She Who Became the Sun

She Who Became the Sun

By Shelley Parker-Chan

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness...

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family's eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family's clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate. After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.

I got into this one! I heard it recommended before I heard it was actually a twisted history of a real person, the Hongwu Emperor of 1300s China, who founded the Ming Dynasty. So I was originally interested as an original fiction tale, rather than a fictionalized version of a real person.  I'm not sure which is harder, but it works on both levels.  There's almost a Michener/McCullough/Rutherfurd feel to it.  That's not a knock; their books give a very personal spin on history.  She has a fairly broad scope.  We're given a fair number of narrative viewpoints - Zhu herself, Ma, the thief, Esen, Ouyang - although the focus is primarily on Zhu's rise from peasant through the Red Turbans, and secondarily on Ouyang's revenge on the Mongols, and the bulk of the book takes place over two years while the Mongols and the Red Turbans fight for ascendancy over central China. I did wish, at points, for Zhu to be even more prominent in the storyline, rather than switching back and forth, although there's usually always a reason for it (although the thief's purpose as narrator seems specious  - it feels like Zhu could have taken that on herself. The only major exception I can think of is the thief's narration of the ghost meal plot, and if Parker-Chan didn't want to tip us off too early as to Zhu's plan.  But I will continue to say what I've always felt, which is that while a good surprise can make a book great, misdirection of the readers can feel like a cliched ploy- unless it's the point of the book, like Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. When you know what's happening early on, like here (Parker-Chan intentionally hints what Zhu will do!) it just seems cheap to try to hold back the reveal further. I think that's one of the reasons I was so unmoved by Gideon the Ninth, it just felt like the author held back so much in order to make the plot points pop, which felt underhanded and manipulative.)

Zhu as a character wholly succeeds for me, although I wish we had more formative years with her. Ouyang I didn't want to like, partly because he was positioned in opposition to Zhu, and maybe also partly because I think Zhu made a good point about him thinking that being castrated had anything to do with being less of a man (although to be fair to him, everyone else certainly thinks that, so I assume it would be hard for him not to do so likewise). I kind of agree with Zhu on this one: to survive is the key.

There's a lot in the book about fate: escaping it, turning towards it, helping someone realize their own, and it's interesting how Parker-Chan has added an additional magical element, by ghosts and this idea that the Mandate of Heaven is actual fire that can be seen.  I'll be waiting to see if the new elements make any material difference in the storyline versus Zhu Yuanzhang's documented life. 

What else can I say? It's lengthy but compelling.  Parker-Chan does a good job keeping characters distinguishable and memorable, even with the Chinese naming conventions (at least we don't get into Russian naming conventions which are pretty much: anything goes and god be with you), so even though we substantially broaden our cast of characters after the first section, the average reader shouldn't get lost. Pacing is good. Oh, right -!

This is just Part One.  Of how many, I don't know, maybe two? Three? I mean, we spend most of the book on just two years and Zhu Yuanzhang lived until he was almost 70, so, in theory I guess, like it could be the first of twenty. I don't know if the next will focus much, or at all on Ouyang, who finished up the first part of his REVENGE, and is now gunning for the whole Mongol court, and I know Chen will pop back up at some point (thanks, Wikipedia!), but it seems like Zhu is pretty comfortably in charge of the Red Turbans, the prime minister and young lama are dead, and now all she has to do is unite central China.  Easy!  Especially when a stray eunuch is targeting your biggest enemies preemptively.  Parker-Chan's website says it's a duology, although no name or information is available about part 2, so we'll see.  Honestly, it does mostly stand on it's own, although it feels also a bit unfinished at the end.  Things wrap up rapidly and we don't see much fallout, aside from Ma's objections to the death of the young Mandater.  

[Sidebar: I did find the tone of the section on the child's death a little weird.  It just felt...like it was supposed to mean more than it did? I mean, was anyone really surprised that Zhu killed the kid? We know how the story ends, and while yeah, it's possible for misadventure to befall people of many ages for many reasons, did anyone, except Ma, think this child was going to be leaving the situation alive? It's almost more interesting to me that Parker-Chan had Ma object so strenuously to it, although it is in keeping with her character.  But you'd think Ma would have become slightly more pragmatic at some point, having seen her father killed in battle, her fiance executed for a traitor, and her husband lose his arm in a duel. Or is Parker-Chan's point that after a very short time in Zhu's life, she's gone from agonizing over killing a monk to a child's death not even meriting a debate. If so, she weirdly missed the mark, maybe the conversation should have been with Xu Du instead.]

Anyway, I like rooting for people who seem smart, and who figure out solutions to their problems that I can't guess, so I'm all in on Zhu's side.  Which is great, because it sounds like she's going to found a preeminent dynasty. Let's see what she does next!  And we'll gently ignore the pun in the title She Who Became the Sun because I feel dumb I only just noticed it, and also it's too on the nose for words. 

22: A Book with a Character on the Ace Spectrum

Dopesick

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America

By Beth Macy

In this extraordinary work, Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of a national drama that has unfolded over two decades. From the labs and marketing departments of big pharma to local doctor's offices; wealthy suburbs to distressed small communities in Central Appalachia; from distant cities to once-idyllic farm towns; the spread of opioid addiction follows a tortuous trajectory that illustrates how this crisis has persisted for so long and become so firmly entrenched. 

Beginning with a single dealer who lands in a small Virginia town and sets about turning high school football stars into heroin overdose statistics, Macy sets out to answer a grieving mother's question-why her only son died-and comes away with a gripping, unputdownable story of greed and need. From the introduction of OxyContin in 1996, Macy investigates the powerful forces that led America's doctors and patients to embrace a medical culture where overtreatment with painkillers became the norm. The unemployed use painkillers both to numb the pain of joblessness and pay their bills, while privileged teens trade pills in cul-de-sacs, and even high school standouts fall prey to prostitution, jail, and death. 

Through unsparing, compelling, and unforgettably humane portraits of families and first responders determined to ameliorate this epidemic, each facet of the crisis comes into focus. In these politically fragmented times, Beth Macy shows that one thing uniting Americans across geographic, partisan, and class lines is opioid drug abuse. But even in the midst of twin crises in drug abuse and healthcare, Macy finds reason to hope and ample signs of the spirit and tenacity that are helping the countless ordinary people ensnared by addiction build a better future for themselves, their families, and their communities.

I think that description is balderdash.  It's a much bleaker book than the blurb appears.  The "once idyllic" farm communities are actually coal mining areas, beset first by the terrible working conditions of the mines, and now by the even worse specter of no working conditions at all. Maybe they're scenic, but they were never idyllic.  There's also very little hope in the book.  Although there is greater recognition of opioids and laymen are more familiar with the dangers of Oxycontin, Macy doesn't seem to think the epidemic is slowing at all. I suppose it will burn itself out eventually, as fewer people get on the opioid track to begin with, but there's nothing promising real diversion from that track once began. 

I was wrapped up in the book; although it's fairly dense Macy manages to keep it pretty zippy and move things along.  The first section focuses on the pushed over-prescription of opioids for low-level issues, the incentives behind the American medical system for companies and individual doctors to upsell drugs and the gaps in oversight which let it happen (and the financial incentives to keep doing it this way). The second section is more about individuals who, once hooked for whatever reason, are now sliding deeper into addiction, and the third section was more about what options there are for diversion, rehab, prison, getting clean, etc. The third section felt the weakest, less focused and more self-insertion, as to what is or is not an appropriate way to treat people.  The whole fentanyl thing was also confusing - fentanyl is another opioid drug, but also, any amount included in heroin will kill you? Or is it just fake fentanyl? It felt like the topic was so big another book could have been written on it, so including just a little bit was like getting only one or two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. 

One criticism I will level is Macy's habit of introducing a character, diverting almost immediately onto another topic or segue, and then come back to the character.  It was annoying for several reasons: (a)  I couldn't keep everyone straight and that made it harder to connect who I'd already been reading about versus who was newly introduced (b) it felt like she was doing an injustice to their personal stories by leaving us on these sort of "cliffhanger" notes, like they weren't real people with heartbreaking problems, and (c) she'd sometime bring us in in the middle of an event, like an overdose, and I struggled to figure out if we'd read any background on these people or not.  Was I supposed to remember that they had been in fifth grade together? Whose mother was it that this person was relying on? Although honestly, it wasn't all that relevant, since basically anytime a mother was mentioned, they had an adult child who was addicted, and they were all helping out other parents and children.  No explanation was given as to why fathers were never involved.  Were these all single parent households? Did the fathers just not care about their children? Is any of that relevant to these kids' addiction stories? Who knows?

For all that I criticize, it is a good, engrossing, important read.  There needs to be more attention paid to the systemic problems pointed out in the book - the incentives to push drugs for profit instead of health, the bias towards jail instead of rehabilitation, the reluctance to commit resources or medicines to combat the problem, the idea that the addicted are somehow deficient, rather than victims. Although I certainly don't feel as sympathetic for teens who just took random medication at pill parties as those who were over-prescribed opiates by trusted physicians, I also don't think that anyone deserves to be reviled for a single bad decision, especially one when made at the height of peer pressure and immaturity. Like I said, it's a depressing read, but a worthwhile one. Hopefully it will help change minds and allow doors to open that create better results for the addicted than what we currently see.

31: A Book Featuring A Man-Made Disaster

 

We Are Okay

We Are Okay

By Nina LaCour

Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.

I mostly picked this one because (a) reviews said it was short and (b) it was available at the library - and in fact had been on my TBR list for some time, even though I have no idea when or why I added it.  It's not something I would  normally go for, i.e., it has no plot, and concerns the emotional goings-on of a young teenager who mopes around after several of her family members die. 

It sounds kind of maudlin, but you know, in the way that teens really dig.  The author does a great job of not falling too deeply into that hole, despite the subject matter.  Yes, it does make you cry (even me, who hates sentimental teenagers and found families and other such wholesome activities, and even though I could feel myself starting to cry, and tried to will myself not to fall into the trap).  

It's a profoundly sad book.  The present storyline involves the narrator, Marin, planning for and receiving a visit from her old friend/ex-girlfriend Mabel, from California, during winter break. The past storyline, is pretty much what you think it will be from the outset, i.e., Marin graduates high school, starts getting involved with Mabel, and then her grandfather, with whom Marin has grown up after her mother died surfing, basically commits suicide by walking out to sea, leaving her to find out that he was hoarding all of her mother's memories.  This upsets her, leaving her to flee California like she's wanted for a felony, hence her current hermit-like cocoon at school in New York.  

Mabel's visit gets her to open up, grieve, talk, and begin planning how to exist again, rather than just remain in stasis.  It is, as I mentioned, very light on plot, very heavy on character drama.  The romance with Mabel is more wistful and in the past than an active relationship.  This is one of those books where you kind of read them for the catharsis jolt you get.  Does it feel weird and manipulative? Yes.  Does it prevent you from crying? No. I knew what was coming and I still cried.  

So, is it a good book? It's well written, and contains a decent enough story.  It's a sweet story, and no one is really the villain.  Mabel comes across as inhumanly patient, but aside from that, it's decently realistic, I guess.  For a YA novel.  There was a phase of my life that this would have hit all those synapses, but I'm a little more jaded and less wallow-y now.  I'd still recommend it to any teen girl.

05: A Sapphic Book

 

 

 

The Ex Hex

The Ex Hex 

By Erin Sterling

Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones nursed her broken heart like any young witch would: vodka, weepy music, bubble baths…and a curse on the horrible boyfriend. Sure, Vivi knows she shouldn’t use her magic this way, but with only an “orchard hayride” scented candle on hand, she isn’t worried it will cause him anything more than a bad hair day or two.

That is until Rhys Penhallow, descendant of the town’s ancestors, breaker of hearts, and annoyingly just as gorgeous as he always was, returns to Graves Glen, Georgia. What should be a quick trip to recharge the town’s ley lines and make an appearance at the annual fall festival turns disastrously wrong. With one calamity after another striking Rhys, Vivi realizes her silly little Ex Hex may not have been so harmless after all.

Suddenly, Graves Glen is under attack from murderous wind-up toys, a pissed off ghost, and a talking cat with some interesting things to say. Vivi and Rhys have to ignore their off the charts chemistry to work together to save the town and find a way to break the break-up curse before it’s too late.

 This was firmly "fine"! Contemporary romances are not really my thing, although I do keep trying them for some reason, thinking that I'll enjoy them much more than I actually do.  But this one left a more favorable impression than most for me, probably because of the setting and details were just so...comforting.  Not that it was a soothing book, but more like it felt kind of nostalgic, like watching one of those old kids' movies about witches, like Halloweentown or Hocus Pocus, but you know, with some sex in it.  I will say that I think Hocus Pocus's greatest misstep was making Binx a cat for like, the whole movie!  Let's give the tweens something to sigh over!  Between him and Vincent Kartheiser in Masterminds, I had a type.  Look, floppy hair was in back then, I'm not making excuses.

Anyway, for adults who like witches, Rhys is a great update to Thackery Binx.  He's hot, he thinks the heroine walks on water, he's helpful, yada yada yada.  I mean, the characters themselves are not the point.  They're both kind of bland people, unexceptional and unexceptionable, I would say. They don't have a big misunderstanding (although how Rhys broke the betrothal which led to the break up in the first place - was that ever explained? Did I blink and miss it? I feel like that's a story there, right?), they cooperate well in their investigation - such as it is. They acknowledge they're both adults now, nothing but the burden of a long distance relationship is stopping them from banging boots now.  It's nice not to have that heavy angst. It's basically Hocus Pocus for all the ladies who were children when the movie came out.

Like I said, it's the scenery and details which keep you interested. I hate to say it, but I skimmed some of the dialogue between them (and missed some of the sex scenes) because they're just not that exciting when they're not in a haunted house, trying to capture a ghost, or whatnot.  But when they are? That's when the magic happens, haha.  Or at least, the good parts.  More talking cat, more angry tchotchkes, more ghosts and pumpkins and fall weather and pointy hats and burning candles and the color purple!   I will probably read the next one, having forgotten all about this book except that I vaguely liked it, but it's not a real priority. And it'll feel just like some comfortable pyjamas to cozy up into.

Anyway, not thrilling, not terrible, resoundingly "fine!"

 35: A Book with a Constellation on the Cover or in the Title

Dark Waters

Dark Waters

By Katherine Arden

Until next time. That was chilling promise made to Ollie, Coco and Brian after they outsmarted the smiling man at Mount Hemlock Resort. And as the trio knows, the smiling man always keeps his promises. So when the lights flicker on and off at Brian's family's inn and a boom sounds at the door, there's just one visitor it could be. Only, there's no one there, just a cryptic note left outside signed simply as —S.

The smiling man loves his games and it seems a new one is afoot. But first, the three friends will have to survive a group trip to Lake Champlain where it's said Vermont's very own Loch Ness monster lives. When they’re left shipwrecked on an island haunted by a monster on both land and sea, Brian's survival instincts kick in and it's up to him to help everyone work together and find a way to escape.

One thing is for sure, the smiling man is back and he wants a rematch. And this time Brian is ready to play. 

I zipped right through this one, and my only complaint, really, is that it felt very short, compared the first two.  I read it on a device, and the little ticker said the book ended at 75%, the other 25% being previews of other books.  I didn't want to read the preview of the next book, Empty Smiles since I wanted to get to it all at once.  So I was left wanting more, which isn't a bad thing, but I am glad that I waited so long to read this one, so I don't have too much longer before the next (and final) book is published.  

In fact, I read this one akin to when events were happening in the book, i.e., a Saturday in early May, although I was not at Lake Champlain, sadly.  And it looks like the next one takes place in August, so from this time to then, I will assume poor Ollie is lost in the mirror world.  That's a long ass time!

Because of the cover, I was thinking that this might take place underwater (I mean, if you can do a mirror world, you can do an underwater world I suppose) and I was thinking that was kind of stupid, so I'm glad Arden didn't go for that.  It's also interesting to me how she manages to keep the adults on the other side of these supernatural shenanigans even where they're clearly necessary to keep the plot mostly believable (send four kids out on a boat by themselves? yeah, that would have been a stretch).  It may be a low bar, but I appreciate the effort she put into making it at least semi-realistic in the context of this children's ghost story.  

This one is more of a straight monster story than the previous two.  While, yes, scarecrows are scary, they were more the minions of the Smiling Man.  Here, although I assume the Smiling Man is implicated in the whole set-up, the lake monster is more of a creature-feature, like, uh... Anaconda.  While there's a ghost involved (more than one), he's a nice ghost, who's willing to kill you so as to avoid your slow death by hunger/giant snake.  I like the change of pace, and am (again) impressed at Arden's ability to both incorporate horror tropes, and also switch it up so we don't read the same story four times.  

I would say that this feels less like a complete book, both because it feels shorter than the other two books, but also because it leads into and sets up book four.  We're left on a more significant cliffhanger and frankly, haven't even made it safely back to shore yet when the book ends (and really reckoning with the fact that Phil's uncle was eaten by a lake monster... although as Phil says, it's how he would have wanted to go).  

This is Brian's turn to shine (I assume Phil will narrate the final book in the quartet) and he's okay, but doesn't bring a lot of special abilities to the fore.  It seems like both Coco and Ollie take more of an active approach to the problem while Brian and Phil are mostly along for the ride.  It's not bad, just feels a little bit shallower. 

 

I really wanted to read this one, and so I entered into the spirit of the challenge, by selecting this for a "Sister Lake" exchange instead of a Sister City.  Honestly, I'm pretty excited by the other book too, I'm looking forward to learning more about Lake Toba.

49: Two Books Set in Twin Towns Lakes, aka "Sister Cities Lakes"