Neko

Fawn's Blood, Hal Schrieve

I forgot what reading a YA novel was like, and I have to say, while it certainly goes by a bit faster and I do enjoy that somewhat, I don’t necessarily prefer the style. A book that reminds me of posts to the effect of “why are children always the ones saving the world in Pokemon, can’t the adults do fucking anything?” Coming home post-shift after finishing this, I realized I will not escape the 30’s crisis of self everyone I know who I’ve seen turn 30 has. But reading about vampires did help remind me that, anything or one far older than me would surely a) not be mad at me for not simply doing everything perfectly now and b) be used to human cycles and setbacks, and not necessarily put off by them. Also, an interesting interpretation of working together against a common enemy amongst people with differing ideals and beliefs, including people who’ve harmed each other in ways that permanently and deeply sour their relationships. Even if no one likes or trusts Cain, they will still put up with him for the shared goal of saving their own from harm, because to that end he can still be useful.

Lucky Day, Chuck Tingle

As big a fan of “realizing hyperaware order will not save you” and “turning towards the unknown and trusting yourself to move forwards” as I am, I’m still not sure how I feel about the framing of it in this book. The last 10 or so pages I read at least a week after finishing the rest, since I didn’t want to keep bringing an entire book to work that I could only read for about 3 minutes tops, so I remember feeling disconnected from the framing throughout reading it, but the wrap-up of the last 3 pages I actually quite like, so who knows? But the story is deeply entertaining and I find the prose pleasant.