The Neurospicy Bean

Unfortunately it’s been a few months since I read this, so I just don’t remember it as well as I would have liked to (though that’s in part because some of the stories just aren’t terribly memorable). So I can’t do a detailed review of each story. The three that I remember most clearly are “Kushtuka” (Mathilda Zeller), “Navajos Don’t Wear Elk Teeth” (Conley Lyons), and “Snakes Are Born in the Dark” (D.H. Trujillo). Each one carried a nice eeriness to it, each in a very distinct way. But oddly, I actually think the major highlight of this book was the foreword by Stephen Graham Jones. I don’t really have the words to describe it, but it is easily the part of the book that has stayed with me the most. There’s an intensity to it, a really excellent take on the horror genre, and a fascinating connection between Indigenous history and horror. All the stories were fine to read, but the introduction is the absolute most important part. If you don’t read anything else, read that. Otherwise, wh...

  Unfortunately I just don’t remember much about this book. Mostly, there are just a few bits and pieces – there was a story about a girl who gets trapped in the body of a service robot, which was reasonably compelling; one was a story told by the days of the week; but beyond those impressions, nothing really stuck with me. I think a lot of the stories could have been really strong if they were longer, or if more attention was given to characters. But because they were, for the most part, so short, I struggled to get invested or engage at all emotionally. Beyond that, I really don’t have much to say.

  I feel kind of betrayed by this book. I mean, there is SO MUCH POTENTIAL here, right? There’s nothing I love more than a good wintery horror story when I’m home for winter break (yes I read this book six months ago it’s fine), and this anthology is just packed with talent. So it should have been absolutely amazing. And yet it was just…meh? I’d go through them one by one, but only a couple have actually stuck in my head enough to really comment. “The Mawkin Field” was really interesting and built a real sense of dread throughout the story, but then it just…ended without really getting anywhere.  In fact, that was probably my main problem with most of these stories. They had interesting ideas for the most part, but almost none of them really had any grip to them, and the endings were mostly confusing instead of scary. The one that I think was the strongest was “The Lord of Misrule.” It was creepy and disturbing, and the ending was actually comprehensible, which, you know, is k...

  Okay, this was a very interesting approach to a short story collection, and not what I expected at all. It includes a whole range of stories, some that are firmly magical realism, some urban fantasy, some high fantasy, and some that are all three, neither, or too short to really know. Many are tinged with horror; most are pessimistic. Some are nearly thirty pages, while others are under five. While there are some themes (marginalization, dissatisfaction) that run through the book, there are few real continuities. What I love about this is it’s simply a collection of the author’s works, without particular regard for short story conventions; it’s very unique.  Unfortunately, most of the stories ranged from inspiring active dislike to just ambivalence, and I wasn’t particularly compelled by the first two thirds or so of the book. However, towards the end there were a few standouts: I particularly enjoyed “Borealis” (about a sort of modern-day sleeping beauty whose aunt helps wa...

  I had this book sitting in my room for I kid you not a few years before I finally got around to it earlier this year, and it was absolutely a book that made me think, why on earth did I wait so long to read this? There were so many different stories from so many different creative perspectives, and I loved reading them. It did also make me realize I’m not quite as familiar with King Arthur as I thought I was – there were stories that I struggled to make the connections the author had intended. Still, for the most part thoroughly enjoyable. The Once and Future Qadi ★★★★ This story was a really interesting starting point because it’s essentially just one element of the original King Arthur story (the trial of Lancelot and Guinevere) but from the perspective of a new character coming from a completely different culture. It paints a compelling portrait of Guinevere, and it never misses an opportunity to skewer sexism and xenophobia – often at the same time. A nice little read, though...

       This is part of a really cool project that Marvel has been doing the last couple of years where they compile work by creators of a certain identity about characters of that identity – in this case, queer characters. It includes original segments, selections from comics dating back decades (including Northstar coming out as the first openly gay Marvel hero in 1992), and essays by queer Marvel creators. As anthologies tend to be it was a bit hit or miss for me, probably partially depending on the amount of context I had for each character. Interestingly, the two I found most compelling were the two pre-2000 segments included.      One is the Alpha Flight one mentioned above, in which Northstar comes out. It’s intensely emotional and in my opinion, shockingly compassionate for early gay representation. It deals with Northstar adopting a baby girl born with AIDS and then being confronted by a man who blames the media obsession with this so-called ‘i...

  This felt a whole lot like a book I’d be assigned to read in school, not understand, and then analyze straight into the ground. Which unfortunately made it not really my kind of book at all. I need to be extra absolutely clear on this review that my rating reflects my experience of reading ONLY. I don’t think that there’s anything inherently bad about this book and I’m certain there will be people who love it. That being said, if you follow my reviews because you tend to enjoy the same books as me, there’s a good chance this book won’t necessarily resonate with you. I don’t really enjoy books that make me work hard just to understand what they’re trying to tell me; I want books to present me with interesting concepts and dilemmas and characters that I can then turn around in my head and find something meaningful in. It felt like this book wanted me to do a lot of work to understand the point it was trying to make, and short of discussing it with a class, that’s not something that...