My May was packed with books:
→ SPENT by Alison Bechdel is a delightful self-parody of Bechdel's previous work, focused on the contradictions of existing in late-stage capitalism. The main character of this comic (in both senses) novel is Alison Bechdel, a cartoonist best known for the strip Lesbian PETA Members to Watch Out For and the graphic memoir Death & Taxidermy. Alison's memoir has been adapted into a successful prestige TV series that she doesn't enjoy watching, though she does enjoy the financial comfort it provides. She and her wife, Holly, have been able to buy a farm in Vermont where they raise goats and pursue their artistic careers. But life in 2022 has proved too distracting for Alison to complete her next project, a memoir about money called $um: An Accounting, and funds are getting tight. In case this all isn't meta enough, Alison and Holly's friends are a household of characters who will be familiar to readers of the real Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For.
I had so much fun with this, and I definitely recommend it to Bechdel fans. Readers with no prior knowledge will miss out on some of what charmed me, but can probably still find much to appreciate in the characters and their adventures. The story deals with relationships (including polyamory), money, activism, and other concerns of the current era, from the perspectives of both middle-aged Alison and friends, and a group of younger characters. I love Bechdel's drawings, especially the small details and visual jokes in the panel backgrounds.
→ PLATFORM DECAY by Martha Wells: In the eighth installment of the Murderbot Diaries, SecUnit has to travel through a gigantic space structure that's somehow even worse than a planet. It's there to rescue a family unit—a child, parent, and grandparent—who prove themselves to be good teammates when the mission keeps growing more complicated. As the group stays ahead of the corporates who want them dead, they navigate a variety of unusual settings, often thwarted by incompatible or nonexistent mass transit systems.
I continue to love this series, and I recommend any interested readers start at the beginning. I enjoyed rereading all the previous books over the past half year, and I was glad to have the context fresh in my mind for this new story, which builds on everything SecUnit has already been through. That includes a lot of trauma, which it's now starting to get help processing. There are some new disturbing events in this book, but overall, it's a fun adventure.
→ RADIANT STAR by Ann Leckie: In the city of Ooioiaa, worship of the Radiant Star plays a prominent role, though rival sects follow different practices. Even thirty years after ships from the Radchaai arrived to occupy the planet, the local religion continues to thrive. When one of the most powerful residents of Ooioiaa decides he'd like to dedicate his afterlife to the Radiant Star by becoming a saint, it sets in motion a series of events involving his family members, religious leaders, and others. And when a far-away conflict disrupts communication and shipments to the planet, a more dire crisis develops.
This is an unusual, complicated story about characters who are preoccupied with their personal concerns while a global crisis unfolds around them. As always in an Ann Leckie novel, the characters are distinctive, they inhabit fully imagined cultures, and there's plenty of focus on what's considered proper behavior within each culture. This novel also features a particularly inventive setting and evocative depictions of food. I was curious about all of it, but I didn't connect with the story as quickly or fully as with the rest of Leckie's work, I think because so many of the characters are deliberately unsympathetic. It's still an impressive book that I'll be interested to discuss with other readers.
→ THE DEVIL IN SILVER by Victor LaValle: After Pepper gets into an altercation with the police, he's committed involuntarily to a mental hospital. There's nothing wrong with Pepper's mental health besides some poor judgment, but once confined and drugged, he finds it impossible to convince anyone of his sanity. This situation is horrific enough, but what's even more terrifying is that Pepper believes a monster is stalking the hospital halls. Other patients believe in the monster as well, though the staff refuse to acknowledge it. Gradually Pepper finds allies in his quest to prove the monster is real, or to simply escape.
This is a good story that I thought took too long to get going. Pepper and the other characters are great, and I enjoyed the wry humor of the narration, but I was impatient with the slow pace. LaValle has adapted the story for TV (season 3 of the anthology series The Terror), and I'm eager to watch—I expect the show moves more quickly. I preferred LaValle's balancing of mundane and supernatural horrors in his more recent novels, THE CHANGELING and LONE WOMEN.
→ ATMOSPHERE by Taylor Jenkins Reid opens in 1984 as astronaut Joan arrives at Mission Control to serve as CAPCOM for a shuttle mission already in progress. The crew members are all people she's formed close relationships with over the past few years of training and missions. When disaster strikes, it's up to Joan to provide a calm voice at the other end of the line for Vanessa, the crew member who's closest to her heart. The narrative then jumps back to the start of Joan's time with NASA, to show how the relationships with her fellow astronauts evolved.
This novel has many compelling elements, but they could have been assembled into a better whole. I enjoyed all the details about astronaut training and the shuttle program. I was invested in Joan's experiences with friendship, family, and falling in love, but while I found certain scenes emotionally moving, many were marred by clunky dialogue or implausible reactions. The novel's structure also creates some pacing problems, and I felt as though certain sections were mostly fillers to pass the time until the next inevitable and more interesting event occurred.
Good Stuff Out There:
→ At Reactor, Leah Thomas ponders the therapeutic power of Katamari Damacy: "Of course, we could all clean up our houses instead of playing, and find our lives better served: 'You don’t need cleaning in a video game, son: we have cleaning at home!' But that's not the point. The point is that even the dullest, simplest chores in life can be reimagined and transformed into something playful.""
