Emissa And Vis. Still Thinking About Them

“Who she is makes no sense to her. How she became. What she will become still.”

— David Vann, Bright Air Black

Hungerstone || Kat Dunn ★★☆☆☆ Started: 24.02.2025 Finished: 14.03.2025 Thank you to NetGalley and Zando for providing me with an ARC and giving me the opportunity to share my honest review. "Hungerstone" is, ostensibly, a very well-researched and painstakingly crafted novel, that unfortunately amounts to very little. Yes, the clothing and the cuisine described are era-appropriate, but they only make the novel tedious, at times even dull. By contrast, the characters seem to have been afforded less thought - the husband is a painfully one-dimensional caricature of a robber baron, the Carmilla of Dunn is nowhere near as eloquent as Le Fanu's, oftentimes she is simply rude to the point you can't understand how anyone could find her alluring, and the protagonist, Lenore, flounders through the pages, puppeteered, at different times, by her husband and then by Carmilla. She psychoanalyzes herself like a modern woman, unequivocally finding the roots of her problems in her traumatic childhood, and yet does nothing with that insight until Carmilla prods her into action. There is a lot of telling instead of showing, a lot of unambiguous hammering of the author's ideas that makes for a mostly unpleasant reading experience - the reader is not allowed to draw their own conclusions at any point, everything is conveniently spelled out on the page. In short, "Hungerstone", much like "Our Hideous Progeny", is a lukewarm (at best) retelling of a much more competent, enticing, exciting novel, interspersed with poorly planted 21st century feminism, that ends up being a mind-numbingly tedious experience. I can recognize the effort that went into this work, but just because something takes a lot of time and research, doesn't mean it's good.

Lessons in Chemistry || Bonnie Garmus ★★★★★ Started: 14.03.2025 Finished: 04.04.2025 Set in 1960s California; Lessons In Chemistry is the brilliant, idiosyncratic and uplifting story of a female scientist whose career is derailed by the idea that a woman's place is in the home - something she most definitely does not believe - only to find herself the star of America's best-loved TV cooking show. Admittedly, I was a bit hesitant about picking up Lessons in Chemistry - mostly because of the quite unhelpful, quite pink, quite romance-coded US cover (nothing against romance, of course, just not what I'm looking for, most of the time). But then I came across the US edition with the periodic table cover and I simply had to know more - and I was not disappointed. Elizabeth Zott is such an incredible character, it was a true pleasure following her trials and tribulations along the pages of this book, and the family she found along the way was portrayed masterfully as well, no character flat or forgettable - it all made for a novel that was virtually impossible to put down. Definitely a strong start to April!

A Language of Dragons || S.F. Williamson ★★★★☆ Started: 23.04.2025 Finished: 05.05.2025 London, 1923. Dragons soar through the skies and protests erupt on the streets, but Vivian Featherswallow isn’t worried. She’s going to follow the rules, get an internship studying dragon languages, and make sure her little sister never has to risk growing up Third Class. By midnight, Viv has started a civil war. With her parents arrested and her sister missing, all the safety Viv has worked for is collapsing around her. So when a lifeline is offered in the form of a mysterious ‘job’, she grabs it. Arriving at Bletchley Park, Viv discovers that she has been recruited as a codebreaker helping the war effort – if she succeeds, she and her family can all go home again. If she doesn’t, they’ll all die. I'll come clean - I only got this book because of the stunning international edition with the blue cover and sprayed edges. Luckily, the content did not let me down either - the main plotline of cracking the secret dragon code / language was fascinating. The advertised enemies to lovers romance was, truthfully, barely enemies to lovers at all, but since that was never the main draw for me, I didn't mind this one bit. And though at times A Language of Dragons feels a little too ostensibly "Babel meets Fourth Wing", with heavy emphasis on the Babel influence, it was overall still a very enjoyable read.

String || Paul Tobin (Author), Sara Colella (colorist), Taylor Esposito (letterer), Carlos Javier Olivares (illustrator) ★★★★★ Started: 20.02.2025 Finished: 20.02.2025 Thank you to NetGalley and Mad Cave Studios for providing me with an ARC and giving me the opportunity to share my honest review. This vibrantly illustrated graphic novel follows Yoon-Sook Namgung, a 25-year-old Korean-American woman with the unique ability to see two types of “strings” connecting various people: one blue, stretching between intimate partners, the other —dark black— connecting murderers and their victims. She puts her abilities to good use by aiding the police in solving homicide cases, and earns a living by using the blue strings to help people expose their cheating partners. All is good, until one day she discovers a black string connected to herself, and she's set in a race against time to uncover her would be murderer. The story is fast-paced and engaging throughout, and we see Yoon in her element, solving her open cases in an attempt to prevent her murder. I enjoyed seeing her interact with her clients and the suspects in their cases - none of them felt one-dimensional or cartoonish, and it made for a truly compelling story. The easy-going banter between Yoon and Luke, the police officer she were consulting, in particular, was a highlight. Another strength of "String" is the artwork - the entire graphic novel is illustrated in full, vivid color, that only enhances the story - excellent work by Carlos Javier Olivares and Sara Colella! That being said, the graphic novel does include quite a bit of violence and one particular graphic sex panel, so it might not be suitable for a younger audience.

Pandora's Box || Osamu Dazai ★★★★☆ Started: 24.02.2025 Finished: 13.03.2025 The war is over. Japan is defeated. Together with his country, a young man must rebuild his life. He will begin at a sanatorium, where everyone gets a nickname, surrounded by an interesting ensemble of patients and caregivers.

(...) but the skin remembers, the body holds everything inside itself, the bones can stiffen to claws.

Sophie Mackintosh, excerpt from Cursed Bread