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Kat Reads Books and Consumes Media
May. 26th, 2025 12:25 pm***
A reminder that my AO3 bookmarks all count as recs and I read widely so feel free to mine them for your own entertainment.
Kat Reads Books
Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas - This is the second part of a duology that started with The Sunbearer Trials reviewed here https://kat-lair.dreamwidth.org/908178.html. The sun is going out and Theo, his crush Aurelio and bff Niya are on a quest to save the world. And maybe also their friend turned traitor turned friend again Xio. This was cute and fun. I likes the friendships and the message of getting hold of your own fate and stopping the gods from meddling was good if not particularly subtle even before the final showdown. The romance was sweet. My main criticisms are that the female bff was written a little one-dimensional, and the redemption arch had the realisation/decision of 'oops maybe I am on the wrong side' moment off page and I was so frustrated by that like, no, this was a peak character moment why would you not show it? I was fully expecting the story to go end in a cliffhanger but no, it's a duology, not a trilogy and honestly, right choice.
Oikeusjuttu (Der Prozeß/Trial) by Franz Kafka - So, a colleague is making an installation for a conference on theme of AI & (In)Justice and for that wanted several different translations of this book. I sourced the Finnish translation for him, and since I had it, I thought I should read it. And I did. So, let me preface this by saying that I've never read Kafka before, I had no knowledge of the novel beyond the general theme I could guess from the title and colleague's installation topic. It was. Hmm. So, firstly, I see what he did there and why he did and I respect the way he did it as well. Secondly, I very much see why this is a relevant book for colleague's installation. For those of you who don't know, the story evolves around a man who is told he is on trial, accused of something which is never explained, and whose attempts to defend himself are hampered by impenetrable bureaucracy, incomprehensible justice system and officials who talk a lot and say little. In fairness, that also a running theme of the book which is full or extremely long meandering sentences, paragraphs that go on for pages, all of which may just be a reflection of being written a century go or a deliberate stylistic choice to further underline the confusion and frustration of the protagonist. Saying that, there are several lines that would not be out of place as an opening on a contemporary report or article on (in)access to justice, inequity in law, issues around power and influence, trial by public etc. As a satire it was painfully accurate, depressingly so a century after publication, but there was only one line that made me laugh (said by one of the female characters). I can't say I liked the book, nor the protagonist really, but also I'm quite sure I wasn't meant to.
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill - I gather the book's gotten a good amount of hype and I'd probably sign that. In 1955 tens of thousands of American women from all walks of life suddenly transform into dragons, devour some men and then vanish. Discussion and research on what happened, why and how, and the fact that it isn't a historically isolated phenomenon is systematically suppressed. The story is told via eyes of Alex who is a school girl at the time but loses her aunt, gains a sister, and struggles with finding her own path to science and family. Her personal narrative is interspersed with extracts from scientific papers, letters etc. Two thirds of this book made me incandescent with rage. Which is absolutely the purpose of it. The final third had the utopian 'god it could be this good, it could be' catharsis to it which was a good balance but avoided being fully rose-tinted. There are some nods to intersectionality of women (e.g. the differing experiences of Black women are noted, as is the fact that some of the women who dragon are women through the desire of their heart not their physiology) but they aren't super developed beyond the wlw aspect which is a central part of Alex's own story.
Kat Consumes Media
Dumbo live action remake - This was better than I expected to be honest. The story was updated appropriately with Dumbo and his mama being released in the end. And I really liked how they did the pink elephants sequence as well, that was rather clever. Lots of familiar faces in various roles, and I even detected even some mild self-awareness what with the big commercial amusement park with its Dumbo plushies going up in flames...
Artifice Girl - A man creates a programme to trap online child abusers, gets recruited by a law enforcement organisation to do the same with more resources. What he neglects to mention that his programme, Cherry, is exceeding its/her programming fast... This is told through three indoor scenes with a small cast and relies entirely on the dialogue and interactions and mines the ethics and limits of consciousness and autonomy. For some reason ratings for this were lukewarm but I found it absolutely fascinating to watch. The performances were great throughout and it didn't result in any easy solutions.
Hercules - Alright, yeah, I put it on the background while I did other stuff. Hercules and his merry men (and one token Amazon) get involved in a civil war, train some farmers, blah blah sorcery and monsters and political betrayal (extremely predictable one). I assume this was a slow period for The Rock and he needed the money. It was... Watchable. Bonus points for the fact that there was no romantic plot that blossomed during the movie. But there was a fridged wife and family so those points were lost there.
Wild Robot - Ahhhh this was wonderful. A service robot gets shipwrecked on an island full of nothing but wild animals, recalibrates itself to understand them and adopts a little gosling and a lonely fox. Families are made, emotions are learned etc. The animation was stunning and the story itself was sweet. My only niggles are the tone of motherhood = purpose, and the fact that foxes don't fucking hibernate wtf was that. But generally absolutely recommended.
Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse - Rewatch, still absolutely great with a solid story and outstanding animation.
Various YT reactors and their Patreon content - I rather assume no one is interested in these but if I'm mistaken and you wanted to know whose Kpop content I'm enjoying, hit me up.
***
A reminder that my AO3 bookmarks all count as recs and I read widely so feel free to mine them for your own entertainment.
Kat Reads Books
Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas - This is the second part of a duology that started with The Sunbearer Trials reviewed here https://kat-lair.dreamwidth.org/908178.html. The sun is going out and Theo, his crush Aurelio and bff Niya are on a quest to save the world. And maybe also their friend turned traitor turned friend again Xio. This was cute and fun. I likes the friendships and the message of getting hold of your own fate and stopping the gods from meddling was good if not particularly subtle even before the final showdown. The romance was sweet. My main criticisms are that the female bff was written a little one-dimensional, and the redemption arch had the realisation/decision of 'oops maybe I am on the wrong side' moment off page and I was so frustrated by that like, no, this was a peak character moment why would you not show it? I was fully expecting the story to go end in a cliffhanger but no, it's a duology, not a trilogy and honestly, right choice.
Oikeusjuttu (Der Prozeß/Trial) by Franz Kafka - So, a colleague is making an installation for a conference on theme of AI & (In)Justice and for that wanted several different translations of this book. I sourced the Finnish translation for him, and since I had it, I thought I should read it. And I did. So, let me preface this by saying that I've never read Kafka before, I had no knowledge of the novel beyond the general theme I could guess from the title and colleague's installation topic. It was. Hmm. So, firstly, I see what he did there and why he did and I respect the way he did it as well. Secondly, I very much see why this is a relevant book for colleague's installation. For those of you who don't know, the story evolves around a man who is told he is on trial, accused of something which is never explained, and whose attempts to defend himself are hampered by impenetrable bureaucracy, incomprehensible justice system and officials who talk a lot and say little. In fairness, that also a running theme of the book which is full or extremely long meandering sentences, paragraphs that go on for pages, all of which may just be a reflection of being written a century go or a deliberate stylistic choice to further underline the confusion and frustration of the protagonist. Saying that, there are several lines that would not be out of place as an opening on a contemporary report or article on (in)access to justice, inequity in law, issues around power and influence, trial by public etc. As a satire it was painfully accurate, depressingly so a century after publication, but there was only one line that made me laugh (said by one of the female characters). I can't say I liked the book, nor the protagonist really, but also I'm quite sure I wasn't meant to.
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill - I gather the book's gotten a good amount of hype and I'd probably sign that. In 1955 tens of thousands of American women from all walks of life suddenly transform into dragons, devour some men and then vanish. Discussion and research on what happened, why and how, and the fact that it isn't a historically isolated phenomenon is systematically suppressed. The story is told via eyes of Alex who is a school girl at the time but loses her aunt, gains a sister, and struggles with finding her own path to science and family. Her personal narrative is interspersed with extracts from scientific papers, letters etc. Two thirds of this book made me incandescent with rage. Which is absolutely the purpose of it. The final third had the utopian 'god it could be this good, it could be' catharsis to it which was a good balance but avoided being fully rose-tinted. There are some nods to intersectionality of women (e.g. the differing experiences of Black women are noted, as is the fact that some of the women who dragon are women through the desire of their heart not their physiology) but they aren't super developed beyond the wlw aspect which is a central part of Alex's own story.
Kat Consumes Media
Dumbo live action remake - This was better than I expected to be honest. The story was updated appropriately with Dumbo and his mama being released in the end. And I really liked how they did the pink elephants sequence as well, that was rather clever. Lots of familiar faces in various roles, and I even detected even some mild self-awareness what with the big commercial amusement park with its Dumbo plushies going up in flames...
Artifice Girl - A man creates a programme to trap online child abusers, gets recruited by a law enforcement organisation to do the same with more resources. What he neglects to mention that his programme, Cherry, is exceeding its/her programming fast... This is told through three indoor scenes with a small cast and relies entirely on the dialogue and interactions and mines the ethics and limits of consciousness and autonomy. For some reason ratings for this were lukewarm but I found it absolutely fascinating to watch. The performances were great throughout and it didn't result in any easy solutions.
Hercules - Alright, yeah, I put it on the background while I did other stuff. Hercules and his merry men (and one token Amazon) get involved in a civil war, train some farmers, blah blah sorcery and monsters and political betrayal (extremely predictable one). I assume this was a slow period for The Rock and he needed the money. It was... Watchable. Bonus points for the fact that there was no romantic plot that blossomed during the movie. But there was a fridged wife and family so those points were lost there.
Wild Robot - Ahhhh this was wonderful. A service robot gets shipwrecked on an island full of nothing but wild animals, recalibrates itself to understand them and adopts a little gosling and a lonely fox. Families are made, emotions are learned etc. The animation was stunning and the story itself was sweet. My only niggles are the tone of motherhood = purpose, and the fact that foxes don't fucking hibernate wtf was that. But generally absolutely recommended.
Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse - Rewatch, still absolutely great with a solid story and outstanding animation.
Various YT reactors and their Patreon content - I rather assume no one is interested in these but if I'm mistaken and you wanted to know whose Kpop content I'm enjoying, hit me up.
***