Graphic Novel Review: Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn

Posted on January 19, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn (graphic novel, 800 pages) is a massive graphic novel I’d heard about in passing but never read until now.

“Paper Girls follows the story of four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls (Erin, MacKenzie, KJ, and Tiffany) set in Stony Stream, a fictional suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. As they are out delivering papers on the morning after Halloween, the town is struck by an invasion from a mysterious force from the future. The girls become unwillingly caught up in the conflict between two warring factions of time travelers.”

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY **NOT** A SPOILER FREE REVIEW

There’s a lot of nostalgia going around right now for those who were young in the 1980s and this story is reminiscent of that, with the first issues of this monthly comic produced in October 2015, a full year before Stranger Things aired, and also takes place in the midwest.

When I first started reading this graphic novel, I had no idea what was going on. I thought the name Paper Girls might have been some sort of word comment about the paper cut out dolls from when I was younger? Something about maybe how girls were seen as two-dimensional and only useful for accessorizing? That was certainly incorrect, as the term Paper Girls actually refers to these four young women who are out delivering papers first thing in the morning after Halloween. It’s been so long since paper delivery was even a thing that I never even though about the people back in the 1980s and 1990s who actually delivered the papers. And the fact that newspapers would actually employ people as young as twelve? I’m not surprised.

This was probably the most fascinating look at time travel I’ve seen in any media, as everything in this story is cyclical. This was such a deep and complex story with fantastic, flawed, and realistic characters. These characters were dirty and messy and confused and everything it means to be young and trying your best to survive in a world of science fiction with no right answer.

I’d like to hope that they do actually change their future – that by stopping the generational interference and time war, maybe they buy back a little of their lives. When they first meet the adult Erin in 2016, she’s 30-40 years old, still living in Stony Creek, unmarried, and still working for a crappy salary with the same paper, and it doesn’t seem like she has many friends or anyone she talks with outside her extremely successful pilot sister, Missy. When they meet adult Tiffany in 2000, she’s struggling just to make ends meet and is back to living with her parents. The only future KJ in the story is the one near the end who is a clone of the original and used to help broker the peace arrangement and there’s no future Mackenzie to meet because of the time-traveler disease she dies of which their time thinks is leukemia.

Both future Erin and future Tiffany say the Paper Girls never really interacted again after that morning but I like to hope that Erin changes that by encouraging them all to ride together for the next hour or so before school starts. You can tell that each of them are changed by their time travel experiences, even though they don’t remember the actual adventure. The beginning of the story starts with Mackenzie as a foul-mouthed homophobe but in the same scenario at the end of the story, she’s mindful of her comments and I think she probably remembers her dream of KJ’s Bat Mitzvah and it left an impression on her.

Meanwhile, Tiffany actually turns off the video game instead of playing the final level and she thinks about actually spending some time living her life, which I think is a different path than what made her become the Tiffany they meet in 2000. And Erin does exactly what her older self suggested, which was to work harder to put herself out there and give people a chance.

Even though Heck and Naldo tell the Paper Girls that you can’t change your fate, maybe this time, they do. Maybe that last fourth dimension green eyeball thing touched Mackenzie before they all got brainwiped and sent back to 1988. Maybe it cured her of the time disease and she gets many more years ahead of her and has a better chance of a more fulfilling future.

I’d like to hope so.

Anyway.

Overall, this has become one of my favorite graphic novels and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve reread it since I impulse purchased it some time ago. It’s easily a five on my rating scale and one of those few stories my brain continues to chomp on, even though I’ve reread it so many times. I’m glad I bought it and will probably continue to reread it for a very, very long time.

Vaughn, Brian K. Paper Girls. Artist Cliff Chiang, Colorist Matt Wilson, Letterer and Designer Jared K. Fletcher. Image Comics, 2021.

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Book Review: An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows

Posted on January 17, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

The next winter holiday book exchange was my choice, An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows (fantasy, 437 pages).

“When Saffron Coulter stumbles through a hole in reality, she finds herself trapped in Kena, a magical realm on the brink of civil war. There, her fate becomes intertwined with that of three very different women: Zech, the fast-thinking acolyte of a cunning, powerful exile; Viya, the spoiled, runaway consort of the empire-building ruler, Vex Leoden; and Gwen, an Earth-born worldwalker whose greatest regret is putting Leoden on the throne. Pursued by Leoden and aided by the Shavaktiin, a secretive order of storyellers and mystics, the rebels flee to Veksh, a neighboring matriarchy ruled by the fearsome Council of Queens. Saffron is out of her world and out of her depth, but the further she travels, the more she finds herself bound to her friends with ties of blood and magic.”

THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW

This book was another I had to special order, as it was not available in the brick and mortar store closest to me, but I first read about it on a post about queer main characters. I’m very glad I ordered it and that it came in time for me to ship it to Pennsylvania for the holidays. The weather across the entire United States right now is so bitter and cold that it’s the exact perfect time to stay inside and read 🙂

The main perspective shifts between Saffron, the main character who follows Gwen through the portal, Gwen, a middle-aged woman who has been world-walking for most of her life, Zech, a young woman with special magic, and Viya, a very spoiled consort’s ruler. Multi-perspective books can often be jarring for me, but this was a very smooth read, which I definitely finished in one day / sitting 🙂

An Accident of Stars is a very realistic portal fantasy, which also starts out pretty violent and dark, which I definitely appreciate. The main character is the prime example of “wrong place / wrong time” in chapter four, where she gets caught up in a fanatic’s religious ceremony, resulting in the loss of two fingers from her left hand, and this happens after all her hair has been shaved off by that same fanatic. I think one of the really good storytelling aspects of this novel is how once Saffron is disabled, she’s never magically healed. She has to learn to adjust her life and her expectations to her new situation. There’s no way for her to go home, not until the portal-maker is healed and rested enough to send her back to Earth. Kenan society doesn’t have doctors or a type of magic that can do anything your normal, healing body can’t, so no regrowing limbs. Oh, and there’s also no anesthetics, so she just gets to deal with the pain.

I think it’s positive to show characters dealing with loss and having to work through both the pain and the psychological trauma of events outside their control. Though, there aren’t any behavioral health experts in Kena and Gwen and Saffron both have to work together to come up with a story which will make Saffron’s life easier once she does return home. Saffron and Gwen both know Saffron needs to go home but her main priority for going home is actually to take care of her family. She knows her parents and younger sister are probably worried sick about her and she knows that their worry is both something that will negatively impact the rest of their lives and also something they would never have closure on if she never returned.

Even as Saffron and Gwen work to get Saffron home, so many other things keep happening to prevent her from going home any sooner. They are forced to flee their stronghold in Kena into the Veksh far north; a culture vastly different than Kena where Zech pulls a “trust me” and Saffron winds up in a life-or-death trial for both of their lives. While Saffron is successful in her endeavor, this is another event causing physical and psychological trauma. They both wind up with massive facial and body scars and Saffron also gets a tattoo. So many things she’s going to have to explain and deal with when she returns home.

I’m not going to lie – the end of chapter 22 was really, really hard. While this isn’t a spoiler free review, there are some parts of stories best left revealed by those who read the book for the first time. Even though this book has established that absolute miracles aren’t a thing, I kept hoping there would be a magic way to fix what happened. Obviously, there wasn’t, but I still held out hope for something better.

Reality isn’t like that, though. It never is. Sometimes, things just suck. And all you can do is keep moving forward as best as you can.

Overall, I enjoyed this book very much, even though the end of chapter 22 was rough. I’m curious to see how Saffron deals with being back on Earth and I’m going to order the next book as soon as I travel back to civilization again. I think this is easily a high three or even a low four on my rating scale. I’m happy I bought a copy of it, I will definitely reread it again in the future, and I intend on buying the other book in this series and maybe other books by this author.

Meadows, Foz. An Accident of Stars. Angry Robot Books, 2022.

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Graphic Novel Review: Enola Holmes: the Graphic Novels Book One by Serena Blasco

Posted on January 15, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

Another of the winter holiday book exchange books was Enola Holmes: the Graphic Novels Book One by Serena Blasco (graphic novel, 188 pages).

“Step aside, Sherlock! The famous detective’s strong-willed younger sister takes center stage in this vibrant graphic novel based on Nancy Springer’s bestselling mystery series. Fourteen-year-old Enola Holmes wakes on her birthday to discover that her mother has disappeared from the family’s country manor, leaving only a collection of flowers and a coded message book. With Sherlock and Mycroft determined to ship her off to a boarding school, Enola escapes, displaying a cleverness that impresses even the elder Holmes. But nother prepares her for what lies ahead …”

I’ve seen a few screenshots of the Netflix film and it looks a lot like the film spends a lot of time focused on Enola’s love interests, which is completely different than the graphic novel. I think one of the key parts about this graphic novel I enjoy so much is Enola’s freedom, intelligence, and distinct lack of interest in romance. She is, after all, only fourteen years old and I think stories like this are critical to young humans growing up, as I believe there’s currently too much of a push to sexualize young women pretty much as soon as their gender is identified. This book was remarkably refreshing in how Enola lives her life.

The art work, coloring, pencils, and story are all so different and well-done. The color and art are definitely a unique design not seen often and it took me a little bit to get used to it, since most of the graphic novels I read are more along the superhero lines. The interesting part to me about the different art style is how much this entire graphic novel felt like Victorian-Era London.

There’s telegrams, horribly uncomfortable women’s clothes and societal expectations on women and women’s clothes, trains, common bicycle use, stage coaches, insulting views on women’s intelligence and their role in society, the Big Eastern steamships, simple yet believable disguises, secret codes, and flowers with meaning.

The best part about this graphic novel is how Enola uses those same societal expectations to her own benefit. She knows women are basically invisible, so her very first disguise isn’t to dress up as a boy but rather to dress in all black as a widow. She uses this disguise to board a train to London, going right into the area under her brothers’ noses because she knows Sherlock especially will be looking for her to disguise herself as a boy.

She even finds a way to invent her own corset so she can carry all her belongings on her secretly because no one would ever suspect to check the corset of a lady. It’s ingenious and it using the strengths of being a lady of those times to her full advantage. It’s also dressed as a widow where she’s able to rescue the twelve-year-old viscount, Tewksbury, by finding that he actually ran away. Tewksbury seems very intrigued by the idea of people dressing outside their genders and there is probably negative romantic undertones because she’s just trying to rescue him.

One of Enola’s best disguises, in my opinion, is Miss Ivy Meshle, where she pretends to be a secretary for a people finder and then pretends the people finder is always gone so the citizens wind up giving her the information instead. She then uses this information to run her own investigations and is fairly successful. Miss Ivy Meshle is vastly different than the Silent Sister of the Streets, who honestly does more good for the downtrodden than I’ve seen from anyone in this era. It’s refreshing 🙂

Overall, this book is a lot of fun and is probably a four on my rating scale. I’m very glad it was sent to me so I own my own copy, I’ve already reread it once and will likely continue to do so in the future, and I’m definitely going to find the next installments in this series.

Blasco, Serena. Enola Holmes: the Graphic Novels Book One. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2022.

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Movie Review: the Terminator

Posted on January 13, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

This week’s movie was The Terminator from 1984.

“In the year 2029, the ruling super-computer, Skynet, sends an indestructible cyborg back in time to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, before she canfulfill her destiny and save mankind.”

I have to say, movies from the 1980s had a lot of style and character and they didn’t just depend on Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) to tell a story – they depended on real effects, lighting, camera angles, and characters to tell often unimaged stories. The Terminator is another such movie, with a completely new and different story. Who would think of a machine that looks human, sent back in time to murder a young woman?

I mean. Early Sarah Connor was not the absolute badass we know today. Early Sarah Connor worked at a diner in a pink uniform while young children stuffed ice cream into her apron. Early Sarah Connor had a pet iguana, lived with her best friend in an apartment, and was dateless on a Friday night. She drove a moped to work. She was absolutely a prime example of a “normal” woman in the 1980s.

Sarah responds better than a lot of people might to the initial violence and change of life trajectory the arrival of the terminator entails. And as Kyle rattles off about his rank and serial number and tries to give Sarah a basic rundown of everything going on, she doesn’t freak out as badly as some people might. She does bite Kyle to try and get away but she still reacts pretty calmly to her new situation.

But then we get flashbacks of the future, courtesy of Kyle Reese, the warrior from the future, sent back through time to protect Sarah Connor. The future shows a variety of different machines and the lengths the humans have to go to in order to fight back against the machines, as well as the cost of that fight. When we first see Kyle Reese, he’s naked and has a ton of scars all over his mostly visible back, which was another thing this movie did very well – it’s one of the few movies I can think of that doesn’t shy away from male nudity.

The Terminator also showed a lot of the reality of living in the 1980s, before we had computers for everything. There were no cell phones, no internet search engines or maps, and when the payphone is out of order at the pizza place Sarah goes to, she then has to find another open public establishment in order to use their payphone. She probably didn’t even know where the closest police department or other emergency services buildings even are and that impacts her decision to go to a dance club, as it was the only place she could find that was open and had a phone. And then her first instinct is to call the police, which results in her eventually winding up at a police station and the deaths of everyone in that police station that night.

This is such an interesting movie with an interesting premise and fantastic characters. The soundtrack is fantastic and I enjoy every rewatch I do of this movie.

Overall, this is a really good movie that holds up well against the test of time, so long as you allows yourself an imagination and don’t expect the 1980s to look like our world today. I definitely rate this as a high four on my rating scale. I’m glad I own it on dvd and I rewatch it frequently.

The Terminator. Directed by James Cameron, performances by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, and Paul Winfield, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), 1984.

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Book Review: the First Sister by Linden A. Lewis

Posted on January 12, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis (science fiction, 342 pages) was another book from my holiday book exchange.

“First Sister has no name and no voice. As a priestess of the Sisterhood, she travels the stars alongside the soldiers of Earth and Mars – the same ones who own the rights to her body and soul. When her former captain abandons her, First Sister’s hopes for freedom are dashed as she is forced to stay on her ship with no friends, no power, and a new captain – Saito Ren – whom she knows nothing about. She is commanded to spy on Captain Ren by the Sisterhood, but soon discovers that working for the war effort is so much harder to do when you’re falling in love. Lito sol Lucius climbed his way out of the slums to become an elite soldier of Venus, but was defeated in combat by none other than Saito Ren, resulting in the disappearance of his partner, Hiro. When Lito learns that Hiro is both alive and a traitor to the cause, he now has a shot at redemption: track down and kill his former partner. But once he discovers recordings that Hiro secretly made, Lito’s own allegiances are put to the test. Ultimately, he must decide between following orders and following his heart.”

THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW

I have a lot of thoughts about this book and I’m not quite sure which ones will actually show up in this review. As a general rule, I tend to not write up reviews for books not to my taste with living authors, as I understand how hard writing novels is and how much words can cause damage, even words on a tiny website with no influence. So while I have read the entire Red Rising series by Pierce Brown, you will not find any reviews to that series here. When the First Sister arrived as part of the winter holiday book exchange and the comment on the back indicated if you enjoyed Red Rising, you would enjoy this book, I was immediately leery.

The First Sister is a space opera novel, the first in a trilogy, which shows the darkness of humanity’s future in space. Even the idea of being so far in the future we’ve colonized several planets and yet there’s an entire religious organization devoted to enslaving and selling young women as legitimized soldiers’ property is horrifying. The fact that the entire order is of women and anyone on the ship is allowed and encouraged to use these women however they see fit made me angry that we as a species have continued to allow women, and only women, to be subjected to worse and worse religious subjection. And even though this novel takes place far in the future, we have the echoes of that religious subjection right here, right now, in our very own modern world that continues to deny women proper health care and control over our own bodies.

So showing that the universe actually gets WORSE for women?

Yeah.

There are a lower class of men called the Cousins on the ship, and they function as janitors and other people for those on the ship as soldiers to abuse, and they are lower on the hierarchical ladder than the Sisters but it still bothers me that women again bear the brunt of especially sexual abuse. And I guess it bothers me more that in the future, military forces are still seen as base humans who are shallow, crave violence, and are still inclined only towards their animalistic behaviors.

But. I will say that the abuse in the beginning of the novel is perhaps intended to show the overarching cost and stupidity of war, as the warmongers do some legit horrible things to the characters in this novel. I think it’s also a testament to how cult religions and war work hand-in-hand to take everything from everyone. As the book progresses, once you get passed striping a young woman naked in front of the entire ship’s crew and sending her out the airlock so she can die in space in front of everyone, the book does a lot more to show how those in charge of war will often go to great lengths to ensure war continues.

As the book progresses, readers become more familiar with the plight of the Asters, who are a true slave-race in the universe. They are shown in the beginning of the book to be inhuman and as the story progresses and the characters are faced with more challenges, the Asters take a much bigger role and are humanized in ways most “others” in our modern society can relate to, especially since governments, military, and corporations deny their existence, their rights, and even use them for experiments.

It’s a horrible, and accurate, truth about how humans are societally programmed to disdain those they believe are “beneath” them, or at the very least, to turn a blind eye to those they’ve been raised to see as not human at all. There are a lot of populations in our own world right now who are very familiar with living as an “othered” population, QUILTBAG personnel among them.

Overall, the beginning of this book was definitely rough but the end has a more hopeful sense of making the universe a better place. I think I would have to reserve full judgement until reading the entire series, but I think this would be a two on my rating scale. Without knowing how the series ends and addresses a lot of the over-arching concerns, I don’t know that I would read it again.

Lewis, Linden. The First Sister. Skybound Books, 2020.

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Book Review: Love In Color by Bolu Babalola

Posted on January 10, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

Today’s book review is Love In Color: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold by Bolu Babalola (short stories, 278 pages).

“A highborn Nigerian goddess who has been beaten down and unappreciated by her gregarious lover longs to be truly seen. A young businesswoman attempts a great leap in her company – and an even greater one in her love life. A powerful Ghanaian spokeswoman is forced to decide whether she should uphold her family’s politics or be true to her heart. In her debut collection, internationally acclaimed writer Bolu Babalola retells the most beautiful love stories from history and mythology with incredible new detail and vivacity. Although Babalola focuses mainly on the magical folktales of West Africa, she also reimagines Greek myths, ancient legends from the Middle East, and stories from long-erased places. With an eye toward decolonizing tropes inherent in our favorite tales of love, Babalola has created captivating stories that traverse perspectives, continents, and genres.”

By now, you should have figured out that my taste in books and entertainment usually tends towards things with dragons, aliens, magic, and not taking place in the real world at all. However, the librarians in my area are working hard to make sure I have things to read, as I tend to go through books very, very quickly. I’ve also told my librarians when recommending things for me that I tend to prefer books with non-male main characters, dragons, and low romance, especially if it’s het.

Basically, this is to say that I would never have picked up this book to read if the librarians hadn’t put it in my hold box. I am glad I read it, though it took me an entire month of reading it a little bit at a time while having my meals or spending time on the stationary bicycle to finish. I’m definitely not used to books taking me this long to read but it was made easier by being a selection of ten short stories.

I will say that this book is something of a love story for men, as all but one of the stories in this collection focused on heterosexual relationships between men and women, and the one story that focused differently was a bisexual woman who had loved her husband very much, but then he died (no, she didn’t kill him), and she was forced to live in a world without him before finding pleasure in women. All the women in these stories are captivated by alluring men who see them for all they are and not just the shallow surface view, and all of the men show themselves to be deeply, truly in love with the women in the stories. I think that this is one of the few times where men are given so much emotional depth and credit and I found it hopeful, in the sense that men are not usually portrayed in such a positive light.

The Author’s Note for this book was also a very interesting read, to see the inspiration for these stories and the basic idea of how the stories were changed to empower the women instead of just allowing women to be the objects of men. I enjoyed seeing the author’s thoughts on the original myths and the retellings here.

Overall, I would say this book is a three on my rating scale. I’m glad I borrowed it from the library, I’m glad I read it, but I don’t think I will ever need to revisit it or reread it again, mostly because I really do like books about dragons and I didn’t feel it was fair to this very well-written book to rate it lower just because it’s not what I would normally read.

Babalola, Bolu. Love In Color: Mythical Tales From Around the World, Retold. HarperCollins, 2020.

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Graphic Novel Review: Basil and Oregano by Melissa Capriglione

Posted on January 8, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

The next of the holiday book exchange books I read was the graphic novel Basil and Oregano by Melissa Capriglione (graphic novel, 230 pages).

“Porta Bella Magiculinary Academy is the finest school for the art of cooking with magic, and Basil Eyres is determined to be the top student. On the first day of her senior year, Arabella Oregano, the daughter of a renowned chef, joins the academy for her senior year as well. The two are instantly smitten with each other, but Basil senses there’s something Arabella is hiding from her. Still, the two work together to stand out from the class as the end-of-year culinary festival approaches. But when Arabella’s secret is revealed, Basil is faced with the hardest decision of her life, which has the potential to throw her future aspirations in jeopardy.”

This entire graphic novel is a warm, positive, healthy, adorable story about several young magical culinary students and the trials they all face at school. This story was seriously such a cozy story and a fast read that I read the entire book while having breakfast (though, many of my friends would say that I tend to read rather quickly and my reading speed should not be used as a judge for how much time something might actually take you to read).

Every character in this story is diverse and all have their own life situations, which create real-world depth to all their goals, motivations, and conflicts. I also enjoyed the puns or character quirks involved in most of the character names, such as Basil and Oregano, which are two spices. I enjoyed the casual representation of everyone in the entire story, with two dads, two moms, trans and nonbinary, Pride flags hanging from stores when they go into town, and all the other ways this is a supportive QUILTBAG book.

Overall, I’d say this is an easy four on my rating scale. It’s cute, short, and happy with a really quick read. I’m glad I own a copy of it and will likely reread it frequently 🙂

Capriglione, Melissa. Basil and Oregano. Dark Horse, 2023.

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Movie Review: Batteries Not Included

Posted on January 6, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

Batteries Not Included is a 1988 movie I remember enjoying when I was growing up and I was truly shocked to find it in a second hand store last week.

“When an unscrupulous real estate developer sends thugs to get rid of the last five tenants of a deteriorating apartment building, they need a miracle to save their building from demolition. One night, when all hope seems lost, tiny visitors from outer space mysteriously glide through their windows and begin to turn the tide with their magical powers. Filled with dazzling special effects, this amazing story of intergalactic warmth stars the acclaimed husband-and-wife team of Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy as a pair of feisty long-term tenants whose faith is rewarded in ways they never expected.”

I don’t actually remember the beginnings of many of the movies from my childhood in the 1980s so it was rather odd to me when this movie started out with a montage of black and white photos. Those black and white photos and the era music to go with it told a story about the beginnings of a city and the people who dreamed and lived there. Those pictures told a story, showing how a hundred years ago, hardworking people built entire lives from scratch.

I think more and more about how much I miss movies and tv shows not dependent on their CGI to tell a story. This was back in the 1980s, when a lot of effects were still done through practical effects, lighting tricks, and creative camera angles, which I miss. I like the imagination used with practical effects and how much more real things feel to me when I watch some of these older movies because I know no one went back through with an airbrush and cleaned up all the societal expectations of “perfection”.

Everyone in this movie looked like a real human you could pass on the street. Most of the cast would be considered ineligible for starring movie roles these days because of their age and imperfections. Can you imagine modern movies with background characters who are balding, not skinny, older, or wearing non-designer clothes? Personally, I would like to see more of that.

Overall, I think this movie is going to be a two on my rating scale. I’m glad I bought it (used) and I might watch it again at some point in the future, but overall, I found it a little depressing because of how the modern world … well. It hasn’t exactly gotten better, especially in the housing market. I see more and more of my friends and people I know struggling just to survive and the biggest hurdle for everyone is housing. Those rich developers keep buying up properties, raising all the rents or mortgages, and trying to create worlds without “lesser” people so it’s really hard for me to watch a movie like this where a miracle does happen and those people got to keep their home. But I guess that’s why we watch fiction – it’s unrealistic and provides a sense of escapism, where we can all hope that maybe, we’ll be okay.

Batteries Not Included. Directed by Steven Spielberg, performances by Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, Universal Studios, 1988.

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Book Review: All Out edited by Saundra Mitchell

Posted on January 5, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

The first anthology I read this year was All Out: the No Longer Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages edited by Saundra Mitchell (historical fiction, 353 pages).

“Take a journey through time and genres and discover a past where queer figures live, love and shape the world around them. Seventeen of the best young adult authors across the queer spectrum have come together to create a beautifully written diverse historical fiction for teens. Form a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in war-torn 1870s Mexico featuring a transgender soldier, or two girls falling in love while mourning the death of Kurt Cobain, forbidden love in a sixteenth-century Spanish convent or an asexual girl discovering her identity amid the 1970s roller-disco scene, All Out tells a diverse range of stories across cultures, time periods and identities, shedding light on an area of history often ignored or forgotten.”

I picked up this anthology years ago, before I moved back to the west coast and only just now found it as I was unpacking even more of my boxes. I guess that’s the fun of moving across the country and buying a house – it feels like you’re unpacking boxes forever.

This was a really good anthology and I’m very glad I picked up it. I haven’t actually seen it in stores since I moved, which is maybe odd and maybe not, depending on your perspective. I feel a little bit like it’s getting harder and harder to find QUILTBAG content “in the wild” and this is a bit frustrating. There are even rumors that the current political climate in the U.S. has created a situation where a lot of QUILTBAG authors or stories have been discontinued from their publishers, as pressure from a certain political party who despises everything not like their world view forces more and more book bannings and other freedom-reducing activities.

I think the only story I struggled with was “Every Shade of Red” by Elliot Wake. The story premise was absolutely fascinating but it seemed to me to end on a very depressing note. While I do understand that the depressing note served the narrative, it’s really hard for me to continue to read story after story with queer characters who don’t get a happy ending. Most of this is because of how frequently tropes such as “bury your gays” and “the girlfriend in the fridge” are portrayed in every aspect of modern media.

Some of these stories did a great job of giving me more history on areas and situations I didn’t even know were things, like “Roja” by Anna-Marie McLemore and “Healing Rosa” by Tehlor Kay Mejia.

I think my favorite stories in the anthology were “The Dresser & the Chambermaid” by Robin Talley and “The Girl With the Blue Lantern” by Tess Sharpe. Both of these stories had a bit of amusement mixed in with a little bit of a mystery and I enjoyed them thoroughly.

Overall, I’d say the entire anthology as a whole is a four on my rating scale. I’m glad I bought it and I will likely reread it again in the future.

Mitchell, Saundra, editor. All Out. Harlequin Teen, 2018.

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Book Review: Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit

Posted on January 3, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

My first non-fiction book review for 2024 is Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit (non-fiction, 154 pages), which was a gift to me from one of my bookbinding friends.

I normally don’t read books without dragons, aliens, or magic because I’m often of the opinion that the real world isn’t a very great place and I shouldn’t have to spend my free time there, but this was a gift from a good friend and I am trying to do better about reading things I normally wouldn’t.

“In her comic, scathing essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don’t, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters. She ends on a serious note— because the ultimate problem is the silencing of women who have something to say, including those saying things like, “He’s trying to kill me!” This book features that now-classic essay with six perfect complements, including an examination of the great feminist writer Virginia Woolf ’s embrace of mystery, of not knowing, of doubt and ambiguity, a highly original inquiry into marriage equality, and a terrifying survey of the scope of contemporary violence against women.”

There’s clearly a lot of research that went into this book and it was published a decade ago, which is both very interesting and very depressing. Why depressing? Because in a lot of ways, we haven’t made the kind of progress the book hopes for. I was particularly thrown when I read on page 110 about the issues with a Senate Judiciary Committee on 11 October 1991 for the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas. I actually read this paragraph and then set the book down and stared off into space for a few minutes. See, I was too young to remember any of this when it actually happened, but I have vague memories of knowing the name “Anita Hill.” As it turns out, Anita Hill testified about how her boss, Clarence Thomas, made Anita Hill’s work place incredibly uncomfortable for her (I’m saying it nicely and not quoting the book because if you’re reading this book review, it means you have internet and have the ability to do a search for information on your own). This particular paragraph had such a heavy impact on me because that individual is STILL on the United States Supreme Court right now and there’s a whole bunch of ethical issues with him from my perspective and the fact that the U.S. Senate KNEW he had issues back in *1991* and STILL appointed him to his position?

Well. It’s overwhelming and depressing. And I firmly believe there’s a TON of issues with the current U.S. Supreme Court and that’s even more depressing. Rebecca Solnit in this book mentions Roe vs. Wade and the impact it had on allowing women to have control over their own bodies and lives but now Roe vs. Wade has disintegrated and we’re now living in a country where a criminal gets to run for President and States are going out of their way to make women’s health care and autonomy near impossible. The population as a whole feels like it’s getting more disenfranchised with voting in general and more hopeless as more rights keep getting taken away from minority populations.

[A random note in the middle of my book review: This is your Sign. Please. For the love of actual freedom, liberty, self-determination, and everything you hold dear, VOTE. Participate in the democratic process. Make sure you are registered to vote and vote in ALL local and primary elections. In fact, it’s never too early to make sure you’re registered. Here’s a link to some resources to help you register to vote].

Then, I was thrown back into our modern world of “how did we let things get WORSE” when on page 114, she talks about a certain party’s love affair with calling all elections that don’t work out the way they want “voter fraud.” And I just … stopped again.

While I read this book slowly (for me) and it took me probably a month to read a page or two at a time while eating my meals downstairs, it really started having a lot more context for the world we know right now at the beginning of 2024 closer to the end of the book.

By this time in the book, we’ve already been presented with a history of where we came from to get where we are. We’ve read about internationally acknowledged rape cases, societal and cultural norms getting power from keeping women’s voices out of existence, marriage, Virginia Woolf, feminism, and all the men who are threatened by women being something other than their property.

I feel a little bit like this book is like the movie Idiocracy, which started as a comedy and turned into a terrifying documentary.

Around page 141 when the book talks about Pandora’s Box (which really was actually a jar), the part that really got me here was talking about hope. I think Rebecca Solnit is absolutely correct in talking about how the jar was opened, but Pandora closed it in time to keep hope in. And, really, that’s what we need to focus on. For all that things in the broad spectrum of global events feel extra bleak right now, there are a lot of good things happening. And because we all need that reminder, here‘s a “click bait” link to a website filled with good news. But that’s also kind of the point in this part of the book – women refuse to be silenced again. Near the very, very end of the book on page 149, she talks about this being a war and there might be set backs but that we won’t quit.

And I think that’s something we all need to remember. Keep fighting, no matter how exhausted we all are. We can’t let things get worse, especially not because of easy complacency.

Overall, this is a book I never would have read if it hadn’t been gifted to me as it was, but I am actually glad I read it. I might reference it in the future but I don’t know that I would reread the whole thing, so that makes it probably a 2.5 on my rating scheme.

Solnit, Rebecca. Men Explain Things To Me. Haymarket Books, 2014.

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