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.) 

REVIEW: Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI (nonfiction audiobook) written and narrated by Karen Hao

Empire of AI is nonfiction. I listened to it via OverDrive.

Review:

Hao looks at OpenAI, Anthropic, Sam Altman, and other people involved in AI development and research. She examines the promises, realities, and impacts of generative AI.

Not a lot of detail there, I know, but I listened to this in audiobook form, finished it a while back, and didn't really take notes. Although I had a print copy of this available to me, it seemed too dauntingly thick every time I thought about starting it. Audio was probably the best way for me to go, and, even then, I almost DNFed this several times because the picture Hao painted was so depressing.

I'm so tired of tech bros. In this book, it really struck me how focused so many of the movers and shakers in the world of AI, like Sam Altman, were on the world- and humanity-ending possibilities of AI, so convinced that only their vision could save us all, and so blind to the real-life, "happening right now" harms of AI. In some cases, maybe it wasn't necessarily that they were blind to those harms, but that they didn't think they truly mattered unless more of the world was being harmed than not. Either way, it made my skin crawl.

Hao believably explained why the AI future Sam Altman and others believe is inevitable actually isn't, but is being made to seem inevitable by a few charismatic and persuasive people. This book was very long, often depressing, and I had trouble keeping track of all the names. It did at least give me a different way of thinking about and framing current news about AI (and helped explain why the people who keep screaming about how AI will lead to humanity's doom seem to be the very same people doing their best to build AI up as much as possible).

REVIEW: A Small Change: Finding Joy in Everyday Things (manhwa) by Rae-hyeon Kim, translated by Seowan (Angela) Lee

A Small Change is a slice-of-life manhwa that includes some "how to" bits. I bought my copy new.

Review:

I don't think the main character's name is ever mentioned on-page (either that, or I missed it), but she's a twenty-something young woman living on her own. She's kept her hair short for most of her life, and it's currently a little longer than she'd like, especially considering how hot it is outside. She initially makes herself an appointment to get it cut, but she likes the feeling of cool air on the back of her neck when she ties her hair back, so she puts off getting it cut a little longer.

Throughout the rest of the volume, she visits her parents, spends time with her friends, tries to support a friend going through a rough time, etc. She regularly tries doing her hair a little differently, adjusting as it grows longer.

REVIEW: The Slasher's Apprentice (graphic novel) co-creators Justin Richards & Val Halvorson, written by Justin Richards, art by Val Halvorson

The Slasher's Apprentice is a horror graphic novel. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Riley is the sole survivor when a serial killer murders her whole family. Years later, she hosts a true crime podcast focused on serial killers. With the help of her obsessive knowledge, some hidden cameras, and a GPS tracker, she finds her favorite serial killer, the Hopton Valley Killer (HVK) and blackmails him into taking her on as his apprentice. Riley is determined to see to it that HVK gets the level of notoriety she feels his work deserves.

I liked the artwork, and there were some weirdly wholesome moments between Riley and HVK as she tried to figure out how to communicate and work with him. I got a kick out of HVK's first few times using the doodle board Riley got him.

That said, more often than not, Riley's interactions with HVK annoyed me, and it was tough to believe that HVK would just sit there and put up with her nonstop critiques. My suspension of disbelief went completely out the window when Riley admitted to making videos of HVK's murders public in order to get him more attention, and he didn't immediately kill her. This, after all, was the exact same thing she'd threatened to do when she first met him, as a way to blackmail him into letting her stay with him.

All in all, this didn't really work for me.

REVIEW: Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of (nonfiction book) by Stuart Ashen

Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This covers 19 terrible games originally released between 1980 and 1995, in alphabetical order, with occasional interruptions for interviews in which Ashen asked folks to talk about the game that most disappointed them. Ste Pickford, a game designer, got a longer section that went over some of the games he worked on, as well as what the industry was like at the time.

I really appreciated that each of the games included screenshots and detailed descriptions of what gameplay was like. I have played (and rage-quit) some games that included game-breaking bugs, and I've played games that have deeply disappointed me. Thankfully, I don't think I've ever played games quite as bad as most of the ones in this book. SQIJ! in particular would have had me wondering if it was meant to be some kind of weird modern art piece.

While I enjoyed reading about the games, I found the author's humor to be a bit bland.

I was surprised to see that the book had an index, until I actually looked at it and realized that it was just an extension of Ashen's jokes, and a kind of lazy one at that. I'm pretty sure that "Occasional fart noises" was mentioned on more than just page 109, for example. 

REVIEW: Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms (nonfiction book) by Hannah Fry

Hello World is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This looks at all the different areas of our lives in which algorithms are used and talks about the benefits and drawbacks of that. This was originally published in 2018, several years before ChatGPT was released, and I couldn't help but wonder what the author might say today.

Even being almost a decade behind the times, this book was a nice reminder of the many areas of our lives in which algorithms play a part - there were several real-world examples mentioned that were completely new to me. Fry tried to keep a very balanced look at everything, emphasizing that blindly trusting algorithms wasn't a good idea, but also underscoring the benefits of using algorithms vs. not. 

It's a nice, accessible read overall. That said, after reading Karen Hao's Empire of AI, Fry's book feels a bit too optimistic. 

REVIEW: Incidents Around the House (book) by Josh Malerman

Incidents Around the House is horror. I bought my copy new.

Review:

At least in the print version, narration/action in this book is left-justified, dialogue is indented, and there are spaces between. The author has a note at the beginning about this being intentional, part of signaling that everything is being related from the POV of a child.

The child is eight-year-old Bela. She doesn't seem to have any friends outside her home, but she does have her Mommy, Daddo, Grandma Ruth...and Other Mommy, who lives in her closet. Or at least who used to live in her closet. Other Mommy has been coming out a lot more recently, to the point that Bela is worried her Mommy and Daddo will see her. There's also the issue of the question Other Mommy has taken to asking Bela: "Can I go into your heart?" Bela isn't quite sure what Other Mommy means by that. She's said no every time, but, considering that Other Mommy has been her friend for so long, maybe she should say yes?

REVIEW: Fan/Girl x Call/Boy (manga, vol. 1) by Kotora Aoshima, translated by minami

Fan/Girl x Call/Boy is, I believe, a romance series, although it looks to be slow burn. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review: 

Sakurako is a painfully shy, introverted shut-in who has hired Fuji, a call boy, in an effort to better understand the feelings of her favorite character in the adult game she plays. Although she covers up all of her merchandise, an accident results in Fuji finding out that she's a fan of the game. Happily for the both of them, it turns out that Fuji loves the same game, although he's a fan of a different character than Sakurako. Fuji instantly transforms from a smooth professional into an enthusiastic fanboy, geeking out over her merchandise, and the two of them spend the evening playing Smash Bros. It's the start of a lovely friendship, although it takes a bit for Sakurako to realize that Fuji genuinely sees her as a new friend and not a client and/or someone he feels sorry for.

REVIEW: There Is No Antimemetics Division (book) by qntm

There Is No Antimemetics Division is a blend of horror and science fiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

The Antimemetics Division is responsible for the research, containment, and, in rare cases, destruction of antimemes, ideas, objects, and beings that somehow have the ability to prevent themselves from being perceived or remembered, and which can often directly attack memories. Employees in the Antimemetics Division have to regularly take special drugs just to be able to remember their own work and what they do.

Initially, this book looked like it might be composed of a series of short stories that all have the Antimemetics Division in common. The first chapter, which I realized I'd previously seen in the form of a short live action film, gives readers a taste of what antimemes are capable of and how the employees in the Antimemetics Division function. Then we leave those characters behind and move on to someone who's apparently a new recruit in the Antimemetics Division, desperately trying to survive an encounter with an antimeme that will eat their memories into nothingness over the course of 15 minutes to two hours.

Eventually, though, a broader story takes shape. The Antimemetics Division is fighting a war, but it's a war they're unaware of. The more they learn, the more they're forced to forget, and the more ground they lose. At the same time, it's somehow a war they think they can win.

REVIEW: Laika: The Magic Behind a Stop-Motion Dream Factory: Two Decades of Groundbreaking Animation from Coraline to Wildwood (nonfiction book) by Ozzy Inguanzo

Laika: The Magic Behind a Stop-Motion Dream Factory is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This looks at Laika, a stop-motion animation studio based in Portland, Oregon, and several of the people who work there. There are chapters on development and design, pre-production and construction, puppet fabrication and rapid protoype, animation and production, post-production and visual effects, and archives and exhibitions.

The photographs, of which there were many, were fabulous. I knew Laika was responsible for the movie Coraline and the upcoming movie Wildwood, but I hadn't realized they were also responsible for several other stop-motion movies (which have now been added to my "to be watched" list, along with Wildwood). I mostly started reading this because my current student worker is studying animation and is particularly into stop-motion animation. I didn't actually know anything about Laika going in, but it did occur to me, while reading this, that stop-motion animation overlaps nicely with my love of the work that goes into making miniatures.

I particularly enjoyed the various employee spotlight sections, as well as all of the little "making of" details about Laika's various movies sprinkled throughout the book. All in all, this was an engaging read in addition to being fabulous just to look through. 

REVIEW: The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death (nonfiction book) essays and photographs by Corinne May Botz

The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Frances Glessner Lee created the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death to act as teaching tools for police detectives. Each one depicts, in miniature, a crime scene based on a real-life crime scene or combination of crime scenes, along with some pertinent details such as the identity of the victim, when the crime was reported and who reported it, and initial statements from the first person or people questioned.

This starts with an introduction by Richard B. Woodward and then moves on to a couple essays by Corinne May Botz. Eighteen of the Nutshell Studies (there were originally twenty) then each get their own section, with several color photographs (close-ups, as though taken by a six-inch tall person walking through each of the scenes), the basic information provided to detectives using them for training purposes, and a diagram highlighting various areas of the scene. Some of the Nutshell Studies include crime scene investigator analyses. The book wraps up with more detailed information and solutions for five of the Nutshell Studies - the others aren't included because the Nutshell Studies are still used for training purposes to this day.

REVIEW: The Beauty's Blade: Mei Ren Jian (book) by Feng Ren Zuo Shu, translated by Yu, illustrations by Gravity Dusty

The Beauty's Blade is a Chinese baihe (f/f) fantasy book. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Fu Wanqing is both a great beauty and a formidable fighter. Although she is considered the heir of the House of Valor, she causes nothing but trouble for her father and behaves as if nothing in the world has anything to do with her. There is only one person she considers her true rival: Yu Shengyan, the cold and indifferent high priestess of the demonic Jadewater Guild, which opposes the House of Valor and other members of the Lightpath Alliance.

Seemingly, all Fu Wanqing wants is to challenge Yu Shengyan to a duel, but for some reason Yu Shengyan refuses to even draw her blade, despite the fact that Fu Wanqing crippled her shijie. Fu Wanqing does at least extract a promise from Yu Shengyan to stay by her side for three months, giving her more opportunities to get her to agree to a duel, in exchange for a rare medicine that will allow Yu Shengyan's shijie to walk again.

It's a risky agreement for the both of them, with the Jadewater Guild and the House of Valor so at odds, but neither of them cares. As they spend more time with each other, their rivalry begins to morph into something more, but Fu Wanqing still has her own secret goals to accomplish.

REVIEW: Cute Animals That Could Kill You Dead (nonfiction picture book) words by Brooke Hartman, pictures by María Garcia

Cute Animals That Could Kill You Dead is a children's nonfiction picture book. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This covers a lot more animals than I expected, giving each one two pages, the first of which provides some basic information and the animal's "cuteness factor," and the second of which explains what they can do that makes them so fearsome and/or deadly. The animals covered include: Tarsier, Slow Loris, Grasshopper Mouse, Hedgehog, Northern Pygmy Owl, Bumblebee Bat, Sea Otter, Platypus, Ladybug, Jumping Spider, Bottlenose Dolphin, Sea Bunny, Poison Dart Frog, Flying Gecko, Black-footed Cat, Fennec Fox, and Honey Badger.