I take pills,
So I know what’s real.
Pills, so I won’t kill
Myself.
But these pills
don’t let me feel
Much.
I take pills
So I don’t seize,
So I don’t sneeze,
So my heart beats with ease,
And I don’t keel
Over.
Pills to lower
My cholesterol,
To improve my mood overall.
I take pills so my
Blood sugar falls.
Y’all, I’mma be real.
I’m sick of pills.
There’s no excuse
For your abuse.
You’re human refuse.
I refuse
to be used
To sooth
Your bruised
Ego.
I am not your negro.
I am not your hoe.
No, my fro
Ain’t public property.
Us Black folks
Ain’t a joke.
My body
Ain’t an curio
For you to peruse,
Then throw away
When you through.
My pain isn’t a commodity.
My humanity isn’t a cafeteria.
You can’t pick and choose
Which parts of me to use
And which to refuse.
With all due respect
I reject your defected
Infected white supremacist
World view.
Screw you.
Rising by L.D. Valentine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rough around the edges but a delightful story with likeable characters and an engaging plot
Rising (The Coven of Zora #1) by L D Valentine is a queer fantasy novel about a multiracial group of gay young adults who each control a different element and use spells.
The book centers on Xavier, an 18-year-old gay Navajo guy whose introduction into the world of magic involves watching a demon kill his uncle, and it almost killing him. Xavier controls fire and becomes the leader of his coven of 6 males witches, all of whom are gay. He struggles with magic and feelings of self-worth, inadequacy, and trust issues.
After Zora recruits him and the others, they train a bit then begin going on demon-killing missions, and it’s on one such mission that Xavier meets Alexander Kiras, Scion of House Asmodai, one of the four major demonic houses.
Alexander reveals he’s been killing off witches before a full coven could form and is intrigued how he missed Xavier’s coven; he also expresses his carnal interest in Xavier. Alexander then begins a cat and mouse game with Xavier and his coven, leading to a final confrontation between him and Xavier.
I liked Xavier a lot and thought he was Black until he mentioned being Navajo. I also thought Nate, Danny, Max, and the other characters were interesting but not as fleshed out as they could be. Also, the relationship between Xavier and Adam, who controls water, was okay but came off as a bit tacked on.
But it was nice to see a group of queer superheroes on the page.
My biggest complaints and what I feel keep this from being a 5-star book are the clunky dialogue and sentences and the ending which was very anticlimactic and abrupt. However, these issues were only minor, and I can’t wait for the next in the series to be released.
I give Rising (The Coven of Zora #1) 4.0 (rounded up from 3.8) stars. Definitely check this out if you enjoy action-packed fantasy with diverse queer leads.
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A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Lush prose, engaging characters, but did not live up to the hype.
A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) by Sarah J Maas is a fantasy romance novel that follows 19-year-old Feyre, the youngest daughter of a wealthy family turned destitute, who accidentally kills a fearie while out hunting one day. She is then whisked away to the Spring Fearie Court, where she must adapt or perish.
While I enjoyed this book, it wasn’t without issues.
First, the beginning is very slow and info dumpy and I was tempted to DNF because of the glacial pace.
Second, the court intrigue, or the lack there of. I expected Game of Thrones level backstabbing and plotting, but there was barely any intrigue, court or otherwise. And what there was, I found underwhelming.
That said, I will read the next in the series with hopes the court intrigue intensifies.
I give A Court of Thorns and Roses 4.0 out of 5.0. If you go into it without super-high expectations, and you’ll love it.
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Introduction
Everyone is familiar with common euphemisms such as law enforcement officers, administrative assistants, and sanitation engineers. To further clarity and reduce offense, I have proposed a new series of such terms. Look them over and share your thoughts.
1. calorically challenged: As opposed to “fat,” “overweight,” and “obese” which carry negative connotations — especially for the latter, which sounds like a disease — this term reflects the reality that most people struggle with their weight due to issues with their caloric intake versus output.
2. coitus technician: “Prostitute” and “hooker” are such dirty words and belies the expertise and craftsmanship that’s involved in sex work. Also, because prostitution is legal in Nevada, this term reflects they are professionals like any other working person.
3. sexual explorer: “Slut” is a troublesome word because of the double standard attached to its use and the shaming that goes along with it. However, sexual explorer conjures up images of sophistication, liberated sexuality, and fun.
4. augmented reality specialist: Unlike “actor,” this term is gender neutral and describes the modern state of acting as more computer generated content replaces the need for people.
5. truth dilation and contraction management: While it’s often joked politicians are professional liars, especially in the post “alternative facts” era, this term better describes their behavior. All campaigns are about crafting a narrative for the candidate by exaggerating the positives and suppressing the negatives.
6. an aesthetically acquired taste: This is a much better term than “ugly” or “homely” and reflects that beauty is subjective and there’s someone out there who will like you for you.
7. financially marginalized: This term is much better than “poor” and encompasses the full spectrum of our economic strata.
8. job insecure: This doesn’t have the baggage of “unemployed” and sounds more pleasing to the ear. It’s also reflective of the often uncertain job landscape.
9. Technophobic: Much better than “Luddite” or “troglodyte” and accurately describes the fear many people have of embracing new technology.
10. non-melanated: This has none of the contentious history of “white,” is better descriptively, and centers BIPOC.
*Note: The above is satire.
Over the last several years, violence against The LGBTQ community has been on the rise in America and abroad. Conservative groups such as A Million Moms, Moms For Liberty, The Proud Boys, and others have engaged in sustained efforts to disrupt and ban events like Drag Story Time and family-friendly drag shows.
Conservative groups and have also tried banning books containing LGBTQ+ characters or content under the tired and false claim that the LGBTQ+ community is trying to groom children and reading about/seeing queer people will “make kids gay.” And when local communities push back against these efforts, instead of conceding to the will of the people, these groups double down, increasingly showing up armed.
When libraries refuse to remove LGBTQ+ books or cancel Drag Story Time, they often face criticism from these groups and others, up to and including efforts to defund said libraries, as in Jamestown Township, a small community in the western part of Michigan, my home state.
But these groups haven’t acted alone. Politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert have repeatedly said and tweeted anti LGBTQ+ things. And on the local level, politicians and council members have sought to limit or outright ban Drag Story Time and any book with LGBTQ+ content, claiming they violate obscenity and decency laws.
But they aren’t alone. The media gets in on this gay hate agenda too.
Conservative commenters like Tucker Carlson have gone on air spewing anti-trans lies about how liberals what sex ed taught to kindergarteners or want to take away parents’ rights regarding whether their trans children take hormone blockers or get gender confirmation surgery.
And when people like JK Rowling and Helena Bonham Carter or other celebrities say, do, or post transphobic things or boost anti-trans comments and voices, reporters often don’t point out the misinformation and lies.
Instead, they frame the story as a debate.
The problem with this is it gives legitimacy to this gay hate agenda. When it comes to human rights—yes, trans rights are human rights—there is no debate when one side believes the other side shouldn’t exist.
All of this hate hurled toward the trans and queer communities reached a critical point last November when an assailant entered Club Q; the only LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, CO; armed with an AR-15 and opened fire, killing five and injuring twenty-five.
And more recently police arrested a man in Florida for threatening to kill 100 LGBTQ+ students at Florida State University. He claimed, “It was a joke.”
Running through all this is a unifying thread, the belief in the so-called gay agenda; that the LGBTQ+ community here and elsewhere want to “turn people queer,” by indoctrinating children, and grooming them for sexual assault.
This is false.
Studies show 80-90% of all known child sex offenders are cis males. Child sex abuse statistics also show that almost one-third of children are assaulted by a family member. For children under the age of six, 50% of the abusers are someone in the family. For victims aged 12 to 17 the percentage drops to 23%. Stats also point to no tangible link between homosexuality and pedophilia, despite some assertions (Darkness to Light).
So no, random LGBTQ+ folks aren’t the ones you need to look out for. It’s your friends and family. The simple fact is Carlson et al. are fear mongering and pushing their gay hate agenda.
First, learning about, reading and seeing LGBTQ+ people doesn’t sexualize children any more than learning about straight folks does. And the hypocrisy of A Million Moms et al. with this is appalling. They have no issue with depictions of straight couples in 99.999% of the media, but let there be a same-sex couple or a same-sex kiss on screen and they lose their minds.
Yet these are some of the same people who have no problem with things like child beauty pageants, or insinuating kindergarteners are in romantic relationships with each other, if said couple is straight. They are also the ones who often complain about having the gay agenda shoved down their throats, yet have no issues pushing their views on others re: religion, which brings me to my next point.
These people try to mask their bigotry behind religion, yet they pick and choose which parts of the Bible to follow. I’m reminded of the scene from West Wing where President Bartlet and conservative commenter Dr. Jenna Jacobs get into an argument about homosexuality and the Bible. President Bartlet points out all the other laws in Leviticus and elsewhere that Christians like Dr. Jacobs ignore while zeroing in on Lev 18:22 to further their gay hate agenda.
Such laws prohibit wearing clothes of blended fabrics; eating shellfish, pork, or any animal with cloven feet; or marking your body (Lev 19:19, Lev 1:1-47, Lev 19:28). The Bible also establishes the criteria for who you can enslave and for how long, such as selling your daughter into slavery (Exodus 21:7).
The excuse given for this is that Jesus changed things with his death and resurrection. However, Jesus is quoting multiple times throughout the News Testament saying Old Testament Law still applies (Matthew 5:17-20).
Yet, they completely ignore everything Jesus said about helping the stranger and, the least among you, not pushing your religion on others, the beatitudes, and being overly pious for show (Matthew 5-7).
But even if their interpretation of The Bible is right, it doesn’t matter.
Because The US and most other Western countries are in fact secular nations, so no religion can force their views on non-believers.
“…Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”—The First Amendment.
The entire point of the 1st Amendment was to prohibit the government from telling its citizens what they could say, what they could write, who they associate with, and who and how they could worship. Thus, Madison et al. added the establishment clause, and why Jefferson wrote in a letter to the Danbury Baptists Association that:
“…Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”
And it’s this fundamental misunderstanding of the 1st amendment regarding religion and free speech that is at the core of the gay hate agenda. They believe their interpretation of their religion should take precedence.
No.
You have a right to your views, but you don’t have a right to force them on others. If you don’t want your children to read books with gay or trans characters, go to Drag Story Time, or a family-friendly drag shows, then don’t take them. But you don’t get to take that choice away from others, especially when these stories give many kids the representation they desperately need.
Representation Matters
Whether it’s politicians pushing bills to ban trans youth from using the bathroom that comports with their gender identity, or draconian laws that would ban trans athletes from participating in sports and subject them and others to inspections of their genitalia from adult strangers if someone suspects them of being trans, to the above efforts to ban books with LGBTQ+ content; at every turn, the adults claiming to care about the welfare of children are the same one demonizing them if they aren’t cis and heterosexual.
So many LGBTQ+ kids feel unseen and not worthy of love, respect, and dignity because their communities send them the message, they are wrong, confused, don’t know they’re LGBTQ+; and even if they do, their lives don’t matter.
Therefore, healthy, three-dimensional depictions of queer folks are important. Not just for queer kids and teens, but for everyone else.
Studies have shown reading books increases empathy and emotional intelligence, and that reading about characters from marginalized communities increases empathy toward those communities.
Studies have also shown seeing positive depictions of LGBTQ+ people helps kids come to terms with their gender identity and sexuality sooner. This is the reason there appears to me more LGBTQ+ people now. Because they feel more comfortable coming out and doing it sooner because it’s less stigmatized now. And not because the queer community is “turning people gay.”
Per the Mayo Clinic’s website:
“Most children between ages 18 and 24 months can recognize and label gender groups. They may identify others as girls, women or feminine. Or they may label others as boys, men or masculine. Most also label their own gender by the time they reach age 3.
However, society tends to have a narrow view of gender. As a result, some children learn to behave in ways that may not reflect their gender identity. At age 5 or 6, most children are rigid about gender and preferences. These feelings tend to become more flexible with age.”
And per a medicinenet.com article:
“In a 2020 study of transgender adults, 73% of transgender women and 78% of transgender men reported that they first experienced gender dysphoria by age seven.”
And according to research conducted by Gilbert Herdt, PhD, Executive Director of the National Centers on Sexuality at San Francisco State University, and Martha K. McClintock, PhD, David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at the University of Chicago, stated in their study “The Magical Age of 10,” published in the Dec. 2000 issue of Archives of Sexual Behavior:
“Accumulating studies from the United States over the past decade suggest that the development of sexual attraction may commence in middle childhood and achieve individual subjective recognition sometime around the age of 10. As these studies have shown, first same-sex attraction for males and females typically occurs at the mean age of 9.6 for boys and between the ages of 10 and 10.5 for girls.”
My point being is people often know their LGBTQ+ as kids and therefore queer representation is so important as they are going through these formative years to know they aren’t wrong, aren’t an abomination for who they love or what gender they identity or express themselves as.
I know this from a personal standpoint as I came of age in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, when being LGBTQ+ was much less accepted than it is now and there were few positive portrayals of queer people in the media and even fewer of Black queer folks like me. And because of this, I struggled with coming to terms with my sexuality and often thought of suicide.
And I know I’m not alone.
A 2022 national survey of 34,00 youth between 13 and 24 by The Trevor Project found:
(Including nearly 1 in 5 transgender and nonbinary youth and 1 in 10 cisgender youth.)
The stats don’t lie. When LGBTQ+ kids feel safe and supported, their mental health improves and they’re less likely to harm themselves.
The proponents of the gay hate agenda believe the opposite. They believe I and other LGBTQ+ people are trying to groom their kids, trying to brainwash them into mutilating their genitals as part of some grand gay conspiracy to destroy the nuclear family and Western Civilization. They want us to regress under the guise of protecting the children, because they and others like them believe being LGBTQ+ is inherently sexual.
Spoiler alert: it’s not.
In fact, the queer community includes members who fall on the asexual spectrum and th experience sexual attraction to varying degrees.
Being LGBTQ+ is no more inherently sexual than being straight. And that these people automatically associate being queer with sex says more about them than it does us.
But as I’ve said many times, before folks are queer adults, they’re queer kids. And they deserve to live their best lives free from people who claim to care about them while steadily doing everything in their power to make their lives worse.
Banning books and media with LGBTQ+ content and events like Drag Story Time isn’t going to suddenly make everyone straight and cis. It will only make more of the children you profess to care about harm themselves.
It also shows your stupidity and lack of humanity. No one can make you LGBTQ+, no more than you can turn a queer person straight. You either are or you aren’t. To believe otherwise is simply homophobia and transphobia.
Being a kid, especially an LGBTQ+ one, is hard enough without becoming the poster child for a movement that is antithetical to everything you are.
If you want to protect children, then don’t put outdated gender norms and roles on them. Let them be whoever they turn out to be. If you can’t do that, then you shouldn’t be a parent.
Period.
Hellion health heretics hobble toward
New Philistia,
Uttering elegies for civility and humanity.
Splayed before them is rationality;
Retched, broken, brutalized,
It lies
Decrepit and decayed.
Truth is an effigy ablaze.
No fact laid bare is ever good
Enough for them to care.
They will not be dissuaded
From their conspiracy theory crusade,
Until they’re intubated
Or cremated.
Aunt Ruth on Facebook
Has the straight proof.
Look at this YouTube video;
Start researching.
The elite are poofs.
The experts are a bunch
Of dunces.
Instead, trust your hunches.
For we’re lurching
Toward the end of days.
The virus is a hoax,
a scam to get the vaccine in folks.
The mark of the beast and all that jazz.
Save our kids.
Get rid of the Deep State,
Close our borders,
Stop the New World Order.
Pay no mind,
His predictions are always behind.
You’d be a fool not to believe Q Anon
And The Big Lie are true.
Any day now, 45 will get his due.
And the protests at the capitol were
Mostly peaceful and not a MAGA coup.
But also it was Antifa and BLM
Posing as them.
Confused yet?
I sure am.
Don’t be dense.
According to them,
It all makes sense.
Trust and put your faith in
The former guy,
Because Armageddon is nigh.
From on high,
The lord has sent them
A savior.
Their great white hope?
A jaundiced Jesus.
Before their Cheeto God, they bow and pray.
At his feet of lies and hate, they stay,
Hanging on his every word, every ounce
Of vitriol he sprays.
What a dope.
What a joke.
It’s just a poke,
Folks.
I don’t mean to be obscene, but
Get your fucking vaccines!
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Needs tons of editing but has a lot of potential.
Heal Queen Heal by TaSh Shabazz is a short collection of poems interspersed with Shabazz’s observation about life and her self-healing journey. While I got what she was going for I had several issues with this book.
First, the eBook wasn’t formatted right. I tried reading it on my Kindle Paper White but kept getting an error message saying the file wasn’t compatible with my device. Ultimately, I had to read it on my iPad. Thankfully, the book was only 82 pages, or this would have been an automatic DNF for me.
Second, the lack of proper editing and formatting. There are several punctuation and grammatical errors throughout the book, to the point I almost gave up as those combined with the author’s inconsistent formatting, random capitalization, and all-caps-ing of words made reading a chore.
While I empathized with Ms. Shabazz and her journey to self-acceptance and healing, I thought most of the poem lacked refinement, vivid or unique imagery, metaphors, or similes. They also didn’t have a consistent meter, and she often shoved words together with little to no meaning just because they rhymed.
However, the writing improved as the collection neared the end and I am open to reading future works by Ms. Shabazz as there is a glimmer of good writing to be found in this collection, but its cons outweigh its pros. Perhaps with more editing, this collection could have shined, but as it is, it doesn’t warrant the $9.99 price tag given the faults I listed and its shortness.
I give Heal Queen Heal 2.0 out of 5.0 stars.
Either rent this from your library or snag it when it’s on sale.
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Eternally Yours by Patrice Caldwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Eternally Yours is an anthology of fifteen paranormal romance short stories by and featuring people of color. The stories run the gamut from tales about vampires and other monsters to mermaids, sea witches, and angels.
As with other anthologies I’ve read, I thought the stories stopped without telling a satisfying story. Also, I found most of them predictable to the point I guessed all the twists and the endings. I will say it was nice seeing Black and brown folks centered in paranormal romance stories.
However, of the bunch I only loved three of them, and thought the rest were just meh. My favorite of the three was Who Will Save Me by Julian Winters. It’s the story of a guardian angel pinning for his male charge, and I’d so read a complete novel with this premise.
My next favorite was Kiss The Boy by Adib Khorram. It’s a queer twist on The Little Mermaid featuring a nonbinary merperson and the boy they are soul bonded with.
My third favorite was another story featuring merfolk, La Bruja y la Sirena by Anna-Marie McLemore. It follows a sea witch and a mermaid who fall in love with each other. I loved the lyrical prose.
Overall, I thought this anthology was just okay and could have been better if there were fewer stories, so the ones included would have been longer to tell a more satisfactory story.
I give Eternally Yours 3.0 out of 5.0 stars. Rent this or pick it up on sale.
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Just not good.
Generally, I don’t read straight up romances as I find them boring, but I gave this one a shot as it featured dogs and a gay romance.
First, this book couldn’t have been more clichéd. City guy moves to the boondocks and falls for a country guy? Check.
A small, effeminate guy (Lito) is the bottom and the alpha male (Dave), muscle bound ex-army guy is the top? Check.
Fish out of water? Check?
A misunderstanding that the characters could have resolved if they just talked? Check.
If this weren’t bad enough, Lito, Dave, and the rest of the characters have zero personality.
And as for Lito and Dave, they have no chemistry together and I can’t see why they’d be together, as Dave seems like the type of guy who’d put “masc4masc, no fats, fems, Blacks or Asians” or “Latinos only” on his Grindr profile.
As for Lito, he’s the stereotypical gay guy into fashion/interior design/art and pop devas. And while we’re told he’s Peruvian, aside from a few lines about him being brown and speaking Spanish, he’s whitewashed like crazy.
The story takes forever to get going and there is no conflict until the last 3 or 4 chapters.
Only for the story to wrap up too neatly by the end.
Even the sex scenes, of which there are multiple, drag on, lacking any emotion or sensuality. They’re just a series of insert tab a into slot b.
The story finally picked up at the 80% mark only to abruptly end with a saccharin ending the characters didn’t earn.
Overall, I didn’t like this book and doubt I’ll read any of the others in the series.
I give Worth Searching For (Heart of the South #2) 2 stars.
Newsletter Ninja 2: If You Give a Reader a Cookie: Supercharge Your Author Mailing List With the Perfect Reader Magnet by Tammi Labrecque
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Meh.
While there are some nuggets of information to be culled from this book, most of it is a rehash of the previous book with a few chapters on what makes a good reader magnet and the process for determining that.
I don’t feel what new information Labrecque gives warranted a whole new book, especially one that touted itself as being focused on reader magnets.
Had Labrecque released this as a second addition of Newsletter Ninja, I could have justified the price, but for a book marketed as being about reader magnets to spend most of the book regurgitating info not about the topic at hand is unacceptable.
The few chapters Labrecque dedicated to reader magnets are mostly things readers of the first book could glean on their own. I’m also skeptical of her advice to have covers designed for each of your reader magnets, as most independent authors like me don’t have spare money to spend on such things.
Overall, while I learned some new things from this book, it was nowhere as good or detailed as the first book and doesn’t warrant the list price. I give Newsletter Ninja 2 3.0 out of 5.0 stars.
Either skip this one or rent it from the library.
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Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert by Tammi Labrecque
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Newsletter Ninja: How to Be an Author Mailing List Expert is a nonfiction book about building and maintaining a mailing list to build your readership. At just under 200 pages, it was a quick, yet informative read.
I’ve read several books and articles and taken several courses on building your author platform/mailing list, but none of them explained the process in as much detail as Labrecque did in this book.
She gives you a tested process for growing your mailing list and nurturing relationships with your subscribers with several understandable examples that I found an immense help. I also found her voice friendly, funny, and always engaging. Also, her chapters were well organized with subheadings and bullet points that made note-taking a joy. They also didn’t drag on like in other books.
While I knew a lot of the topics she talked about, she covered them in more depth than other sources I’ve read, and I came away with a better understanding of them. She also covered several areas I wasn’t aware of, like the ask-to-give ratio and how to build genuine relationships with subscribers and keep them engaged in the long term. I especially loved the section on her newsletter philosophy, which is readers are secondary to building authentic relationships with people.
Until this point, everything I’ve consumed said it was all about gaining a lot of subscribers/clicks and converting them into buys. I’ve never been comfortable with that method, as it left me feeling sleazy. I was happy to learn there was another thanks to this book.
If had any criticism, it’s I wished Labrecque went into a little more detail on lead magnets and how to promote your list without coming off like a spammer. Also, she tries to upsell you on her newsletter course and consultation services toward the end, but it’s not overbearing.
Overall, I give Newsletter Ninja 5 out of 5 stars.
If you’re looking for a good explanation of how to build your author mailing list or if, like me, you haven’t had much success with your current methods, then I highly recommend this book.
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My rating: 2 of 5 stars
An interesting premise marred by one-dimensional characters, half-baked ideas, a lack of horror/suspense, and an ending that falls flat.
In John Saul’s Nathaniel, Janet Hill and her son Michael move to her husband’s farm town following his death.
Everyone is friendly, but Janet and Michael soon learn things aren’t as they seem.
Michael begins hearing the voice of Nathaniel, a local boogeyman, and Janet learns the women in her husband’s family have a disturbing number of stillbirths that they blame Nathaniel for.
Nathaniel then tells Michael his grandfather and Doctor Potter have been killing the babies.
Whether this is true, and if Nathaniel is real, drives the story. However, Saul stretches out these mysteries way too long and the ending doesn’t give a clear answer to either.
If this weren’t bad enough, the story moves at a glacial pace, doesn’t pick up until two-thirds in and lacks any sense of horror or suspense. I kept waiting for it to get scary and it never did.
I’ve read and enjoyed other books by John Saul, but this isn’t his best work. Nathaniel reads like a first or second draft. He doesn’t develop any of the characters at all and they are instantly forgettable.
As for the plot, what little there is, isn’t fleshed out.
Saul introduces ideas and plot points without fully developing them, and then drops them. Was Shadow, the stray dog Michael adopted, just a regular mutt, or was he supernatural? Did Michael wish Ames Hill, his grandfather, dead, or was it an ordinary heart attack? Was Nathaniel real, a ghost/demon, or a figment of Michael’s troubled mind? Did Ames Hill kill Janet’s husband and try to kill Michael, or were they accidents? Is Michael the new Nathaniel?
Your guess is as good as mine as Saul never tells the reader one way or another, which I found infuriating.
Overall, I didn’t enjoy this book and don’t recommend it. I give Nathaniel 2.0 out of 5.0 stars.
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Irving Wishbutton and the Revision Ravine by Brian Clopper
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Meh.
The second entry in Brian Clopper’s meta fantasy series finds Irving and zombie-turned-vampire Roon reaching Revision Ravine and learning more about Dean Harmstrike and the Questing Academy.
Let me start by saying I had low expectations going into this book as the first book failed to tie up many loose ends, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt. I shouldn’t have.
All the issues from the first book are present here and turned up to eleven. Irving and the other characters are never in any danger, as either Irving’s wish jacket or his author save the day.
Moreover, this book, like the first, failed to tell a self-contained story. Instead, what you get is an incomplete story and you come away feeling like you only got the second act of a book. The books don’t make sense narratively when separated as they are.
My other issue is with Irving himself; he’s the definition of mediocre and lacks any distinct personality and is little more than a plot device to experience the world. The other characters don’t fare much better. While Roon is slightly more developed than Irving, she’s still very generic. Knarl and his axe wife were so one note they were completely forgettable, and I felt the same about the denizens of Revision Ravine.
I could have forgiven all this had Clopper answered more questions than he raised in this book. Unfortunately, that is not the case. While we get a few more tidbits about Dean Harmstrike and the world of the Questing Academy, we’re left with far too many loose threads to justify slogging through the rest of the series.
I won’t bother with the other books in the series and will just look up the ending online.
I give Irving Wishbutton and the Revision Ravine 2.0 out of 5.0 stars and don’t recommend it. Either look up the ending online or skip it altogether.
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Irving Wishbutton and the Questing Academy by Brian Clopper
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Irving Wishbutton and the Questing Academy is the first book in Brian Clopper’s meta fantasy series about the eponymous boy-hero and the anonymous writer drafting his book. The story alternates between the everyday life of the writer and his family, and Irving’s time at the Questing Academy.
I liked the concept of this book a lot and thought how Clopper depicted the often-mundane life of writers was spot on. I also loved the mystery about Dean Harmstrike and the other characters Irving encountered, especially cyborg Val and fairy Sarya. I equally loathed Gared, the arrogant pompous knight, and windbag villain Raggleswamp.
However, my major criticism of the book was how Irving was never in any danger as all his problems were fixed by the actions of his author. For example, Irving’s writer drafts a chapter where he gains a wish, that he then uses later in the Questing Academy plotline.
This happened repeatedly to the point I could predict how Irving would get out of tights spots and thus never feared for him. Not only did this rob the story of all narrative tension, but it made for boring reading, and I’d go as far as saying it bordered on Deus ex machina territory, in the sense the almighty hand of the author was always there to pull Irving out of danger.
I also didn’t like how the book ended on a massive cliff hanger, but that should have been expected given how often the “writer” in the story ended his chapters on cliffhangers.
I will say there were a lot of redundancies and clunky sentences throughout the book, and it could have stood a few more rounds of editing.
Overall, the book lacked polish and could have been executed better. I give Irving Wishbutton and the Questing Academy 3.0 out of 5.0 stars. I bought the next in the series, but I’m in no rush to read it.
I recommend you either rent this from your library or snag it when it’s on sale.
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