April Wrap Up

 Welcome back, dear readers.

Another month is behind us which means it is again time for me to talk about the books I read in April. April was a busy time, but it was the month in which I got my first Covid-19 vaccine. I await the next dose with bated breath, reader. As of posting this, I have but seven days to wait.

But! Without further ado, let us take a look at the books I read in April.

From left to right: The Poppy War by RF Kuang, The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J Maas, Anodyne by Khadijah Queen, Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger, Final Girls by Riley Sager, A Brief History of Chinese Civilization by Conrad Schirokauer & Miranda Brown, Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile by Kazushige Nojima, Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport, Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong.

The first book I finished was The Poppy War by RF Kuang. Poppy War is the first book in a fantasy trilogy that draws influence from Chinese history. This was a delightful change of pace, reader because so much fantasy has European roots. The story is essentially divided into two parts, the first following Rin during her time at the war academy and the second following her during a war. As one might expect given that this book deals with war, there are some very heavy themes to be found within its pages. I personally didn't find the descriptions gratuitous, but I would like to take a moment to caution the reader. There is a section in the story that talks about the aftermath of a civilian massacre and there are implications of sexual violence. There are also mentions of past human experimentation. It is an excellently written story and I can't wait to read the next two books in the series. I do so enjoy stories where characters go to a fantasy school. 

5/5 pumpkins

Next, I read The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J Maas, a gift from a friend of mine. I've been meaning to read pick up some of Maas' work and this collection of short stories serves as the jumping-off point for her adult fantasy series Throne of Glass. In the short stories we are introduced to Celaena Sardothien, a highly-skilled assassin, and find out just how she ended up imprisoned in the salt mines she's taken from in Throne of Glass. As a prequel, I thought it worked well. The short stories were a nice introduction to Celaena. It did take me most of the first story to really get into it, reader, and there was a little repetition between stories. However, by the end of the collection, I was certainly eager to read more. 

4/5 pumpkins

The next book is a poetry collection, something that's pretty outside my normal oeuvre. It was Anodyne by Khadijah Queen. I'd like to preface my thoughts on this collection with this: I don't think poetry needs to accessible to a wide audience to be worthwhile and poetry that is simple to understand is not necessarily worthless. As I said reader, I don't read a lot of poetry and much of the nuance of Queen's writing is lost on me. Of what I did understand, several of the poems talk about her experience as a Black woman and a mother which were very moving. I loved her turns of phrase, she's very skilled at crafting poems. The ones I found most difficult were the poems written in grid formation. I believe the order you are supposed to read the boxes corresponds to pieces of abstract art. Poem as puzzle to solve appeals to me greatly, reader. I did not give this collection a rating because I didn't feel comfortable making that kind of value judgment on something I only barely understand at the moment. I would recommend her work, reader.

My next read was Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger and I enjoyed it greatly. This is a YA urban fantasy that follows the titular character, Elatsoe, named for her sixth great grandmother, who is Lipan Apache. It's a mystery story in which Ellie tries to figure out who killed her cousin while learning to use her ability to call ghosts. There are also vampires and fae and a very creepy town in the middle of the desert. I enjoyed this story greatly, reader. I love urban fantasy and reading it from an Indigenous perspective was truly excellent. Given that it is a mystery I don't want to reveal too much about the story, lest I accidentally spoil something. Just know that I recommend this book highly, reader. It was atmospheric, had some very memorable lines, wonderful lore, and lovely characters. 

5/5 pumpkins

Final Girls by Riley Sager marks the first book chosen for the Petunia's Choice Challenge. A challenge that involves me holding different books up to Petunia and the one she boops with her noise is the one I read. This was her choice for April. It went better than I expected, reader. Final Girls is a thriller that plays with common slasher movie tropes and has no supernatural twists. This is a shame, reader because I prefer my thriller/horror books to have some sort of supernatural element. A man with knife is just not scary to me in the way a ghost with knife is. Final Girls isn't a bad thriller, however. It does subvert some harmful tropes about mental health that you tend to see in horror which I appreciated. Sager also unfolded the mystery in a way that was interesting to follow, at least for me a person who has not read many thriller novels. I have read bad mysteries and this isn't one of them, for what that's worth reader. I found the main character a little on the flat side, which is not great for a first-person narrative. Her story was interesting but she was not, which was a shame because she easily could have been. 'Could have been worse' is not high praise, but it was better than expected.

3/5 pumpkins

Next up is one of the three nonfiction books I read this month: A Brief History of Chinese Civilization by Conrad Schirokaur & Miranda Brown. This is a textbook left-over from a class I took during my undergrad. I mostly picked it up to get an overview of Chinese history and to see what they recommended as further reading in the back. This book does live up to its title. It is very brief. 400 pages can only give a general summary of China's history, and I expected that going in. On top of that, the book tended to repeat information verbatim from previous sections and had some odd perspective shifts during the sections where Europe began interacting with China. There was also very little information about the different parts of Chinese society during any of the dynasties covered. They also formatted the further reading section very poorly, reader. Would a bullet point list be too much to ask for, reader? Did they have to put it into a page-long paragraph? They also repeated titles in that section making it difficult to work through. This book was certainly a jumping-off point, but I'm sure there are better ones, reader.

3/5 pumpkins

I have a confession to make, reader. I only just now got into Final Fantasy 7, but I have fallen hard for it. I'm a convert. I'm playing the original game because I can't wait for the Remake's next installment. I'm absolute garbage for Sephiroth and Cloud Strife is my ideal gender presentation. I'd ask for help, reader, but if loving FF7 (re Sephiroth) is wrong I don't want to be right. This to say, I tracked down and read the translation of  Final Fantasy VII On the Way to a Smile by Kazushige Nojima. This collection of short stories takes place during the gap between the end of the game and the Advent Children movie. (I have also watched Advent Children. I have roms of Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core. I cannot be stopped.) The translation is decent enough, though I will say it has a very fanfiction feel to it. This isn't a dig at the writing style, reader. I can't explain what it is exactly, but often book tie-ins to other media feel like high-quality fic. I certainly had a grand time reading this story. It's not groundbreaking literature, but it doesn't need to be. Each story is short, following Barret, Nanaki, Yuffie, Tifa, Rufus Shinra, and Denzel. 

4/5 pumpkins

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport was the second nonfiction book I read in April. It's another book talking about just how social media fosters addictive behavior and ways to distance yourself from it and replace the hours spent scrolling with a hobby you enjoy. I prefer this book to Jaron Lanier's. I liked its structure and presentation more, though they do talk about many of the same things. Newport talks more about how social media affects human interaction and why this matters. I think if you're interested in a book about this topic, read this before Lanier. 

4/5 pumpkins

Last is Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong, a collection of essays that talk about Hong's experience as a Korean American. This was a very raw book. Hong talks frankly about her mental health struggles and experience with the racism inherent in everyday life. There are seven essays in this collection, all of them dealing with racism in different ways. They were all moving to read and explore the complexity of being a person of color in America. I don't have much to say about these essays, reader. Besides, go read them, that is.

5/5 pumpkins

That wraps up April, dear readers. I hope to see you again. Happy reading til then.

Until next time, dear reader 🎃