Not much to say, it was fantastic. Stories within stories, sometimes meta but not obnoxious about it. The prose is poetic and nebulous at times, so that can be a no go for some, but I love it. I got lost in it a bit, but most likely my own fault for forcing myself to keep going when my mind was buzzing.
User Profile
she/they Love and compassion are acts of resistance. Forever in recovery; learning to be a better human.
I read far more than I realized. I’m trying to find better words to describe the feelings manifested by the books I read, so my reviews may be more feeling oriented than objective.
This link opens in a pop-up window
screamsbeneath's books
2024 Reading Goal
80% complete! screamsbeneath has read 42 of 52 books.
User Activity
RSS feed Back
screamsbeneath finished reading The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
A.J. Fikry's life is not what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is failing, and …
screamsbeneath started reading The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
A.J. Fikry's life is not what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is failing, and …
screamsbeneath reviewed The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
screamsbeneath finished reading The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
FAR BENEATH the surface of the earth, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of …
screamsbeneath quoted Martyr!: a Novel by Kaveh Akbar
“Expendable” may seem a bad word to use to describe your own life, except I actually find it liberating. The way it vents away all pressure to become. How it only asks that you be.
screamsbeneath quoted Martyr!: a Novel by Kaveh Akbar
Being awake was a kind of poison, and dream the antidote. What if everyone was more conscious of this? How would it charge, make more urgent, their living?
screamsbeneath wants to read The River Judge by S. L. Huang
The River Judge by S. L. Huang
In this prequel novelette to the critically acclaimed THE WATER OUTLAWS, nine-year-old Li Li is introduced to a web of …
screamsbeneath started reading Martyr!: a Novel by Kaveh Akbar
Martyr!: a Novel by Kaveh Akbar
Poet Akbar (Calling a Wolf a Wolf) explores the allure of martyrdom in this electrifying story of a Midwestern poet …
screamsbeneath finished reading Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky
Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky
A wondrous, tender novel about a young girl grappling with her role in a tragic loss—and attempting to reshape the …
screamsbeneath replied to sarah's status
@wynkenhimself I feel like we need so much more positive representation of thriving elderly folks. Maybe it exists and it’s not on my radar, but it was the best part of this book!
enne📚 reviewed Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
Siren Queen
5 stars
I suggested this for #SFFBookClub, and so I gave this a reread so I could enjoy it again. I love the way this novel takes Hollywood and its obsession with stars and all of its racism and homophobia, and mixes it with fey magical realism. Overall, it's definitely a book whose strengths are in its setting and its writing, rather than in a tight plot, but I still love the characters.
In particular, probably my favorite part of this book are the constant turns of phrase that bring in fey elements at unexpected times. You're just reading along and then you get hit with a line like "The cameras were better now, I told myself. They had tamed them down, fed them better." Silent movies steal people's voices. Film stars are (ambiguously but also maybe literally) stars in the sky and wield their star power. Names are sacrificed, or …
I suggested this for #SFFBookClub, and so I gave this a reread so I could enjoy it again. I love the way this novel takes Hollywood and its obsession with stars and all of its racism and homophobia, and mixes it with fey magical realism. Overall, it's definitely a book whose strengths are in its setting and its writing, rather than in a tight plot, but I still love the characters.
In particular, probably my favorite part of this book are the constant turns of phrase that bring in fey elements at unexpected times. You're just reading along and then you get hit with a line like "The cameras were better now, I told myself. They had tamed them down, fed them better." Silent movies steal people's voices. Film stars are (ambiguously but also maybe literally) stars in the sky and wield their star power. Names are sacrificed, or hidden for protection. These pieces give the story some extra teeth and a darker edge of danger that always feels present at the margins. The extra ambiguity over what's real in a story about movie magic is delicious.
I have mixed feelings about parts of the end, especially with the trip to San Francisco. I think this is probably the part where the novel loses me a little bit. The pieces work well, but the pacing is a little jarring. It's nice to have a moment to come full circle to Luli's sister, the reveal of art outside of Hollywood that Luli has been too tunnel-visioned to see, and the continuing contrast of the realness of Tara and other places with the fey world of movies. I like the depth that this journey adds, and I'm not sure where else arguably in the novel that it would go.
"What so great about being seen?" Tara demanded. "What's so important about that?"
She might have had the words for it, but I didn't. They locked up in my throat, about being invisible, about being alien and foreign and strange even in the place where I was born, and about the immortality that wove through my parents' lives but ultimately would fail them. Their immortality belonged to other people, and I hated that.
One thing I saw in this reread was how much the book played with "being seen": fey bargains to get seen in pictures; pressure about being seen in "wrong" ways; being mis-seen as Mexican instead of Venezuelan; being asked to make do things to be seen as straight and married; the fear of being seen as crossing class lines or being seen as queer and butch.
screamsbeneath replied to enne📚's status
@picklish@books.theunseen.city Your review is spot on with my experiences and articulates my feelings much better than my own. The setting was perfect for fey magical realism and for the theme of being seen and how complex that is depending on one’s embodiment within context of a societal lens (and all the nuanced facets within).
screamsbeneath started reading Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum
🚨 New zine! 🚨
‘A Singapore-based speculative fiction zine. Soliciting submissions for our inaugural issues
‘(All writers are welcome to submit regardless of residence or nationality)’