REVIEW: Assistant to the Villain (book) by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

Assistant to the Villain is fantasy romance. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Evie Sage's family depends upon the money she brings in, so now that she's no longer employed at the blacksmith's, she's desperate to get some sort of paying job. When she literally runs into the infamous Villain while he's attempting to evade pursuers, he, for some reason, offers her a job, and she accepts. 

She's nervous about working for him, at first. After all, the Villain is supposed to be evil. While he does indeed torture people (who maybe deserve it?) and do nefarious things (which seem kind of justified?), she soon finds that she enjoys working as his assistant, making sure that the various parts of his organization all function smoothly together. And it doesn't hurt that she's got a bit of a crush on her brooding, somewhat terrifying, and ridiculously hot boss.

Unfortunately, various people's secrets, the Villain's past, and a potential traitor in the Villain's organization threaten Evie's employment, the new life she's building for herself, and whatever might be brewing between her and the Villain. 

REVIEW: Playthrough Poetics: Gameplay as Research Method (nonfiction) edited by Milena Droumeva

Playthrough Poetics is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

The idea behind this book is that game scholarship tends to flatten video games into text for close reading, and that gameplay is a valid and necessary way to research and explore the immersiveness of video games. Each contributor used different methods to incorporate actual gameplay experience into their analyses of different games. URLs to associated YouTube videos are included - I never got around to watching any of them, but I assume some of them include gameplay footage.

This is the most academic/scholarly work I've sat and read through from start to finish in a very long while. I'm not sure I'd have managed it if it hadn't been such a short work. The focus on actual gameplay experiences did make for more interesting reading, although the way the various authors approached it worked more for me in some chapters than others. My favorite was Chapter 2, Robyn Hope's "Pathologic 2 and the Phenomenology of Illness."

REVIEW: The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks (nonfiction book) by Daniel Konstanski

The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

After finishing Brian Barrett's LEGO: The Art of the Minifigure, I came across this book and thought it would be a nice way to expand upon what I learned. However, I hesitated on Konstanski's book for a long while, primarily due to reviews that indicated that font size was too small.

Unfortunately, I agree with those reviewers. It's the worst thing about this book. For the most part, I could still manage to read the text, but there were a few captions that I had to just accept I wasn't going to be able to read, even with my glasses properly on my face.

Despite my issues with the font size, overall I thought this was a worthwhile read. When I was a kid, my family could only afford a basic LEGO brick set, and even as an adult I've only bought a few small, cheap sets. For some reason, however, I seem to really enjoy learning about the LEGO design process and how and why different sets were developed. 

REVIEW: Dungeon Crawler Carl (book) by Matt Dinniman

Dungeon Crawler Carl is science fantasy LitRPG. I bought my copy new.

Review:

At 2:23 AM Pacific Standard Time, every structure on Earth with a roof is flattened. The only survivors are those who were outside at the time. The alien beings responsible for all this destruction give them a choice: they can either try to survive in what's left of their world, or they can enter the 18-Level World Dungeon, where they will be expected to fight their way through each timed level. Only those who make it through all 18 levels or meet certain other requirements will be given their freedom. Their efforts in the dungeon will be broadcast for the viewing pleasure of an alien audience. 

At the moment of the apocalypse, Carl happens to have just stepped out in his boxers, a leather jacket, and a pair of ill-fitting crocs in an effort to bring his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, back inside. If he hadn't entered the Dungeon, he'd have frozen to death, but that doesn't make him feel much better as the NPCs he encounters immediately try to kill him. If Carl and Donut are to survive, they're going to have to figure out what's going on, level up, be creative, and keep moving.

REVIEW: Bullet Train (book) by Kotaro Isaka, translated by Sam Malissa

Bullet Train is a Japanese thriller. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This book focuses on multiple sets of characters, all of whom are traveling on the same bullet train. There's Kimura, a recovering alcoholic whose young son is comatose in the hospital. Kimura is planning to kill Satoshi, the Prince, the angelic-looking but sociopathic teenager who hurt Kimura's son. There's Nanao, the self-proclaimed "unluckiest assassin in the world," who's been sent to steal a suitcase - a seemingly easy job, but Nanao knows that nothing is ever easy when he's involved. And then there's Tangerine and Lemon, two assassins who've been tasked with retrieving their boss's kidnapped son and a suitcase, the very same suitcase that Nanao has been sent to steal. Their job seems easy too, and just about done...until the boss's son suddenly winds up dead.

This is set in the same world as Isaka's Three Assassins and takes place sometime after it (a few years, I think?). Although this can be read as a standalone, there are a few references to characters and events here and there that will make more sense if you've read Three Assassins first.

REVIEW: Tress of the Emerald Sea (book) by Brandon Sanderson

Tress of the Emerald Sea is fantasy, or maybe science fantasy. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Tress has spent her entire life on the small island where she was born, baking, collecting cups brought by sailors from all over the world, and spending time with Charlie, her best friend. She and Charlie both generally try to pretend that Charlie isn't the duke's heir, and that they aren't in love with each other, but that becomes impossible when the duke decides to send Charlie off to be married. 

Charlie's plan to avoid becoming married involves being the most boring person ever anytime he's introduced to an eligible young woman and, for a while, his plan succeeds. Unfortunately, eventually the duke and the king deal with Charlie by sending him to be captured by the Sorceress in the Midnight Sea. Realizing that no one plans to help Charlie, Tress decides to rescue him herself, however impossible that may seem.

REVIEW: A Magical Girl Retires (book) by Park Seolyeon, translated by Anton Hur, illustrated by Kim Sanho

A Magical Girl Retires is fantasy ("magical realism" might also be appropriate here). I bought my copy new.

This review includes major spoilers. 

Review:

The main character (who I believe is unnamed throughout) is a 29-year-old jobless Korean woman slowly drowning in debt. She's depressed and considering suicide. In fact, this story begins at 3am, when the MC is considering jumping off a bridge. Before she's able to finally psych herself into it, a stranger approaches her, introduces herself as Ah Roa, the Clairvoyant Magical Girl, and tells the MC that she's destined to be the most powerful magical girl ever, the Magical Girl of Time.

The MC spends most of this story feeling bewildered and awkward - she certainly doesn't feel like a magical girl, much less the most powerful one ever, but Ah Roa's belief in her is so strong and earnest that she can't help but try to figure out how she might live up to it.

REVIEW: The He-Man Effect: How American Toymakers Sold You Your Childhood (nonfiction graphic novel) by Brian "Box" Brown

The He-Man Effect is a nonfiction graphic novel. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This looks at the history of marketing towards American children, in particular instances where toys were created first and then shows (thinly veiled ads, really) were created around them, like He-Man and Transformers. The book also mentions She-Ra, Disney, Star Wars, GI Joe, etc.

I wasn't always sure I really understood the distinction between companies realizing that a cartoon character is popular and putting out merchandise to capitalize on that vs. companies creating an animated show based around merchandise. Either way, an effort was being made to get children to convince their parents to buy things for them. The author definitely seemed to judge the latter more harshly than the former, however.

Overall, this was a bit choppy, and it wasn't always clear what the author wanted to say. For example, was he blaming racist reactions to new Star Wars stuff on the commercialization of childhood? 

Lots of points were touched upon, but not always explored very thoroughly. Still, this was interesting, if a bit depressing, reading.

REVIEW: I Hate Fairyland: The Whole Fluffing Tale, Compendium One (graphic novel) written and drawn by Skottie Young

I Hate Fairyland is a dark humor fantasy graphic novel series. I checked this volume out from the library.

Review:

Gertrude (Gertie) is a young girl who is unwillingly transported to Fairyland, where she is to remain until she and Larrington (Larry), her guide, find the key to the door back to her world. According to Queen Cloudia, this shouldn't take long. Twenty-seven years later, Gertie is still in Fairyland, a bitter and violent woman stuck in the body of a child. Queen Cloudia wants her gone but is forbidden from harming visitors to Fairyland, so she brings another little girl into Fairyland in an effort to circumvent the rules.

This was violent, irreverent, and gross. Vomit, snot, blood, tears, etc. were plentiful. The cartoonish gore was a little too gross for my tastes, unfortunately. I was reminded of Ren & Stimpy, which I found more repulsive than entertaining, as well as Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan. 

I had some trouble feeling sympathy for Gertie when I realized that she was primarily stuck in Fairyland not because she was unfairly trapped but rather because she refused, from the beginning, to listen to her guide. From the sounds of things, she really should have been able to get out of Fairyland decades sooner.

The story got so twisted in on itself by the end that I wasn't always sure what was going on. Despite the "Compendium One" bit in the title, though, this felt like a complete story on its own, so thankfully I didn't feel compelled to go hunting for more story, although Wikipedia tells me the story does indeed continue.

REVIEW: Cryptid Club (graphic novel) by Sarah Andersen

Cryptid Club is a collection of short comics. I bought my copy new.

Review:

In this full-color collection, a variety of cute cryptids interact and live their lives. Mothman and his love of lights was a particular favorite of mine, although they were pretty much all cute and fun in some way.

This has probably the cutest depiction of Chupacabra that I know of, and I also really liked Slender Man's design. Unsurprisingly for Sarah Andersen creations, pretty much all of the cryptids in this struggled, relatably, with social anxiety.

REVIEW: Video Game of the Year: A Year-By-Year Guide to the Best, Boldest, and Most Bizarre Games from Every Year Since 1977 (nonfiction book) by Jordan Minor

Video Game of the Year is nonfiction. I bought my copy new, I think.

Review:

As the title says, Minor picks one game from each year (1977-2022) to discuss in more depth, although there are also "Extra Life" sections between the years that discuss, as far as I could tell, a random selection of games (sometimes there were thematic aspects tying them together, but sometimes they were just a weird mishmash, not even held together by chronology). 

As Minor says in the introduction, "video game of the year" rankings are subjective, and different readers will likely have their own opinions about different years. As messy as the "Extra Life" portions tended to feel, it's possible that they were a way for Minor to fit in games that were still worth mentioning but that weren't going to get "game of the year" status. 

REVIEW: What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator (memoir) by Barbara Butcher

What the Dead Know is a memoir. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is Barbara Butcher's memoir of her experiences as a New York medicolegal death investigator (MLI). She started off working with the living, in a hospital, but alcohol ended that. She went to AA meetings and got sober, which somehow led to her getting an interview and offer for a death investigator position. From there, she spent 20ish years investigating "naturals" (death by natural causes), homicides, and suicides. She mentions a few memorable cases, the things she learned from them, and the effect they had on her. She also talked about her experience with 9/11.

This was a very engaging read, even if the cases Butcher discussed sometimes seemed like a weird assortment. Don't expect there to be resolutions to everything, either - many of the cases went unsolved. I was reminded of why I generally prefer mystery and crime fiction over true crime. I want those loose ends tied up, darn it. Still, it was interesting reading about things Butcher saw and discovered at various scenes.

Butcher managed to hit rock bottom not just once but twice in this, and she somehow got back up each time. It was definitely not the career progression I expected. I feel like it'd be great reading for some of my library's student workers - one had a bit of a breakdown a while back, worried that she hadn't figured her career path out yet (girl, you're only 20! it might not be a straight line, and that's ok). 

REVIEW: The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish: Canji Baojun De Zhanxin Yu Chong, Vol. 4 (book) by Xue Shan Fei Hu, translated by Mimi and Yuka, illustrated by Ryoplica

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish is Chinese m/m (danmei) fantasy romance. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

This final volume in the series picks up where things left off during the hunting party. The sixth prince makes a last ditch effort to snatch power away from Prince Jing. Things, of course, don't go the way he planned, but that's definitely not even close to the end of all the palace drama - there are hidden enemies still to be uncovered, more relationship developments, and all those secrets that the System could have revealed to Li Yu ages ago if he'd just used those System rewards earlier.

Li Yu had a more active role in the story this time around. It was nice that, for once, the solution to his problems wasn't always "wait for Prince Jing to fix things." It turns out that even Prince Jing can't fix everything.

REVIEW: What It's Like to Be a Bird: From Flying to Nesting, Eating to Singing : What Birds Are Doing and Why (nonfiction book) by David Allen Sibley

What It's Like to Be a Bird is nonfiction. I bought my copy used, I think.

Review:

Although I did indeed read this straight through from start to finish (a few pages a night before bedtime), this isn't really a book meant for that. The introduction drives that home by acting as a sort of annotated index, grouping information into categories like "feathers," "bird senses," "food and foraging," etc. If any of the bulleted tidbits of info intrigue you, you can follow the page number they provide to one of the bird portfolios that make up the bulk of this book and read a little more detail. 

As for the bird portfolios, water birds are covered first, then land birds. Each bird portfolio includes a roughly life-size painting of an example species or two (so, for instance, the painting of a Brown Pelican is only able to feature most of its head, whereas the Killdeer painting features the whole bird), in addition to illustrations of everything from a Bald Eagle's line of sight to the structure of hummingbird tongues and more.

The paintings and illustrations are fabulous and make this book a joy to flip through. The "essays" are short bulleted paragraphs that expand upon information mentioned briefly in the introduction and use specific kinds of birds as examples. There's only enough time and space to just barely scratch the surface, but it all still made for fascinating reading.

I didn't exactly come away from this understanding what it's like to be a bird, and in some ways they ended up feeling even more alien to me. That wasn't unexpected, however, and I still had fun trying to wrap my brain around different bird senses, behaviors, and ways of living.

REVIEW: Rental Person Who Does Nothing: A Memoir (memoir) by Shoji Morimoto, translated by Don Knotting

Rental Person Who Does Nothing is a memoir. I bought my copy new.

Review:

I first found out about Rental Person Who Does Nothing via an article that described him and his work. In Japan, there are apparently rental services where you can rent a person for various purposes - acting as a stand-in father at a school function, a friend for a short period of time, a guide, etc. Morimoto was prompted to start his "Rental Person Who Does Nothing" activities due to various factors: an abusive boss and a desire to avoid stress and feelings of obligation. Basically, it sounded like burnout?

At any rate, Morimoto set up a Twitter account and began fulfilling client requests, as long as he wasn't required to do anything other than show up, exist, and, at best, provide simple responses. This book mentions a lot of his requests and what fulfilling them was like. For example, one person requested that he watch them as they worked on their novel. Another person asked him to see them off at a train station. He even fulfilled another person's request to send them a reminder at precisely 6AM. I would have figured that was too much like doing something for him to accept as a job, since it required him to be awake and ready to send the reminder, but Morimoto's definition of "doing nothing" was very much about his gut feeling (and, I think, whether agreeing to fulfill the request gave him any feelings of stress or sense of obligation).

REVIEW: A Duel with the Vampire Lord (book) by Elise Kova

A Duel with the Vampire Lord is fantasy romance. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Floriane is her village's forge maiden, the one to whom her mother will pass all of the family's secrets pertaining to forging the silver weapons necessary to fight vampires. Although Floriane's place is supposed to be solely in her family's forge, her twin brother, one of the village's vampire hunters, has secretly helped her learn to fight in case she needs to protect herself. On the night of the blood moon, when the village is most in danger, Floriane makes use of the skills her brother taught her. Unfortunately, she isn't able to prevent herself from being captured by the Vampire Lord Ruvan, a monster who badly, possibly fatally, injured her twin.

If Floriane can somehow manage to kill Ruvan, she'll have defeated the vampires once and for all. It's not an easy thing to do, however, and a blood bond between the two of them suddenly makes it even more difficult. As Floriane waits and hopes for the right opportunity to kill Ruvan, she learns that there's more to the war between humans and vampires than she ever realized.

REVIEW: Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist (nonfiction book) by Jennifer Wright

Madame Restell is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This book tells the story of Madame Restell, a highly successful 19th century abortionist in New York. Restell's real name was Ann Trow. An English immigrant who became a single mother after her husband's death, her options for earning a living for herself and her young daughter were limited. Wright explains how she went from being an English seamstress to a well-known and highly sought after French abortionist who'd supposedly received medical training in France.

While it was clear that Wright admired a lot about Restell, she was also frequently frustrated by her. This wasn't a 100% glowing portrait of the woman and her work - Restell was a complex person, and while Wright didn't accept that she was the devil that the media of her time often depicted her as, she didn't shy away from writing about Restell's less stellar actions and decisions (for example, apparent baby theft).

REVIEW: The Game Console 2.0: A Photographic History from Atari to Xbox (nonfiction book) by Evan Amos

The Game Console 2.0 is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is a beautiful book filled with photographs of game consoles (many of which I'd never even heard of), their controllers, and occasional accessories. In many instances, consoles and/or controllers include an exploded view that shows off their inner components. Each console includes information (when available) about its launch price, year it was released, how many systems sold, RAM, processor/CPU, colors (for earlier generations)/GPU (later generations), and number of games released.

Each console is accompanied by a little bit of information about it - what made it special (or not), how successful it was, and what factors played into its success or lack thereof.

At the beginning of the book, the author includes a bit of info about how certain info was determined for the consoles. The book ends with a section on playing retro games today - issues with certain console components failing over time and the difficulty with getting them fixed, mini and classic consoles, emulators, and more.

It's a lovely book, and I could appreciate the time and effort that went into getting these consoles, photographing them, and compiling information about them. That said, I realized while reading this that I'm more interested in video games than I am in the systems that play them. I wish that there had been screenshots/photographs, where possible, of what gameplay on the various consoles looked like. I understand that this likely would have been impossible for a lot of the earlier systems, but it would have made it easier for me to connect with the information and understand the various consoles' capabilities more. 

REVIEW: The History of the Gothic Video Game (nonfiction book) by Christopher Carton

The History of the Gothic Video Game is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This calls itself a history of gothic video games, and there is indeed some gaming history info here. However, it mostly reads like a collection of game/game franchise descriptions, with a little about gameplay, atmosphere, etc. of specific games mentioned. Games are almost always accompanied by a single screenshot.

This is the weakest of the White Owl video game-related books I've read so far, and I don't think it's just because fewer games were mentioned that I'd ever be interested in playing. It felt a bit like the author really wanted to write about Castlevania, the Ghosts 'n Goblins series, and a few other games/franchises but didn't have enough info for a whole book. As a result, we have this book, covering games in a huge variety of genres, with often very different tones/atmosphere. There were occasionally games included that I wouldn't have considered to be gothic video games, such as the Baldur's Gate series. 

The game descriptions themselves were decent enough, and I appreciated the screenshots, but, as a history of gothic video games, this wasn't very good. It might have been better if it had worked in information about the features/history of the gothic genre in general, and how that influenced gothic video games. Instead, it acted as though gothic video games existed in a vacuum, completely separate from literature, fashion, etc.

REVIEW: Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity (nonfiction book) by Devon Price

Unmasking Autism is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Someone in my book club mentioned reading this, and from their brief description I assumed it was going to be about what autism can look like/how it can present, particularly in autistic individuals who mask. Instead, this was more of a self-help book for masked autistic people who'd like reassurance that their unmasked selves are worthy of love and acceptance and who'd like to take steps towards unmasking.

Once I adjusted to what this book actually was rather than what I'd thought it was, I found this to be a decent read, although I felt like it brushed off the reasons why one would spend so much time and energy masking a bit too easily. 

REVIEW: The Most Relaxing Video Games (nonfiction book) by Ryan Janes

The Most Relaxing Video Games is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This book is a collection of descriptions and reviews of 58 video games that the author considers to be relaxing. Each entry includes the year the game was released, the publisher, developer, genre, and systems on which they can be played. There are also multiple full-color screenshots for each game.

Most of the games (but not all) would be on my own list of relaxing games, if I made one. And, yes, I probably could have gotten similar content from a game review site. However, I mostly read this before bedtime and found it to be an excellent way to wind down for the day without giving myself more screen time.

Reading about the games I'd previously played and enjoyed was nice, but one thing I was also hoping this would do for me is point out new-to-me games that might also work well for me. The book was a success in that respect - I added several games to my wishlist as a direct result of reading this (and then went on to play 80+ more hours of Stardew Valley instead of trying something new, but whatever). 

For my purposes, this was a good read, although some sort of organization other than straight alphabetical (genre, perhaps?) would have been nice.

REVIEW: Tetris: The Games People Play (nonfiction graphic novel) by Box Brown

Tetris: The Games People Play is a nonfiction graphic novel. I bought my copy new.

Review:

As the title says, this graphic novel is about Tetris, but it's also about Nintendo and (to a lesser extent) Atari/Tengen.

This graphic novel's art style wasn't to my taste at all, but I picked this up more for its subject matter than how it looked. I've read a few video game history books and therefore knew a little Tetris history before going in. It was also one of the games I played a lot on my family's NES growing up. This book included a good deal more information than I'd previously known.

While this was an interesting read, I really wish the flow hadn't been so choppy. It started off with a brief mention of some sort of ancient Egyptian game, and then there was so much about Nintendo that this, at times, felt at least as much like a history of Nintendo as a history of Tetris.