fourshadowing

I've all but abandoned every other monthly goal except for this one so fingers crossed

April Book Reviews

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories (HP Lovecraft)

6/10 GODDAMN this was hard to get through. Not necessarily because it was bad, but just the dated tone combined with his own writing style made it difficult to process all the information. This was the first book this year that I had to renew to be able to finish it. Overall, because most of his stories are first hand accounts of events that happened in the past, the tense over the protagonists' survival is pretty much lost. A lot of the horror still feels informed, like it might we that we're too used to images of Cthulhu but reading about characters freaking out and tripping balls then having it described as a squid dragon...doesn't really have the intended effect. My favorite parts are the world building and the horror of humanity rather than the unknown. My least favorite is the dumb curiosity killed the cat characters and, you know, the racism. But I'm gonna get my library card's worth and review every single goddamn eldritch story. (italics are my reccs)
Dagon: Unremarkable, the usual Lovecraft setup, only notable in a footnote that informs us how much Lovecraft hated the smell of fish. 4/10
The Statement of Randolph Carter: I actually really liked the stinger line at the end, that was pretty great. 6/10
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family: Again, the ending was kinda cool, but the intro took way too long to get there. 4.5/10
Celephais: Interesting in that the horror element is missing, had some cool world building in this one but not much plot. 4.5/10
Nyarlathotep: I didn't know dude was Egyptian. 3/10
The Picture in the House: I just find it funny how he writes the 'reveal twist' sentence in italics every time like it's meant to surprise us but we've already seen it coming a mile away. 3/10
The Outsider: A different concept, even if it is, again, one we saw coming. 4.5/10
Herbert West-Reanimator: A longer story of connected events and it pays off. Even if you question why at the end of each story the narrator reaffirms how aghast he is, he keeps showing up in the next one - like get out man. 7.5/10
The Hound: Another story about how white man's inability to resist shiny things destroys us all. 4/10
The Rats in the Walls: An actual bit of ghoulishness in the reveal (because of course, people are the real monsters) and a great ending. 7/10
The Festival: All I can think of is people riding crocodiles. 3/10
He: That sure is him alright. Unremarkable aside from all the racism, which at this point is overt in enough of his stories that it too is pretty much unremarkable. 4/10
Cool Air: While it was pretty obvious from the start, it was decent and at least memorable for the different concept it used. 5/10
The Call of Cthulhu: The titular story and while it didn't blow my mind, it was solid. It also has my favorite line: "The stars were right again, and what an age-old cult had failed to do by design, a band of innocent sailors had done by accident." 7/10
The Color Out of Space: An overall enjoyable read, and I liked that there wasn't too much description of the eldritch horror in this one but did drag on a bit. 5/10
The Whisperer in Darkness: It was good but I felt like it had potential to be greater. First of all, hard to take monsters seriously when you start describing them as crabs. Second of all, protagonist is dumb af and seriously is so blind to any sense of horror convention that it could only be a middle class white guy. Third, the concept of monsters mimicking humans and having human allies is pretty unique among his stories but I felt like it didn't take full advantage of it. Still, 7/10
The Shadow Over Innsmouth: A scene with actual tension takes place in this one, incredible. The origin story was pretty interesting to read too. 6/10
The Haunter of the Dark: Unremarkable, typical Lovecraft set up, typical white guy screwing over everyone else because he has too much free time on his hands.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Alan Bradley)

7.5/10 A solid, fun mystery novel!  The main character can sometimes be a little annoying as a precocious pre-teen brat, but the brilliance is that that's exactly what she is! An 11 year old written so that she really feels like one, aside from her prodigious interest in chemistry. She makes mistakes and takes actions that feel expected from an 11 year old. The story and plot, especially with a subject as seemingly dull as stamps, kept things rolling and made me invested in what happens next. The ending was a little predictable, but what led up to it was fun to follow as the protagonist connected the dots between all the clues we were given in the beginning.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Rachel Joyce)

7/10 I have the feeling that this is a 'good' book but it's not really for me. The main character is an old man who reflects on his life as he walks on the titular pilgrimage. There are themes of regret, the passing of time, missed opportunities, different kinds of love and how they change. It's well written, but I feel that these are things that you can really appreciate a lot more if you've gone through lots of experiences already. I enjoyed how they wrote the point of view from the wife's perspective a lot. Overall, it's not a book that changed my life but it's one I can see changing others'.

Homegoing (Yaa Gyasi)

9.5/10 What an experience to read this. The book begins with two sisters separated by colonialism, one who stayed in her home in Ghana and one sold into slavery. As they continue to follow generations of that split, it takes us through decades of history on two different continents. Although the main character of each generation only takes the spotlight for the length of a short story, you can really feel that each of them has a story to tell worth listening to. Not every story has a happy ending or really even an ending, but that's what makes it feel like the stories of real people. Even with those brief looks, the impacts of colonialism, history of slavery and institutional racism on two different continents are brilliantly portrayed. It's not something that you feel the book is preaching to you either, rather, like real life, it's something in the background that you only connect to those issues if you have an understanding of them. Above all, the constant theme of family both ancestral and domestic is something anyone can relate to. This novel was a journey in very sense of the word and one I recommend anyone to take.

Educated (Tara Westover)

7.5/10 This was a fairly interesting book to read in many ways. I compared it a lot with Hillbilly Elegy as both books are focused on children growing up in isolated, rural areas who go on to higher education at prestigious schools. There are lots of differences of course, especially religion and upbringing, but I did end up enjoying this one more. Although there were some points where I wanted more empirical explanations or scientific studies of economics and mental illnesses like the ones in Hillbilly Elegy, I realized that by not having them made the story seem more human. Most of all I liked that the book didn't even slightly try to generalize her story and it was much more emotional and introspective. It also benefited from not being solely centered on the American culture & experience like Hillbilly was. Still, I think this book is better served if treated like a fiction novel rather than a nonfiction memoir, as it loses its realism for its humanity. It also suffers from parts that seem to repeat and events that are similar to each other but don't seem to have too much of an impact. Of course the repetitive and disjointed events are reflective of memories, and we feel manage to feel the progress or lack of it that much more because of it. It's not quite a streamlined narrative to be a fully fleshed out fiction but too full of logical holes to be a satisfying nonfiction. But again, a world that seems so far removed from the norm is a pretty fascinating read and I enjoyed it.