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The Fiancée Farce, by Alexandria Bellefleur

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The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur My rating: 4 of 5 stars After the disaster that the latest “Bruno” turned out to be, “The Fiancée Farce” was exactly the palate cleanser I needed: warm, funny, queer, and far more wholehearted than its knowingly ridiculous premise might suggest. On paper, a marriage of convenience is one of the oldest romance contraptions in the book. In practice, Alexandria Bellefleur makes it feel fresh because the romance is built not on trope, but on trust. What charmed me most was not simply that Gemma and Tansy want each other. It was that they begin, almost instinctively, to tell each other the truth. » these days, she was nothing if not brutally honest with herself « That matters. A lot of contemporary romances, including very good ones, still run on people withholding the one thing that would make the relationship real. “The Fiancée Farce” takes the more generous route. Tansy begins from a lie, yes, but the emotional shape of the novel comes from t...
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A Murder in Springtime (Bruno, Chief of Police #19), by Martin Walker

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A Murder in Springtime by Martin Walker My rating: 2 of 5 stars Less murder mystery than background noise in St. Denis. “A Murder in Springtime” ought to have been a return to what these Bruno novels used to do well: a local crime, a lived-in village, familiar people, and a mystery that actually matters more than the garnish around it. Instead, I found myself trudging through a novel that seemed oddly embarrassed by its own murder plot, forever wandering off into side-business, social clutter, stale emotional nonsense, and the usual namedropping of recurring figures who barely justify their presence. The international spy absurdity may be gone, and that is a mercy, but Walker has not replaced it with focus. » It might not have been quite like the old days « No kidding. That line lands almost like an accidental confession. The book keeps gesturing towards the older, better Bruno formula, but it never really recovers it. The murder feels secondary for far too long, and by the time the ...
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Sturm im Mumintal (Mumins #5), von Tove Jansson

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Sturm im Mumintal von Tove Jansson Meine Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen Ich kenne die Mumin-Bücher seit meiner frühen Kindheit, und ich liebe sie wie kaum etwas anderes, das ich je gelesen habe. Gerade deshalb war ich froh, Sturm im Mumintal nicht bloß nostalgisch wiederzusehen, sondern neu zu erleben: als wildes, warmes, komisches Abenteuerbuch, das seine Zärtlichkeit nie von seiner anarchischen Lust am Chaos trennt. » Falls ein Sturm kommt«, sagte sie vor sich hin und seufzte glücklich. « Die Geschichte um die Mumins in einem unfreiwillig schwimmenden Theater ist nicht einfach nur originell. Sie ist eine grandiose Idee, weil sie Bewegung, Verwandlung und Spiel in die eigentliche Form des Romans einschreibt. Alles gerät ins Treiben, Häuser, Rollen, Familienordnungen, sogar die Frage, wer auf welcher Bühne gerade wen spielt. » Am nächsten Morgen stand alles unter Wasser. Kinderwagen, Fischkästen und Zäune segelten vorbei – und sogar ein Haus. « Es hat etwas von einem ständigen Neubeginn....
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Make Democracy Great Again!: Worte gegen den Weltuntergang

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Make Democracy Great Again!: Worte gegen den Weltuntergang by Sarah Bosetti Meine Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen Sarah Bosetti ist aus meiner persönlichen Sicht eine der brilliantesten Kommentatorinnen unserer Zeit. Die Kombination aus ethisch-moralisch unglaublich treffsicherem Inhalt mit einer großartigen, scharfzüngigen Darstellung in ihren Video-Kolummnen hat mir für manches die Augen geöffnet und meine Meinung verändert. Eine Person, der das bei mir gelingt, muss schon besonders gute Argumente haben. ;) Die hat Bosetti auch in diesem Buch und auch der Inhalt trifft, wie immer, exakt ins Ziel. Aber es fehlt etwas für mich Entscheidendes: Die Persönlichkeit, die Stimme, die Mimik - wie verfrachtet das auch in ein Buch?! So tue ich etwas Ungewohntes: Ich lege dieses Buch ungefähr zur Hälfte gelesen beiseite und gebe ihm doch fünf Sterne. Denn wenn Bosetti reden will, höre und schaue ich sehr genau zu - lesen reicht in diesem spezifischen Falle einfach nicht aus. All meine Review auf Goo...
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Reliquary (Pendergast #2), by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

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Reliquary by Douglas Preston My rating: 2 of 5 stars “Reliquary” is what happens when a sequel mistakes escalation for improvement. Where “ Relic ” ( review ) was a fast-paced thriller that, for me, got the basics right and delivered genuine suspense in a tightly contained setting, “Reliquary” sprawls, overexplains, and keeps piling on lurid ideas until the whole thing starts to wobble under its own weight. It still has energy, and now and then it lands a scene well, but mostly I found myself watching it become more absurd with every new revelation. Its old-fashioned impulse to go big, dirty, and nasty is not a strength here but one more reason the whole thing feels overcooked and heavy-handed. Preston and Child clearly want the New York underworld here, literal and figurative, to feel mythic, diseased, and overwhelming. At moments, that works. There is proper propulsion in some of the descents into the underground, and the book can still generate suspense on a scene-by-scene level. O...
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Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children #1), by Seanan McGuire

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Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire My rating: 5 of 5 stars Not the fantasy of going through the door, but the heartbreak of coming back. Every portal fantasy asks what lies beyond the door. What Seanan McGuire asks instead is what happens after the door shuts behind you, and that shift gives “Every Heart a Doorway” its bruised, peculiar power. » Children have always disappeared under the right conditions. « I went in expecting something wistful and whimsical. What I found was weirder, sadder, and much sharper about loneliness, belonging, and the violence of being told that your deepest truth is nonsense. » Narrate the impossible things. « That line feels like the novella’s method in miniature. McGuire writes with the economy of a fable, but not the emotional simplicity of one. The prose is lean, clean, and surprisingly cutting. Eleanor West’s school is not a cosy sanctuary for charming misfits so much as a halfway house for children who have already found the worlds that suite...
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Annie Bot, by Sierra Greer

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Annie Bot by Sierra Greer My rating: 4 of 5 stars I found "Annie Bot" deeply unsettling, and I mean that as praise. This is not a comfortable novel, nor should it be. Sierra Greer builds Annie’s world around a premise that is immediately cruel, a sentient artificial woman designed to please a man who wants obedience, reassurance, and sexual availability without ever having to recognise the full personhood of the being in front of him. Doug is monstrous not because he is extravagant in his evil, but because he is so recognisably entitled, selfish, and certain that Annie exists for him. I loathed him from the start, and the novel is strongest whenever it forces that revulsion into the foreground. What made the book painful to read, in the best sense, was Annie’s growing awareness of her own lack of choice. Every decision she makes is constrained by systems of control, punishment, and dependence, which means even small acts of thought or resistance carry emotional weight. Gr...
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