The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Book Review: Diana and the Island of No Return by Aisha Saeed

Book #215 of 2020:

Diana and the Island of No Return by Aisha Saeed (Wonder Woman Adventures #1)

I suppose I’d recommend this new middle-grade series to tweens who love the Wonder Woman character already and are excited to see more of her childhood, but I haven’t gotten much out of the first volume myself. The conflicts are a little repetitive and easy to solve, and both the villain and the heroes make some bizarre choices, like applying the Lasso of Truth to a trusted friend rather than a shifty stranger when their accounts are in dispute. I also think this version of Themyscira loses much of its traditional mystique when the island is open to visitors and there are demons and magic potions apparently commonplace around the world.

I’d still probably give the book a middle-of-the-road three stars for the above issues since I’m clearly not the target audience here, but the setup for the sequels is too vague and unsatisfying for that to feel quite right. Instead I’ll round down to two, which is a more accurate reflection of my own response to the title anyway.

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey

Book #214 of 2020:

The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey

This 2020 novel is an exquisite piece of mid-century historical fiction, rich in gothic atmosphere and consideration of women’s oppression within the family unit and the larger society. Our two heroines are the daughter of a wealthy household and the museum curator sent there to accompany a taxidermy collection being sheltered away from the London Blitz. Each young woman is haunted by the manor’s past, in the respective forms of one’s sharp childhood memories and the other’s treatment by a cruel host and his cold, resentful staff. Adding to the mysteries within Lockwood, personal items are going missing and the animals seem to subtly move whenever no one is looking.

For all the creepiness, however, the main appeal of this narrative is probably in the tender bond between its two protagonists, which eventually blossoms into full romance. I won’t give away whether the ghosts are real or not, but the complex psychological horror makes this book like a sapphic version of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, and marks debut author Jane Healey as a clear talent to watch.

(I do wish the audiobook had employed two different readers or even just two different accents to help distinguish between the main characters, but since their chapters alternate back-and-forth, it’s generally not too difficult to keep track of which is which. And that’s obviously a critique of the audio production, not necessarily of the source text itself.)

[Content warning for gaslighting, parental abuse, implied homophobia, and institutionalization.]

★★★★☆

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TV Review: The Good Wife, season 6

TV #37 of 2020:

The Good Wife, season 6

It was perhaps inevitable that The Good Wife would tumble from its near-perfect fifth year, but this following run is still a major disappointment. I actually don’t mind the first part of the season so much, although it’s very plot-driven compared to the program before, with characters being acted upon by outside forces rather than making proactive choices themselves. For a while that’s at least an interesting new dynamic for the production to explore, but the back half underscores how hollow a foundation it is. Cary starts drifting without a defined purpose as soon as his big trial is over, and Alicia’s ultimate motivation for seeking office is left entirely unclear. (As I commented back in 2016: “For once, it didn’t seem like the writers were interested in answering such fairly basic character questions.”)

Worst of all, the cast are largely isolated into different subplots, thereby losing the ensemble effect that had been one of the show’s greatest strengths. That’s a separate issue from whatever petty behind-the-scenes squabble has kept Kalinda away from her former bestie for over fifty episodes now, but it presents the matter in stark relief where before it was more hidden by the general quality of the writing.

A lot of the developments here also just end up feeling like a step backwards for the series and its protagonist. On paper, I can see the potential for making Alicia’s new firm grow more like her old one, especially as it feeds her partner’s feeling of alienation, but that setup for the narrative to interrogate the idea of becoming what you hate never actually resolves into anything substantial. Instead, we’re just right back where we started with a different name on the door, and no sense of consequence whatsoever. A viewer who skipped forward into the midst of this from, say, season 3 could easily assume that no change had taken place at all, which is not the best look for a serial storyline that had previously placed great care in unfolding its various arcs.

Neither this penultimate string of episodes nor the final batch is entirely worthless, but we lose the momentum and weight that had long been The Good Wife’s primary appeal. Quitting after 6×11 “Hail Mary,” exactly halfway through this year, is honestly probably the best choice.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale

Book #213 of 2020:

Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale

A one-star rating feels perhaps too harsh for this title, which I didn’t exactly hate reading. But structurally it’s a mess that inelegantly transitions from one lackluster concept into another near the end, lowering my appreciation after I’d already spent most of the novel thinking it would earn a meager two stars. I really just don’t understand what author Shannon Hale was going for here, even though I’ve enjoyed several of her previous works without incident.

Hale’s latest protagonist is an insufferable high school dropout convinced that she’s going to make it big on Broadway, who starts having vivid daydreams that take her into the worlds of the books she’s reading. These visions are maybe supposed to teach her something, but they seem entirely disconnected from any particular character growth, so they instead register as mere random interludes among all the entitled complaining. Then the last few chapters abruptly pivot to reveal — spoiler alert — the vague supernatural forces trying to keep the heroine from waking up to real life, which she’s able to defeat by concentrating on the relationships that have never been particularly fleshed out in the preceding text. It’s incoherent and unsatisfying on pretty much every level.

Overall, I’d say this is a rare miss for the writer. I’ve read worse, but not in quite some time.

[Content warning for mention of racism and transphobia.]

★☆☆☆☆

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Book Review: Goddess in the Machine by Lora Beth Johnson

Book #212 of 2020:

Goddess in the Machine by Lora Beth Johnson (Goddess in the Machine #1)

High marks for this new science-fiction novel, which has a few reliable YA tropes but mostly takes its plot in interesting directions that I wouldn’t expect. The biggest twist is right in the premise, with our teenaged heroine waking from a cryosleep that’s lasted nine centuries too long to find a dystopian society in place of the advanced colony (and fellow colonists) that she should have. The townsfolk greet her as their titular goddess, and she is quickly thrust into local intrigues as she searches the sputtering remains of her civilization’s technology to figure out what happened.

The worldbuilding isn’t the most complex, but I’m charmed by debut author Lora Beth Johnson’s efforts to show language drift, which is a topic almost always ignored in this sort of story, either by means of a fanciful universal translator or by simply going unaddressed. This writer instead embraces how word forms, sounds, definitions, and grammar can all change over time, and while a reader with a linguistics background could nitpick some of her choices as less likely, the overall effect is pretty fun. We even get whole chapters presented in that future dialect for the secondary protagonist’s perspective, rather than only seeing the altered speech pop up in dialogue.

Finally, there’s just a nice degree of diversity here as well, from the fat main character to a deaf acquaintance and an assorted cast with a range of skin tones. These details help add texture to the tale, and build on the above strengths to create a memorable impression in a sometimes-generic genre.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: The Bright Lands by John Fram

Book #211 of 2020:

The Bright Lands by John Fram

There’s a thriving sub-genre of suspense novels about a protagonist returning to their childhood home in the wake of tragedy and uncovering old secrets, and in theory, I like the idea of mashing that together with something like Friday Night Lights. A small town in Texas that revolves around high school football is a great setting for exploring the corrupt underbelly of respectable society, and the hints of Lovecraftian horror further emphasize everyone’s cultish devotion to the team’s star players. Debut author John Fram is also utterly unafraid to take on the rampant homophobia at the heart of American sports culture, which I definitely appreciate.

I’m not really sold on the execution of all these themes, however. Although the gay representation is admirable, the narrative falls into the tired trope of all the worst bigots being closeted themselves, and it feels like we brush past the implications of that. I also lose track of the emotional truth to the characters as the story goes on, especially as the supernatural elements grow in stature. A late-stage burst of gun violence seems intended to shock, but since the relevant figures have long stopped resembling actual people by that point, I’ve greeted it with just a shrug instead.

There are still some interesting ideas here, but as a finished product, it doesn’t quite add up to a satisfying whole.

[Content warning for police abuse, sexual assault, racism, and various slurs.]

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Crossings by Alex Landragin

Book #210 of 2020:

Crossings by Alex Landragin

This genre-bending novel is a deeply immersive tale of people who can swap souls from body to body, prolonging their existence but not necessarily retaining their waking memories in the process. Spanning multiple centuries, it’s a work of historical fiction as well, incorporating real figures like Charles Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin, and Coco Chanel. (I can confirm that you don’t have to know any facts about these lives beforehand to enjoy the story, but it’s impressive how debut author Alex Landragin has managed to incorporate them all within one long narrative.) At turns a spy thriller and an epic romance, the whole book is suffused with the sort of melancholy and angst of the effectively immortal familiar to readers of similar projects by Claire North or Anne Rice.

It’s also interestingly presented in two different potential orderings. As laid out the text is structured yet nonlinear, divided into three main sections that each periodically jump forward and then flash back to cover some of what was missed. However, notations on the page allow for a chronological approach instead, darting through the volume almost like a choose-your-own-adventure — the conceit being that Crossings is a found object, whose binder and publisher weren’t sure which arrangement made the most sense. Skipping around to follow the straightforward path wasn’t really an option in the audiobook, but I’d love to revisit a paper copy sometime and compare how it lands when events unfold that other way.

The ambition here is tremendous, and it’s easy to get caught up in the grand sweep of things. Still, I feel as though there’s too little resolution and too many open questions by the end — or by either of the ends, I suppose I should say. Perhaps the writer has intentionally saved room for a sequel to pick up those remaining threads, but for now it leaves an enjoyable title seeming curiously unfinished.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly

Book #209 of 2020:

The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #3)

This 1994 novel opens with detective Harry Bosch on trial for his shooting of an unarmed man four years ago, a civil complaint brought by the widow against the city. (The deceased was a suspected rapist and serial killer, and Bosch mistakenly thought he was reaching for a gun.) That sort of case likely plays differently now than it would have when the book was written, but author Michael Connelly provides some apt critiques of his protagonist’s style of ‘cowboy’ policing, with its ignoring of protocol — and occasionally the law — and penchant for collateral damage. I don’t think the narrative ultimately either condemns or endorses this behavior, but I could easily see other people not caring for it.

The story itself is an interesting one with plenty of twists, beginning with an anonymous note claiming to be from the murderer and directing police to another victim. The cops go through several theories to account for that, ranging from there being a copycat criminal or a previously unknown partner to Bosch having misidentified and slain an innocent civilian. These possibilities have kept me on my toes and guessing, especially following the sudden death of a character who’s very much still alive as of the sixth season of the TV adaptation of this series. Overall, it’s another strong thriller that invites readers to solve the mystery before its hero but keeps us engaged even if we do.

[Content warning for racism and statutory rape.]

★★★★☆

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TV Review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars, season 2

TV #36 of 2020:

Star Wars: The Clone Wars, season 2

This cartoon is incrementally improving, but I still don’t love it just yet. I’m most invested when the writing manages to tell me something new about a character or concept from the wider franchise, which is why I perked up around this season’s mini-arc on Mandalor. Those episodes deliver Mandalorian-related worldbuilding, some Obi-Wan backstory, and a great ruthless moment for Anakin foreshadowing his eventual turn. Unfortunately, a lot of the rest of the series is still striking me as pretty disposable, and even when familiar faces like Mace Windu or Boba Fett drop in, they aren’t given especially great material. A few standalone adventures like Brain Invaders are worthwhile, but overall, I think I need this show to be way more serialized in character and plot for it to be effective.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Book #208 of 2020:

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

I admire the goal for a Howard Zinn-like retelling of the American story, focused on the original inhabitants of this landmass and their descendants. That’s a worthy project to restore a voice to people who have traditionally been misrepresented and trivialized in the narrative of nation-building, and a necessary reminder of how complex and variable these native cultures have been, both before and after European contact.

Unfortunately, the execution here can be dry and repetitive — I’ve lost track of how many times we’re told that the U.S. military still refers to enemy territory as ‘Indian country’ — and I’ve seen several critiques that accuse author Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz of misunderstanding or misstating certain key facts. Also, as a Jewish reader, I’m uncomfortable with how this writer makes repeated irrelevant comparisons between the foundings of America and Israel, and with how she positions the Holocaust as unjustly garnering more sympathy than comparable indigenous suffering.

So it’s a disappointingly flawed text overall, but still an important corrective to the bias of mainstream history. I can only hope that its weaknesses don’t detract from its message, and resent that its editor didn’t catch them.

[Content warning for racial slurs and descriptions of sexual assault.]

★★★☆☆

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