Hello, I’m Rogan and welcome to my wrap up of May books…two months later. *shrugs* I’m dogsitting at the moment, so the shelves behind me in the video are not my shelves. Let’s get right into it. This month, I read mostly graphic novels because I wasn’t really in the mood to think too much while reading.
I read the third volume of Moonstruck, and it’s just as cute as the first two. A quick refresher for those who don’t know, the main character of this is a werewolf in a world where mythical creatures are real and mingle with each other and humans. Magic is a casual, everyday thing, and there are a lot of accommodations for the varying bodies of these mythical creatures. Cute, fluffy romance between the main character and another werewolf, and it’s very queer. Again, I kept feeling like something was missing. This series is just good enough for me to keep reading it, hoping it’ll get better.
The next graphic novels I binge-read were Skyward, Volumes 1 to 3. This is a world where one day, gravity suddenly became a fraction of what it was. Many people died, from shooting off into the sky, and those who were left adapted to life where basically everyone can fly. However, the wrong step can mean death. Willa loves this, and she works as a messenger, delivering packages across the city. But turns out, there’s a plan to bring gravity back and she gets mixed up in it. — I won’t say more details than that, because I enjoyed reading this not knowing much. I really liked seeing the little details that change with low-g. For example, the insects are huge now, because gravity isn’t holding them back from increasing in size. Desirable living spaces have become flipped, the closer you are to the ground, the more expensive it is and rich/upper class people live there with grav-boots, pretending everything is normal. The higher you go, it turns into the slums and where the poor live, because there’s greater risk of misstepping and falling up into the sky. There is one supporting character that is an amputee, nothing below the knees, but in this world, that doesn’t matter because they essentially fly or float everywhere. I enjoyed that little detail.
The third graphic novel series I read this month was Motor Crush, and I read the first two volumes. Domino Swift loves motorcycle racing and does it professionally in a racing league. Under the cover of night, she also participates in brutal bike wars against rival gangs to win a very valuable contraband called Crush. Crush is basically a machine narcotic that boosts engines to incredible speeds, and strangely, Domino needs it to live. — This was a little all over the place, so the story was hard to follow at times, but I really enjoyed this concept, and I’ll always be down for reading about badass queer ladies.
The first novel I read this month was The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. This is a collection of essays by John, reviewing various things from the Anthropocene on a five-star scale, such as Canadian geese, sunsets, the QWERTY keyboard, and more. The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, the one that humans have lived in and profoundly reshaped the planet and everything on it. — I really enjoyed this, John has such an interesting thought process for many things, and how he writes about various subjects is just great. I laughed at several of these reviews, but that’s not to say that this is a lighthearted read. There are some very heavy and serious topics as well, including an essay about the pandemic. These essays show how powerful we are as a species, but also shows how much we don’t know and have no control over. This is absolutely worth the read.
The last graphic novel I read this month was Ms. Marvel Vol. 1, about Kamala Khan, an ordinary girl from Jersey City that suddenly gets superpowers. At first, she’s overwhelmed and tries to be like her hero, Captain Marvel, but realizes that she’s not being true to herself by doing that. We see her fumble her way through these new powers, figuring out how they work, what she should do with them, and if it might be too much for her to deal with. I definitely plan to read more of this series, I’m interested to see where this goes!
And finally, I closed the month with an eARC which is out now, Rabbits by Terry Miles. “The door is open.” We follow K, who is a pattern genius and a low-key obsessive about the legendary game, Rabbits. However, Rabbits is not a game known by all. It’s a mysterious game that only a few know about, and those people talk about it very carefully. There are a lot of questions about what exactly Rabbits is, but people know it’s been around since at least 1959, ten iterations have been played, nine winners have been announced. People wonder if it’s a reality-bending game or just something run by an extremely powerful being or artificial intelligence. Regardless, the winner is rewarded very well, but exactly how, no one knows. Wealth, recruitment into some top government agency, a key to the universe? It’s not all a fun game though. The more you play, the more deadly it becomes and players have died in the past. This has always been true, which is why K is surprised when Alan Scarpio, a billionaire, approaches him and says there’s something wrong with the game and it needs to be fixed before it’s too late. Then Scarpio goes missing and the deadline flies by. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been. — When I first started reading, I wasn’t sure if I was into it. But I kept reading, and next thing I knew, I was into it. This is set in Seattle, so it was neat to see all of the little nods to specific locations like the Fremont Troll, the monorail, and so on. It was cool because one part of this game is noticing when details aren’t quite right, and I was able to catch them all because I’m from here! Obviously, as I’ve said, this is about an alternate-reality game. There are a LOT of references to other games, most of which went over my head because I’m not a big gamer, but it didn’t detract from the enjoyment for me. A lot of times, you will question what’s real and what’s not, because of the recursive nature of the storytelling. K and his friends chase down one lead to find something weird at the end, and another to find nothing. It loops on itself quite a bit, can get a bit repetitive, and is very technical and detailed. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this and would recommend it if you enjoy sci-fi, gaming, and slightly weird stories.
That’s it for May! My June wrap up is coming, I’ll be combining it with all my Queer Lit Readathon books, because I completely and utterly failed to do vlogs during the week of. Thanks for reading, bye!
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