Favorite Things From May 2020: Paladins, Shape-Shifters, and Swords

June 9, 2020 Meghan Stratman

I just wanted to start by saying that BLACK LIVES MATTER. I am struggling to find the right words and I think it’s better to point you to these videos from Kimberly Jones and Amber Ruffin and Trevor Noah. This country needs to radically change the racist, broken systems we have had for so long. If you can, please support some of these organizations and help the protestors, communities, and victims families: Bail funds for protestors, Black Lives Matter, NAACP, Breonna Taylor family fund. There are so many more organizations that need support than I have listed here - please seek them out.

With everything going on right now, I wasn’t sure if I should still write a blog about “favorite things”. But I rely on the consistency of a monthly blog to help me remember things I enjoyed and also as a time capsule and a journal. So I decided to still collect some good things from May, mostly just for future me.

MOVIES & TV

TRAIN TO BUSAN
This is probably not the best movie to recommend when the world is a garbage fire, but if you feel up to watching a very well made but also very grim Korean zombie film, Train to Busan is worth checking out. It made me genuinely gasp in surprise, clutch my blanket in tense moments, and do some particularly ugly crying.

BOOKS

Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher
Paladin’s Grace, another wonderful novel by T. Kingfisher, follows Stephen, a wayward paladin searching for direction after the death of his god, and Grace, a talented perfumer trying to overcome a troubled past and keep her shop afloat. These two meet for the first time in a grimy alley when Grace enlists Stephen’s help to hide from some over-zealous priests. The next time they meet, Grace and Stephen accidentally witness the attempted assassination of a prince. Thrust into the middle of a sinister plot that keeps bringing them together, the paladin and the perfumer fall in love. Paladin’s Grace has intrigue, pining, humor, stellar prose, and a troublesome civet cat named Tab. It is definitely Kingfisher’s most “romancey” novel (from what I have read of her work so far) and I loved it to bits.

Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles
After serving in WWI, Will Darling returns to an England that has no use for him. Unable to find work, Will resorts to selling his war medals just to make ends meet. But when Will unexpectedly inherits his uncle’s used bookshop, it seems like things might finally be looking up. Immediately after taking over the shop however, criminals and war office officials start showing up demanding sensitive information that Will supposedly has in his possession. As Will is drawn deeper into the conflict and tries to find this mysterious document, he is aided by Kim, a charming stranger who is suspiciously eager to lend a hand. The plot thickens with all sorts of double-crossing, ulterior motives, peril, nefarious villains, kidnapping, and complicated desires. Charles skillfully mixes pulp adventure fiction and romance to create a book that I could not put down. I love all of KJ Charles’ books, but I think Slippery Creatures has got to be one of my favorites. I’ve read it twice already and I am so glad this is the start of a series - I want to spend more time with all of these characters.

A Phoenix First Must Burn
The contents of this great anthology are best summed up by the official description: “Sixteen tales by bestselling and award-winning authors that explore the Black experience through fantasy, science fiction, and magic.” I really enjoyed the wide range of stories in this collection - reimagined folktales, contemporary paranormal, dystopian scifi - all featuring Black women and gender nonconforming main characters and mostly hopeful endings. A Phoenix First Must Burn introduced me to a number of authors that I definitely plan on seeking out for future reading.

Hexworld Series (Books 1-4) by Jordan L Hawk
Spirits Series (Books 1-3) by Jordan L Hawk
Whyborne & Griffin Series (Books 9-11) by Jordan L Hawk
I went on a bit of a Jordan L. Hawk bender in May. First off, I finally finished reading the 11 book Whyborne & Griffin series. While there are some rough bits in the earlier books, the series as a whole is a really solid collection of paranormal adventure stories with a memorable cosmic horror flavor. I love how all of the books tie together in the end and how the romance between the two main protagonists is not a constant rollercoaster of break-ups and conflict. By the end of book 5, Whyborne and Griffin have pretty well solidified their relationship and the subsequent books feature the two characters loving and supporting each other despite disagreements.

The moment I finished the final W&G book, I started reading Hawk’s Hexworld and Spirits series. All three of these series feature m/m romances and fast-paced supernatural adventures. Spirits focuses on two paranormal investigators in the late 1800s: Vincent Night, who uses the power of mediumship, and Henry Strauss, who uses scientific inventions. In book 1, Restless Spirits, their methods are 100% at odds as both men try to make contact with ghosts in an extremely haunted mansion. Of course, since this is a romance, their animosity quickly turns to passion. With the help of Henry’s super sciency teenage niece Jo and Vincent’s partner Lizzie, this small found family proceeds to go on further adventures in a small haunted town (Dangerous Spirits) and an equally haunted orphanage (Guardian Spirits). These books are a lot of fun and occasionally quite creepy and three stories connect together really nicely. Content warning: Restless Spirits contains a character being outed against their will and homophobia from the villain that was hard to read, so keep that in mind.

The Hexworld books take place in a turn-of-the-twentieth-century New York filled with witches and their familiars (people who can shape-shift into animals). When a familiar and a witch bond, they are able to power magical spells called “hexes” (hence the hex-related titles for all these books). For every familiar, there is one special witch with whom their magic is most compatible, a scenario that of course leads to romance. The protagonists of Hexworld all either work for or have some connection to the Metropolitan Witch Police. Since these are relatively short, fast-paced stories, almost all of the romances are fast burn, with people falling in love over the span of days. But with all of the plots revolving around solving time-sensitive cases, there really isn’t time for weeks/months/years of pining (with the exception of book 4 which features two characters who pine steadily through books 1-3). My only gripe with this series is the near complete lack of female characters. Whyborne & Griffin and Spirits, while still featuring male protagonists, include really strong supporting women. Hexworld barely has any women at all.

He’s Come Undone: A Romance Anthology
He’s Come Undone is an entertaining anthology focusing on starchy, buttoned-up men falling in love and losing control. My favorite stories in the collection are Cat Sebastian’s Tommy Cabot Was Here, about two boarding school roommates reconnecting as middle-aged adults and giving into years of pent-up feelings; Olivia Dade’s Unraveled, about a meticulous math teacher falling for his co-worker, an art teacher who has a side-business making murder dioramas; and Adriana Herrera’s Caught Looking, about best friends who have an accidental night of passion and a whole lot of feelings to figure out afterwards. These are fun, escapist romances to take your mind off things for a little while.

Starcrossed by Allie Therin
Book two in Therin’s Magic in Manhattan series, Starcrossed continues the story of Arthur, the son of a rich and powerful political family who spends his days protecting the world from magical artifacts, and Rory, a reclusive, stubborn psychic who can touch an object and see it’s history. While the two men team up and fall in love in the first book, Starcrossed establishes that they still have a lot of things to figure out about their relationship. And they have to do this while a group of paranormal bad guys are causing mayhem, Rory’s power is becoming uncontrollable, and Arthur has to escort his ex to a wedding. This series is a fun blend of prohibition era paranormal adventure and romance and I would definitely recommend it.

ART

I have been severely lacking in any sort of art motivation for the past few months, but I finally managed to do some drawing in May and muster up the motivation to make this little set of pop culture sword collages. I like how they turned out.

Favorite Things From April 2020: a Spiky Haired Mercenary, a Space Prince, and a Werewolf in a Powdered Wig

May 1, 2020 Meghan Stratman

I fell into a very strange rhythm in April, which involved Animal Crossing, Final Fantasy VII, hammock reading time, and naps. Like, a lot of naps. Maybe too many naps?

I ended up having to create a daily check list for myself just to make sure I worked out, walked the dog, and did at least two productive things around the house every day. Quarantine brain is a strange thing.

MOVIES & TV

Somehow I watched zero movies in April and only one TV show. 🤷🏻‍♀️Mostly I just watched video game playthroughs and livestreams on YouTube. Special shout out to Eurogamer’s Half Life Alyx videos which made me laugh a lot.

SCHITT’S CREEK (Season 6)
This show just got better with every season and the final 14 episodes were a wonderful high to go out on. Characters grew, changed, and everyone got a happy ending. I was a goddamn blubbering mess after watching the finale. I think Patrick and David’s relationship will go down as one of my favorite TV romances of all time. If you haven’t watched Schitt’s Creek yet, I highly recommend it.

GAMES

FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE
I have very fond, if slightly vague, memories of playing the original FF7 in high school so I was incredibly hyped for the remake. This new version is absolutely gorgeous and I had a ton of fun with it. It took me a little time to get a handle on the game’s tone - very heightened emotions, vague backstories, random extremely silly moments, etc - but it clicked eventually. Instead of just doing a straight copy of the original game, Final Fantasy VII Remake plays with the history and knowledge that gamers will be bringing with them and uses that to create something both nostalgic and new, which I think is extremely cool. If you’re not familiar with Final Fantasy VII, it’s an RPG lead by Cloud Strife, a mercenary with emotional issues and an incredible head of spiky blond hair. Cloud joins up with the eco-warrior group Avalanche, who are working to bring down the evil Shinra corporation and their planet-draining mako reactors. That’s the extremely basic shell of the story anyway.

TWO DOTS
My sister got me hooked on this damn mobile game about connecting dots and I have been playing it so much that I am literally dreaming about it. It’s addictive. It’s draining my phone battery every day. I spent actual human monies to get past a couple of levels. I don’t know, does this count as a recommendation?

BOOKS

BONDS OF BRASS (Emily Skrutskie)
When Ettian’s home planet is conquered by the brutal Umber Empire, he is left orphaned and alone. He spends the next seven years growing up under the new regime and eventually becomes the top pilot at the Empire’s military academy. After a training mission goes off the rails, Ettian discovers that his best friend Gal is actually the heir to the Umber Empire and the academy is full of resistance fighters who want him captured or killed. The two manage to escape the academy and go on the run, dodging underworld thugs and corrupt officials in an attempt to get space prince Gal back home. These conflicts set up really difficult, emotional obstacles for Ettian: where do his loyalties lie? What does he believe in? What will he do to protect the person he loves? I really enjoyed this sci-fi space adventure; the characters and world building are great and the twists and turns of the story are clever and well earned. Bonds of Brass ends on a big cliffhanger and I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

HOARFROST / MAELSTROM / FALLOW Whyborne & Griffin, Books 6-8 (Jordan L. Hawk)
I got back into Whyborne & Griffin this month, an 11-book paranormal/adventure/romance series by Jordan L. Hawk. These books follow private detective Griffin Flaherty and his husband Percival Whyborne, son of a railroad tycoon, ancient language scholar, and at this point, very skilled sorcerer. Set in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Widdershins, Massachusetts, each book takes our protagonists on a different arcane adventure (buried cities, body swapping death cults, mind-controlled fungus zombies) but this far into the series, there are also a bunch of previously established story threads and enemy groups coming together for a big final showdown. These books are quick, fun reads and I think the quality of this series has improved in the later books.

LOVE LETTERING (Kate Clayborn)
Meg is a hand-lettering artist dealing with an intense bout of creative block. While working at her friends’ stationary shop, Meg is approached by Reid, a former client who is very curious why she hid the word “mistake'“ in the wedding program she was commissioned to make for him last year. While the two have seemingly nothing in common - Reid is an analytical Wall Street math guy and Meg is a semi-struggling artist - Meg takes a wild chance and invites (now single) Reid to join her on a series of walks through New York City in hopes of finding art inspiration. And to her surprise he agrees. As the two traverse the streets of Manhattan, searching out the city’s best hand painted signs, they discover a strong sense of connection and friendship, which blossoms in to a really sweet romance. I liked the chemistry between these two characters and the big third act reveal was well telegraphed and emotionally satisfying. Being an artist myself I was probably a little too critical of the artist main character for the first half of the book, but Meg managed to win me over in the end.

AMERICAN SWEETHEARTS (Adriana Herrera)
The final book in Adriana Herrera’s Dreamers series, American Sweethearts follow Juan Pablo and Priscilla, supporting characters from the first three books who finally get their own story. Friends since childhood, Juan Pablo and Priscilla have had an on-again, off-again, on-again, definitely-off-this-time sort of relationship for many years. When they both travel to the Dominican Republic for their friend’s wedding, they realize that there is still something between them but Priscilla has a hard time letting herself believe they should try again. For some reason I didn’t find the romance in this book to be quite as engaging as the others in the series, and while Priscilla’s career as a police officer features heavily in the story, Juan Pablo’s life and career seemed a little underdeveloped. But there are so many good things about American Sweethearts that it’s still definitely worth reading. The Dreamers stories all feature a wonderful sense of community, a network of supportive friends, immigrant families and experiences, and queer, Afro-Latinx protagonists whose perspectives really makes these books stand out.

GENTLEMAN WOLF / MASTER WOLF (Joanna Chambers)
If you are in the mood for an extremely piney gay werewolf romance series set in 1780s and 1820s Scotland, featuring two protagonists who are terrible at understanding their true feelings, have I got two books for you! I mean this in a loving way; sometimes a romance full of longing, missed chances, and emotionally broken werewolves is exactly what you need. Gentleman Wolf is told from the point of view of Lindsay, a charming, hedonistic werewolf who hides a painful past under his fashionable rouged lips, powdered wigs, and colorful silken coats. While visiting Scotland to take care of a task for his pack’s leader, Lindsay meets Drew, a tight-laced, emotionally distant architect who has no time or interest in Ashley’s excessive flirting. But of course there is an emotional connection that the two can’t fight and an affair ensues along with unexpected drama and dark things from Ashley’s younger years. Master Wolf takes place 30 years later, switches to Drew’s perspective, and continues the complicated relationship and conflicts established in the first book. There was a long running plot thread that was tied up far too quickly at the end, a few times where Lindsay’s flirting nudged the line into harassment, and occasionally Drew’s insistence on misunderstanding everything got a little tiresome, but those issues weren’t a deal breaker and overall this series was enjoyable to read.

ART

Here are two new pieces I finished at the end of March/beginning of April. The first is a tribute to my beloved Lio Fotia, the leather-clad flame-boy from the Promare anime. I made this one purely for myself, which was fun. The other piece is a tribute to Haku from Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away for Spoke Art’s annual tribute to the director. Sometime in the next week or two I am hoping to add prints of both of these pieces to my shop.

Favorite Things From March 2020: Animal Neighbors, Folklore, and a Raven Named 'Mousebones'

April 1, 2020 Meghan Stratman

March 2020 was surreal. And strange. And scary. I hope you are all doing OK and getting through. Especially thinking about those who are sick, working in healthcare, or out of work due to closed businesses. Sending everyone lots of love.

Needless to say, the things I enjoyed in March were mostly things I could do from home. And I figure it’s worth still sharing those things since other people might be looking for things to do from home as well. Plus, nearly everything on this list is uplifting/optimistic and good for getting your mind off the global pandemic for a little while.

MOVIES

PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
I was very glad to have a chance to see Portrait of a Lady on Fire right before all the movie theatres had to close. It is a beautifully filmed, feminist romance about a young woman with an arranged marriage in her future and the painter who is commissioned to secretly paint her portrait. Once the bride’s portrait is completed, it will be sent to the husband-to-be to secure the arrangement. While the two women spend time together walking the bluffs and beaches of a remote French island, they slowly fall in love. There’s more to the story than that, but I really enjoyed the way things slowly unfolded and don’t want to spoil that. It’s definitely the sort of film where things progress through quiet encounters and weighted looks from across the room. And, except for a couple of instances of diegetic, in-story songs and piano playing, there is no music in the film. So while it’s definitely not going to be for everyone, I found it really moving and lovely. And then the end made me cry a lot at the theatre and since we’re not supposed to touch our faces I was really in a jam.

PODCASTS

LORE
Over the first two weeks of March I listened to nearly three years worth of Lore podcast episodes. Apparently I only have two settings for consuming podcasts, either I can’t summon the attention span for a single episode or it’s the ONLY thing I listen to, full stop. I did this with the Chernobyl podcast as well. Each episode of Lore is one main story and some accompanying smaller, related stories, about folklore or dark historical events: lake monsters, ghost ships, spiritualists, haunted castles, the Seattle underground, etc. These types of stories have always interested me so Lore is absolutely my sort of content. Once everything got weird with the pandemic I sort of lost my drive to listen to dark stories, but I definitely plan to continue with this podcast in the future.

GAMES

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: LINK’S AWAKENING
While I have always adored the characters and design of Zelda games, I have a weird aversion to actually playing them. For a long time this has been the case with most Nintento games in general and I do not understand why. I did manage to play Windwaker a number of years ago but had to have a friend complete a portion of it for me because I got stuck and angry and ready to quit. But for some reason, the stars aligned in March 2020 and I was overcome by a strong desire to play the Link’s Awakening remake now that I have a Nintendo Switch and I loved it. I literally played the entire thing in a day. I couldn’t put it down. So, big ole recommendation from me on that one. Who knew that the Zelda game that would really draw me in wasn’t the cinematic Breath of the Wild or Twilight Princess, but a remake of a 1993 Game Boy game.

ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS
Like so many other people around the world, I am completely obsessed with Animal Crossing: New Horizons at the moment. It’s sweet and calm (except for the animated swearing I do whenever I catch another dang sea bass) and a perfect escape from the world right now. The whole point of the game is just to live on a beautiful island, chat with cute animal neighbors, and pay off a mortgage to a business tanuki (aka a Japanese raccoon dog) by selling fish, bugs, and fruit. On paper it doesn’t seem like something you’d devote hours and hours to, but that is the magic of Animal Crossing. Being able to complete little goals like catching a certain fish or finding a rare fossil is a really comforting thing for a stressed brain. Plus I love the idea of being able to pay off a huge home loan in a single day by selling a whole bunch of oranges.

OVERCOOKED 2
I also got back into Overcooked 2 at the end of the month, since it was a very good time to revisit on-line co-op games. This ridiculous cooking simulator is lots of fun and very chaotic. It requires a lot of communication and brain power. My friend and I had tried to play it a while back but got stuck on an early level and decided that we probably couldn’t progress without more players. And yet when we picked it back up recently we managed to get our cooking communication and planning streamlined and actually finished the game. So, if you can handle the heat, I would recommend visiting the Overcooked 2 kitchen (I know, I KNOW, i’m sincerely sorry but once I wrote that it had to stay in).

BOOKS

THE RAVEN AND THE REINDEER (T. Kingfisher)
Yet another big ole T. Kingfisher recommendation from me. At this point it’s probably safe to assume that every favorites blog for the foreseeable future will include at least one T. Kingfisher book until I make it through her entire catalogue. The Raven and The Reindeer is a clever retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen fairytale, which follows Gerta, a young woman who sets out on a journey to save her friend Kay, who has been kidnapped by the aforementioned frosty royalty. Gerta’s journey takes her far from home and along the way she befriends a bandit girl and an incredible talking raven named The Sound of Mouse Bones Crunching Under The Hooves of God (Mousebones for short). He picked the name himself. The book includes some really creative, interesting uses of magic, a sweet, unexpected love story, and every scene with that bird made me smile.

HEARTSTOPPER: VOLUME 3 (Alice Oseman)
This is the third book in Alice Oseman’s lovely series of high-school romance graphic novels. Volume 3 follows Nick and Charlie as they continue to navigate their young romance, with particular focus on their fears about how and when to come out and tell their friends and family about their relationship. These insecurities are brought to the forefront when the entire class goes on a trip to Paris. Oseman’s art continues to be wonderfully simple yet highly expressive and she has a great talent for capturing the fears and elations of youth.

THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA (TJ Klune)
I have been a TJ Klune fan for quite a while, particularly his Green Creek and Tales from Verania series. With The House in the Cerulean Sea Klune ventures into more of a YA/general audiences sphere and does a wonderful job. Cerulean Sea is told from the point of view of Linus Baker, a case worker for the government department that oversees orphanages for magical children. His job is grey, isolated bureaucracy where no one thinks beyond the official rules and regulations and his home life is equally lonely. One day Linus is called on by the upper management to spend a month investigating a particular orphanage on an island by the sea. This assignment introduces a number of new people into his life: a gnome who loves to garden, a forest sprite, an island sprite, a shy shapeshifter, a cheerful green blob that dreams of being a bellhop, a wyvern who loves buttons, a 6-year-old antichrist, and Arthur Parnassus, the tall, mysterious man who teaches the children and runs the house. Over the course of the month Linus changes and is changed by those around him and learns about love, acceptance, and not being bound by societies expectations.

BRIARLEY (Aster Glenn Gray)
I had seen Briarley recommended by a couple of authors on twitter and it happened to be 99¢ last week so I figured, what the heck. I tend to read a lot of books this way, for better or worse. Luckily this one was for the better. A gay reenvisioning of Beauty and The Beast, Briarley sets the action in 1940s England, in the midst of WWII. A middle-aged parson stumbles upon a mysterious abandoned mansion while attending a meeting in a neighboring village and after taking shelter from a storm, makes the mistake of plucking a rose for his daughter as he heads home. You know the drill. The beast in this book is more dragon-y in nature which is fun, and the parson (who ends up being the love interest, not his daughter) is really logical and kind, suggesting, for example, that if the beast needs to learn how to love and be loved he should start by getting a puppy. The book also does away with my main problem in pretty much every version of B&tB: the “captive falling in love with their captor” trope. I hate that trope. But Briarley has the Parson (along with all previous visitors to the magic house) able to leave whenever he wants to, which, seriously, thank you.

ART

In anticipation of the release of Animal Crossing, I decided to make collages of some of my favorite characters from the games. I’m quite happy with how they turned out. The originals are all available for purchase here.

Favorite Things From February 2020: Rad Ladies, a Swol Dragon, Hockey Romance, and Some Cyborgs

March 2, 2020 Meghan Stratman

It’s starting to feel a teeny bit like spring? Here’s hoping we don’t get a huge late-season temperature drop or snow storm that kills all of the tiny plants that are just starting to poke their heads out of the dirt.

MOVIES & TV

BIRDS OF PREY
I really hoped that Birds of Prey would be good and, phew, I liked it a lot. This candy-coated romp through Gotham City’s very messed-up underworld is hella fun and probably my favorite DC extended universe movie so far (out of the few that I’ve liked). There are laggy bits in the middle and some story lines are stronger than others, but you basically forget all of that by the time you get to the incredibly fun finale.

Birds of Prey is a story by and about women, with great costumes, sets, performances, music, and fight choreography. Director Cathy Yan brings comic-book-style weirdness, energy, and color to this occasionally very dark story. While Margot Robbie’s joyously chaotic Harley Quinn carries the movie and Ewan McGregor’s villainous Roman Sionis chews the scenery to bits (in the best way), I also loved Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Huntress, who stole every scene she was in. Seriously, at one point her character storms to the rescue on a giant motorcycle and I gasped at the intensity of her coolness. Just be warned, Birds of Prey leans into its R rating with occasional graphic violence and some disturbing, tense scenes involving abuse.

If Harley ends up back with the Joker in the next DC movie, I am going to be so mad.

GAMES

RING FIT ADVENTURE
Ring Fit Adventure on the Nintendo Switch combines a roleplaying game with exercise and apparently having quests, experience points, and boss fights is precisely what my brain needs for work-out motivation. I’ve played it nearly every day for the past two weeks and highly recommend it. There are mini-games, customizable workouts, and other features in addition to the main story so there is always plenty to do. It’s also worth mentioning that most of the enemies you fight are weird mashups of aquatic creatures and exercise equipment, which is adorable. Plus the main bad guy is a super hench purple dragon wearing a wrestling singlet.

BOOKS

GAME CHANGER / HEATED RIVALRY / TOUGH GUY (Rachel Reid)
These books are 100% escapist romance candy and I loved them. I desperately needed something to get my mind off of all the depressing shit going on in the world right now and these books about muscly hockey players falling in love were perfect. Odds are I’m going to need many more books like this to get through 2020. Game Changer is about a star hockey player falling for an adorable smoothie shop employee, Heated Rivalry is a really good enemies-to-lovers scenario, and Tough Guy focuses on a troubled “enforcer” (which in hockey apparently means “he beats people up”?) rekindling a friendship/romance with a musician from his past. The main character in book three deals with a lot of anxiety issues, many of which I deal with myself, so it was really nice to see that represented. And bonus points for most of the protagonists being Canadian, which doesn’t happen often enough.

And yes, all three of these books feature cover art with mostly-naked muscly torsos. I’ve been a huge fan of romance for many years and yet this sort of cover still makes me giggly and embarrassed. 😳

HULL METAL GIRLS (Emily Skrutskie)
Despite getting a little bored in the middle, overall I quite enjoyed this YA space adventure about cyborg teens rebelling against an untrustworthy government. The story takes place in and around a fleet of spaceships that has spent the last 300 years traveling the universe searching for a new habitable planet for what is left of humanity. Our protagonists are four teens who, for varying reasons, have volunteered to undergo a very dangerous procedure to become mechanically enhanced super soldiers and serve as the government’s peacekeepers/enforcers. This being a dystopian YA story, it quickly becomes apparent that things are not what they seem and their leaders are keeping some big secrets.

I like Skrutskie’s inventive approach to cyborgs in this book, which combines physical enhancements with a shared consciousness and an ongoing battle between the characters’ human aspects and the machine that is controlling them. I also enjoyed the diversity and personalities of the main characters and their journey towards understanding each other and working as a team.

AMERICAN DREAMER / AMERICAN FAIRYTALE / AMERICAN LOVE STORY (Adriana Herrera)
I picked up American Love Story after it won one of the Ripped Bodice’s 2019 awards for Excellence in Romantic Fiction, not realizing it was the third book in a series. This meant that I was occasionally missing some backstory, but that was my mistake for starting in the middle and I ended up loving the book so much that it really didn’t matter. American Love Story is one of those romance novels that I genuinely could not put down. It was a reading-at-home, reading-at-work, reading-while-brushing-my-teeth sort of situation.

When Hatian-born economics professor and activist Patrice moves to upstate New York to teach at Cornell, he is thrust back into the path of Assistant District Attorney Easton, who he had a passionate fling with the previous summer. While they have all sorts of intense feelings for each other, Easton’s job and Patrice’s activism keep them at odds.

Adriana Herrera has a strong narrative voice and I really felt the weight of the challenges her characters were facing. American Love Story deals with issues of race, immigration, and privilege, with a major plot point hinging on the dangers people of color face during unwarranted traffic stops. The book also includes the main characters acknowledging the difficulties that exist in their relationship and seeking counseling to make things work. These elements make American Love Story one of the most grounded, timely romances I have read in quite a while.

Since I loved American Love Story so much, I obviously had to read the other two books in Herrera’s Dreamers series (book four comes out later in March). American Dreamer is about Nesto, a Dominican immigrant working his ass off establishing his Afro-Caribbian food truck after moving from Manhattan to Ithaca. During his first day in town, Nesto meets Jude, a soft-spoken librarian who is coping with insecurities stemming from his extremely religious upbringing. There is instant attraction but neither is in a good place to start a relationship, so they decide to just be friends (who occasionally make out). Of course that doesn’t last long and romance ensues.

American Fairytale focuses on Thomas, son to a Dominican mother and an American father, who became a billionaire after selling a very successful financial app. When he decides to make a large donation to a local shelter for abuse victims, the point-person on the project ends up being Camilo, a social worker that Tom hooked-up with at a fundraising gala and hasn’t been able to stop thinking about. It’s the very best sort of romance coincidence.

As you might have picked up on from my descriptions, these books all have a fairly similar plot structure: lust-at-first-sight > slow progress of building a relationship > one large conflict that tears the two apart > a stern talking-to by friends > reconciliation. These similarities could have weakened the series, but Herera does such a great job building these characters and stories that it totally didn’t bother me. I also wanted to mention that all three books feature really strong, interesting mothers, a great network of friends and family that support and love the protagonists, and a wonderful mixture of languages.

ART

I kind of lost track of February and didn’t get as much done as I would have liked. But at least I did finish this set of little backyard friends for a friend of mine.

Favorite Things From January 2020: Necromancers, Nuclear Disaster, and The Afterlife

February 3, 2020 Meghan Stratman

Ah, the long dark of January. I hope you are making it through OK. I always struggle with this time of year; the lack of sunlight and the cold, grey weather always leave me a listless couch potato.

MOVIES & TV

1917
1917 is a fairly simple war story - two WWI soldiers have a limited amount of time to get a message from point A to point B - but what makes it interesting is the way the story is told. By making the film appear to be take place over two long, unedited shots, the action feels like it is happening in real-time and the simple narrative is given a sense of immediacy and tension that I don’t think would have been there otherwise. 1917 also includes some incredible cinematography and lighting design that is worth seeing on a big screen.

CHERNOBYL
This month I finally made time to watch HBO’s stressful and engrossing mini-series about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. I heard that the show was intense so I had planned on spacing out my viewings, but ended up binging the whole thing in two nights. The first two episodes in particular are really incredible. Chernobyl depicts the truly horrifying events during and after the explosion and is sometimes very hard to watch (I viewed a large portion of episode 4 through my fingers), but I definitely recommend this mini-series if you feel up to it.

In my late 20s I went through a period of time where I was obsessed with the surreal sadness and beauty of the nearby abandoned city of Pripyat (so much so that I included it in some art) but as I watched Chernobyl I quickly realized how little I knew about the actual disaster. While there are a number of large fictional liberties taken to help the narrative structure and arc of the show, most of the key moments seem to have been recreated as honestly as possible. There is also an accompanying podcast that I highly recommend which has host Peter Sagal discussing the fact and fiction of each episode with the show’s screenwriter.

THE GOOD PLACE
In keeping with my bingy January, I also watched three seasons of The Good Place over a single weekend so I could be up-to-date for the finale. And said finale had me doing some intense, ugly crying, to the extent that my dog kept coming over to lick tears off my face and check if I was OK. Like every sitcom there are definitely some forgettable filler episodes in The Good Place, but overall it tells a funny, kind, and surprisingly optimistic story about humanity and death. I’m glad I watched it.

BOOKS

I had fairly bad luck with books this month, with most of my selections ranging from “meh” to “ugh”. Luckily I did end up with at least one to recommend and another to partially recommend, both of which involved necromancers weirdly.

LORD OF SECRETS (Breanna Teintze)
Lord of Secrets is a fun magic/fantasy adventure about Gray, a rogue wizard trying to rescue his grandfather who has been abducted by the nefarious leader of the Mages’ Guild. Over the course of his journey, Gray manages to inadvertently collect a group of companions including an escaped slave, a grouchy inn keeper, and an 900-year-old undying necromancer god. While the book was a little sparse on worldbuilding, I still enjoyed the story and characters and found the magic system to be quite creative.

GIDEON THE NINTH (Tamsyn Muir)
There were a couple of big things that kept me from truly enjoying this book, but I wanted to mention it here because it has a lot going for it and maybe I just wasn’t the right reader. The setting and story are really interesting: a gothic/sci-fi mashup about a society of necromancers who make up nine different “houses”, each with a different specialization. The orphan Gideon, our protagonist, was raised in the Ninth House under constant duress and harassment, particularly from the royal daughter and current head of the house Harrowhark Nonagesimus. When the god-like emperor summons representatives from each house for a special challenge, Harrowhark enlists (forces) Gideon to be her “Cavalier” and the two arrive at a crumbling ancient compound full of mysteries, secrets, and all sorts of bad things.

My first problem with the book stems from the large cast of characters that I absolutely could not keep straight. I ended up having to create a cheat-sheet to keep next to the book so I could remember who was who. My other problem involves the toxic, abusive relationship between Gideon and Harrowhark that suddenly changes near the end of the book in a way that did not feel earned AT ALL and really bothered me. But books are different for every reader and my issues might not be your issues. So if it sounds interesting maybe give it a read and see if you like it?

ART

I finished two new collages this month, both of which will be part of a red-themed group show at Gallery 9. PLUS, I filmed a start-to-finish video for “Year of the Rat” that I will be posting soon to my Patreon page.