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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The Water Outlaws, by S. L. Huang

According to the introduction this book is intended to evoke "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (thought that title is not explicitl...