Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Comfort Me With Apples, by Catherynne Valente

This is a jaw-dropper of a book. I have tended to think of Valente as a kind of lightweight, but not any more. The style of the book is horror, but there's a whole lot more going on here than jumpscares. It is deeply allegorical, and the reveal of the allegory is gradual. I should have read it more than once. I didn't pick up on a lot of the references until I read other reviews with spoilers in them.

Between this and "The Past Is Red" it looks like Valente is ready to move into a powerful writing phase. It's always been fun to read her stuff--lots of action and adventure, and she's not afraid to be feminine in her writing. This was better than fun.

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When the Moon Hits Your Eye, by John Scalzi

Scalzi is able to write humorous novels that get at deeper truths and really go places. "Red Shirts" and "The Kaiju Preservat...