TV #73 of 2021: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, season 8 Over the course of its history, the writers and cast on this police sitcom have appeared increasingly uneasy with its role as copaganda, leading to public statements and scripts that openly engage with institutional abuse and other social justice issues. For this last season, written in the …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
Book #268 of 2021: The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison (The Goblin Emperor #2) I’ve enjoyed this spinoff sequel to 2014’s The Goblin Emperor, but I don’t love it nearly as much as the original novel. Leaving the imperial palace and its lonely ruler behind, we’re instead presented with a low-stakes, street-level plot …
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Book Review: This Is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey
Book #267 of 2021: This Is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey (This Is Not the Jess Show #1) I love the premise here, which is like a YA mashup of The Truman Show with The Running Man, but I’m less sold on the execution. Partly that’s a matter of structure: our teenage protagonist …
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Book Review: The Quiet American by Graham Greene
Book #266 of 2021: The Quiet American by Graham Greene This 1955 novel reads as a prescient (though obviously unheeded) critique of colonialism and American-style foreign intervention, following a journalist and an intelligence officer in the ‘Indochina’ region at the start of the Vietnam War. It draws on author Graham Greene’s own experience as a …
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Book Review: In the Time of Dinosaurs by K. A. Applegate
Book #265 of 2021: In the Time of Dinosaurs by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs Megamorphs #2) I’m rather lukewarm on the first Megamorphs release, but this is the sort of big blockbuster adventure that the line seems built for, an over-the-top extravaganza that might strain the limits of the regular Animorphs series and benefits from …
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Book Review: Last Drink Bird Head edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
Book #264 of 2021: Last Drink Bird Head edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer In this 2009 charity anthology to benefit the ProLiteracy organization, eighty writers answer the prompt, “Who or what is Last Drink Bird Head?” It’s flash fiction, meaning the authors are encouraged to respond off the top of their heads, unplanned …
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Book Review: One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Book #263 of 2021: One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston This novel hasn’t quite grabbed my heart as fiercely as author Casey McQuiston’s earlier Red, White & Royal Blue, but it’s still a pretty great story with incredible levels of queer representation. That includes not only the bi protagonist’s F/F romance, but also her found …
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TV Review: ReBoot, season 1
TV #72 of 2021: ReBoot, season 1 I have a lot of fondness for this old cartoon, which premiered in 1994 as the world’s first all-CGI series (before the movie Toy Story helped popularize the technology). Set inside a computer where the digital heroes have to fend off viruses — plus the users playing games …
Book Review: The Closers by Michael Connelly
Book #262 of 2021: The Closers by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #11) After two volumes spent as a private investigator, Harry Bosch has now returned to his roots at the LAPD. (In an afterword, author Michael Connelly explains that his favorite cases are the murders, and it seemed too implausible for a civilian to keep …
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Book Review: The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass
Book #261 of 2021: The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass There’s enough of a distinctive (and #ownvoices) gay black perspective to this YA horror novel to save it from my lowest possible rating, but overall, it’s a real mess. Our protagonist can see visions of dead people, but the exact nature of his …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 