REVIEW: My Husband and I Sleep in a Coffin, Vol. 2 (book) by Wu Shui Bu Du, illustrated by Oniku and Chikage, translated by Liting Xiao

My Husband and I Sleep in a Coffin is fantasy danmei (Chinese m/m) fiction. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

Wang Xiaomie and Wen Fengjin have moved out of the mausoleum and begun living in modern China, mostly because Xiaomie misses the internet and eating whatever his heart desires. Their domestic bliss is interrupted by the arrival of Bai Yu, a young man Wen Fengjin finds bloody and injured on the street and takes home because that's what Xiaomie told him that good people should do.

Bai Yu turns out to have been the same person who'd previously been stalking Wang Xiaomie and Wen Fengjin. He's an orphan, the last surviving member of a line of Artisans, people who hunt nonhuman monsters and create tools to kill them. After Wang Xiaomie was nice to him, he decided that the pair he was stalking maybe weren't so bad after all, but unlucky Bai Yu seems to have attracted his own trouble. Xiaomie likes the naive young man and, surprisingly, Wen Fengjin seems relatively okay with having him stick around for a bit while they look into whatever trouble he's gotten himself into.

REVIEW: The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn (graphic novel, vol. 1) by Tri Vuong

The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn is a graphic novel that collects short paranormal/Lovecraftian stories. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

Oscar Zahn is a paranormal investigator, a member of the Society of Cryptocartography and Necrological Exploration. He was once human and is now a floating skull. He struggles constantly against the Ecotopus, a ravenous being with whom is he forced to coexist and which sometimes takes him over. The stories in this volume feature some of his adventures.

In "Lost and Found," Oscar confronts a being that's haunted a house for some time. In the various parts of "The Last Soldier of the Somme," Oscar works with the ghost of Private Charlie Harper, 4th Division, Canadian Corps. In the various parts of "Stardust and Soliloquies," Oscar, an old sailor named Edmund, and a trio of Hydronauts attempt to confront and deal with the ghosts that have haunted Edmund for years. The volume wraps up with "Doppelgänger," a story focused mostly on Agnes, a friend/assistant (?) of Oscar's. 

REVIEW: The Ophelia Network (novella) by Mur Lafferty

The Ophelia Network is dystopian fiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

In this novella's present, Bailey, a children's TV show host, is being held by government agents who are convinced that he was involved in an effort to use his show to transmit secret codes to a resistance group. Meanwhile, flashbacks to the past show how Celeste was let go from her job as a journalist, only to be hired on as an intern at the same children's show Bailey worked at, given instructions to somehow work various codes into episode scripts as naturally as possible.

The dystopian society of this novella is a near-future United States in which the Department of Freedom and Truth has declared that the news must only report "true facts, not anti-government sedition or un-American lies" (9). Ophelia, an un-hackable government-controlled AI, is just about everywhere and hears everything. People opposed to the government, or who can't prove they're American enough, are being jailed, disappeared, and/or deported. 

REVIEW: Rest Stop (novella) by Nat Cassidy

Rest Stop is horror. I bought my copy new.

This review includes mild spoilers. 

Review:

Abe is doing a drive he doesn't want to do, to see his grandmother one last time as she's dying in a hospital. All of Abe's memories of his grandmother are pretty negative. His entire life, she seems to have delighted in telling him what a failure he is, and how weak and overly American he is. Granted, she's an old Jewish Polish lady who's likely seen some horrible things in her life, but still.

Even so, he's going to see her. It gets him away from his own life for a bit, which currently isn't going all that great. It's now nearly two in the morning, and Abe decides to stop at a rest stop for a bit, grab some snacks, and use the restroom.

Despite the fact that there are two cars and a van out front, the rest stop is completely empty. It creeps Abe out more than a bit, so he decides to use the restroom and just grab some snacks and leave cash on the counter if there's still no one around by then. Except when he tries to leave the restroom, he realizes he can't. He's locked inside. Things get worse, a lot worse, from there.

REVIEW: Blanky (novella) by Kealan Patrick Burke

Blanky is a horror novella. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Steve is a teacher who is drowning in grief over the sudden death of his infant daughter, Robin. His wife, Lexi, has gone to stay with her parents, unable to deal with being in the same house where Robin died.

Steve hears a noise from his daughter's empty room and goes to look only to find Blanky, Robin's old blanket. He calls Lexi to tell her about it, and she's able to bring herself to come over to take a look at it. The two of them reconnect and things seem to be going better for a bit, until everything goes very wrong.

The ambiguity of this one was frustrating, since it could have easily been resolved with a little more information from just one or two other characters. At any rate, there are a couple different versions of what happened, and readers are left to decide for themselves what they believe.

I feel like some of the weirdness about Blanky should have been discovered earlier on. Either way, I have questions and no answers. 

REVIEW: Aquicorn Cove (graphic novel) by K. O'Neill

Aquicorn Cove is a fantasy graphic novel. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Lana and her father go to the coastal town of Abalone to help Lana's aunt Mae clean up after a bad storm. Lana's mom died at sea a while back, so now Lana's dad generally avoids coming to her hometown, but Lana has some good memories from this place. 

Lana comes across an injured aquicorn and decides to nurse it back to health. Meanwhile, adult aquicorns bring her stuff, including a necklace that reminds Mae of Aure, a water protector being she once befriended.

This had a strong environmentalist thread, which O'Neill balanced with the need for Mae's village to somehow continue bringing in income that could keep the village going. The overall feel was very Ghibli-esque - Lana could easily have been a Ghibli heroine. 

As usual, O'Neill's artwork was lovely. This was an enjoyable read. 

Extras:

Includes information about coral reefs and coral reef conservation. 

REVIEW: Six Wakes (book) by Mur Lafferty

Six Wakes is a science fiction mystery. I bought my copy new.

Review:

In the future depicted in this book, cloning was invented a long time ago and is now used to help people with the money for it be functionally immortal. You get a "mind map" made and, when you die, your mind map will be put into a new body, and you'll continue on just as you were, minus whatever experiences you had since your last mind map. 

This book stars six newly awakened clones on a ship traveling to a new planet, hopefully a new home. The six clones are all criminals who were given the option of being the "awake and aware" crew on the ship, making sure nothing goes wrong with the ship or any of the passengers in stasis, in exchange for full pardons once their work is done. However, something very clearly has gone wrong. 

Maria, the ship's cook and janitor, is one of the first to wake up, surrounded by evidence of a bloody struggle. There's also Wolfgang (the intense security chief), Katrina (the captain), Joanna (the crew's doctor), Paul (the ship's engineer, an absolute mess), and Hiro (the pilot). Neither Maria nor any of the others have mind maps that go back further than the start of their voyage, despite evidence that the ship has been traveling for decades. Most of their previous bodies show evidence that they were attacked, but there are a couple details that add to the group's confusion and concern. For one thing, Hiro's previous self seems to have committed suicide - according to the rules of cloning, those who commit suicide aren't supposed to be brought back via cloning and mind-maps. What are they supposed to do now that Hiro's already been brought back? Also, Katrina's previous self is grievously injured but not actually dead. She could be an important witness, but, at the same time, two instances of a person aren't legally allowed to exist at once.

There's no evidence that any of the passengers in stasis were affected by whatever happened, and the only awake and aware humans on board are the six clones who recently woke up. Their ship's AI is damaged, and their route has been changed. It seems likely that one of the six crew members was responsible for everything that happened, but, if so, which one of them killed everyone, and why?

REVIEW: Road Trip with a Vampire (book) by Jenna Levine

Road Trip with a Vampire is paranormal romance, the last book in Levine's vampire series. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Grizelda "Zelda" Watson spent hundreds of years as a giant magical trouble-maker, teaming up with vampire pals like Reginald "Reggie" Cleaves (see My Vampire Plus-One) to have fun and cause chaos. However, due to an event that got out of her control, Zelda was scared into going straight, and she's spent recent years pretending to be a regular human, running a yoga studio with two friends who have no idea what she can do and who she used to be. But trying to keep her magic bottled up is easier said than done, and the tiny spells she does to bleed some of it off don't seem to be enough anymore.

Then she meets hot amnesiac vampire Peter, who Reggie sent her way in the hopes that she'd be able to help him figure out what happened to him. Zelda doesn't want to add a vampire to her new "normal" life, but, for a vampire, Peter seems very nice. Unfortunately, whoever he was working with in the past that he can't remember seems to very much not be nice. Reluctantly, Zelda decides that a road trip is in order: she and Peter will get his memories back, deal with whoever's been threatening him and those near him, and, in the meantime, Zelda will figure out just how much magic she needs to use on a regular basis to keep her powers in check.

REVIEW: Night of the Mannequins (novella) by Stephen Graham Jones

Night of the Mannequins is horror. I bought my copy new.

Review:

In his rambling, all-over-the place way, teenager Sawyer explains how a prank involving a mannequin he and his friends found a while back resulted in a bunch of deaths - but, Sawyer, insists, fewer deaths than there might have been if he hadn't recognized what was going on with Manny the mannequin and stepped in to try to protect everyone.

So, I can't really say much about this one without ruining it, but reading this was the literary version of watching a train wreck. I mean that in the best possible way, for a horror story.

Sawyer...man, that kid. I don't even know where to start. Literally everything he did had a tendency to spiral out of control, whether he recognized it or not.

I admit, I got a little bit lost near the end, because it wasn't always easy to tell what was real and what wasn't. Still, even if I wasn't entirely sure exactly what happened at the end, this was quite a ride. 

REVIEW: The Wolf Suit (graphic novel) by Sid Sharp

The Wolf Suit is a humorous graphic novel. It could probably be considered a children's picture book as well. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Bellwether the sheep likes hanging out by himself, drinking tea, eating flowers, and making quilts. But one day he hears a wolf howling in the woods, and suddenly he's unable to go outside without fear. He solves this by using his crafting skills to make himself a wolf suit, but then he inadvertently ends up meeting some wolves and getting invited to hang out with them.

This was hilarious. I got a kick out of Bellwether's growing horror at accidentally screwing up his own plans, and at his steadily deteriorating wolf suit. The situation just kept getting worse while poor Bellwether desperately tried to play it cool.

The art wasn't really to my taste, but it did get Bellwether's awkwardness across well. 

REVIEW: Killer Underwear Invasion!: How to Spot Fake News, Disinformation & Conspiracy Theories (nonfiction book) by Elise Gravel

Killer Underwear Invasion! is a children's nonfiction book. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Using lots of silly examples, this book aims to teach younger readers how to recognize misinformation, think about the motivations behind those spreading it, and evaluate their sources. Gravel talks about five reasons people make up "news," why people believe it (emotions, confirmation bias), and some of the first steps to spotting misinformation.

 So, the "how to evaluate sources" bit is actually only a small portion of this book, and it makes it sound simpler than it can be, when you consider that some people call people "experts" when they're really not. Still, this is a difficult topic, and I can't imagine that it was easy to try to write about it in a way that was accessible and useful to younger readers. 

The various "fake news" examples were amusing, and watching them spiral out of control was certainly more fun than a lot of real-life examples would have been.  

REVIEW: Charlotte's Web (book) by E.B. White, illustrations by Garth Williams

Charlotte's Web is a children's book. I bought my copy new.

This review is, I guess, spoilery? It's hard to say. 

Review:

Eight-year-old Fern is horrified when she learns that her father plans to cull a piglet who's the runt of his litter. Her father reluctantly lets her bottle feed the pig, which she names Wilbur, and he thrives, but eventually he grows big enough that Fern's father insists he has to be sold. Luckily, Fern's Uncle Homer is willing to buy him, so Fern can continue to visit him daily. Wilbur's new home is much more boring than living with Fern was, and he struggles to find a friend until he meets Charlotte, a spider.  

REVIEW: Born Different (book) by V. Nator

Born Different is a monster evolution LitRPG fantasy. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Click hatches from an egg at the same time as their many other siblings, but while most of those siblings rush out and immediately get eaten by other larger monsters in the Rockford Hamlet Dungeon that is their home, Click is more cautious. They learn from others' experiences and gradually figure out how to catch their own food...only to find themselves at the mercy of a bully of a larger sibling, who forces them to hunt and then steals all their food. After evolving enough to scare off their bully and move on, Click continues to learn how the world works and tries to make the best choices it can whenever the System prompts it.

Meanwhile, the humans living outside Rockford Hamlet Dungeon aren't wild about the signs that the dungeon is awakening. Adventurers have been called in to clean the place out enough to force it back into dormancy. They represent the biggest threat Click has ever encountered, and Click will do whatever they can to protect their home and their people.

REVIEW: My Husband and I Sleep in a Coffin, Vol. 1 (book) by Wu Shui Bu Du, illustrated by Oniku and Chikage, translated by Liting Xiao

My Husband and I Sleep in a Coffin is fantasy danmei (Chinese m/m) fiction. I bought my copy of this volume new.

This review includes spoilers. 

Review:

Wang Xiaomie is an ordinary gay nerd who's basically lived alone since he was very young. One day, he wakes up in a coffin, greeted by a handsome man named Wen Fengjin who keeps calling him "Mian Deng." Wen Fengjin insists that Wang Xiaomie is the reincarnation of his beloved Mian Deng, brought back into Mian Deng's preserved corpse after a thousand years of waiting.

Wen Fengjin tells Xiaomie all about how Mian Deng was his shixiong (older martial brother), and about how the two of them ended up coming across an elixir of immortality that attracted countless assassins. In the end, Mian Deng and Wen Fengjin were badly injured. They decided that one of them should eat the elixir and, after much argument, Mian Deng was chosen, only for him to trick Wen Fengjin and give it to him instead. This transformed Wen Fengjin into a corpse-like monster with no heartbeat, alone in the world without his Mian Deng, until the present day, when Wen Fengjin's efforts to bring him back finally worked. However, the process isn't entirely complete - Wang Xiaomie is essentially tied to the divine tree that brought Mian Deng's body back to life, and can't leave the area for long without becoming a true corpse again.

It's a lot to take in, and no matter how much Wang Xiaomie insists that he has no memories of life as Mian Deng, Wen Fengjin seems convinced that that's who he is. Wen Fengjin seems to be more than a little bit unstable, but he's also hot and willing to see to Xiaomie's every need as much as possible, so Xiaomie tries to accept the situation. The main drawbacks are the lack of internet and modern technology within the vast mausoleum Wen Fengjin constructed for Mian Deng and himself.

REVIEW: Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again (book) by Shigeru Kayama, translated by Jeffrey Angles

Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again is a collection of novelizations of the first two Godzilla movies, written by the person who outlined the original stories of those movies. I bought my copy new.

Review:

The two stories in this are pretty basic, not very subtle, and a bit melodramatic. They were okay. I found the first one to be better than the second one. I hadn't seen either of the first two movies prior to reading this, although I've since watched the 1954 Godzilla.

What really made this collection shine, for me, was translator Jeffrey Angles' afterword, which put the stories in context and explained how Kayama originally intended Godzilla to be a warning about the dangers of nuclear war. I can only imagine how frustrating and difficult it was to watch that message essentially morph into "kaiju battles are cool." (But they are cool. I'm so sorry.)