13-14: Persepolis

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Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis.

in short: An autobiographical graphic novel. Satrapi relates her experiences in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War from a child's perspective.

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Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis 2.

in short: The second half of Satrapi's auto-biographical graphic novel.

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#26: Soul Song by Marjorie M. Liu

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Warning! This book features a heroine who cons a would-be assassin into thinking she’ll bribe him to let her live, and then strangles him with the strap of her fiddle case. You have been warned!

Moving on!

I forgot how insane Liu’s Dirk & Steele plots tend to be! M’Cal is a merman (!!!) enslaved to a witch who forces him to steal souls for her to eat. While she usually sends him out for any old soul, this time she sends him to bring her a specific soul: Kitala Bell, a musician with the ability to see how people will die, if they’ll die violently. Naturally, M’Cal falls in love with her instead.

I have mixed feelings on this book (which I originally thought would be more of an insane genderswapped version of “The Little Mermaid” than it was). On the one hand, I really like Liu’s leads (though M’Cal is a bit too “Woes! My angst!” for me at times, and not as nice as Liu’s other heroes tend to be, though I did like his trust issues, and how they bounced off Kit’s isolation) and her crazy worldbuilding and mythology. I also really liked the music bits (though I suspect they’d drive me crazy if I actually knew anything about music beyond whether or not I like the way it sounds) and the non-evil, non-overwhelmingly-shiny-and-mystic-and-glorified handling of voodoo (though I don’t know how accurate it is, either…) especially Kit’s conversations with her grandmother’s ghost/past self (not sure which it was).

On the other hand, however, is the whole slavery thing. Liu tends to have a theme of slavery in her works. It normally works for me in the context of her plots and worldbuilding, but it bugged me more here than it has before. That may, however, be because there was one aspect of M’Cal’s enslavement that I thought she was dealing with too lightly, and didn’t directly address until late in the book.

But then the end of the book had a lot of focus on family and sacrifices for family, and I tend to love that stuff! I was also very amused by the other shapeshifters from the series, especially Rik and Koni. Rik because he’s mellowed in a way that makes me think everyone else in the series made him sit down and listen to their tales of angst and woe to give him some perspective. This has resulted in his going from something of an emo punk in Shadow Touch to more of a sweet kid here, and now I want him and Eddie to be adorable together as Liu grooms them to eventually get their own inevitable books. Koni I loved because he was so incredibly cranky, which was very entertaining. I’m sure he’s getting his own book, too.

Beverly Jenkins, Wild Sweet Love

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

22. Beverly Jenkins, Wild Sweet Love

Teresa, a train-robbing, bank-robbing, horse-riding, leather-wearing, genuine Wild West outlaw, is finally captured by the police and sentenced to jail. She gets out early on good behavior, under the condition that she does well in a rehabilitation program that requires her to live with a volunteer. Teresa is assigned to Molly Nance, a wealthy woman who decides to teach Teresa how to be a lady. Meanwhile, Molly's son, Madison- a ex-gambler turned banker- and Teresa begin to realize that all their constant bickering has more to do with sexual tension than dislike.

This book is probably the first real "romance novel" I've ever read*, and though it didn't match up to my preconceived notions in a lot of ways, I don't know if that's because this is a unusual example of the genre, because I had misguided stereotypes in the first place, or because this book has an African-American author and characters. Or all three.

I really enjoyed reading this. Many of the negative impressions I had of the romance genre were not in this book- the heroine wasn't a virgin, she and the hero were equally matched physically (they both get into and win fist-fights, at different points in the plot, for example, and even the mom got to knock out a bad guy at one point), the plot was not driven by silly misunderstandings or anyone needing to be rescued (instead there's a believable uncertainty about what kind of relationship they want to have). I liked that there were various elements of politics in the book- the hero attends an anti-lynching convention at one point, while Teresa and Molly have a discussion about different black political movements. This is a very minor detail in the book, but I appreciated its existence.

Overall, this was just a fun book. The writing wasn't amazing, but it was perfectly serviceable, and I liked the understanding between the main characters. I recommend it.


* Though I do adore Georgette Heyer, and have read tons of her books, she's not really useful as an example of the tropes and themes of the modern Romance publishing industry.

3. White Is for Witching, Helen Oyeyemi

[kethlenda.livejournal.com]

Helen Oyeyemi's first novel, The Icarus Girl was recommended in this community, and I ordered it about five minutes after reading the review! Then, I unfortunately let it languish in my TBR pile. When I got the chance to read her latest book, White Is for Witching, I decided to read WIfW first, since it's "hot off the presses." I very much liked it, and I'll definitely get to The Icarus Girl before too long!

White Is for Witching blends gothic horror, racial politics, and the older, bloodier sort of fairy tales into a deeply unsettling novel. The story opens with a passage intentionally reminiscent of "Snow White," describing the mysterious imprisonment? disappearance? death? of the heroine, Miranda Silver. From there, we move backward in time, to the point when the events leading to Miranda's fate began.

The story is told from several points of view, all of them seeing events from different perspectives, all of them possibly unreliable narrators. Miranda herself, her brother Eliot, her lover Ore, and her ancestral home all have their own versions to tell as the plot unfolds.

The house looms as the center of Miranda's tale. Menacing and xenophobic, it desires control over the people it considers its own, and means harm toward those it sees as foreign. The house and its ghosts want to make Miranda a vessel for their hatred. Miranda struggles against the house's domination, a battle that threatens to destroy her mental health and possibly her life.

Oyeyemi's prose is haunting and poetic. I hesitate to use the word "beautiful," as that might give a false impression of "pleasantness." Oyeyemi depicts nightmares, not pretty dreams. She has a knack for describing ordinary things in a way that makes them suddenly horrific, and when she describes horrific things, she does it in a subtle, oblique way that feels like you're looking at something so unspeakable that you can only look with your peripheral vision.

White Is for Witching works as a novel of the supernatural, and it also works as an allegory. I hesitate to even mention the A-word, for fear of driving away readers who've been burned by preachy authors. Oyeyemi doesn't preach, however. There's a message, but it never overshadows the plot and characters. It's just that you can see an extra dimension to the story if you look through the lens of allegory.