Taste the Books: Review Morsels #39 Naomi Salman, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Courtney Gould

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Nothing but the Rain by Naomi Salman (ARC Review)

★★★★

In a little town plagued by a rain that erases memories, an elderly Black woman records her days and her water experiments on a journal and just does her best to stay alive - until a white single mother tries to get her involved in a foolish escape plan at all costs.

***

First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Tor Publishing Group for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

Written in diary form and aptly divided into three sections, NBTR is a clever, engaging and quotable novella that, despite its being on the short side (only 96 pages), manages to string a series of twists together, until the last page will leave you gaping. Mind you, if it's answers that you're looking for, you're going to be disappointed - NBTR is a study in human nature and morally grey characters under exceptional circumstances, the hows and whys of which are left intentionally vague (though thanks to the protagonist, we get plenty of information about the rain-induced memory-loss-phenomenon's effects), and personally, I'm OK with that. (I'm not even sure how to label this one - magical realism? science fiction? but who cares. Maybe both haha). I have to admit though that I'm a little ambivalent about the main character (a Black, elderly retired doctor): on one hand, it's refreshing to see representation of that kind, both race- and age-wise; on the other hand, for reasons I can't dwell upon without spoiling the ending, I would have been more at ease with her Blackness if the author had shared the same ethnicity. To be fair, it's not like white characters get a pass in this story...far from it...I'm just saying that their sins weigh differently. Anyhow, I'll let Black readers have the last word about it. Still a well-crafted, thought-provoking, twisty little read.

Note: definitive review (due to time commitments, I've decided not to write full-length reviews anymore for short stories, novellas and anthologies, except in special cases or unless they're part of a series).

And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky (ARC Review)

★★★★

Failing children TV's presenter Harry, whose grandmother wrote a famous MG portal fantasy series, finds out that the world she immortalised in her books is real...though not exactly truthful... and becomes the reluctant (or better, accidental) hero trying to stave off the place's and its inhabitants' decay. But Underhill is far from an average Narnia gone bad, not to mention there's a skeleton in the (literal) family closet that may cost Harry his life...or worse.

***

Rated 4.5 really.

First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Rebellion Publishing for providing an ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

This is a delightful (if dark and melancholic...and yet humorous) tribute to/twist on the portal fantasy genre, with a sprinkle of real-world issues (mainly in the form of an unnamed, but well recognisable pandemic...I swear though, it's not a downer - plus it serves a narrative purpose).

Tchaikovsky has a talent for putting antiheroes (like in his time-travel novella One Day All This Will Be Yours) and losers (like here) in surreal/absurdist situations and making us root for them, despite their shortcomings. He also has a talent for deconstructing genres while paying homage to them, and for writing novellas that - like Doctor Who's TARDIS - are bigger on the inside. His pocket-universe-gone-bad in this one is full of memorable - if literally rotting - characters (all the more memorable for that very reason 😂) and (darkly) funny imagery, but the best thing about it is the mystery at its core, which, once revealed, puts a whole spin on your usual portal fantasy mythology. I didn't see the ending coming, but I have to say that it perfectly fits the story, and it's - if not upbeat - surprisingly hopeful for a story about a disintegrating world and a failing-at-life protagonist (actually, the ending has a similar vibe to The Shadow Glass by Josh Winning, and now that I think of it, the main character's journey slightly mirrors the one in Winning's book, so if you loved TSG you might enjoy APACT as well). In short, if you're looking for a portal fantasy off the beaten path, this one won't disappoint you.

(I detracted half a star because I struggled a little with the first chapters, but the rotten Narnia rocked my socks off!).

Note: definitive review (due to time commitments, I've decided not to write full-length reviews anymore for short stories, novellas and anthologies, except in special cases or unless they're part of a series).

The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould

★★★★

A couple of gay TV paranormal investigators returns to their bigoted hometown with their adopted 18 y.o. daughter, allegedly to scout locations for their show, and the event spawns a series of disappearances involving local teens, that the daughter starts to look into with the aid of a girl who lost her boyfriend.

***

This one weaved Supernatural vibes, small-town rot, atmospheric horror, murder mystery, ghosts of different kinds, unexpected twists, family dynamics, queer rep, self-acceptance, and did it effortlessly (or so it seemed). I liked how the gay dads played a big role (yay for reversing the absentee-parent-in-YA unspoken rule!), and even aunts and cousins got a spotlight; and I liked how the (lesbian) protagonist was sassy - which is pretty much the norm in YA - but again, in an apparently effortless way, as opposed to the painfully staged exchanges you can find in certain teen books. I even liked the enemies-to-lovers trope, though a certain bump in the two girls' road to happiness should have been pretty major and unforgivable, but hey...I guess we can cut some slack to teen hormones 😂 (OK, the thing is more complicated than that, to be honest). Social commentary meets supernatural mystery (or more like, is rooted in it) with queer protagonists - can we make it a new trend?

Full review to come.

So, have you read/are you planning to read any of the above? And if you have, what do you think of them? Do you post mini reviews? Do you like to read them?