonize Jupiter is more feasible in terms of knowhow or resources that fixing Earth or even colonizing the Moon or Mars. However, you owe it to the author to suspend disbelief on the central premise and go for the ride. The worldbuilding about all the heat and light coming from gas flames was so good it felt like it was the initial idea that the setting formed around.

The strengths were the worldbuilding and the formal language that made everything feel retro-futuristic.

The primary weakness, in my view, was that a good mystery often involves a unique or creative "perfect crime". In order to write a perfect crime, you have to work within the rules of the real world. If your perfect crime involves a creative interpretation of a fictional world, the …

Jessica Townsend (duplicate): Nevermoor: Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow Book 1 (2017, Little, Brown and Company)

A cursed girl escapes death and finds herself in a magical world-but is then tested …

At Midnight, Jupiter North will Kill Dumbledore with an E-tool

This is prime.

Nevermoor was a great series starter with a fun, imaginative world and a cast of funny, relatable characters. Morrigan and Jupiter were fun in different ways, the story was propulsive, and the worldbuilding was Dahl-esque, with confidence and verve.

The Christmas Eve chapter was wonderful and heartwarming, I want to read it every Christmas.

Casey McQuiston: The Pairing (Paperback, 2024, St. Martin's Griffin)

The wildly anticipated new novel from the author of the bestselling phenomenon Red, White and …

Middle of the Road Romance

Theo was a worse person than Kit but a better narrator and Theo's section were more fun to read. Kit's sections were more of a chore and I didn't much like how he described things.

Theo was a good example of a nonbinary character and someone who was emotionally closed off.

The characters could be frustrating when they made up reasons not to be together. I get that that's kind of the point, but it rankled over the course of the whole book.

Wish fulfillment book that was honest about what it was. Author was clearly putting themselves in the role of Theo.

I'm not a foodie so the food descriptions didn't do it for me. Not the author's fault, but I sometimes felt like I was missing out.

Martin Summers: Madness in the City of Magnificent Intentions

More research than writing focused.

This was very deeply researched and very academic. Summers did a deep dive into decades and decades of archives. I especially appreciated when individual case studies were used to illustrate a point in the hospital's history.

The book didn't really feel like it put parts together. This had much more value as a presentation of research than a piece of writing. I had trouble latching onto a coherent thesis or throughline.

Anna-Marie McLemore: Lakelore (Hardcover, 2022, Feiwel & Friends)

In this young adult novel by award-winning author Anna-Marie McLemore, two non-binary teens are pulled …

Tight focus on the characters' inner lives

This sort of reminded me of the Netflix series Adolescence in that I found it more interesting as conceptual exercise than a story.

The book is in (usually) very short chapters and jumps back and forth between the viewpoint characters. In that way it's kind of an ADHD simulator. Early in the book I found it hard to tell Bastian and Lore apart from each other. That's sort of a commentary on how we tend to classify and box people in by ethnicity and gender expression, but it also forced me to take notes to remember which character was which. Later in the book we learned how Lore had to keep notes for everything, so the book succeeded at putting me into the shoes of the character.

This was a small story that focused on the inner lives of the two viewpoint characters and everyone else was pretty one dimensional. …

reviewed Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games, #0.5)

Suzanne Collins: Sunrise on the Reaping (EBook, 2025, Scholastic Press)

When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to …

Worthy, if prequelly, prequel

This was a very solid entry that built on the world and fleshed out Haymitch's character. I was invested in the narrative and found Haymitch believable and compelling. Maysilee was a "mean girl" archetype written sympathetically, which was uncommon and enjoyable. Downside here was a bit too much prequel syndrome: trying a little too hard to fit in things from the original books.

I've long thought the the world building parts and the anticipation in the leadup to the games were more interesting than the games themselves, and Collins apparently agrees. The games don't start until halfway through and only take up about 30% of the book. Even then, Haymitch spends the majority of them staying out of the action.

The drumbeat of Haymitch taking on an ally and then watching them die starts to seem repetitive and that he barely gets a chance to know them, but that's kind …

reviewed Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (The Empyrean, #2)

Rebecca Yarros: Iron Flame (EBook, 2023, Entangled Publishing)

“The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is …

Had two complete arcs

This took me awhile to read as I took breaks for a couple of other books. I feel it could have worked better as two shorter books. There was a clear break in the middle, and the author could have worked in a separate climax.

This had a better handle on the characters than the first one, but didn't feel as propulsive. I wasn't as eager to get to the next chapter. Characters continue to be introduced and killed so quickly that the reader is hesitant to get attached. I liked the development of Adarna.

Claire Keegan: Foster (2010, Faber and Faber)

A small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural …

Lyrical and Cozy

This was very cozy and comforting, but also bittersweet. This is the most on-point narration from a child's point of view that I can remember since Room (the child is older and more aware, here though).

Each character had emotional depth, and it was a joy to see the narrator become more confident.

Listened to as an audiobook in one sitting. Author's voice sounded like how I imagined the character. Definitely a re-listen in the future.

Andrew Joseph White: Hell Followed with Us (2023, Peachtree Publishing Company Inc.)

Prepare to die. His kingdom is near.

Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run …

Body Horror Book, Not a Cult Book

I was excited about this book because I expected it to be primarily about cults, but it was much more of a body horror/monster book.

The thing I look for in a work about cults in some understanding off why people joined the cult. Cults appeal to psychological vulnerabilities, and everyone has them. For, e.g., The People's Temple or Heaven's Gate, I primarily see the grave evil they did while still understanding what they offered and how they convinced people they were improving the world and themselves. The Angels are all stick and no carrot. I don't see what their members get out of it. I don't exactly need their systematic theology, but I need to know more about how they arrived at such an extreme belief and what's in it for the common person in the pews. A simple change here would be to make the Angels the only …

Hannah Gadsby: Ten Steps to Nanette (Hardcover, Allen & Unwin)

Gadsby's unique stand-up special Nanette was a viral success that left audiences captivated by her …

Could have used a tighter edit

I enjoyed the insight on the comedy writing process, but the long early sections about Hannah's childhood made the book difficult to get into.

I did respect how the author set boundaries and kept the memoir focused on things she wanted to talk about. Some of the repeated bits (Stop! __ time) got tiresome.

I went into this wondering if there would be a sudden twist like in Nanette and there wasn't, which I think was the right call. Don't want to get put into a box.

Zeyn Joukhadar: The Thirty Names of Night (Hardcover, 2020, Atria Books)

Five years after a suspicious fire killed his ornithologist mother, a closeted Syrian American trans …

Capitivatingly Written

I thought the written and description were very strong and the magically realism elements worked well.

It took time for me to get invested in the story, but it accelerated toward the end. I wish a bit more had happened to the characters and the characters were a bit more distinct from each other.

I enjoyed the historical sections a bit more than the present one. It was interesting to read from the transmasc perspective, and I'd like to read more in the future.

reviewed Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)

Martha Wells: Rogue Protocol (EBook, 2018, Tordotcom)

Sci-fi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris …

Characters and Action Stand Out

Sometimes I have trouble following action scenes in other books, here I thought they were mostly well written and exciting.

Miki was a very interesting character, I enjoyed spending time with here and seeing Murderbot's reaction to her.

The narrative felt a little tighter and more straightforward than Book Two.

Edward Ashton: Antimatter Blues (2023, St. Martin's Press)

Summer has come to Niflheim. The lichens are growing, the six-winged bat-things are chirping, and …

Fun but Inessential

Antimatter Blues was fun and delivered the same kind of enjoyment as Mickey 7, but was entirely inessential. This book isn't important to understanding the characters or the world, and the author told the complete story of his big idea in the first book. This is not a continuation that demanded to be written, but a sequel that asks "Well, the first one was successful, what other stories can we tell in this world?"

This felt kind of like Haldeman's "Forever Free", except not horrible.

Also, it still didn't explore anything interesting about Cat.