The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

TV Review: The Good Wife, season 2

TV #20 of 2020:

The Good Wife, season 2

This legal drama’s sophomore outing is even more fun and confident than its initial run, deftly mixing interesting weekly court cases with some enjoyable political intrigue (both in law firm maneuvering and the actual district attorney’s race). We do spend a little too much time on Kalinda’s rival investigator Blake — played by a Scott Porter who has somehow grown even smarmier since Friday Night Lights — but the promotion of Alan Cumming’s Eli Gold to the main cast yields dividends in terms of the entertainment value, energy, and different focus that he brings to his scenes. Cary also gets a neat arc as a minor antagonist this year, and of course series star Julianna Margulies continues to add subtle nuances to her portrayal of the title protagonist.

The biggest element going against this program has always been its network-mandated length, as needing to fill 22+ episodes each season leads to some inevitable padding and slow-moving subplots. A tighter storyline could have been possible under different constraints — and I’m sure there are lists out there recommending which hours to watch and which to skip — but even when the main narrative gets sluggish, there are generally enough original wrinkles to how the episodic content is presented to keep it from feeling too formulaic.

★★★★☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Book #129 of 2020:

The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski (The Winner’s Trilogy #1)

I picked up this book on the strength of author Marie Rutkoski’s later novel The Midnight Lie, which features a different cast in a different area of the same fantasy setting (sort of like the relationship between the Grisha trilogy and Six of Crows, which I also read out of chronological order). But this earlier effort is so misguided throughout that I’m not only quitting its series after the first volume but also now considering not even bothering with the forthcoming TML sequel as well.

The concept of a love story between an enslaved person and their enslaver is inherently fraught, but any possibility of careful nuance here is squandered by Rutkoski at every turn. Her heroine does not come to any realization / rejection of her society’s abuses or her own role in maintaining them. (We learn offhandedly that she has freed one of the people from her household while keeping several others, so it’s not even as though the idea of abolition is foreign to her.) The specific dynamic with the second protagonist is consistently framed as a simple star-crossed romance rather than anything coercive. And when his oppressed underclass eventually rises up against the occupiers, that revolt is depicted as brutal and animalistic in ways that their system of slavery never is.

The writing is technically competent, but neither the worldbuilding nor the plot is ever interesting enough to distract from the sheer awfulness of the underlying philosophy. This sort of apologia has no place on my shelves, and I cannot recommend it for anyone else.

[Content warning for a rape attempt against the main character.]

★☆☆☆☆

–Subscribe at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke to support these reviews and weigh in on what I read next!–

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

Book #128 of 2020:

Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram (Darius The Great #1)

A charming YA novel about an American teenager traveling to his family’s home in Iran for the first time, rich in #ownvoices details drawn from debut author Adib Khorram’s mixed-race Persian heritage and struggles with mental health. (In an afterword, the writer notes how he wanted to tell a story in which depression is a fact of life that can be managed, rather than fodder for tragedy.) I’m grateful for that representation, although it seems like there are other areas of the protagonist’s characterization that could have been spelled out more explicitly as well, such as a few indications that he may be queer and on the autism spectrum.

This is verging into spoiler territory that I usually avoid in my reviews, but there’s an intense homosocial friendship in this book that feels like it could easily tip over into romance, and never openly discussing either kid’s sexuality adds a tension that I’m not sure is intentional or beneficial to the text. And since the blurb for the forthcoming sequel directly states that Darius has a new boyfriend, it feels like a real missed opportunity to not talk about that aspect of him here.

But I really like our viewpoint figure, and I’ve enjoyed seeing the world through his eyes. It probably helps that he keeps making nerdy references to The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek: The Next Generation, two series that I’m currently working my way through myself. Although the plot in this introductory volume is rather minimal, he and the other characters shine throughout.

[Content warning for fatphobia, bullying, a close relative diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and discussion of suicidal ideation.]

★★★★☆

–Subscribe at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke to support these reviews and weigh in on what I read next!–

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

Book #127 of 2020:

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings #1)

As a foundational text of the fantasy genre that’s inspired countless homages and knock-offs — and as a product of the mid-twentieth century — you might expect The Lord of the Rings to seem generic and stodgy to modern eyes. Yet returning to the series for the first time in a decade, I’m utterly transported by this opening volume’s immersive atmosphere, thrilling adventures, and enchantingly endearing characters. (I’ve also found the pacing to be rather brisk once events get going, in contrast to my memory and conventional wisdom.) The worldbuilding is elaborate but never daunting, conveying the deep history that author J. R. R. Tolkien has toiled over for the setting without ever confusing the reader or distracting from the plot. These books will never have the hold on my heart of their standalone predecessor, but they represent another beautifully-rendered journey across a dreamland of wonder and peril.

My two most substantive critiques of The Fellowship of the Ring are hardly original, yet they do impact my appreciation for the novel, so I may as well mention them here. First, the unnecessary subplot with Tom Bombadil is not just tediously unrelated to the larger storyline; it also actively undercuts its stakes and saps all early momentum of the narrative. And second, although an improvement over the complete lack of female representation in The Hobbit, the roles of women in this first sequel are still fairly minimal and constrained.

It’s to Tolkien’s credit that these flaws are easy to set aside in the propulsive glamour of the work, and on reflection, I don’t think either merits a lowered rating for the title. Reading it afresh has again swept me away to Middle-Earth, and I cherish that experience immensely.

★★★★★

–Subscribe at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke to support these reviews and weigh in on what I read next!–

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale

Book #126 of 2020:

The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale

This 2017 tract has a provocative title, but it provides ample data supporting its revolutionary stance. Although not every reader will agree with sociologist Alex S. Vitale’s ultimate conclusion that police systems should be abolished entirely, anyone involved in a discussion of potential reform could benefit from his clear-eyed descriptions of their archaic origins, egregious abuses, and plain ineffectiveness at combating the issues under their modern purview (many of which even wind up exacerbated by departmental action instead). The author punctures our standard conceptions of law enforcement in the simplest of terms, and provides workable alternatives that could take its place over a host of domains. The result is a valuable resource, especially in a time of widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo and willingness to consider nontraditional options.

As of the time of this writing, the publisher has made the ebook available for free download, and I highly recommend checking it out for yourself: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2817-the-end-of-policing

[Content warning for use of the word “transgendered” and some abelism in discussion of mental health issues.]

★★★★☆

–Subscribe at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke to weigh in on what I read next!–

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Book #125 of 2020:

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

I enjoy the middle of this historical fiction piece, but it’s a little slow to start and goes somewhat off the rails by the end. Still, the core of the plot — about the true case of a 17th-century British village whose residents chose to isolate themselves to protect the outside world during a plague outbreak — is well-told, with realistic details and a poignant look at the toll of such sacrifice. The writing bears a few clumsy hallmarks of a debut novel and the storyline isn’t as moving as the author’s later work People of the Book, but it’s overall another solid entry to my growing list of COVID-19 reads.

[Content warning for claustrophobia, gore, domestic abuse, and death of children.]

★★★☆☆

–Subscribe at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke to weigh in on what I read next!–

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

Book #124 of 2020:

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

The twists in this mystery thriller make it hard to discuss without spoilers, but they don’t always land satisfyingly for me as a reader. There are also some pacing issues about when certain revelations come to light, and a few instances of characters not asking what seem like obvious follow-up questions about the information they’ve been given.

Still, the initial premise is fun — a bookseller gets dragged into the investigation of a serial killer who seems to be copying the deaths from an article he once wrote about the best murders in fiction — and the whole work acts as a sweet love letter to the genre, both celebrating and indulging in its standard conventions. Be aware, though, that the novel does discuss key details from the plots and solutions of many classics (The A. B. C. Murders, Strangers on a Train, Death Trap, The Red House Mystery, Malice Aforethought, Double Indemnity, The Drowner, The Secret History, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, And Then There Were None, and possibly a few others I’m forgetting), so anyone planning to someday read those other titles may wish to do so before picking up this one.

[Content warning for mention of child molestation.]

★★★☆☆

–Subscribe at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke to weigh in on what I read next!–

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein

Book #123 of 2020:

Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein

Author Alexander Weinstein has a real talent for thinking up interestingly disturbing sci-fi premises based on new and emerging technologies, like the parents in the title story who have to delete their digital offspring after a malware infection or the couple from “Openness” navigating the appropriate privacy settings for their relationship. Too often, however, the entries in this collection lack that key follow-through of compelling plots and characters set within their imagined tomorrows. I would love to see his work developed with a co-writer or adapted for a series like Black Mirror, but I don’t know that I would seek out anything else from Weinstein alone.

★★★☆☆

–Subscribe at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke to weigh in on what I read next!–

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Clique Bait by Ann Valett

Book #122 of 2020:

Clique Bait by Ann Valett

This high school revenge novel is lightweight but fun, playing out vaguely along the lines of Mean Girls (or Hannah Capin’s recent Foul is Fair, minus that book’s heavy-handed Shakespearean conceit). A teenage nobody infiltrates the popular kids with ulterior motives to take them down, gets emotionally compromised by the new relationships she forms there, and must struggle to decide whether she’s doing the right thing after all. There aren’t a whole lot of surprises to the plot — and one late twist feels glaringly obvious from the start, given how the characters keep awkwardly talking around it — but it’s fine as a breezy summer read that glances off a few darker themes.

[Content warning for underage drinking, bullying, peer pressure, revenge porn, and head trauma.]

★★★☆☆

–Subscribe at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke to weigh in on what I read next!–

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Book #121 of 2020:

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

The idea of a Hunger Games prequel about the young Coriolanus Snow isn’t necessarily a bad one, but I feel like there are three key elements that such a project would need to deliver in order to be successful. Namely, the book should tell us more about the history of the Panem setting, it should tell us more about the future president himself (but without humanizing his later atrocities), and it should be a compelling story in its own right. Unfortunately, this version that author Suzanne Collins has written only comes close to realizing the first of those criteria, and ultimately does little to justify its existence.

Set at and around the 10th Hunger Games, the novel is most interesting for showing a glimpse of how the already-awful contest will become the bloodthirsty spectacle of Katniss’s time, and for featuring characters like the teenage protagonist who have lived through the original rebellion of the series backstory and remember the initial founding of the Games. Yet even there, none of it seems especially revelatory or worth the slog of a dull plotline to learn these minor new details.

Coryo isn’t intended to be a particularly sympathetic figure, and although Collins succeeds at that characterization, it’s hard to care about his calculating careerism or worries about his family’s station when the fascist government to which he aspires is literally slaughtering other children. His falling for the manic pixie dream tribute he’s mentoring could have offered some intrigue if she were merely playing him, but since her returned feelings are apparently genuine, it just reads as exploitative and gross instead. And on a basic plot level, the action is slow and fairly devoid of stakes even after a weird redirection for the last third of the text.

I’m sure this volume will earn its rights-holders another cornucopia of cash, as will the inevitable film adaptation. But I honestly can’t recommend it for any but the most ardent of fans.

★★☆☆☆

–Subscribe at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke to weigh in on what I read next!–

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter