Finna, by Nino Cipri

The McGuffin in Finna is the hidden, perhaps confusing space that ends up leading to an alternate universe--I remember these well from Roger Zelazny, Seanan McGuire, C. S. Lewis (Narnia), etc etc. It lets you get a story going without a lot of complication, and that's what is done here. Finna is definitely a book for our times--these crappy service jobs probably pay $1 over minimum wage so they're *good* jobs, and you should be lucky to have one, you ingrate. A lot of reviewers complain about the characterization--I thought it was actually the good part, the characters grew on me a bit through the book. Maybe it's just a little densely packed.  There's some obvious motivation stated about why the missing grandma analog actually wants to come back to the crappy universe with our protagonists, but it seemed a bit cut off. Probably because it's the first in a series. Overall it's kind of lightweight, but it's fun and I'd probably read the next one.

My Goodreads Review

Upright Women Wanted, by Sarah Gailey

I feel like I am supposed to like this book because I was a librarian and work to be an LGBTQ+ ally. I share the disappointments of some readers that the story wasn't filled out more. The Librarians seem superhuman (the whole thing with superpowerful women who are better at violence than men seems vaguely misogynistic to me--it sets up expectations for female performance that should not need to be met in order to be considered equally human), taking down multiple gangs of men while sustaining only a flesh wound. The perspective is historically underrepresented but there's a lot of it available right now, so a new entry has to stand out in some way and I can't see where that special something is here.

I rate it a bit better than the disappointed set, though, because I think the protagonist has potential to be more complex than the rest of the book setting, and I do think there's a series being set up here. Esther is oppressed by her situation and looks to blossom as a librarian, but she's also got quite a bit of moral and personal flexibility. Some wonder why she took to Cye so quickly after losing Beatrix--I read the story as Esther having started to distance herself from Beatrix before she was killed. Her character could go any which way, possibly simultaneously. Not sure if I am motivated to pick up the next one, but I might if someone else reads it and says this is what happened.

My Goodreads Review

Harrow the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir

Well, I finished it. Took a very long time, relatively, and I guess I am glad I did. Most of the book is both confusing and brutal. It's not just the second person perspective. The reveal on why it is written that way is actually pretty cool and helped make sense of some parts for me. But then it keeps going, and the perspectives all mush together. Also, the same characters go by a lot of different names with only the barest connection to bring them together.

All the emotions in the book are awful, and described as hyperbolically as possible, with relief being the only tiny respite. And it's not enough. There's a lot of "You're wrong, and impossibly stupid" "No, YOU'RE wrong, and impossibly stupid". Back and forth. With all this going on it's really hard to pick out how the plot is driven--I sort of think I figured out that Resurrection Beasts are a consequence of some actions the Emperor undertook.

There's some good fight scenes toward the end that get the blood going, but the subsequent reveal is more of the same--confusing, "everything you know is wrong" "No, everything YOU know is wrong".

Hard to say if I'm going to read the last one in the series. I'll have to hear that it's better.

My Goodreads Review