Book Review: Homesick

Image: the cover of the book is a graphic design image of minimalistic shapes creating the appearance of waves moving up the book. They begin as a light teal at the bottom and get darker towards the top forming a dark teal or green. On the top wave is the title of the book in large, uneven, capital light blue letters, partly obscured by the wave. Below that is "stories" in smaller of the same letters. Scattered across the rest of the waves are mustard colored cutouts of a house. On the bottom wave is Nino Cipri's name in black letters and under that to the right side is a mustard colored cutout of a house key.

Homesick: Stories by Nino Cipri is an extremely versatile, creative, and enjoyable collection from the author. One of the things that really sets this collection apart from others of its genre is the diverse formats and genres the stories take on. There are some that are your run of the mill medium length short stories and some that read like plays. "Dead Air" in particular is one I would love to hear performed as a podcast. There are some stories that are scifi, some that are supernatural horror, and some that are just very very Queer. I actually found myself enjoying the stories with supernatural elements the most, even though the other realms are often more what I lean toward. The aforementioned "Dead Air" as well as "Presque Vu" were two of my favorites.

A diverse cast of Queer and/or trans characters show up throughout the book in a variety of ways. I am a Queer and trans person who doesn't particularly have a taste for stories where the whole thing is about someone's Queerness or transness. I do think there are a couple of places where Cipri explains too much for my liking. But, that's a personal thing. I imagine a cishet* person reading may appreciate the explanation of something someone like me understands from experience. There are plenty of stories though where the characters' identities are woven throughout seamlessly. This is the way I like to see LGBTQ characters written. Many of the characters are relatable in both their identities and their flaws and virtues. 

A variety of themes are explored throughout the book including obviously gender and sexuality as well as race, class, colonialism, personhood, and species. The novella that makes up the last third or so of the book follows a group of researchers who have discovered an ancient species with human-like intelligences. The discussions of academics and museum curators long history of colonialist grave robbing were perfectly placed. It's true that we don't see the dead bodies of pilgrims in museums, but to this day there are the corpses and bones of Inuit, Egyptian, and other Indigenous people whose graves were robbed as well as dead (and often alive) animals who were wiped out by colonialist collectors of dead creatures. It makes it difficult to attend museums and not either be angry the entire time or be indoctrinated into the othering and exploitation of the marginalized to entertain our fascination with the unknown.

There is some exploration of personhood and species membership relative to nonhuman animals, but I do wish Cipri would have taken it a bit further to include more present day species. There is discussion of "intelligent" species that exist today, but I really could have used that final push for the researchers to understand that all animals have their own intelligences, many of which far outshine our own. There is loving discussion of zoos and eating animals in this story that I can't help but noticing when reading. This is not to say it's not a well constructed and accurate picture of a group of researchers in a story like this. We all know that being a scientist or academic most assuredly does not make someone knowledgeable about everything in the world. If anything, the extreme specialization and focus increasingly required in graduate studies isolates people from wider knowledge of the world. Plenty of scientists who admire one species are cruel to vast numbers of equally sentient others due to their own interests and prejudices. But, I would not be a good animal lib proponent if I did not mention that I would have liked these particular researchers of intelligent weasels to also recognize the other intelligent rodents that make up most of the animals in laboratory cages (with no protections by law to boot.) I would have liked recognition that more recent research argues that many species have advanced communication and languages, not just humans (or fictional prehistoric weasels.) I'll step off the soapbox now. Do not let this repel you from reading this story. It is an excellent novella with an interesting premise, believable and relatable trans characters, important discussions of indigenous peoples and colonialism in academia, and many great discussions about species membership and personhood, regardless of if they met my high bar. It made me think a lot while reading it and I enjoyed it greatly.

I tossed a few criticisms out in this review, but I am still giving this book a high rating and recommendation. Many of my arguments here are things that good speculative fiction inspires us to think about. Homesick is an excellent introduction to Cipri's wide range of talents and creativity making it another book on my shelf by a QT author that I definitely look forward to more from.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

*cishet means cisgender heterosexual. Cisgender people are those who identify with the sex and gender assigned to them at birth, aka people who are not trans. 

Book Review: The Deep

Image: The cover of the book shows a light blue seascape. In the foreground near the center is a mermaid. She has dark brown skin and long black locks and float behind her head. The bottom half of her body is a dark blue shark-like body and there is webbing between her fingers. Behind her is a large whale and smaller fishes and whales in the background. Across the top is the title of the novel. "The" is in dark blue and overlaps with the word "Deep" in almost white blue. Across the bottom, in white capital small letters says "Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs William Hutson Jonathan Snipes."

When I first saw that Rivers Solomon was putting out a new novella, I immediately added it to a top priority book to read. I had the chance to read and review their debut novel, An Unkindness of Ghosts, and it became one of my favorite science fiction books. I admit, fantasy is not usually my realm of choice for reading material. But, given my love for this author, I was excited to give this a go anyways.

I first want to say that this book gets an A+ and 5 stars for effort and creativity. The process of an author collaborating with musicians is a really interesting and cool idea. Solomon took a song and turned it into a larger story while giving credit to and including those who created the song. Great care was taken so that everyone was given attention for their work which is also something I like to see. That said, the story itself was about average. Solomon is a beautiful writer and I adore the way they take important and painful political and historical themes and include them in their writing. My issue with this book is that it seemed unfinished. It reads a little like an initial draft of ideas before the characters and world building were fully fleshed out

One of my biggest issues with the book though is this: I would have preferred to be more surprised by parts of the wajinru's (the mermaids) story. Our protagonist- Yetu- is a historian, forced to live through a painful origin history of her people via memories over and over. There is a reason I am being vague and not revealing much about the wajinru. The way this was written, the reader would have slowly realized where the wajinru came from. It could have been a real wow moment for me. But, going into the book, I already knew because the blurb gives it away. That said, the information in the blurb is a huge draw for the book. So, I see why they decided to reveal so much. But, I would have preferred to find out in the book itself.

There are some really cool parts of the book that, if fine tuned a little more or expanded upon, could have carried it further. There are LGB/I characters and interesting discussions of the differences between the wajinru and the two-legs (humans, of course.) There are interesting discussions of how home and history can be both destructive and critical to preserve, always under threat. There is so much potential in this novel. I wonder if some day, they will come back to it and make it a larger book. I also wonder, as I said before, if my general preferences got in my way. Fantasy is not my forte and this is a very fantastical book.

Even though I have not given this book a perfect score, I still encourage people to read it as much as I would a 5 star book. The creativity, writing style, and collaboration are really interesting and great reasons to give it a try anyways. Being a novella, it's short. So, you can experience it in a short amount of time. The story itself is still interesting and entertaining despite it's flaws. I will forever keep an eye on Solomon's work and am very excited for what they do next.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: In the Dream House

Image: The cover of the book is a surrealistic painting of a two story greenish beige house on the backdrop of a dark, cloudy sky. The front of the house faces the reader with a chimney on the right side of the roof, a porch and balcony with white fence-like barriers, long brown reeds growning from the front yard, and the black silhouette of a person standing in front of the front door in the center of the bottom floor. On the upper floor, there is a large section cut out with fabric-like layers of drab red, blue and green that lead to the center of the hole where there is a face of a woman. She has light brown skin and black hair and stares directly into the camera. Across the top, slanted diagonally in large capital white letters is the title, with "a memori"  next to "the" in small written script. Across the bottom of the cover, in front of the reeds, is the author's name in white capital letters.

Carmen Maria Machado's memoir In the Dream House stands out for a great variety of reasons. The book has been heralded as an important foray into the life of someone in a queer abusive relationship, which it is. Machado captures very well the horrifying nature of psychological and emotional abuse. There are physical and other aspects to it, but she focuses predominantly on the former. One of the reasons this is so important is that most abusive relationships center around this psychological and emotional aspect. We often think of abusive relationships as a man physically and/or sexually abusing a girlfriend or wife. Yet, most abuse victims even of this caliber speak of how their abuser controlled their mind and how this is/was one of the most painful parts of their ordeal. Machado draws the reader into her experiences, allowing us to witness the feelings that range from the constant unease of walking on eggshells to the absolute fear that one may have to die to escape the ordeal.

Stylistically, Machado's work continues to stand out among all memoirs I have read. Her story is told through a series of short, poetic vignettes, each giving a small but intense look into a short period of her life. These little pieces all make the reader feel like they are right there, experiencing the whole horrid thing with her. Those of us who have ever been in a queer abusive relationship will likely relate. The way your stomach drops out when it first turns bad has a unique twist to it which Machado captures well. Aren't we supposed to be safe here? Unfortunately, LGBTQ people are human. Full of human flaws and human virtues, capable of doing great harm and of being harmed. By pretending that we all are inhuman beings, we not only are harder on ourselves and each other, but we also tend to ignore when a predator or toxic conflict is in our midst. Many of us have seen our communities turn the other cheek while being silently torn apart by serial abusers, even while fighting against the more common ones.

Through this memoir, Machado really captures the internal process of someone going through this. There is a great isolation in being abused. Not only does the abuser often control or forbid the person from being in touch with others, but the gas lighting and aggression causes the victim/survivor to retreat into themself. There are so many feelings that go into exposing what is happening- big among them being fear and shame. The shame is especially strong in feminist and queer communities as we tend to believe we should have been able to see this coming and get out of it. The truth is, when it comes to abuse, we're just as vulnerable- if not more vulnerable- than other communities. Machado also includes research of hers and reading recommendations on the topics of abuse in LGBTQ communities. These discussions have been existing for a long time, but still remain hidden.

There is a lot more I could say and analyze about this book, but I am going to stop here and encourage the reader to go out and read it. It is very difficult to put down, but please take care while reading, especially if you have any personal history with these subjects. Take breaks and take care of yourself. This book is very worth reading, even if one may find parts triggering. It is far more than a catalogue of occurrences. It is a work of art.

This was also posted to my goodreads.