Seething

I had to give this a quarter star bump because the twist being that actually the MC is less cool and more cowardly/unable to act/just like... not fun to read as an MC that's meant to be read as mad mentally ill was unintentionally hilarious. The balls to make that the twist. Everyone in this book is annoying and boring and it's not an interesting thriller premise to begin with, frankly.

This was tough. I want to read transfemme horror, and I want to read transmisogynists getting it like they deserve. I want to read splatterpunk and shock horror, body horror and violence so intimate that it makes me want to climb out of my skin and shower while I put my shell in the wash. I read those genres indivually and love them.

And yet. I struggled with this. It's brutal and violent- but I've read worse. It's a little corny and overwrought- but I've read worse. It pivots between POVs of the good folks and the irredeemably-evil-but-well-rounded-and-human evil- and I've read both better and worse.

I liked it, I think. I won't read it again. It kind of sucks to read this sort of bigoted violent apocalypse and see edges of reality. It made me sick, but not in a thrilling way. It made me have to put the book down. That's a triumph, for sure. And yet I don't feel good.

I enjoyed the prose during the zombie body horror stuff. I enjoyed the (gratuitous and non-gratuitous) sex. I enjoyed the zombie apocalypse world-building. I enjoyed the community themes. I hated the TERFs, both in the way I was supposed to and I think in ways I wasn't supposed to. I wish Ramona's chapters weren't so long, though I think Ramona is well-written. I'm not sure. I'll leave this review for now.

I don't typically read this style of adventure-horror where it kinda gives swashbuckling in places, but I liked this! It's sharp and the monsters/horror setting is well done, and though it felt too fast for me to get emotionally invested in the characters I was supposed to feel invested in, I think it did what it needed to do well. Really recommend if you're looking for historical horror where the Black folks win.

What an incredible novel. Cried for the last 20 pages. Hard to read, but as someone with a family that is not dissimilar, I could not put it down. This was healing for me to read, to be honest. I wish this had existed when I was in high school and I'd picked it up.

Funny, charming, heartwrenching. Every mistake Cara made tore my heart out. Every hurt she caused and every hurt she endured made me have to take a deep breath. Incredible.

Beautiful, warm, violent, icy, intimate and distant all at once. I loved every high and low and I was surprised how the imagery carried me through the softer, slower parts of this novella. What an incredible project, shining Scholfield's strengths in narrative and prose while building a skeletal structure to offset some of Scholfield's weaknesses in rhythm and momentum in longform writing. Can't wait to see what she writes next, now that she's got On Sundays and Just a Little Snack as novellas under her belt.

A great collection. Shame it's so hard to find now.
I've loved Straub's work since I was in middle school. I first read this then, and have read it a few dozen times since. I've performed some pieces for school projects, followed Broodhollow and Channel 58 carefully, and I think nothing quite really lives up to the power and pressure of Candle Cove, Curious Little Thing, Promises, and Excerpts from a room at Cedarspring. I think about the Stillwoods all the time, about Maddie, about the Ethylor summer. Genuinely, I think the strongest stuff here is the introductory history before the stories start. I mean, this stuff is gold. 
Are they perfectly written stories, and is this a perfect collection? Of course not. But it's gold all the same.

Pretty good as a basic overview. I can't speak to how clear the social-political-emotional information might be for beginners, as I feel confident and secure in my education on that front before entering. I'll say that the economic-political policy was an interesting primer, though of course I would love something more thorough.

I did feel some hesitancy on some of the ideas and points shared by Treuer. I absolutely disagree that there is little worth in Native fiction/film and that documentaries and nonfiction are king. I disagree on the blanket assertion that the important thing for non-natives to do when interested in cultural tourism is to simply ask an elder before seeking a “Native” name, rather than interrogating the urge to participate in that. I disagree on how Indigenous nations and bands from Central/South America are discussed and glossed over in this discussion and wish that we'd focused solely on North American Native issues rather than just vaguely allude to Central/South Americans as points of debate. 

I won't be the first to say that this is barely scratching the surface in so many ways. I wish there was a more... multi-sided look in the conversation about mascots- I work for a college that has a “Native” mascot because there is a legal-financial agreement with the relevant Nation, and I'd love to hear a centrist perspective on that (regardless of my opinions and the opinions of the leftist Indigenous folks I follow). I wish there was more of a conversation about Nations that have engaged in controversial economic deals with the BIA and Congress around nuclear and fossil fuels, especially when thinking about land stewardship. I wish there were leftist and conservative Indigenous takes on these questions, though I appreciate Treuer's point that he does not speak for all Native Americans. I wish there was a conversation about tribes that are not federally recognized that was more thorough, especially in conjunction with blood quantum. I know this book is a little dated, but I wish there had been more of a conversation about the Landback movement and the “AIM” movement that didn't dance around their more pointed protests and ideas.

As I expected, this would have been better for me to read in high school, rather than now.

Had to read this for work and found it pretty fast and light. As an FGLI student who graduated in ‘22, I found myself so reflected in these stories I was taken aback. I think now that I'm removed from college life after a few years, and working in higher education, I loved how this book was so honest about our shared struggle and our uncommon ground. The FGLI experience is so unique and so shared, so varied and so similar. I thought this was compassionate in all the ways I needed.

Oh boy. Stillman thinks she is funnier than she is, and she thinks her prose is sharp and evocative enough that it will carry her through the dragging self-aggrandizing stories, the evangelizing, or the boring stories of her love life. The most compelling parts of this memoir are about her darkest moments, like her mom's death, the funeral, and her debt. They feel out of place- better written by a mile (though not my favorite regardless) than all the chapters that surround them.
Won't read this again. This is another miss from the “New Books” section at the library.