narfna – Page 151 – Cannonball Read 17

“It’s not what the Masquerade does to you that you should you fear . . . It’s what the Masquerade convinces you to do to yourself.”

The Traitor Baru Cormorant (The Masquerade, #1) by Seth Dickinson

March 1, 2020 by narfna Leave a Comment

The Traitor Baru Cormorant is probably the strongest (fictional) condemnation of colonialism that I’ve ever read. (And there have been some contenders.) I’ve been putting off writing a review of this book (and rating it) for a month now, because I was having such a hard time trying to sum up its complexities, and what it did to me as I was reading it. Mainly, though, this is exactly the reason I love fantasy and science fiction, because it can take real-world concepts like anti-colonialism, […]

The country house party from Hell.

Proper English (England, #0) by K.J. Charles

February 3, 2020 by narfna 2 Comments

This wasn’t nearly as good as Think of England, one of my top five books from 2019, but it was still top quality, as I’ve come to expect from my K.J. Charles books. Proper English is an indirect prequel to Think of England, as it takes place two years earlier than the previous book, and shows how Fen and Pat met (they are together at the time Think of England is grappling with its own disastrous house party). But you really don’t need to read […]

“One of them says, ‘Why did they do it?’ And the other answers, ‘Because they could.’ That is the only answer there ever is.”

The Power by Naomi Alderman

February 3, 2020 by narfna 3 Comments

I will not let this book ruin my review streak. I finished it last week and have just been sitting on a final rating and review because I wasn’t sure what I thought of it when I finished it, and I’m still not really sure now, but I don’t think waiting any more will help. Maybe typing up my thoughts will help solidify some things. I’m a little behind the times with this one. It was a big deal a couple of years ago, but […]

The fridged women speak.

The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente

January 29, 2020 by narfna Leave a Comment

The Refrigerator Monologues is a feminist response to the way women are treated in superhero comics. It’s a short read, a novella really, at only 147 pages, but it packs a punch. Riffing on both the stage play The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler, and Gail Simone’s website Women in Refrigerators (which coined the term “fridging” for any female character who dies in order to further the plotline or character arc of a man), Valente’s book features six women whose lives were reduced to subplots […]

Attention all people who love Jane Austen, I have a good book for you.

Jane Austen: The Secret Radical by Helena Kelly

January 29, 2020 by narfna 7 Comments

I was just sort of expecting a fun book where the author points out passages in Austen’s work that adds credibility to the idea that Jane Austen was a radical thinker for her time. And that does occur here. (Radical, by the way, has a bit of a different usage here, in that it mostly means someone who is open to new ideas, and to rejecting the old if that is the right thing to do. That word has a negative association now that isn’t […]

“And then I had my greatest stroke of genius since that ham sandwich with pickles that time.”

Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear

January 27, 2020 by narfna 4 Comments

At one point, I was considering giving this five stars, I was having so much fun with it. Some pacing issues towards the end, as well a tiny quibble with the ending brought me back down to earth, though. But overall, fun! Karen Memory is a book I wasn’t really looking forward to reading, for what reason I’m not sure. I’d never read Elizabeth Bear before (but will in future!), and sometimes Westerns just don’t work for me (and other times I love them). But […]

Loreen on “I made promises to you that I’m not sure I can keep.”Just so you know, there are now 18 books banned in Utah. Here’s the list compiled by the Salt Lake...
Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...

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