BookOwl

4/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* What a debut novel for Shelby Van Pelt! The fact that there was an octopus involved in this story sold me, but Remarkably Bright Creatures was much more than that. It was a story of hope and heartbreak as well as cross-species communication that I really enjoyed. “Humans. For the most part, you are dull and blundering. But occasionally, you can be remarkably bright creatures.” Tova is an elderly widow who has lost both her son (in mysterious circumstances) and her husband (terminal pancreatic cancer). She lives in a tiny seaside town in Washington, called Soul Bay, and works a night job cleaning at the local aquarium. It is there that she develops an unlikely relationship with Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus, who is also towards the tail-end of his lifespan. The story alternates between a few POVs: Marcellus, Tova, and Cameron. (Cameron comes into the aquarium story a bit later.) I especially enjoyed Marcellus’s point of view, his acerbic and witty...

  4/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* It took me a while to gather my thoughts on the second and final volume of the Earthseed duology by Octavia Butler. Parable of the Talents was both extremely heartbreaking and extremely full of hope. At the end of the first book, Parable of the Sower , Lauren Olamina and her found family have established the first of the Earthseed communities in the mountains of California. Named Acorn, Lauren sees it as the first of many to help jolt humanity out of its doldrums and spread to the stars. Readers are introduced to the voice of Lauren’s child, Larkin, who tells what happens next in her mother’s story from far in the future through Lauren’s extensive journal archives. “I have also read that the Pox was caused by accidentally coinciding climatic, economic, and sociological crises. It would be more honest to say that the Pox was caused by our own refusal to deal with obvious problems in those areas. We caused the problems: then we sat and watched as they...

4.5/5 stars *Spoiler alert!*   Parable of the Sower hits incredibly close to home. Published in 1993, this dystopian speculative fiction novel by literary giant Octavia Butler takes place in the early 2020s. It depicts a California devolved into anarchy at the hands of worsening climate change and rampant income inequality. Basically, it shows what happens if the problems we see today—climate change, income inequality, homelessness, discrimination—go unaddressed in a serious way. “There is no end To what a living world Will demand of you.” Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina is witness to a California disintegrating before her eyes. The year is 2025, and she sees things getting worse not only for her walled community, but for the country as a whole. She is one of the privileged few in her community that can read and write and tries to use those talents to prepare herself and her fellow citizens to survive what is coming. She wants to help her people survive and plant the seeds fo...

  3.5/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* After the Flood by Kassandra Montag is an ode to hope and survival in a world that makes living highly uncertain. In that respect, it is similar to Station Eleven . Not to mention that the characters were challenging, yet I could understand their motivations, even as they drove me crazy. This book takes place a hundred years into the future, where North America has turned into a series of archipelagos after a flood of biblical proportions. Myra and her seven-year-old daughter Pearl live on their boat, Bird, trading fish for critical supplies, but never staying in one place too long. That is, until she comes across news that her eldest daughter, Row—kidnapped by her father in Nebraska before the floods—was seen in a faraway settlement in the Arctic Circle. Myra will do anything to get Row back, even joining the crew of Sedna , who are looking to settle somewhere after being on the water for years. Even as she and Pearl bond with the crew, their bet...

  3.5/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* So many conflicted feelings about The Shadow of Perseus . However, to those arguing that there’s been too many feminist retellings of Greek mythology, I would disagree. It’s better than the inundation of male-centered stories, whether they are mythological or not. That is not my quibble with The Shadow of Perseus . I love all the authors centering women’s stories, stories often shoved to the side or just omitted because they are not considered important or heroic enough. My quibble is the women-as-construction crew narrative that seemed to creep in throughout The Shadow of Perseus , that the major women figures in a man’s life are responsible for “fixing” him. “Never is more than we can know. Who can say what the Fates will spin for us? So little of my life has happened as I thought it would.”   That did take my four-star review and drop it down to 3.5, although credit to the author for otherwise giving the women characters associated with...

5/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* What a beautiful art style that Debbie Tung has! Everything is OK was a fantastic reminder of that, as well as the poignant and relatable stories she tells in her works. This one tackles the difficult subject of mental health, particularly dealing with depression and anxiety. I laughed, I cried, and I smiled as I read Everything is OK . I think it’s one of her best yet, as she shares her story to try and help others feel not as alone, as depression and anxiety are wont to do. “Even if the world around me is silent, it's always loud inside my head.” This is where trouble can begin. Like Tung, I have an active imagination, fueled by my own creativity, relationships, and the books I’ve read. However, the clumps of neurons and their connections that make me who I am spits out negative thoughts. The trouble is that sometimes these negative thoughts can glom onto each other until you feel overwhelmed and despairing. After a while, you start to believe t...

  3.5/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* I am returning to the well-trod grounds of Greek mythology, this time for another Jennifer Saint book. Having enjoyed Ariadne , I decided to go for her most recent novel, Atalanta . While I overall enjoyed Atalanta , there were some tropes that the story could have gone without. Atalanta is based on the mythological figure of the same name. She has a wild backstory. Abandoned as a baby by a king that didn’t want a daughter, Atalanta was taken in and raised by a mother bear in the Arcadian forest. Sacred to Artemis, goddess of the moon and the hunt, the Arcadian forest is home to both Artemis and her nymphs, all sworn to chastity. After the mother bear chases away her cubs, Artemis adopts Atalanta, and she becomes a part of this seclusive community. “We aren't the only girls with fathers like these. They're more common than you might think. He told me the stories like different fathers might spin tales of love and happiness. Nycteus, who ...