Welcome back to Whatcha Reading! Here are the books kicking off our April:
Lara: I’ve been dying to tell people about the book I’m reading: Serial Killer Games by Kate Posey. I’m obsessed with it! Full review coming.
Elyse: Oh that’s on my TBR! So excited it’s good!
Lara: I recommend going into it as blindly as possible because the reveals are great! My favourite thing: each layer of the onion peeled back beautifully
Carrie: I just finished The Antidote by Karen Russell ( A | BN | K | AB ) – what an amazing, powerful book. Not a romance, lots of very painful and tragic events, but overall it felt hopeful thanks to the bonds that characters made with each other and their commitment to the truth.
Elyse: I read that one too and it didn’t work as well for me.
Click for spoilers
It’s about the power of memory and how White people created the dust bowl by pushing out Indigenous communities and not keeping their knowledge of how to farm this particular land…but there’s not a single Indigenous character in the book. They are literally only visible on the horizon.
I think it has to be a deliberate choice, but I’d love to talk to Russell or her editor about it because I don’t understand it.
Carrie: That was interesting – I know from the introduction and afterword that she worked closely with Indigenous consultants but I haven’t read any interviews so I don’t know why she structured the book the way she did.
Elyse: Yeah that’s why I kind of want an interview or something to explain it better.
Shana: I’m reading Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown. I don’t always agree with the book provocations but I’m finding it an easy read.
Sneezy: I’m reading one of WB Yeats’ folklore collections. I’ve become a baby DnD player, and I built a character that’ll let me play with fae stuff. So far most of what I’ve found about fae stuff in DnD lore has been this over bleached mush of the original folklores with disappointing moral binaries, so I’m hoping the book gives me some inspiration and guidance.
(And… fae probably don’t care about table top games, but it still can’t hurt to check if they have any no fly zones. )
“How did you get cursed?”
“My DnD play pissed off Tinkerbell.”
Susan: I have read so much manga since the start of March, so much, including accidentally falling into a rich vein of “Oh no I have been reincarnated as the villainess of this book/video game, better change the plot so none of the main characters notice me!” and it’s given me a craving to go back to the first one of those I ever saw. Soooooo I’m finally reading My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom! ( A | BN | K | AB ) after adoring the anime. Katarina, the protagonist, is so blissfully oblivious to the fact that she’s acquired a bevy of love interests! I love her!
I’ve also started reading The Decagon House Murders, ( A | BN | K ) because I fancy a proper manor house mystery, but all of the male characters are obnoxious so far.
Whatcha reaching? Let us know in the comments!