Unwieldy Creatures

 Unwieldy Creatures by Addie Brook Tsai (2022) 296 pages

"Unwieldy Creatures, a biracial, queer, gender-swapped retelling of Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein, follows the story of three beings who all navigate life from the margins." So starts the synopsis that caught my interest. I love the cultural influence Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has had, but it was a novel I didn't finish in high school. I made slow progress through this retelling. The style and method of three people telling us the story is very similar to how Shelley's novel is presented. Dr. Z's dangerous ambition takes up the most pages. Plum, the protege, commands considerably fewer pages. And Ash, the creature, only shares their voice briefly toward the end. Tsai includes some bilingualism with Mandarin characters in Plum's story, so I had to flip to the end of the chapters for translation footnotes. The author also lifts some sentences straight from the original Frankenstein novel. The story is set now, or in the near future, so the science is more up-to-date involving in vitro gestation. However, there are still plot holes that didn't totally make sense to me. I'm glad this version exists. The rejection faced by some queer people from their families is a theme that fits well in this "creature feature" framework. Themes of estranged parents and children still resonate in this context. Tsai writes like the Romantic writers of Mary Shelley's era, and this is the part I struggled with the most. There is a lack of energy moving the plot along in the later part of this book.

Another selection of graphic novels read in December

Closing out the year that I've been focused mainly on reading graphic novels. Genres of all types are available in the graphic format, and I've sampled quite a few. I won't stop reading graphic novels next year as I really love them, but they won't be my sole focus.

It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood (2022) 196 pages

I love the summary on the back cover. "[This graphic memoir] is an intimate and metanarrative look into the life of a selfish artist who must create for her own survival." The meta use of the graphic form is one of my favorite things about it! The author struggles with anxiety and depression. I will not use the overused word r******** that she hears from so many people at comic conventions that it becomes meaningless. I have empathy and understand some of her challenges with these mental health issues. The different versions of herself are a great visual way to illustrate the way she copes with life.  Revealing the script and the process of creating a graphic memoir is fun.

Stone Fruit by Lee Lai (2021) 231 pages

This is about the joys and tensions of a queer couple who are aunties to a six-year-old niece. There is a bit of Where the Wild Things Are. And the hard conversations between couples with the psychological and emotional wounds passed down through families are featured. Intimately emotional as sibling relationships are repaired.

Yucatan 1512 by Alex Vede (2025) 80 pages

This reminded me I wanted to watch the Aztec Batman movie on HBO Max. And it reminded me of the video game Shadow of the Colossus. I loved the visual style. The story is simple and less than 100 pages, but it serves the purpose. Spanish conquistadors search for Mayan gold and slaughter innocents. One rogue soldier helps a Mayan girl escape. The cover image shows the type of creatures that rise to push back the conquistadors. I'm curious to see what else Alex Vede can do as he is just starting his career as an illustrator.

The Reprieve by Jean-Pierre Gibrat (2008) 128 pages

WWII historical fiction from France that is a prequel to the author's Flight of the Raven. Paintings are gorgeous and cozy of this French town under German occupation. The main character is witty and jokes around a lot. Julien deserted conscription by the Germans, goes into hiding, and continues falling in love with a high school girlfriend. The humor and the beauty of the art made me forget the dangers of war and the role of fate/death that cannot be escaped. I did not see the final dramatic turn coming.

Everything for Everyone

 

Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072 by M.E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi (2022) 256 pages

I listened to the audiobook on Hoopla narrated by Charli Burrow and Soneela Nankani. The authors have written this as if they are the oral history interviewers. This is speculative fiction about the near future, but it is in the style of nonfiction. It feels a bit dry, but very real. With the current developments of late-stage capitalism the future presented here is very probable. Many of the people interviewed about their part in the growth of communes in New York city are people of color or queer. We hear from many people who understand activism, abolition, collectivism, and mutual aid as tools to survive the collapse of the old systems. If you are interested in dystopian fiction that is closely tied to reality like Octavia Butler's Parable books or Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, you'll probably enjoy this. It has a hopeful message.

A selection of February graphic novels

 Marie Curie: A Quest for Light by Anja C. Andersen and Frances Andreasen Osterfelt, with art by Anna Blaszczyk (2018) 136 pages

The writing is succinct. The art on every page looks like collages with paper cut outs of different colors and textures. Diary entries and letters make this biography very personal. I really enjoyed the creativity of this one.

 

 

 

 

Heartstopper: Volume 1 by Alice Oseman (2018) 288 pages

I'm working on the Hoopla challenge for 2025 while focusing on reading more graphic novels this year. February is Romantic Reads.  I flew through this first volume in one day. There is a lot of space between the panels on many pages and not much text in speech, thought, or mobile texts. Very creative how it tells the story visually as often as it does. I have not seen the TV series yet, and I'll probably wait to continue this comic series.

 

 

 

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell (2019) 289 pages

Compared to the one above, I liked the art and writing a bit better. The pages are denser with emotive visuals. Freddy Riley has her group of queer friends in high school. Laura Dean doesn't see their relationship as monogamous. Laura has so much extrovert energy and doesn't seem to care that she discards Freddy so easily when she wants attention from others. Freddy is so enamored with Laura's brief moments of attention that she doesn't notice her other truly good, close friends, or the new girl working several part-time jobs in town to pay for college. Freddy's eye opening journey is pretty special.

 

 

The Puerto Rican War: A Graphic History by John Vasquez Mejias (2024) 112 pages

I appreciate the timeline and interview with the author that is included at the end. It is a short story of Puerto Rican history that I was not familiar with before. The author makes prints from woodcuts. The text is challenging to read at times, but with concentration it could all be understood. The unique style is visually expressionistic and very detailed.

Deep Cuts by Kyle Higgins and Joe Clark with various artists (2024) 312 pages

I loved this! #1 in New Orleans 1917, the art and story are amazing, looking at the roots of modern jazz. #2 in Chicago 1928, a novice Broadway songstress has an adventure that references The Wizard of Oz. You begin to see that there are threads that connect the stories. #3 in Kansas City 1940, Alice, a young black girl, tries to solve the mystery of why her dad stopped his music career. This includes research at her local library! #4 in New York City 1956, is documentary-like looking at the jazz scene and the influence of harder drugs. #5 in Los Angeles 1968, shows threads connecting some of the previous stories, but is more countercultural and the art took me longer to embrace. #6 in multiple locations 1977, ties all the issues together. Characters and themes return. Jazz history comes full circle. Oh, and the lead sheets at the end are a cool bonus. I, too, wonder if there are audio tracks somewhere of this music.

Nightwood

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes (1936) 182 pages

I listened to the audiobook on Hoopla narrated by Gemma Dawson. The Atlantic published a list of The Great American Novels earlier this year. There was a lot more diversity amongst the authors on this list compared to others I've seen, so I added several books to my reading list. I had also recently seen a review of a graphic biography about Djuna Barnes that will be published later this year. I jumped into this novel, which is Modernist, without knowing much about the Modernist movement. T.S. Eliot wrote an introduction praising the novel as an example of this artistic movement. He suggested that people who like poetry would appreciate her use of language. It certainly is florid in its literary stream-of-consciousness. Eliot also prepared me not to expect much plot, but I really like a strong plot. Audiobooks are "real" reading, but it is more passive. By the end, I had forgotten how the two characters, who converse about a woman's love for another woman, connect to the characters introduced at the beginning. I struggled to fully understand this book. It was not for me.
 

The Memory Librarian

 The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae (2022) 321 pages

This could almost be called a short story collection, except the stories are loosely linked. There are five contributors listed on Goodreads that helped Janelle Monae put each part of the story on paper. I listened to the audiobook with the first part narrated by Janelle Monae and the rest narrated by Bahni Turpin. Fans of The Handmaids' Tale would probably enjoy this. The stories take place in a near-future totalitarian state. Even though there is less overt religious involvement in the regulations of public and private life, all the main characters are labeled "Dirty Computers." Janelle Monae's third album was titled Dirty Computer. I had seen their series of music videos that form an "emotion picture" for this album when it was released about five years ago. In this world, Dirty Computers have there memories erased to force conformity. This totalitarian state targets queer people of color. Concepts of Intersectionality are explored in each story. It is suggested, but not made completely clear, that each story advances in time and involves characters from the previous story living their re-invented life after their memory wipe. There is sci-fi tech controlled by the state for surveying the population and very little power left to the ordinary person. I don't read short stories very often. Just as you get invested in one, it is over. I wish the separate stories were more connected like chapters of a whole. I became a bit frustrated trying to guess how each connected to the previous one. And I wish there was more world building description that referenced the visual design of the music videos.

Endpapers

Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly (2023) 336 pages

I loved this novel by a trans author with a nonbinary protagonist. The synopsis on the book jacket inside the front cover sums it up perfectly. "A queer book conservator finds a mysterious old love letter, setting off a search for the author who wrote it and for a meaningful life beyond the binary in early-2000s New York City." The background setting just shortly after 9/11 works so well. I'm totally into the mystery of the hidden love letter from Gertrude to Marta and the research involved for Dawn to find them. The author explores Dawn's close friendships at home and at work. We follow Dawn's creative process and self doubt as she creates a "Project" for a group exhibition about imagined cities at an emerging art gallery. We learn about the Lavender Scare in NYC targeting queer people, which happened concurrently with the Red Scare. Dawn tentatively looks for inspiration from her Jewish roots at an especially low point, and ultimately finds courage through this and what she learns from Gertrude. Books featuring queer characters that were passed secretly back in the 1950s always ended tragically. Readers from oppressed groups crave stories of hope and joy. This book sees both the hate directed at queer people back in history and in recent years, but ends with feelings of hope that Dawn's life and self expression are supported by those who matter most to them.

 

Everfair

 Everfair by Nisi Shawl (2016) 381 pages

After finishing King Leopold's Ghost, I saw a list of steampunk books. When I was reminded that Everfair is set in the Congo in the same period of time, but with an alternative steampunk history, I had to move it up in my reading list priorities. Nisi Shawl acknowledges the inspiration she found from Adam Hochschild's history book. 

Unfortunately, the author provides a single page of historical background, which is not nearly enough. I have an advantage of being familiar with the people and events associated with this history, since I have read the above book, but I was still lost as this book jumps between time, place, and such a large cast of characters. I can only imagine the confusion of a reader that does not know something of the true history. The most clear parallel between historical person and alternative character is George Washington Williams, the black American minister who embraces African languages, and Thomas Jefferson Wilson, the black American minister character who "goes native." The author does not spend enough time setting the scene, describing the societies that the characters come from. Most chapters are quite short and deal primarily with one or two main characters. It takes awhile for these characters' storylines to interconnect. I question why the author chose to create certain main characters (the Poet) who seem to not be that significant to the story, or to the advancing events of the alternative history. Other characters (Lily and Jackie with his Fabian Society) are developed significantly only to be eliminated from the story. I wished other characters were developed more. Unfortunately, many of the African natives still have less agency than the Americans and Europeans and one Chinese engineer. I loved the steampunk aspects. The zeppelin "aircanoes," mechanical limbs for those with war wounds or those who lost hands during Leopold's rule, and arrow guns were great. Other futuristic tech was not described in a way that gave your mind a clear picture. I appreciated the alternative history with three major wars: the war against Leopold, WWI, and a civil war between the African ruler of the region reclaiming his power and all the colonists. Multiple characters are described as doing espionage work, but the story was lacking actual descriptions of intriguing spy craft. I repeatedly wanted certain chapters to continue and give me more, but they would be interrupted by four to five plodding chapters checking in on other characters. Maybe two interesting storylines would be running at a time with other characters making frustrating decisions in between. I'm glad I stuck with it, but it was not a favorite.

Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 3: In Other Worlds

Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 3: In Other Worlds by G. Willow Wilson with art by Christian Ward (2021) 128 pages

Several years ago I read G. Willow Wilson's complete run of Ms. Marvel graphic novels. This series looked really intriguing when it started in 2019, and it won a couple Eisner Awards. I love the marbled vibrant colors and the themes that Wilson explores in this sci-fi adventure. All three volumes are available on Hoopla. The back cover tagline and summary for Volume 3 bears repeating. 

"The Path of Most Resistance  

On the run through the darkest depths of the galaxy, Grix, Vess and the crew of the Sundog are captured by a faction of mysterious new Nones, and now, they'll have to face The Point of No Return."

From the beginning, the crew reminded me of a combination of the characters from the TV show Firefly and several characters from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. The characters here are unique enough that the story is not a rehash of those other adventures. We are in a universe with a mono-religion that is mainstream, but also corrupted by its ties to a monopolistic corporation (like Amazon). This third volume especially incorporates elements that we all would recognize from the past few years of dealing with the pandemic, such as the reaction to interrupted supply chains despite record profits for the biggest corporations. All of our main characters discover that it is more important to do the right thing even when powerful religious or corporate entities encourage something else. The conclusion felt satisfying with Grix and Vess, our queer protagonists, saving the day and finding each other again.

 

Phoenix Extravagant

 Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee, 320 pages.

This was an extremely interesting fantasy novel in that it seemed content to ignore most of the conventions of the genre. It's a sort of steampunky political drama set in the fantasy equivalent of early 20th century Korea and is most interested in examining the effects of colonization. It was a very fun read, and I absolutely adored the dragon automaton on the cover. The characters were all pretty interesting and the plot was solid. My only real complaint is that it didn't seem particularly interested in exploring or explaining any of the more magical elements of the world.

Mooncakes

 Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu, 255 pages.

This paranormal romance centers on Nova, a hard of hearing witch, and Tam, a nonbinary werewolf. Nova and her grandmothers run a bookshop cafe that also seems to double as a center for magical research. The action starts when Tam comes back to town, chasing a cult who are intent on using their wolf magic for nefarious purposes. Soon they are staying with childhood friend (and crush) Nova, and their bond quickly deepens to romance.

While I did enjoy this comic, it was not at all the fluffy bakery story I was expecting from the cover. It's really more of a mystery/action type story, with the titular mooncakes only being mentioned in passing. Still fun and very sweet, but not quite what I was hoping for.