A few books I've read

[olivermoss]

* The Murder Between Us by Tal Bauer - I don't have to have Tal Bauer fomo anymore! A lot of m/m fans love his work, but most of the summaries were off-putting to me. No more fomo, I do not like his style. Melodramatic AF

* Snake Eater by T Kingfisher - I want to read more by Kingfisher. I liked this, but I DNF'd her earlier work Paladin's Grace. She's just going to be hot or miss for me and that's okay. Is it just me or was this book subtweeting romantasy? Like, having a hot bird man feel like he owns you is shit actually and if you are lonely get a dog? Don't give parts of yourself to a paranormal creature?

* 3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years by John Scalzi - My first Scalzi book. I've heard odd things about a few of his books so I never read them. This was more of a novella and it was an Amazon First free read so I nabbed it. At first I thought it started with an expo dump, but then things begun to click. It stayed with me a bit, I kept thinking about it. I liked it.

* The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy by Roan Parrish - Another established m/m author I'd never read. It was overstuffed, tried to do to much, wound up a mess. The sex scenes involving an AFAB trans person were great and didn't feel like the writer was trying to explain things to me, the reader. But yeah, pass.

My DNF pile for the year includes Paladin's Grace, Him and Check, Please. I nearly DNF'd The Murder Between Us, but decided to push through even as I rolled my eyes more and more. Not finishing a book makes me feel like I have too many open tabs, so I finished it just so my brain could close that tab and not think about it, try to keep the plot fresh in my mind.

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

Snake Eater is on my TBR, and I really liked What Moves the Dead by the same author. I plan to read the next two in that series pretty soon. But she's also got a LOT of stuff in several different genres, and I'm not sure if I'll like all of it as well.

I've heard non-stop about Check, Please, it seems like, so my FOMO is a little lessened to hear it was a DNF, haha.

[olivermoss]

What Moves The Dead was great. I'm looking forward to finishing that series.

Check, Please might tighten up later but it's pretty silly at the start, and unfocused. I hard DNF'd it for just being nonsense. There is going to be another volume, maybe due to the spike in interest in hockey things so suddenly people are yapping about it, despite the fandom having had a full meltdown over the direction of the last volume.

[mistressofmuses]

I'm looking forward to the others, too! I know I heard at least one person say that the second book was not as good as the first, but that third was another excellent one, but I'm hoping to enjoy them both.

Didn't Check, Please start out as a serial? (It is VERY possible I am thinking of something else.) If so, I guess it's not surprising that it was unfocused to start, but that is just... not what I'm looking for. It is also very possible that most of what I did hear about it most recently was the fandom meltdown, because it was always one of those fandoms that felt like passing an iceberg in the dark: I can see the edge of it poking into my sphere, but I know there is so much more just out of sight.

[olivermoss]

Yup, Check, Please was a webcomic with canon gay, but the fandom shipped a non-canon pairing and got all conspiracy board that they'd be endgame. The ship fanon loved was two characters who hated each other and one that the author disliked and was meant to be read as a bad guy. I know Too Much about this drama for reasons.

They literally went Apple Tree Yard on a series where the main characters wind up together, because they wanted background rivals to do an enemies to lovers. There is a reason why I put off ever picking it up until recently.

[mistressofmuses]

Oh good, I am thinking of the right thing, haha. I did *not* know the details of the drama: the fan-favorite non-canon ship and the belief it would be endgame. That explains some of the wank that I was seeing pass by in the distance!

Man, that kind of "secret good ending/secret new series where all my dreams come true" conspiracy theorizing is just... so wild. I mean, it seems to be the case for most sufficiently passionate fandoms, so that just seems to be how it goes, but *man.*

[olivermoss]

But like... to do that in a series with canon gay... main characters are canon...

That was a special level of fans needing to just stop

[badfalcon]

I recently discovered T Kingfisher and absolute LOVE, definitely someone I want to try and read more of! A House with Good Bones is on the of best books I've read in the last couple of years

[olivermoss]

I haven't read that one yet, I need to!