Book Review: The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey

Book #245 of 2017:

The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey

Among the great strengths of author M.R. Carey’s The Girl with All the Gifts are its unique viewpoint character and the gradual way that it eases readers into some key realizations about her world. But given those strengths, it’s hard not to feel let down by this follow-up prequel The Boy on the Bridge, which is far more conventional and straightforward while echoing many of the overall plot points from the original novel.

Reading these books in chronological order would rob The Girl with All the Gifts of some of its impact (especially given the short epilogue to The Boy on the Bridge that jumps forward in time to after that other book), but reading them in publication order just makes this one seem like a weaker copy. Perhaps a third novel would alter that dynamic, but for now, The Boy on the Bridge feels pretty inessential.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E. K. Johnston

Book #244 of 2017:

Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E. K. Johnston

Fiction about rape can easily turn maudlin, but E. K. Johnston has written a tightly-focused story of a high school cheerleader who refuses to consider herself a victim, even as she struggles to overcome the trauma. It’s a tricky balance, and sensitive readers may wish to give this book a pass, but its strong female friendships and nuanced understanding of the different ways people can respond to an assault help elevate the material. Reclaiming a feeling of power can be an important aspect of the healing process, and Johnston explores that with great compassion.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

Book #243 of 2017:

La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman (The Book of Dust #1)

A fairly underwhelming prequel to Philip Pullman’s classic His Dark Materials trilogy, La Belle Sauvage consists mainly of characters trading custody of the baby Lyra Belacqua like a tiny squalling MacGuffin. There’s too much focus on setting up the events of the original series (and presumably the rest of this new trilogy, which will reportedly take place after His Dark Materials), and not enough effort to tell a compelling independent story in its own right. It’s still Pullman, so it isn’t awful, but it all feels pretty inessential nonetheless. If lightsabers and blasters were enough to make you like The Phantom Menace, alethiometers and dæmons will likely have the same effect here, but such trappings largely fail to recapture the magic.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Book #242 of 2017:

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (Grisha #2)

Two books in, I’m still pretty lukewarm on this trilogy. It’s good enough to keep reading, especially for the extra background on author Leigh Bardugo’s superior semi-sequel series Six of Crows, but far too much time is spent on the main character’s love triangle with an evil abuser and a jealous sulking man-baby, neither of whom Bardugo has convinced me is anything special. The plot too is fine but not groundbreaking, without much to elevate it above its YA fantasy tropes. (One new character is a rare breath of fresh air, but he’s not a major enough presence in the text to make up for the rest. And I’m not too excited about a love triangle becoming a love quadrangle, either.) Hopefully the last book will bridge the quality gap between the rest of the trilogy and Six of Crows, but at this point, I’m not exactly holding my breath.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

Book #241 of 2017:

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2)

The first novel in this trilogy grew on me as it went along, its early Twilight trappings of a high school girl falling in love with a beautiful inhuman stranger giving way to something rich and dark and magical. I ended that book excited for the rest of the trilogy, and this first sequel didn’t let me down. It’s a fierce war story that empathizes with soldiers on both sides of the conflict, and the textured worldbuilding that author Laini Taylor built up over the course of the previous volume pays dividends here as she all but leaves her characters’ regular human lives behind.

Readers expecting another love story might feel disappointed by this novel, which keeps Taylor’s starcrossed romantics on separate sides of the deepening rift between their peoples, still bound by their shared dream of ending the war but devastated by the scars of their pained history together. Nevertheless, it’s a fantastic story of anguish and duty that escalates to a fever pitch by the end. It may have seemed unlikely at the start of this trilogy, but Taylor has built something truly wonderful here, and I can’t wait to see how it ends.

★★★★★

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Book Review: Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green

Book #240 of 2017:

Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green (Nightside #1)

I loved Simon R. Green’s Nightside series back in high school, when it was my first introduction to the urban fantasy genre. These books tell hardboiled detective stories in a weird world of gods and monsters, sort of like a cross between Sin City and Welcome to Night Vale, and that’s still a setting rich with possibility.

Unfortunately, this first book in the series doesn’t hold up so well on a reread over a decade later. There’s a lot of telling and not showing, and the plot is largely just a movement from one set piece to the next. I’m hoping the sequels will hold more of the magic that first drew me into this world, but in this initial outing, the Nightside is kind of a dud.

★★☆☆☆

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Movie Review: Big Trouble (2002)

Movie #21 of 2017:

Big Trouble (2002)

This is a family favorite, but it had been several years since I watched it last. Sometimes things like that can age poorly, but this one is still great, and the comedy holds up really well. I’m always surprised that this movie isn’t better known, but I guess it was doomed by a bland title and for making fun of airport security so soon after 9/11 (although it was technically written and filmed well before). It’s a zany comedy about absurd characters in Miami, and it’s well worth seeking out if you’ve never seen it before. If nothing else, it’s got a great cast that includes a young Zooey Deschanel at her most un-adorkable ever.

★★★★★

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TV Review: Stranger Things

TV #47 of 2017:

Stranger Things

I know I’m about a year behind on this, but this show was a lot of fun. It wears its 80s homages right there on its sleeve, and although it never quite deconstructs those inherited tropes as much as I’d like, it at least manages to surprise me with unexpected character growth (most notably Hopper, Nancy, and Steve). Mostly it feels like something that could have been made three decades ago, and while sometimes that comes off as unoriginal and falling short of the show’s potential, it’s still a cozy comfort watch for fans of that era.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

Book #239 of 2017:

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

Julia Reyes is the best sort of YA protagonist, flawed but sympathetic and with an incredibly distinctive voice. She struggled under the weight of her immigrant parents’ expectations even before her older sister died, but now everything feels like it’s crumbling and she doesn’t know how to get past that trauma and go on with her life. Her parents expect Julia to behave as properly as their other daughter did, but even as she learns that her sister wasn’t so perfect, Julia can’t seem to get her parents to understand why she needs to leave home and go to college. It’s the basis for a powerful novel on grief and depression and the first-generation American experience, and on the importance of speaking about what hurts rather than keeping it bottled up inside.

★★★★☆

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Movie Review: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

Movie #20 of 2017:

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

If you consider this movie as an attempt to recapture the magic (pun very much intended) of Harry Potter, it’s hard to see it as anything but a failure. The stakes are muddled, this version of the Wizarding World feels more hazily drawn, and Newt’s personal story just isn’t as compelling as Harry’s. Taken in its own right, the situation is a little better, although I do think the script needed another draft or two to really iron out what was going on and why these characters were involved. The Graves/Creedence relationship is the most egregious case, but the whole thing overall could have benefited from a rewrite.

That being said, Newt Scamander himself was a perpetual delight, a protagonist who’s so obviously on the autism spectrum that my heart overflowed every time he was on the screen. I still think this was a largely missed opportunity for more diverse casting, given the relatively blank slate of the Fantastic Beasts franchise, but I’m really happy with the acting and directing choices that brought this rendition of Newt to life.

★★★☆☆

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