The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Book Review: These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

Book #78 of 2021:

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong (These Violent Delights #1)

This is a very loose retelling of Romeo and Juliet, pitching the star-crossed lovers as the respective heirs to two rival gang families in 1926 Shanghai. They’re also exes with complicated lingering feelings for one another rather than current sweethearts, with their secret relationship mostly confined to the novel’s backstory. Oh — and they’re brought back together again to investigate a mysterious plague that’s turning people across the city into monsters and causing them to rip their own throats out in a bloody public spectacle.

As one might imagine, the ensuing plot is pretty different from Shakespeare’s version of events, to the point where the similar character names can be more distracting than enriching to the reading experience, and I almost wish author Chloe Gong had veered even further away from those parallels. I also have a little difficulty in accepting or relating to teen characters who have each proudly and remorselessly executed traitors and opponents in the past, although I grant that that isn’t the most unrealistic element to this title.

Still, the overall concept has a certain delirious fun to it, and the book is packed with #ownvoices observations on racism and colonialism as well as some neat queer representation on the margins. It’s a great and promising start from a young debut writer, published as she finishes her senior year of college. I’m not sure that I necessarily need to return to this series for the announced sequel, but Gong is clearly a talent to watch going forward.

[Content warning for insects, body horror, and drug abuse.]

★★★★☆

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Book Review: The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

Book #77 of 2021:

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna (Deathless #1)

This fantasy novel has some interestingly eerie worldbuilding flourishes early on, but I’ve found the ensuing plot to be slow and overly predictable, which makes it hard to fully invest in the heroine’s journey, much as I always love to celebrate another dark-skinned #ownvoices protagonist. There’s also more dubious fairy-tale logic than I’d typically expect in a story like this — all the village girls have their blood tested at age 16 to see if it runs gold as a sign of latent magic powers, for instance, which I guess means nobody ever gets a scratch or starts menstruating before that point — and that tends to further distance me as a reader. I normally think of the YA genre as being written about younger people and not exclusively for them, but this might be one of those rare counter-examples that works best for an audience less jaded by familiar tropes.

[Content warning for racism, sexism, and gore.]

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

Book #76 of 2021:

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn #2)

Another phenomenal piece of epic fantasy, juggling pulse-pounding cinematic action, endearing characters, court intrigue, worldbuilding revelations, and even a hidden traitor subplot with apparent ease. Although I miss the feeling of daringly clever heist shenanigans from the first novel, this sequel is no less immersive an experience, and it probably performs the trickier task of maintaining that tension while exploring what happens after (spoiler alert) the good guys have overthrown their tyrannical government. Most series avoid this section of the narrative altogether, either by never showing the aftermath of the climactic battle at all or by jumping forward to a brand-new set of circumstances in the distant future. Mistborn instead dives right back in, skipping only a few months ahead to find our surviving heroes navigating the uneasy peace which accompanies an unexpected victory. In terms of popular later works, it’s Hamilton Act II, not Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The book also really opens up the lore of the setting, deepening our understanding of its magical systems and non-human peoples yet furtively leaving plenty left to uncover in the final volume. Indeed, one of author Brandon Sanderson’s finest accomplishments with this trilogy is making each title seem like a complete picture, even on a reread when the audience knows just how much the protagonists are missing. Both we and they continually expand the scope of our knowledge about this land — all the way through to the eventual connections with the writer’s larger cosmere project — which results in an already-great story growing richer and richer the further we progress into it.

Granted, it does have its flaws. The franchise is still very male-heavy besides its lead heroine, there are some background mentions of rape and mental illness that aren’t necessarily given the weight they deserve, and the overall concept of multiple armies converging on the capital city is perhaps a bit too artificially tidy for a saga that normally traffics in more organic developments. But the tale which spins out from that setup is lovely, and it’s packed with the keen insights into civic leadership, religion, and mythology one can generally expect of Sanderson. It’s a genuine thrill to simply watch his creations puzzling out the mysteries of their realm, especially for the wicked twist thrown in as a cliffhanger. On balance, that’s all worth the full five stars for me.

[Content warning for gore. And disclaimer: I’m Facebook friends with the author.]

★★★★★

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Book Review: The Price You Pay for College: An Entirely New Road Map for the Biggest Financial Decision Your Family Will Ever Make by Ron Lieber

Book #75 of 2021:

The Price You Pay for College: An Entirely New Road Map for the Biggest Financial Decision Your Family Will Ever Make by Ron Lieber

As the father to a toddler with a new sibling on the way, I picked up this 2021 title expecting simply a quick overview of the current options for various college saving plans. And it has that information, but so much more besides, from which factors affect “merit” scholarships to some of the reasons behind rising tuition costs (and the surprising fact that only a small percentage of families end up paying that full sticker amount) to the other aspects of a university like class size and mentorship opportunities that should be considered when deciding where to apply.

New York Times columnist Ron Lieber has spent decades researching and writing about financial matters, and I’ve found it particularly helpful to use his framework for thinking through what a student / household wants to get out of their choice for higher education. Do we place a greater value on the doors opened by the degree credential? On the actual course learning? On the residential experience and the bonds of kinship that it tends to form? Different people will weigh these elements differently, and as the author notes, the COVID-19 pandemic has scrambled the traditional calculus with the switch to online lessons and restrictions on social gatherings. Recognizing a moment like that may lead one towards certain schools and away from others, much as it may change how they market and price their offerings accordingly.

All in all, this has been an informative and thought-provoking read, and while I don’t know that it’s necessarily going to hold up until I’m navigating campus visits and application essays myself, I’d recommend it for any parents of prospective undergraduates today.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova

Book #74 of 2021:

Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova (Brooklyn Brujas #2)

Switching protagonists for a sequel is always a dicey maneuver, as it tends to lessen the audience’s investment and risk sidelining the very elements that may have drawn them back into the tale. In this case, for instance, one of my favorite things about the first Brooklyn Brujas novel is how its heroine comes to realize she’s fallen for her best friend — a girl who is mentioned a couple times in this next volume centering on Alex’s sister, but does not actually appear again.

I also just don’t like Lula as much, especially when she responds to a breakup early on in the text by casting a love spell on the boy who’s trying to leave her. (It’s ultimately unsuccessful, but leaves a sour taste in my mouth that keeps me from ever fully rooting for the character after that.) Another of her cantos later unleashes a horde of cannibalistic zombies on the city by mistake, so at this point, I think I’m siding more with the antagonists who insist that the Mortiz family’s magic is too dangerous to let go on!

Storywise, this adventure is well-told, and the #ownvoices touches to the series remain appealing. I’ll stick with it through the third and final book / daughter, but I’m disappointed that this one hasn’t wowed me on the same level as the original.

[Content warning for gore.]

★★★☆☆

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TV Review: Community, season 4

TV #26 of 2021:

Community, season 4

I’d probably agree with the popular consensus that this is the weakest stretch of Community, but it’s honestly not that big a step down from the chaotic year before. Fans were reasonably upset that showrunner / creator Dan Harmon had been fired — not knowing then how abusive he was on set — and it’s true that this season doesn’t have many of those flashes of brilliance that often elevate his work. Nevertheless, I don’t know if the network needed to bring him back as they did afterwards rather than give the replacement team longer to perfect their own spin on the material. (And his later retcon that there was a gas leak on campus during these events is plain petty and cruel, although it’s almost a fair return for Abed’s deeply unearned line about making paintball cool again here.)

This run has its share of issues, but there’s also potential to stake out new ground, and in rewatching with some distance, I think a residual fondness for the study group helps paper over most of the flaws. The biggest ideas are the inherited Troy/Britta relationship and the Chang amnesia plot, and while neither ultimately amounts to much, it’s not like any romance or that problematic antagonist has ever been this program’s strongest element. The fact they flop is more noticeable with less of anything else going on, but that hardly destroys the show’s legacy. It’s still a solid three-star title, reliably delivering laughs and quirky scenarios without necessarily evidencing any grander ambitions or deeper insights. Heck, this should have been a poignant farewell moment for Pierce, whose actor Chevy Chase finally carried out his threat to quit, yet he’s missing half the time and his arc barely gets an afterthought of development at the very end of the finale.

So it’s not awful, but it really lacks follow-through, particularly in the sitcom’s trademark high-concept experiments. Under Harmon, the joke was never just that a community college was suddenly home to organized crime or a zombie outbreak or an animated holiday special or whatever; it was in how thoroughly the writers got inside those other genres and lovingly repurposed their familiar tropes. Season 4 by contrast veers closer to referential humor, as though it’s enough to simply turn the cast into Sesame Street style puppets for twenty minutes and not even try to filter that separate storytelling tradition via the distinctive Greendale weirdness.

With the length cut from 22 episodes to 13, this year flies by too quickly to make a firm impression for good or for ill, but the lingering sense is largely one of wasted possibilities and necessary ingredients present yet not quite clicking. I’m glad the series recovers and doesn’t ever get any worse, but this could have been significantly improved through a few rounds of rewrites and a clearer driving vision.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie

Book #73 of 2021:

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie

At this novel’s start, a dying man rouses for just long enough to utter the five words of the title (except in the US, where it was published as the blander-sounding The Boomerang Clue), thoroughly confusing the stranger who has found him lying at the bottom of a cliff. The plot which spins out from there is relatively fun, although this is definitely one of author Agatha Christie’s stories that only has the shape of a mystery and is not really something an enterprising reader could solve on their own. But the amateur leads are amusing in the Tommy and Tuppence fashion, especially if you can overlook the heavy role that luck and implausibly convincing disguises play in their adventure.

[Content warning for ableism, classism, and suicide.]

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Later by Stephen King

Book #72 of 2021:

Later by Stephen King

This new novel from author Stephen King finds the horror master at his creepiest, blending a ghost story, a coming-of-age journey, and a crime thriller with the usual aplomb. Our child protagonist can see and speak with the recently deceased, not all of whom are necessarily friendly, and he gets caught up in a variety of misadventures both supernatural and earthbound as the loose plot unfolds. The connections to Pennywise from IT are fun too — although you won’t be lost if you haven’t read/seen that one yet — and while I don’t love the final twist, the chills throughout are well worth the price of admission. It’s vintage King, delivering familiar elements with just enough of an original spin to be great for newcomers and long-time fans alike.

[Content warning for incest, suicide, graphic violence, and police misconduct.]

★★★★☆

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Book Review: We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence by Becky Cooper

Book #71 of 2021:

We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence by Becky Cooper

Struck by a lingering campus legend that she heard as a Harvard undergrad, author Becky Cooper began digging into the forty-year-old unsolved murder at its heart, sorting the facts from the mythic stature they’d acquired, following up on dusty leads, and after a further decade of effort, eventually prodding the police department to carry out new DNA testing and announce a suspect. The ultimate answer is far more mundane than the stories that generations of students had furtively passed along — many concerning a ritual slaying and a sinister professor who is still on staff today — but this book is as much about the life of those tales and the writer’s investigative process as it is about who actually killed Jane Britton.

Cooper raises several possible culprits as she walks readers through what she’s learned, and while I’m not necessarily convinced that that’s the most effective structure for this sort of true crime title, it gives valuable space to the whisper networks that surround these men, of female colleagues and junior scholars quietly raising red flags and warning one another not to be alone with them. They may not be murderers, yet they are still abusers entrenched in a patriarchal system of power and protected by an academic institution that heavily discourages a closer look. There’s no way of knowing whether justice could have been any swifter here, and no evidence that detectives were actively blocked from performing their due diligence, but all the same, it’s hard to imagine any of this coming to light before the modern #MeToo era.

I feel somewhat let down by the end of this work, and I’m not sure if that stems more from the relative dullness of the solution — an unavoidable peril of nonfiction — or the way in which it’s presented and contrasted with the scintillating possibilities earlier on in the narrative. I also wish Cooper would explore her personal feelings of possessiveness over the case, especially how she bristles at other amateur sleuths with no weaker a claim on it than her own. But she’s kept me engaged and interested throughout, and I’m grateful that she’s finally helped find closure for everyone involved.

[Content warning for rape and graphic violence.]

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

Book #70 of 2021:

Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore (Graceling Realm #4)

This has always been a pretty loose series, so I don’t mind that we’ve jumped forward four years for this latest sequel, or that it basically spins an entirely new story instead of picking up any existing thread. In the time since, Queen Bitterblue’s people have established diplomatic relations with a distant and more industrialized continent, and when the narrative resumes, her agents abroad have fallen silent, prompting the monarch and a few close allies to investigate.

The best part of this novel is probably the worldbuilding, with telepathic fox companions, airships, and mysterious friendly sea creatures, all representing a major change from the previous volumes. The downside is that it feels almost too separate to spark my returning interest — this other landmass doesn’t even have any native Gracelings! — although there are definitely stronger connections back than we had between the first two installments. Yet despite the familiar protagonists, I never quite feel totally invested in this plot as an adventure they need to go on and we need to see.

Author Kristin Cashore is great at writing a sex-positive and queer-normalized fantasy setting, but I think I want either more action with higher stakes or a return to the introspective exploration of lingering trauma that makes book three so powerful. By comparison much of the conflict here seems superficial and contrived, which dampens my appreciation overall.

[Content warning for child abuse and slut-shaming.]

★★★☆☆

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