book blog – Citronella Seance Reads

A Fully Realized Creation

July 16, 2020Hannah LLeave a comment

Review of The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal Graphic Novel

First, a little backstory.

I discovered The Adventure Zone (TAZ) as it was maybe 3/4 of the way through the Balance campaign. I caught up just in time for Stolen Century and the Finale and by then I was hooked. For those of you that have never listened to The Adventure Zone, this probably sounds like a lot of nonsense words so let me explain.

The Adventure Zone is a podcast of three brothers and their dad playing Dungeons & Dragon and is broken into various arcs for one large campaign, think of them like seasons to a TV shows entire series. The story follows three playable characters, Taako (played by Justin McElroy), Magnus (played by Travis McElroy) and Merle (played by Clint McElroy), and the Dungeon Master, Griffin McElroy. The podcast gained an insane internet following because of its inclusive characters, intense story lines, and gut-busting humor.

Anyway, the backstory.

I started listening to The Adventure Zone when I was working a job I absolutely hated with a commute that I hated even more. The drive took me a little over an hour each way, and given that each TAZ episode is around an hour, I was able to get through two in a day, usually. I sped through. They were the only thing that made my commute any semblance of bearable, listening to those three goofy dudes and their dad have fun, create insane stories together, and just enjoy each other’s company.

The second half of the Balance campaign had such a profound impact on me that I have something tattooed from the campaign on my body, the symbol for the Bureau of Balance. Pictured below.

When the graphic novel series was announced around three years ago I was so beyond excited, not just to see all of the amazing exploits in a visual form, but also because I was just so damn proud of these three brothers and their dad for creating a story so poignant and uplifting and funny that it transcended mediums.

As anyone who loves TAZ will tell you, the third arc, Petals to the Metal, is when shit started to get “serious”. For Here There Be Gerblins (Arc 1) and Murder on the Rockport Limited (Arc 2), everyone was still trying to find their footing and get involved with the story. Petals the Metal is where you FIRST start to see little tid bits of plot that don’t have pay off for (in podcast time) a good few years. So to see them visually represented finally really did an emotional number on me.

Petals to the Metal follows the three main characters, Taako, Magnus, and Merle as they travel to the city of Goldcliffe to try and reclaim an insanely magical artifact called the Gaia Sash. It’s been claimed by a woman named Sloane who used to be a Battle Racer (essentially a Mad Max version of pod racing from Star Wars). She’s using its powers but, as the characters know, anyone who tries to use one of those magical artifacts falls under its “Thrall” and loses control of their magic. To try and get the Gaia Sash away from her they enlist the help of Hurley, a halfling Monk in the Goldcliffe militia. Except, Hurley and Sloane have a fair bit of history. Hilarity and antics ensue, but the ending was still perfect and visually represented everything I could have ever asked for.

**SPOILERS UNDERNEATH, CONTINUE IF YOU DARE**

I cried a total of six times and I can tell you exactly when…

Sloane and Hurley kissing for the first time
Sloane and Hurley saving Hurley from the Silverpoint poison
BARRY FUCKING BLUE JEANS
HE HAD A POLAROID OF LUP Y’ALL
Lucretia and Merle talking about the Gaia Sash
Sloane and Hurley reawakening as their badass cherry blossom forest nymph selves
The appearance of The Hunger/John

I am not ashamed to say I cried a good few times, and this story deserves it. It deserves all the tears. The next few installments of the graphic novel are going to absolutely murder me and I cannot wait. Because, guess what, THE NEXT ONE IS KRAVITZ Y’ALL.

June 2020 Monthly Roundup

July 13, 2020Hannah LLeave a comment

June was a…wild month, to put it lightly. I started off the month by losing my job and with everything else going on in the world, sometimes it was hard to concentrate, especially on reading. When I’m reading if a book isn’t holding my full attention my mind tends to wander and, during this time, my mind had a lot to sort of dwell on and wander to. Because of this I didn’t read too much in June, though I still managed to cross quite a few off my TBR.

July is already going much better, which I couldn’t be more happy about. I hope I can catch up to my reading goal for 2020. I set it at 100 and right now I’m at 43 which is around 9 books behind where I should be (thanks, GoodReads…). However, I also start grad school in August so, I’m not holding out too much hope. Either way, I know I’m going to spend the rest of the year reading some amazing books and that’s really all I want!

1) The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

This was, by far and away, my favorite book of the month. My Best Friend’s Exorcism is an amazing book that is at turns horrifying, hysterical and poignant and The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires was no different. It even takes place in the same town, but instead of focusing on two teens grappling with the idea of growing up, this one focuses on a group of middle aged mothers grappling with the idea of stagnating. I really loved all of the women and found myself getting so frustrated at the parts where they weren’t believed and were instead belittled and silenced. It’s a reality for too many women, even now. This book also solidified that I will always find a vampire hot, no matter how weird or creepy they are. Whoops.

2) Docile by K.M. Szpara

First of all, this book comes with some big, fat content warnings that I believe are outlined on the back of the book. But basically they include rape and sexual assault and few other very graphic depictions. One of my goals for 2020 was to discover and read more trans authors and that’s partly how I discovered Docile. Also, I stalk tor.com publishing like an absolute animal for Locked Tomb goodies. This book is a commentary on capitalism, plain and simple. Debt is astronomical and people pay it off by offering their bodies up as service, whether for hard labor, house keeping, or prostitution. Either way, it’s all the same, you’re sacrificing your body, your autonomy, your years, and your freedom to pay off you or your family’s massive amount of debt. This book is a wild ride and will definitely not be for everyone, but it has some very good things to say about consent under capitalism and the idea of false choice.

3) Children of Blood & Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

I’ll be completely honest, I really wanted to like this more than I did. It was still AMAZING, don’t get me wrong, but I was expecting to be wowed and instead I read a typical Young Adult fantasy book. However, given the whitewashing of YA, there is something to be said about how necessary average but inclusive young adult books are. My biggest critique of the book is that I legitimately did not understand a lot of the choices the characters made, especially Inan. Inan deserves a good punch to the throat and that doesn’t change into book two but I’ll get into that in a second. To a certain extent Zelie and Amari are almost impossible to tell apart in terms of character. The only difference is that Zelie is a little meaner. Having said that though, I LOVED the magic system and the world itself, I just wish the characters had moved through it a little better.

4) Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Caraval is one of those series I see everywhere, especially on Bookstagram, so I figured I should finally check it out. It also didn’t hurt that my significant other had already bought it a while back, so it was just sitting on the book shelf, ripe for the picking. I liked this a lot, in particular because it shocked me. Twists and turns in YA books can sometimes to be easy to predict but with this, I really had no idea what was real and what wasn’t or a clear idea of how it was obviously going to end. The only gripe I had is that Julian is basically indistinguishable from every other roguish, but (of course) self-sacrificing male love interest. In the end though, the relationship between the sisters was enough to keep me around. That and I’m fascinated by Legend.

5) Children of Virtue & Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

There’s definitely something to be said about the fact that I read both of these books in the same month, but I still just couldn’t get myself to jive with any of the character decisions. They still seem nonsensical and even, at times, purposefully made against what they would have done just for the sake of plot. Especially, again, Inan. His choices make no sense and I always end up just wanting to slap him. I also didn’t really like the ending, especially the cliff hanger. I know it’s the middle book but it still felt SO anti-climatic that I felt like I had whiplash from how sudden that cliff-hanger was out of literally no where. Roen is the only character I absolutely love and if anything happens to him, I will riot.

Be sure to stay up to date with everything I’m reading by following me on Instagram @citronella_seance!

Gay Means Happy Too

May 14, 2020Hannah LLeave a comment

A Review of Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye

**Disclaimer** This turns into something a little more in-depth than a normal review because I have a lot of thoughts on the nature of LGBTQ+ romance for teens and I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about it.

Kai Sheridan is your normal teenager, he likes to write, loves his family, and has a small but super close group of friends that he knows he can trust with anything. Except for…the fact that he’s gay. Kai has known for a while that he’s gay but he’s never told anyone about it. He’s pretty sure his friends would accept him, but he’s a little less sure about his family. Either way, he hesitates coming out because he doesn’t want to be known as “Kai Sheridan…the gay one.”

He’s hid it pretty well, until he gets swept up in a school-wide dare and ends up asking out one of the most popular students, Bryson Keller. Bryson hasn’t really dated throughout high school under the excuse that high school relationships are stupid, that they’ll never make it through college. They’re just a waste of time. Despite that, though, Bryson is pretty confident that if he WANTED to, he could have a new date every week. Hence where the dare comes in. For a good chunk of senior year, Bryson has to say yes to the first person who asks him out at the beginning of each week and dump them at the end of the week. They aren’t “real” relationships, it’s just a game.

Until the week that Kai asks Bryson out on a rather helpful burst of confidence. Of course, nothing was ever said in the dare rules that it HAD to be a girl, just that it had to be the first person to ask him out. So, Bryson and Kai start dating.

I love fake dating troupes, they’re typically pretty cheesy but my little heart loves them anyway. This one did not disappoint. Bryson and Kai keep their pretend relationship a secret but as they spend time together so Bryson can fulfill the dare, they start to fall for each other. Hard.

Throughout the novel there are some rough parts, they get caught by one of Brysons friends who doesn’t accept him potentially being gay. Kai’s mom finds out and has a less than accepting initial response. But, in the end, everything works out and Kai and Bryson live happily ever after, so to speak.

When I finished the novel, I was conflicted. I felt like some parts were TOO easy, that everything fit together a little too well. But I quickly realized there’s absolutely no reason they shouldn’t. We live in a world full of heteronormative fairy tales. No one questions if it was “too easy” for Cinderella and The Prince to end up together. No one questions if the stars aligned just a little too perfectly for the ultimate jock boy to fall in love with the bookish girl. There are heaps upon heaps of straight stories where, after a little bit of conflict, everything just falls into place and no one really questions it.

Why, then, should an LGBTQ+ romance be any different? Why do we have this pre-conceived notion that LGBTQ+ youth books need to highlight a central struggle that never ends or that the characters need to always be sad or that more “work” needs to be put into the story for those characters to get their happy ending? I think it’s become we have buried a bias so deep inside of ourselves, as a society, that says if you’re different you have to be upset about it. But really, there’s nothing to be upset about. Sometimes two young men can fall in love over the course of a week and everything turns out okay, because why not, our society is FULL to the brim of the exact same story told from the perspective of straight people.

I loved this book and everything it stands for. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five was because I felt like sometimes the dialogue was a little bit unrealistic for real life teenagers, but I absolutely adored Kai and Bryson. They deserve happiness and they deserve to have it come as easily as it does for every other straight couple that has ever been written.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing me with a free eBook of Date Me, Bryson Keller, for the purpose of this review.

Date Me, Bryson Keller is out Tuesday, May 19.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS

Dark Academia Experimental

May 1, 2020Hannah LLeave a comment

A Review of Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

At face value, Catherine House should be right up my alley. I love Dark Academia so anything that involves private, old, extremely selective colleges immediately puts a book on my radar. Not only does Catherine House check all of those boxes, it’s also a school shrouded in mystery. It’s surrounded by high gates that only students, staff, and faculty can enter. No one in the outside world really has a clear idea what’s going on inside.

Sounds amazing right?! Unfortunately, Catherine House fell a bit flat for me. I had trouble enjoying any of the characters, or even really understanding who they were as people. It’s mentioned by other characters many times that Ines, the main character, is “super cool” but I never really saw anything to evidence that. I didn’t see much evidence about her personality at all, honestly. She’s kind of into art, she’s kind of a bad student, she’s kind of inquisitive, maybe she’s kind of cool. I still don’t really know who Ines is as a person.

If Ines was lacking character personality, the side characters were made of cardboard. I honestly couldn’t tell you what type of people any of the side characters were, with the exception of Theo because his actions, however indirect, at least helped move and shift the plot and kept it exciting.

I loved the actual story. A college doing experiments on its students and studying a brand new, very new-age technology is a rad concept and I greatly enjoyed the few times Ines interacted with the professors and the director, Viktoria. But I feel like the story was stunted by how much time the author tried to fit into it. Three whole years of college is a lot to try and fit into one novel’s time and it ended up feeling rushed and curt. This ended up making the prose feel a little sophomoric. Parts of it read more like a middle grade book to me, but then in the very next sentence two characters will be fucking or a character will be talking about masturbating. It was a very jarring dichotomy.

I’m giving this book three stars because I very much enjoyed the concept and the college itself. I also enjoyed the ending, even if it did feel rushed. I found myself wishing the college was populated with students who had a bit more of a personality.

I was provided a free galley of this book through HarperCollins and NetGalley for the purpose of this review.

Catherine House is out May 12, 2020!

The Inevitability of American Decay

March 28, 2020Hannah LLeave a comment

A Review of Anthropocene Rag by Alex Irvine

This novella is described, right on the cover, as being part Willy Wonka and part Huckleberry Finn, and let me say, that description is exceedingly accurate. It’s a description that, at face value, I feel like I should enjoy, but ultimately this sci-fi dystopian novella about magical realism and robots left me wanting more.

About 90% of the novella follows six people from across America as they make their way to a city in the Rockies that has become more myth than reality, Monument City. Making their way across the country, however, proves to be a little less than normal given that billions upon billions of nanotech-like robots have taken over America and mold the land and the people to whatever story or Americana lore it wishes to see. This is where the intersection of sci-fi and magical realism starts to come into play. Honestly, I loved these parts of the novella. One character describes how “The Boom”, the technology that rules the land, turned thousands of people into a baseball stadium just to watch a historic game played out on it.

This take on our already waning bodily autonomy as we enter into the late stages of capitalism was a very interesting facet of the story and I was intrigued by all of the characters, especially Geck and Teeny. Geck is especially interesting to this ever-present technology because he’s a twin. Like the billions of nanos that make up The Boom, Geck and his twin, Kyle, are coded exactly the same but yet still turned out to be two different people with two different personalities.

I found each character’s journey to Monument City to be fascinating, including Prospector Ed, the robot or “construct” that was assigned to find these six characters and bring them to Monument City. I wanted to know more about The Boom and the kind of world America is now and what Monument City really is. I know the nature of a novella means I won’t get all the answers and should figure some out for myself, but I felt like the plot could have been structured with just a little bit more emphasis on the arrival to Monument City.

Overall I really enjoyed this story and loved the combination of magical realism with science fiction. I also loved the message about American culture and history that Alex Irvine was trying to get across, I just wish there was more of it!

Thank you to NetGalley and tor.com Publishing for the free galley version of this book for the purpose of this review.

Anthropocene Rag comes out this Tuesday, March 31! Check out the links below to learn more.