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kat_lair***
Kat Reads Books - May Edition
The Graces by Laure Eve - Is it obligatory for all YA books to be written in first person now? Asking for me, because I'd like to find one that isn't. Anyway. River befriends the mysterious Grace siblings because they may or may not be witches and she wants in on that and she also has hots for one of them. This was an interesting story, with some layers, starting with quite simplistic of wanting to be cool and powerful and Get The Guy, and then moving to something that's both more complex and more queer (and yet not queer enough explicitly, though maybe that comes in the sequel... yes, apparently there's one of those). I spent Some Time trying to figure which country it was supposedly set in (sounds like an English seaside town but no one wears a school uniform so idk). There's a twist at the end that was pretty well done, and brings a nicely darker edge to the story as well. So, kind of darker than I anticipated, but pretty good. Kept me guessing a lot with the unreliable but also not telling you everything narrator.
Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan - This is short listed for Arthur C. Clarke Award for this year though I only realised that afterwards (and because I, apparently, know someone who judges that shit on the regular though not this year, new claim to fame unlocked I guess). Anyway, the book. It's good. Like, really good. Just... Not a fun read but that's kind of the point. In a future society organised into city states after the nation states collapsed, the one previously known as Bangalore is organised into a strict meritocracy, its citizens placed on the bell curve based on their productivity, social personal and various other desirable dates as judged by the all powerful Bell Corporation. The top twenty percent enjoy every luxury and cutting edge technology available, the middle seventy percent keep the virtual society running, and the bottom ten percent... Well, the analogs are confined to life outside the city, without technology, without any rights. But, as Foucault put it, where there is power, there is resistance (and yes, the rest of that quote applies as well). The imagination and the social/economic commentary in this book was painfully, terribly, accurate. SF in the sense of 'well this feels all too plausible' as you recognise the contemporary precursors in technology, culture and behaviours and can all too easily see how society could slide into this. The book is written in short chapters with different styles and various povs. Sometimes the characters' lives interact, tying to the overall plot of resistance/revolution that is brewing in the Analog side of the meridian, sometimes the segments just serve to build a picture of the society. I can absolutely see why the structure works and is perhaps even necessary to achieve the kind of impact the book seeks to deliver, but the flip side of this is that one builds absolutely no emotional attachment to any of the characters (with a slight exception of Nina, who I really wanted to get some kind of closure beyong what we saw).
Kat Consumes Media - May Edition
Still on my Call the Midwife marathon. Emotional catharsis without any actual emotional damage.
Bottoms - This was an absolute hoot of a movie. If you can cope with the US high school setting (sigh) then it's worth watching for the sheer absurdity of it. Loser lesbian BFFs accidentally lie about being hard bitches and start a fight club for... self-defence and female empowerment but mostly just to get with some hot cheerleaders. Nothing about this is serious, the ending is hilariously over the top (but also satisfying). I will spoil this for you in one instance though, because I went into this expecting it to be the two BFFs who end up together. They don't. But I guess that's what fanfic (and movie sequels?) are made for.
Rebel Moon: Child of War - Look. Objectively? This was pretty terrible. But as a 'something pretty in the background while I eat my dinner and decompress from the day', spot on. The 'plot' (lol) is a familiar one with intergalactic empire being resisted by The People. The lead kicks ass in general and the whole movie is centred on her collecting Hotties for the Cause, intercepted by some fighting. The villains are hilarious and the guy playing General Noble is having the time of his life chewing up every scene he's in. Bonus points for: that time it was the guy who was mistaken for a prostitute and got his junk grabbed, and that other time General Noble had tentacle sex.
***
Kat Reads Books - May Edition
The Graces by Laure Eve - Is it obligatory for all YA books to be written in first person now? Asking for me, because I'd like to find one that isn't. Anyway. River befriends the mysterious Grace siblings because they may or may not be witches and she wants in on that and she also has hots for one of them. This was an interesting story, with some layers, starting with quite simplistic of wanting to be cool and powerful and Get The Guy, and then moving to something that's both more complex and more queer (and yet not queer enough explicitly, though maybe that comes in the sequel... yes, apparently there's one of those). I spent Some Time trying to figure which country it was supposedly set in (sounds like an English seaside town but no one wears a school uniform so idk). There's a twist at the end that was pretty well done, and brings a nicely darker edge to the story as well. So, kind of darker than I anticipated, but pretty good. Kept me guessing a lot with the unreliable but also not telling you everything narrator.
Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan - This is short listed for Arthur C. Clarke Award for this year though I only realised that afterwards (and because I, apparently, know someone who judges that shit on the regular though not this year, new claim to fame unlocked I guess). Anyway, the book. It's good. Like, really good. Just... Not a fun read but that's kind of the point. In a future society organised into city states after the nation states collapsed, the one previously known as Bangalore is organised into a strict meritocracy, its citizens placed on the bell curve based on their productivity, social personal and various other desirable dates as judged by the all powerful Bell Corporation. The top twenty percent enjoy every luxury and cutting edge technology available, the middle seventy percent keep the virtual society running, and the bottom ten percent... Well, the analogs are confined to life outside the city, without technology, without any rights. But, as Foucault put it, where there is power, there is resistance (and yes, the rest of that quote applies as well). The imagination and the social/economic commentary in this book was painfully, terribly, accurate. SF in the sense of 'well this feels all too plausible' as you recognise the contemporary precursors in technology, culture and behaviours and can all too easily see how society could slide into this. The book is written in short chapters with different styles and various povs. Sometimes the characters' lives interact, tying to the overall plot of resistance/revolution that is brewing in the Analog side of the meridian, sometimes the segments just serve to build a picture of the society. I can absolutely see why the structure works and is perhaps even necessary to achieve the kind of impact the book seeks to deliver, but the flip side of this is that one builds absolutely no emotional attachment to any of the characters (with a slight exception of Nina, who I really wanted to get some kind of closure beyong what we saw).
Kat Consumes Media - May Edition
Still on my Call the Midwife marathon. Emotional catharsis without any actual emotional damage.
Bottoms - This was an absolute hoot of a movie. If you can cope with the US high school setting (sigh) then it's worth watching for the sheer absurdity of it. Loser lesbian BFFs accidentally lie about being hard bitches and start a fight club for... self-defence and female empowerment but mostly just to get with some hot cheerleaders. Nothing about this is serious, the ending is hilariously over the top (but also satisfying). I will spoil this for you in one instance though, because I went into this expecting it to be the two BFFs who end up together. They don't. But I guess that's what fanfic (and movie sequels?) are made for.
Rebel Moon: Child of War - Look. Objectively? This was pretty terrible. But as a 'something pretty in the background while I eat my dinner and decompress from the day', spot on. The 'plot' (lol) is a familiar one with intergalactic empire being resisted by The People. The lead kicks ass in general and the whole movie is centred on her collecting Hotties for the Cause, intercepted by some fighting. The villains are hilarious and the guy playing General Noble is having the time of his life chewing up every scene he's in. Bonus points for: that time it was the guy who was mistaken for a prostitute and got his junk grabbed, and that other time General Noble had tentacle sex.
***