The Telling Book Review

Rawr Reader,

Two books in one month? What! I know I'm proud of myself too. I actually finished this novel a couple days ago and am still ruminating. Much to delve into.

The synopsis for The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin is provided by Goodreads:

Once a culturally rich world, the planet Aka has been utterly transformed by technology. Records of the past have been destroyed, and citizens are strictly monitored. But an official observer from Earth named Sutty has learned of a group of outcasts who live in the wilderness. They still believe in the ancient ways and still practice its lost religion - the Telling.

Intrigued by their beliefs, Sutty joins them on a sacred pilgrimage into the mountains...and into the dangerous terrain of her own heart, mind, and soul.

Reference:

    Instead of being rather general with a normal Instagram or Goodreads rec instead I'll share where I first heard of this prolific author, the movie: The Jane Austen Book Club. The adorable Grigg, played excellently by Hugh Dancy, is a nerd for anything sci-fi and tries to indoctrinate another less-genre-more-literary member of the eponymous group into trying out some Le Guin. Out of curiosity, I knew I had to give her a chance. 

Review:

   What's the best kind of read? Books about books. What's the next best thing? Stories about stories. Oral, written, melodic, instrumental—cast me away, spellbind me into waves of alliteration or the open winds of free verse. 

   One of my favorite things about Le Guin is her breadth of language. In my humble opinion, the structure of her stories aren't so much formed by technical frames. Her stories are as much a soul as one of her characters. You remember less about hair color or shape of nose but how they made you feel, what memories you created together. When I read a Le Guin, The Telling being my fourth, I am not only transported to another world. Her language evokes emotions as much as the actions of characters. Her world structures invite speculation and introspection. And probably one of the greatest gifts an author can leave: to have the reader discover something new with each reread.

   A quote of hers that resonates with me is from the 65th National Book Awards in 2014, where Le Guin earned the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She says:

"Right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art."

   There are people who have voices that are loud and make statements in their epochs, then there are people who speak gently and whose voices reverberate throughout history. As a writer myself, I take pride in being an artist. And hearing someone take up arms against the system no matter how small they may be or outnumbered, to use their platform to lift the message that writing isn't something to commercialize with disposable and expendable attention but to study, respect, and grow from through longevity. This work of art is a prime example.

    Our protagonist Sutty is in search of truth. The people of the planet Aka are strictly monitored. The few she interacts with spew the same scripted responses. Perhaps they live freer lives—but she never witnesses it. In an unexpected turn of events, she's granted permission as an Observer from Terra to leave the major city Dovza City and travel to a smaller community to learn cultural languages and literature—which is the reason of her presence on Aka the first place. Far from technology, far from modern civilization, the people of Okzat-Ozkat take in the alien from Earth with more nuanced curiosity and shy enthusiasm. Throughout her time in Okzat-Ozkat she begins to realize that the culture and society she was accustomed to in Dovza City was in fact not reflective of the cultures in less monitored cities. Within the last one hundred years (during Sutty's transit from Earth to Aka), the planet went through a major cultural wash. Many books were destroyed. Languages and customs forbidden. It is in Okzat-Ozkat where traces of the past linger and where Sutty makes her greatest discovery.

   The Telling. A religion without a clear definition. A religion that is highly regarded even in guarded times. Its weight isn't measured by conventional means. Its significance is in a way heightened due to the illegality of it. Carriers of the Telling, the maz, itinerants and typically elders, spread the Telling through oral renditions. The stories they tell are endless and in a beautiful way, the interpretations are as well. 

   What makes this religion very appealing you might ask? Aside from a spoiler (down below), it focuses on connection, community, and respect. It places worth on the mundane. It values a simple life and the experiences within one.

   There is an antagonist, a Monitor (whom Sutty prefers to label than name), who doesn't cater to the flashiness of a Terran in his presence. In the world of Aka, Terrans are known to possess knowledge and technology that is valuable which make the arrival of any Terran alien held in esteem. His significance goes beyond shallow motives like stopping Sutty from learning about secret societies as he harbors a secret that Sutty never would have imagined. 

   The story's strength comes from understanding the culture of this alien species and their customs. What is so rewarding about Le Guin's worldbuilding is that you can feel the history that's occurred by the language used (between characters this time—not Le Guin's writing) and the events that take place which explain the present way of life. Her worldbuilding reminds me of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. He doesn't baby the reader. You land in the action and you have to learn to keep up. (Though Le Guin has a softer, more eloquent way of landing you in the action.) Because, you the reader is not just comparing one small community's way of life to you the reader's reality—you need to compare it to the present dominant way of life on Aka AND against Sutty's memories of ways of living back on Terra. A pinch political, but Sutty wants to prevent what happened, the irreversible destruction on Terra, from happening here. It's honestly amazing Le Guin managed so much in a novel under 250 pages*.

   Now I know science fiction can be a little challenging in regards to relating to characters. Sutty doesn't have as many layers to her as Jamie Lannister, Frankenstein's Monster, Mattie Ross, etc, but like I mentioned above, she is in search of a truth, in particular a truth she was unable to find back on her home world. And I think all of us can connect in even a small way with wanting to know a bigger truth about our existence and being alive. I was glad she was the eyes we saw this world through. She's a historian, striving to be unbiased, eager to learn, open to listening—as readers we want to discover a world with as little influence from our pasts and to discover a world like everyone else. Not through only good experiences and not through only bad. We want the full spectrum, humor and tragedy and triumphs and lessons galore.

   I hate to be repetitive (again!) but this really is a landmark novel. It could take maybe even a couple reads to really appreciate the weight that this novel carries. Premise is one thing, delivery is another, but stamping an impression through your narrative that can transcend generations is an entire feat altogether. Ursula Le Guin, I only wish I could have met you—but thank you for your words. They will not be forgotten. 

I give this book 4.5/5 stars.

Quote:

"She was living among people to whom the highest spiritual attainment was to speak the world truly, and who had been silenced."

"There's a Hainish parable of the Mirror. If the glass is whole, it reflects the whole world, but broken, it shows only fragments, and cuts the hand that holds it."

-Ursula K. Le Guin, The Telling

My Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7170636-nicole

Next To Read:

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Spoilers:

   I want to mention the spoiler about the Telling religion which I didn't want to give away in my review. The Telling is a religion of stories, many stories that almost never match exactly than when another maz tells it, however what I loved most about it is the fact that it's a religion that isn't at its root based on morals. Religions tend to be that way. They tend to dictate to people to perform a certain way. To not perform a certain way. To believe only what was told by a certain person or text. However the Telling doesn't derive its power from that. It is a religion of stories about people. It's focus is on community. You can extract lessons from their telling or you cannot. The Telling is meant to be a present ghost of people who lived long ago. Wicked or good, brave and foolish and fundamentally human (okay this is a stretch since Akans are literally aliens but you get my point). The stories are sometimes simple and sometimes heroic. At its base, they are stories of experiences, each unique because we all have experience life unique from one another. 

   Another strength Sutty learns about this religion is that due to its stripping of moral juice the religion only asks for people to listen. "Not to question, only to listen" (page 153, The Telling by Ace publishers, 2001). Perhaps its running on the coattails of recent years, but its something we in our instant gratification and social media society can all learn to relearn. (This girl included!) We can all slow down, make an effort to listen to one another.

    The Monitor was a character I couldn't quite put my finger on. I wanted more of his presence to be the textbook definition opposite force to my protagonist who causes turmoil and challenges—but Le Guin didn't want to tell the narrative you expect—nay want. In fact, the revelation that he actually grew up with the Telling and had been reformed into forgetting it and wanting to eradicate it was a very surprising and appropriate twist. It made his character more interesting by about 8 points and then made his suicide pages later more poetic, as it mirrors a story Sutty overheard a maz share not long before, (one that must've stayed with him after years). I would like to note how as Sutty begins to understand the Monitor, he becomes less a label and more of a person; lost as she was (mirrors everywhere! not just in stories ;) ), and eventually comes to regard him by his name (Le Guin let me tell you). 

   I thought I wanted to write an essay in this section about how incredible Le Guin's worldbuilding was, but upon reflection, I'm afraid it'll sound more like proof I read the book. While I've covered a fair amount, there is still so much I hadn't covered—locals in Okzat-Ozkat, stories maz share, Sutty's past, the politics on Aka and how the system was formed, what exists in the mountains. Too much for me to say without sharing an essay longer than the novel itself. I stand by wanting to grow and allowing myself the pleasure and honor of discovering something new each time I read this. How many books can I say that for?

   If you've gotten this far without reading it . . . naughty . . . but I'm glad I put my foot down. Go read this, wonderful you. I don't think you'll regret it.

Until Next Time,

Nicole Ciel

*My copy of The Telling is an Ace Trade paperback edition, published 2001

Washington Black Book Review

 Rawr Reader,

I am just shy of the first day of summer, but let me say welcome anyways because in Florida it definitely feels like summer started months ago. I've been on the hunt for a good "summer read" to kickoff the season and in my mind wouldn't settle for anything that didn't comprise of an adventure. And also, I love the cover. Hehe

The synopsis for Washington Black by Esi Edugyan is provided by Goodreads: 

 

A dazzling adventure story about a boy who rises from the ashes of slavery to become a free man of the world.

George Washington Black, or "Wash," an eleven-year-old field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is terrified to be chosen by his master's brother as his manservant. To his surprise, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning--and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human. But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash's head, Christopher and Wash must abandon everything.

What follows is their flight along the eastern coast of America, and, finally, to a remote outpost in the Arctic. What brings Christopher and Wash together will tear them apart, propelling Wash even further across the globe in search of his true self.

From the blistering cane fields of the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, from the earliest aquariums of London to the eerie deserts of Morocco, Washington Black tells a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, of a world destroyed and made whole again, and asks the question, What is true freedom?

Reference:

I believe I was surfing Goodreads and I spotted this lovely cover under the Readers Also Enjoyed category.

Review:

    It almost evokes nostlagia. Reading can take us to far off places that have never existed and also transport us to revisit places we've known from our past. While I've never visited Barbados, the premise reminded me a lot of two personal favorite film of mine: The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. Subject matter differ in almost all fronts, yet we have an adventure spun from a hot environment where the protagonists are swept off to travel across at least one continent to recover something that has been lost to them.

    Firstly, Edugyan's writing is that melody of writing that makes the entire endeavor appear effortless. From the images of the plantation to the brutality of slaves, we're not only spectators of a past era but have become fully immersed in the scenes. We rage with soulless masters and tremble with helpless men. The cruelties inflicted are easy to envision yet hard to see, not the least cruelties inflicted between slaves themselves. 

    And our main set of eyes are through the eyes of young slave George Washington Black, a young boy who does his best to please both master and his personal protector, an older slave named Big Kit. Our endearing protagonist falls under the sight of the new master's brother, Christopher "Titch" Wilde, a scientist and rather alien specimen in Washington's eyes for the fact he doesn't act like most white men. In fact, he doesn't tolerate the institution of slavery at all. One way he wishes to combat his heartless brother is by enlisting Washington as an assistant in building an aerial machine, the Cloudcutter.

    From this point I couldn't stop reading. It's on the precipice of an illusion of fantasy even amongst the stains of human abuse and destruction. Washington will embark on a journey that will transform him not unlike many bildungsroman or coming-of-age tales. He will face cutthroat men, he will face kind men, he will face men who appear kind and are ruthless and likewise vicious-looking men who are in truth silent revolutionaries. A story on race cannot sidestep the presence of it and I felt throughout the story we feel that with Washington, not only as a black man, but as a disfigured man. He's at a disadvantage every step of the way and falls short in the eyes of the world even when he succeeds. Even being in accompaniment with a white man of privilege, his status is constantly at risk. His attachment to Titch grows and over time we begin to realize something. The attachment formed serves as much a hard blow to come as it does a comfort in the present.

    Titch is remarkably open-minded. He takes a young boy with no future and offers him one, and in this kindness the universe reveals a hidden ability: Washington's talent toward drawing. On one side his drawing allows him to help Titch with his experiments and research, on the other his drawing reveals untapped potential and sparks a new passion he was never allowed to experience before: an appreciation for nature. 

    Through a series of unfortunate events, Washington and Titch launch off of the Caribbean island. As indicated in the synopsis, we travel to America then north to the Arctic. We travel east to Europe and then to Africa. All the while Titch and Washington find moments of grace and encounter souls whose motivations we can less easily understand.

    The pair are likeable characters and I found the theme of inner growth profound. It isn't as clear at first what they are searching for, more in Titch's case than Washington as we are not in his mind, but over time as the quest continues and experiences are made, we begin to see how fragile and how strong the constitution of man is regardless of birth. Hurts range from white to black, from child to adult, from women to men, and that helping each other despite degree can be our greatest remedy and our greatest chance to enjoy and understand life.

    The ending brings readers back to the beginning, not literally of course, but in the mindset of our protagonist. Following the events Washington experiences throughout the novel, it sets him behind the lens and allows him to see the hurt Titch suffered not through the eyes of eleven-year-old Wash, but as a young adult Washington. The very last scene in particular I thought was very beautiful. I witnessed it more than felt the scene, and honestly I believe it made more of a lasting impression than had characters expressed themselves verbally or we readers were placed within the mind of the character. We were as vulnerable as the character. We were as exposed as the character. And we marched forward with the courage and uncertainty of the character. 

I give this book 4/5 stars.

Quote:

"You were more concerned that slavery should be a moral stain upon white men than by the actual damage it wreaks on black men."

-Washington Black 

Esi Edugyan, Washington Black

My Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7170636-nicole

Next To Read:

The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin

Spoilers:

    I would like to say my greatest disappointment in this book was the fact that the book cover is very misleading. I signed up for an adventure aboard a flying ship, and we only got the first quarter of the book in it, and not even the entire first quarter, like one chapter. I understand the brevity, a metaphor of the way a young person views the world versus an adult—we can't see Washington growing up and viewing things of his past differently if he grew up living and being around the Cloudcutter. However what a device! I guess if it took up too much of the narrative the story would be drier and less comprised in realism. 

    I would like to give an Underdog Award (and I'm honestly very tempted to give one for each book moving forward) to someone I came to appreciate and like more than I thought I would: Philip. I didn't understand him at first. Not quite Titch but not quite Erasmus. By the end, when Titch explains to Washington that he and Erasmus mostly bullied him as children, I came to understand how the three men grew from that experience in their own ways. Titch wished to amend for his youthful cruelties, Philip never really grew confidence and sympathized with the helplessness of slaves, and Erasmus cradled his power and privilege above others. The tragedy of his death and bringing Washington to witness it is one of the most horrifying scenes in the novel and it is surprising how stealthily it arrived and then was done. 

     Titch's father, James Wilde, I couldn't really wrap my finger around. There are moments of tenderness toward his kin and assistant, but for me it felt more out of character. Not that a hard man can't show tenderness, but more like I didn't know what to do with those moments. I didn't feel pity toward him, I didn't like him more for it. It felt sort of left wasted on me. Peter Haus, his mute assistant, I cared more for, and his presence and focus had been less directed than the former. I did enjoy seeing his life outside of the Arctic amongst his family in Amsterdam, and he would probably be the runner-up to the Underdog Award.

    Not to say Washington and Titch weren't likeable and didn't have any layers of complexities to their characters. I loved the duo and only wished they spent the entire novel together instead of the first half. As with losing anyone important when you're young, I deeply felt Washington's loss—someone who has lost so much in life and lost what was not only a person who cared for him but someone who showed his potential and encouraged him. I was sad when Titch disappeared in the Arctic, I grieved for him even before Washington accepted it, which made the return of Titch even more moving by the end. 

    Now I won't deny the miraculous survival seemed a bit far-fetched—because really how did Titch survive the storm and know details about the days following his disappearance—however I love stories where people disappear and then return like the prodigal son. It's a win for Washington even if the reasons that he was abandoned for are unjustified. He found his dearest friend again, a man who might have saved him from an early death years ago.

    The supporting cast of characters we meet along the way are just as colorful and driven. We can follow their paths into an entirely new story and not feel like we've simply opened a new storyline for zero purpose. Peter Haus, Tanna and Mr. Goff, Edgar Farrow, Captain Benedikt Kinast, some of the most peculiar cast of characters that made this adventure feel authentic.

    One of the main antagonists on the other hand, John Willard, was more of a plot device than a real character and was one of the weakest of the cast. I don't really have much to add on his part. 

    The end took me some time to mull over. Initial thoughts were along the lines of "that's it?" But then I seemed to be arriving back to the beginning of the circle and I found it left a stronger impression that I had thought. Washington's arrival and time in Morocco is short compared to other areas of the book, but I think that was part of the appeal. He steps into a storm in a desert much like his predecessor Titch who in a struggle of conscience abandoned his earthly ties because that decision in the Arctic was when adult Washington Black blossomed from young, naive Wash. Growing up and becoming an adult without Titch he'd been stumbling along, still attached and grieving over Titch's death. Having found him years later he was finally able to unleash his deepest, suppressed grievances and I hope become a more confident man. From this desert storm who knows what Washington will do. A shade of open-ended I thought was cleverly and visually evocative. I really really love that ending.

    The enthusiasm for the Ocean House and showcasing unusual creatures out of their element was another metaphor I appreciated. While seemingly random and maybe even awkward in its presence, the interest in marine animals seemed to be a nod for his lost friend, a man of science who valued all living things and wanted to preserve and appreciate that which exists and that is different. Add to the list another reason what makes this story more unique, and strange, and delightful: Washington's interspecies friendship with an octopus. How many people can say that?

Until Next Time,

Nicole Ciel

    

 

The Midnight Library Book Review

Rawr Reader,

Happy Memorial Day weekend for my American readers. I hope you are able to enjoy an extra day off. I have found myself unforeseeably blessed with a streak of enjoyable reads which I hope I'm not jinxing by observing.
My mom and sister have read this book and both recommended it to me so it was a promising start as neither of them incline toward reading fiction. So let's dive in!

The synopsis of The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is provided by Goodreads:

Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”

A dazzling novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived, from the internationally bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and How To Stop Time.

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

Reference:

The Midnight Library was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards in 2020 for Fiction and interesting fact: won the award from second place by 5 votes! Safe to say I've seen it all over Bookstagram, Twitter, and on Recommended Shelves in bookstores.

Review:

    Suicide is a tough conversation to broach. Every year that passes people, social media, and literature is becoming more vocalized about the social stigmas of suicidal thoughts, depression, loneliness, mental health, and asking for help. From disassociation to personal tragedies to natural disasters, this world can be an incredibly difficult place to cope in. Despondency of our lives combined with the loss of a willingness to continue is a growing issue. While I think ardent readers are more inclined to emotionally connect with the circumstances of others, even less frequent readers can find that capacity in Haig's novel.

    We meet Nora Seed, a young, down-on-her-luck woman who suffers one tragedy after another within the span of a day. The tipping point sets off our protagonist on a spiritual journey to a place many readers might connect with: the library. Only this library isn't like the one you might think of from school or that public building in your community. It's a library that you can quite literally get lost in with no end, no people, and have shelves of books with—instead of stories of new people and places within its book flaps—be comprised entirely of lives you could have lived had you made different decisions. An episode of Doctor Who I enjoy is in the fourth season with Donna called "Turn Left," which jumps off that concept and elaborates. What would Donna's life have been like if instead of turning right she turned left, because turning left meant meeting The Doctor and having a collection of adventures and one day even saving the planet!

    You know I can talk for hours on Doctor Who so I'll leave it there, but what if you could see the other lives you could have lived? Would you take it? Nora has that opportunity, seeing what her life would be like becoming a glaciologist, a rock star, an Olympic swimmer, and many more possible dreams. But over "time," as time does not actually exist in the Midnight Library, Nora begins to learn something about each of these lives. 
    While there are no other people in the library, there is one "guide," an old librarian from Nora's youth called Mrs. Elm. Mrs. Elm is the omniscient and single constant in the Midnight Library. Explaining when things go wrong and steering Nora toward lives she should try out, we feel a sense of safety in her presence that honestly I can't disassociate from what a paradigm librarian might appear like: informative, attentive, and who is an esteemed custodian of a place that is more than the sum of its contents. 

    Magical realism is such a hard subgenre to describe but the world that Haig builds is unique. The facet of this jewel I can't describe in any other words is that it's somber yet heartening. I can't help but add his library to the collection of other libraries I've heard about like in Victoria Schwab's The Archived, Carlos Ruiz Zafón's Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea, and I could never exclude the libraries in the 1994's film The Pagemaster, 1991's Beauty and the Beast, or Wan Shi Tong's Library in 2005's tv series Avatar: The Last Airbender.
    As characters come and go with a few recurrent and revisited faces like Joe, Nora's brother, and Ravi, her brother's friend, and Izzy, Nora's friend, I'd like to discuss Nora's character for a minute. One is I love how vastly interested she is in subjects ranging from science to music to sports to animals. Nora is on hobby overload which for that alone I can definitely see why it's overwhelming and intimidating to not only be interested in these things but be good at them and a dependable source on the activity/subject matter. She has to compete for her father's approval while also compete against her brother's favor. The pressure put on her at a young age made an impression that even if there is no one applying pressure on her she applies the pressure of success on herself and the guilt of not pursuing something she could have succeeded at. We all have regrets like that, which is one of the plot points of the story, and I enjoyed the interpretation of the theme of regret, major and minor ones, throughout Nora's journey.

    Guilt is an invisible burden many people carry subconsciously or not and it can definitely trickle down so subtly into the fabric of our lives that people may not even be aware of its presence until they're in a state of helplessness. What if I stayed in a relationship I'd left? What if I studied this in school over this? What if I stayed in school for longer? What if I moved instead of staying where I was? The questions can go on forever and the answers exponentially so. And all the while, the unrealized and unachieved potential is growing and digging a person further into the ground until they can't crawl their way back out. Haig shows this beautifully as Nora experiences her "what-could-have-been" lives. It isn't just that she feels lost. Haig reciprocally shows how it isn't about losing or gaining relationships or opportunities, but simply another life she could have lived.
    And I don't mean that simply. Because it isn't something Nora realized after one incident. And it isn't something to be defined as easily as that. There's a little more to it, which of course you'll have to read to discover, but Nora's story through the heartbreak, loss, and tragedy is only one side of it . . . the side Nora exemplifies in her recitation of her favorite philosopher Henry David Thoreau: "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."

    Death is dark, but Haig spins what is a dark subject into a new opportunity. A beautiful adventure. A fresh start.

I give this book 4/5 stars.

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline for the United States is:
 1-800-273-8255

or you can visit: 
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

Quote:
"Maybe that's what all lives were, though . . . Maybe that was the only meaning that mattered. To be the world, witnessing itself."
-Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

My Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7170636-nicole

Next To Read:
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Spoilers:

   While overall this story had momentum, then lost it, then gained it again, I am actually very moved and touched by the message it relays. We all have countless versions of ourselves in parallel universes (yes our dreams might have come true if we pursued them more ardently), but also maybe dreams we sculpt are merely creations we build for ourselves since we're discontent with our current lives. Maybe in these others lives we get what we wanted, but at the same time lose something we took for granted. 
    Haig's message is simple. His delivery is simple. Yet over the course of the novel it's so complicated with Nora's multitude of lives and experiences that I reflect on the story as a whole and marvel. I grasp Thoreau's quote that Nora repeats incessantly with relentless fingers because I myself have grappled with depression, in a state of not wanting to go on, thinking myself worthless, thinking myself lost of any potential for anything. And it's *so* tough to get out of it. I applaud the people who ask for help. I applaud the people who seek help. Who can talk about it. I applaud the people who admit there's a serious mental health issue today and doesn't shut it down, because once we close off the validity of someone's experiences or feelings, then we cut off a person's capacity to recover and heal.

    The parallel universes and the quantum mechanics/physics wasn't a particularly favorite part of the story for me—as it was leaning toward sci-fi and I was comfortable in the magical realistic plains of the story—but I appreciate why it was introduced and ended up appreciating it a lot more because it introduced us to someone else. Another "slider," Hugo, as he himself patented their existing states. He was actually one of my favorite characters. An existence uniquely unlike any other, his approach to life —> seemed, <— ironically, contradictory to Nora's defeated one and I wish we got to interact with him at least once more in another one of Nora's possible lives. If there was a book on him I'd actually be really interested to read it and see Nora's influence to his life through his eyes. What did he have regrets on? What was his life like? Did he share Nora's end? I need the answers Mr. Haig! Hehe.

    I'm only partially torn on the ending of her Midnight Library excursions in her final life, the one where she has a "perfect" life. The library sucks her out of that life. It wasn't a choice I wish she had made to leave knowing that while it was her, it wasn't really her life. It wasn't her experiences. She just enjoyed the circumstances of that perfect life orchestrated by another her. 
    The ending mirroring the beginning was predictable though, but predictable in a comforting, nostalgic way. Mrs. Elm was there for Nora in one of her darkest and loneliest times when she was young and in turn she became that source of comfort for Mrs. Elm when she was on her own in a retirement center. There's something about coming full circle, literally and metaphorically and emotionally and spiritually that explains why The Midnight Library resonates with such a wide audience. In these dismal times, books about hope can never be in short supply.

You are not alone.

Stay safe friends. 

Until Next Time,
Nicole Ciel

The Vanishing Half Book Review

 Rawr Reader,

It's both troubling and tragic when the only reason you finish a book is because it's a loan from the library and the due date is fast approaching. I am half-ashamed, half-grateful. How else am I going to be getting any reading done? As of late I've been watching Schitt's Creek, every day easily overlooking the books on my desk for the TV remote.

On a positive note: Happy Earth Day!

The synopsis for The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett is provided by Goodreads, my main source for all things books and recommendations.

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

Reference:

This was all over Instagram last year and not only was it nominated for the Goodreads 2020 Choice Awards under the Historical Fiction category—but won. Considering I'd started several other winners from the GR 2020 Awards, I should've had expectations on how this would pan out.

Review:

     Passing is a facet of storytelling I rarely come across, so when I kept hearing raving reviews about this novel on Instagram and Goodreads I was eager to see how story of the Vignes twins would unfold. 

     As a personal preference, multi-generational stories are not necessarily for me. Walking in a book store if I pick up a novel and it says a story spanning three generations, I almost immediately put the book back. I did read Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang in college and really enjoyed it, however for some reason those stories don't pop in my to be read pile.

     The Vanishing Half covers two generations and over the course of twenty to thirty years. Before I go onto the reasons why this didn't appeal to me, I will say that highlighting the years our Vignes twins leave home at sixteen to their middle-aged years—and the breadth of that time (twenties and thirties especially) which is still a time for reflecting and discovering who someone is—is the heart of this novel. To be more specific, each twin discovering who they are and who they want to be, as women, as women of color—even passing, and as a twin but growing to live on their own.

      To be frank, Desiree's part of the novel didn't make me enthusiastic to continue reading. I had this book on loan from the library for three weeks and I was stuck in Desiree's chapter for a good two thirds of it. I found Desiree as a character had little ambition—which I understand due to certain circumstances that happen between leaving Mallard when she was sixteen and returning a decade later (spoiler 2), however as being the twin we first meet and who would set the stage for the novel, she seemed the least interesting of the four major characters.

     We follow her to Jude, more interesting and more driven than her mother, who takes us from a small southern town to Los Angeles at the age of eighteen. She meets Reese, a trans man, and they fall in love almost at first sight. The potential relationship/ friendship/ whatever-was-about-to-transpire had me until this ease, the lovey dovey eye fluttering reliance on one another. For a novel set in the seventies, I didn't believe that a relationship involving a black woman and a white trans man would play out so easily. Their story isn't the focus of the novel and they had bumps along the road, but any real challenges they faced were usually resolved over a matter of days and the challenges seemed less momentous and almost inconsequential, like they didn't need to be mentioned in the overarching story of how the black daughter of a passing woman lived her life.

     A small tangent off of that, I know that for the amount of words or pages allowed to the author Reese's and Jude's story couldn't go longer than it did, I just felt there wasn't much more for the reader than to prove Jude's loyalty to her boyfriend in helping him transition. I think Jude should have had more of her chapters interacting with her cousin. Personally I felt introducing a trans person was more of an accessory than an independent contribution to the story.

     Where did the book pick up? With our lost Vignes twin, the one for a good amount of time I wasn't so sure we would ever meet. (But meet we did! The synopsis would've been misleading if we hadn't.) An opposite personality from her sister, Stella's story is tragic. Being more of a reserved person myself, I empathized with Stella's reluctance to share with anyone hurts from her youth, even with someone as close as her sister. Hurts from her past transformed her when Desiree and Stella decided to run away from their hometown, and with the added shield of passing, she had the fortunate ability to become someone new.

     It's with Stella that we see passing in action. It gets her a job. It finds her a beau then eventually a husband, who uproots them to an upscale life she never imagined for herself in her small hometown. However her husband doesn't know she's black, and this is a secret she carries for years. She shed her old life and the connections of her past for a life where she is both safe and yet constantly afraid the truth of her heritage will somehow find her.

      The parallels can't be ignored. They are vivid yet subtle in their interweaving. Desiree the outgoing twin, Stella the quiet one. Desiree marries a black man, Stella a white man. Their children are images of their fathers, yet their characters reflect their aunts. Jude is confident and hardworking, yet reserved due to the nature of her childhood and growing up in a town of black people where her darker skin is undesirable. Then we have Kennedy who is white, privileged, and outspoken. I guess from there she becomes more like her mother, throwing away opportunities to manifest what her mother has designed through her upbringing, a person who will wear a mask and make their way through life being another person.

      Desiree falls to the background, remaining in Louisiana's small town, however Stella is almost always present, due to Kennedy's direct connection to her or Jude's thoughts on learning anything on her estranged aunt. It was fine with me because Stella was the one who was taking on a role and living by that role like her life depended on it. Which it did. Constantly I waited for other shoe to drop. (Spoiler 1)

      Of all the characters Stella was the most complex. However her capricious thoughts and actions, swaying one way to the other was infuriating. Characters need to be consistent, and I couldn't be sure at first if it was meant to show Stella as this erratic, paranoid character or if it was the author not delivering her onto the page as she should. I would come to find it was the latter, when the same thing would happen to other characters like throughout scenes from Jude's POV then to Kennedy's, all the scenes concerning the other and how the two women wanted to meet/speak with the other but then didn't. After a couple pages of this and the capriciousness expanding from one to three of the main characters, I cared less about Stella finding the courage to return to her hometown and reunite with her family and more about finishing the book.

    To be brief, I found the ending unsatisfactory and left me with more questions. (Spoiler 3). It isn't every day I find a novel where the beginning and end are less interesting and the middle would be what kept me going. Funny right?

    Overall, what I felt wasn't working was time placement. Although stated at the beginning of sections what decade the following chapters would be taken place, I felt this was a more contemporary read then one set in the sixties/seventies/eighties. It fell under the umbrella of not enough conflict from outside sources, or having historical events described in greater details, but I didn't believe the story was set when it said it was. And considering the subject matter is of race, I would've thought the events unfolding between the characters would be more external and impactful.       

I give this book 3.5/5 stars.

Quote:

"As they grew, they no longer seemed like one body split in two, but two bodies poured into one, each pulling it her own way."

"At night, Desiree held her daughter and told her stories about her own childhood. At first she said, I have a sister named Stella, then, you have an aunt, then once upon a time, a girl named Stella lived here."

-The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett

My Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7170636-nicole

Next To Read:

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Spoilers:

     I wasn't reticent about finding the characters to be unreliable and inconsistent, most notably Stella, ironically my favorite character of the cast. I mention in my review that I wait for something to happen which never does, (Spoiler 1) that being that she never admits to and it's never revealed to her husband that she's black. In fact, her husband's main contribution was being white and having money. His presence—if it can even be described as such—is without much conflict, and if there is little conflict or tension between him and Stella, things resolve so easily and by the end of the scene/chapter it makes him uninteresting. 

    Stella avoids any and every aspect that connects her with her heritage, yet still sleeps with a bat behind her headboard the nights her husband isn't there. Considering she suffered grievously in her youth, first witnessing her father's torture and learning he's been murdered, then being molested multiple times by a white man, I understand why she becomes the person she does. While she causes pain to her sister when she abandons her, I still give her the excuse to make the choices she makes. She wants independence from a life that has only offered her sadness and tragedy. It's when she begins to both turn on black people and at the same time try to earn their favor after acquiring a higher social status that I began to respect her less and find her as annoying as a high schooler. Being a person who can't reveal who she really is to even the closest people in her life, I can see why she questions herself constantly and retreats to safety when confronted by neighbors or her family, however the execution of it, and the repetition scene to scene got old quickly.

     It seemed the trait was hereditary as Kennedy begins to capriciously push then pull when Jude comes into her life and reveals a big secret about her. If I were Jude I wouldn't want to be affiliated with let alone be related to these people who clearly want to see themselves as apart. But they're still family regardless right? I don't know. I think if less had been about Reese and more of that time had been on Kennedy and Jude, I would have learned of more interactions between the unbalanced cousins and accepted their rocky relationship more.

    How about Desiree and her abusive husband? (Spoiler 2) He was another page of the past I thought would reemerge but never did. He seemed at least a little in part to care for his daughter, goes so much to hire a private detective, but never actually goes to his wife's hometown to see for himself his wife and daughter are there? He just gave up and moves on with a new wife and kids? (By the way she never got an outright divorce so I guess he was married to two women at once??) I just didn't believe it. It seemed as effective as a band-aid on a severed artery.

      And I was hours until my loan was to be returned, so I may have sped read the last couple of pages, but did anyone find the ending rather abrupt? (Spoiler 3). Or maybe the significance was spotlighted on the wrong people? We're taken to the day of the funeral where Jude and her boyfriend go swimming. Stella never returns. Kennedy never visits. Desiree relocates to some random city and doesn't even try to pick up fingerprint reading or management. And Early? We don't get a real goodbye? It's like the author was running out of pages allowed by the publisher and she needed to wrap everyone up quickly. 

      

Until Next Time,

Nicole Ciel

     

The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis Book Review

Rawr Reader,

One of the wonderful things about books is it can bring people together over different periods of time. It can bring people together who share nothing in common. It invites discussions. Inspires movie adaptations. It can be for a book club—in which case the latter is the truth for me. This particular book club is small, just my sister and I. Naturally I gravitate toward fiction and my sister non-, so when she suggested The Future We Choose for our March pick, a book dealing on climate change—a subject of interest for both of us, I couldn't wait to dive in.

Up until this point I've only done reviews for fiction titles. I think this is a perfect bridge into the other side of the written word.

The synopsis of The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac is provided by Goodreads, my trusty source on all things book:

Climate change: it is arguably the most urgent and consequential issue humankind has ever faced. How we address it in the next thirty years will determine the kind of world we will live in and will bequeath to our children and to theirs.

In The Future We Choose, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac--who led negotiations for the United Nations during the historic Paris Agreement of 2015—have written a cautionary but optimistic book about the world's changing climate and the fate of humanity.

The authors outline two possible scenarios for our planet. In one, they describe what life on Earth will be like by 2050 if we fail to meet the Paris climate targets. In the other, they lay out what it will be like to live in a carbon neutral, regenerative world. They argue for confronting the climate crisis head-on, with determination and optimism. The Future We Choose presents our options and tells us what governments, corporations, and each of us can and must do to fend off disaster.

Reference:

I have been introduced to this book through environmental accounts I follow and my sister. I can't recall which came first.

Review:

(safe for those who haven't read this book)

    Climate change is a global issue. One part of the world may not feel its impacts but even those in developed countries can't shut their ears off from the outcries of protesters. Climate change deniers may certainly ignore, change the channel, unfriend someone, hang up, but no one can stop hearing about it for long. Over the years the volume from the megaphone has only increased.

   So what does Figueres and Rivett-Carnac, key contributors to the Paris Agreement in 2015, do in The Future We Choose that works so well in addressing the climate change issue?

    I think tackling such a large issue calls to reason we must analyze the worldwide and national data, but the way to make waves of change is to start small, which is exactly how the authors focused on addressing this issue. Let's not even get into the body of the book, look at the framework of the main title:

The Future - zoom out

We - zoom in

Choose - the step forward, to continue to recognize and address this as both something we must zoom out from and introspectively zoom in to constantly

    The structure of the book follows the pathway of its title. The first challenges you to imagine, zooming out of your own personal experience through life to see how the earth may become if there is inaction and the efforts toward curbing and outright stopping greenhouse emissions by 2050 (highlighting the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold we cannot pass). However there is another side. Zooming out to see how the earth might become if we look at the data and act, from small scale models within a household to large scale visions with government and national action. The diction used to convey the heat of the planet in the former with the cooling and regenerative planet with the latter was executed brilliantly. I thought I was reading non-fiction but those two chapters really felt apocalyptic and utopian in their narratives. 

    The We in the novel calls onto us to ask ourselves to toughen our mindsets, yet introspectively be open and flexible to change. How both? Well, the world right now is on a trajectory. That trajectory is leading us to an unfavorable end with the cost being many animal and plant species becoming extinct, entire ecosystems withering away, and the quality of human life on the precipice of destruction. What our authors want us to know is that while the missile has been shot and is indeed on a negative trajectory, human will and human efforts can become the wind that redirects that trajectory. We don't need to continue down a self-destructive path. In fact we are still within the window of meaningful change.

    With resolve people can take the mantle and steer the course. It starts small. It starts with the mind. The mind is our most powerful weapon. While it can deceptively make us believe we ourselves are powerless because we are only one person, we are out of reach, we don't have a voice—we most certainly can make a difference. In a nation with free speech, in a democratic nation with power to elect officials who reflect our ideals, in a nation where the words and thoughts of those half way around the world are reachable, the future we need is more accessible and changeable than ever before. It begins with the mind though. To teach ourselves that the negative reports and influx of studies propagating impending doom doesn't mean we're reached the point we are powerless to make a change. The authors present combating these forces with three mindsets to help in facing the titanic issue of climate change: Stubborn Optimism, Endless Abundance, and Radical Regeneration.

    While on the surface my mind preferred to read about the first and the latter, ironically one of my favorite parts was in the second mindset. It addressed directly and acknowledged contentiously how our cultural mindset of how we view and live in this world may in fact be a mirage. Much of the western world views the resources and opportunities of our world as expendable and infinite and through the lens of a zero-sum paradigm—a model showing there are two sides, of which you can only be a winner or a loser. It is so engrained and intertwined in our consumerist and capitalist societies that we need more and if we aren't obtaining more than we are losing to someone else who is gaining more, taking something from us.

    Our authors challenge us to reevaluate this notion. Shift our perception about a scarcity of something when there is actually an abundance. We should celebrate collaboration over competition. We should care about communities and sacrifice others for the self. The common good over what one as a person can gain. It is possible that if give we also gain. A contradictory concept on its surface, but by measuring the worth of something or an experience beyond how it best serves the self and more how it serves our communities or nature, we can take small steps toward reaching a prosperity for all. I won't deny one example they elaborate on concerning communal sharing, like a future where certain aspects of society like private ownership of automobiles within urban cities become obsolete, seemed a bit far-fetched to me. But maybe this is with the perception that I don't live in an urban city. I have an attachment to owning my own car. This is a mindset of someone who doesn't know another way. In the upcoming decades this might change. Perceptions can be as fluid as we make them to be.

    Neither the authors nor myself believe competition should be removed from the equation. Technology and safety measures against disasters has taken many leaps forward because competition pushed us toward improving and modernizing and making our societies better than they used to be. However what nature provides is perfect. It doesn't need an upgrade from us. It supplies, recycles, regenerates, and upgrades itself. It doesn't confirm to a manmade linear equation on a graph. It's a circle.

    The authors have now shown us the world one of the two paths our world will take. They have shown us the attitude we should learn to develop and strengthen within ourselves so we can continuously fight for a positive change in our world. Now what is left is the final step. 

    Action.

    Knowing the path we're on and having the mental determination toward making a change are only two ends of the triangle. The final corner is action, which is detailed by our authors in ten building blocks to show where we can grow from or begin from scratch. The steps derive from many places. 

    How you approach climate change personally starting with a shift in mentality. One line I liked and will borrow from Action 2: "You do not have to believe your vision is likely to be achieved, or that the struggle to achieve it is going well, to keep pursuing it." Because the world around us says one thing does not mean we must give up fighting. Work on having stubborn optimism (one of the three mindsets alluded to in the prior Three Mindsets section), where is achievable and will be achievable do not have a difference in meaning, because your action and determination toward both are equal. 

    A subset of stubborn optimism that the authors and I wish to highlight is going one step further: "infect[ing] others with the same conviction." Once we've mastered the art for ourselves, it will be our responsibility to champion others to the cause. And don't let the word cause intimidate you. Don't think of it as a cause against someone, but for the planet we all live on.

    How you can make small conscious acts in your daily habits. Action 4 calls on identifying ourselves as "citizen—not as a consumer." Focus on the things we really need and try to dial down on spending more than what is needed. Let's try to curb food waste. Use less water and unplug electricity when you're not actively attending to it. Strive to eating no meat a day less each week. Walk, cycle, use public transportation such as trains or buses instead of cars if it's practical. Small efforts to create a change. And share with others how you're trying to readjust your living. Communication with one another can further inspire the growing movement toward sustainability.

    Making a decision to invest your money and time into companies that strive for a more inclusive and environmentally-conscious business model. Companies are feeling growing pressure by consumers and social media to be more transparent about how their investments are made and how their businesses are run and what their goals are toward clean energy. One of the beautiful perks of technology is that it more easily shows what a company's policies are and how they support or do not support a certain issue. 

     Some of the ten steps tie into one another, some of the steps are harder to act on than others, but the authors note that you don't need to take these steps and achieve them in any order. They are merely where you can start if you are unsure how you can start.

     The Industrial Revolution launched modern society in a way that seems to only catapult farther and farther forward as each of the recent decades pass. It's overwhelming. It's daunting. We can feel helpless. We can become depressed. And it's all right to feel that way. However we must always remember to recognize the despondency and acknowledge what it can be, but always strive for and choose to prevail.

    Deforestation, acidification, desertification, global warming, species extinction, ice sheets melting, disappearing coral reefs, plastic pollution, air pollution, flooding, droughts, famines, mass emigrations, more frequent natural disasters and other climate disasters are not endgame. We have our foot on the gas and we still have the power and the responsibility to take it off.

    Climate change is the earth's response to mankind. I've thought it for several years and over time I can't help feeling the conviction in my bones. The world will still be here even if we destroy everything to the ground. However it won't be a world designed for sustainable life for humans. And it won't be a world we grew up in. That much is already evident to us. It's up to us to surrender to the world and try to find a new harmony with it. It has taken care of us for millenniums and from epoch to another. It's our turn to be the caretakers.

    This was published right before COVID-19 and I remember the authors noting how the world can't stop running. Funnily enough we did. Entire nations enforced lockdowns, some spanning weeks, others months. And what did the scientists find? The break from emissions made a noticeable difference. Earth's Overshoot Day even extended nearly a month later to August from 2019's dismal July date. It will take a massive effort, but human determination and innovation can achieve widespread change.

    This book wishes to rally people toward a unifying goal. Climate change isn't something we are defenseless against. It's certainly mammoth. Climate change doesn't choose who it affects, but it affects others—usually those with less means and less resources—more unilaterally and disproportionately than others. Let's start caring for each other more. Let's start making an effort for the common good.

    I would like to reiterate that I think this book is phenomenal and I wish I could go into detail about each of its chapters on subjects like rewilding or electric cars, but honestly the authors communicate their ideas better than my summaries and opinions ever could and you might pick up something I didn't. And their list of sources for more information at the end is a plethora of starting points for those wishing to learn more. Definitely recommend.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

Quote:

"Impossible is not a fact. It is an attitude."

-Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis

My Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7170636-nicole

Next to Read:

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Some free promo for some accounts I follow on Instagram that focus or frequently discuss climate change, social justice, efforts to make a greener life, and similar affairs:
@worldeconomicforum

@thezerowasteguide

@earthrise.studio

@extinctionrebellion

@earthalliance

@nrdc_org

@tedcountdown

@friends_earth

@100isnow

And a documentary I enjoyed recently:

Kiss the Ground (available on Netflix)

I'd love to hear about any documentaries or books you'd recommend related to climate change and the environment.

Until Next Time,

Nicole Ciel

A Natural History of Dragons Book Review

 Rawr Reader,

What joy! I know said this last time I posted a review but it's been so long! I haven't shared my recent reads with you but I think everyone can agree 2020 was a funky year and most of us would find it the most unusual, unexpected, and darkest year we've ever faced. In that darkness I found a new love, yoga. I was blessed to have stayed employed when so many lost their jobs, however it was a desk job and my body was feeling the effects. Enter yoga, and I don't think I can go back without it in my life.

On the topic of books, unfortunately, I read a measly 14 books. 

                                                                *Queue sudden gasp*

I shudder to think back to the peak of my college years when I read nearly 5 times that many. And of the fourteen only two were quite memorable and what I would rank Five Star Reads. While I never did a review for them I would still like to share them:

The Overstory by Richard Powers

and

The 7 ½  Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Both are mammoth. Both successfully blew me away. The former for tackling a narrative that intertwined the environment and a wide cast of characters with a structure that mirrored a Frankenstein/Cloud Atlas tree ring. And the latter for being a contemporary Agatha Christie whodunnit I only wish I could reread for the first time again. I would gladly revisit both of these novels if I could read a new book at the same time. Alas, we are creatures with only a singular pair of eyes. I wish evolution considered humans desire to read into the equation so we could at least have the option to read two books at once. Or one pair of eyes sleep while the other reads through the night. Just me? I think the impossibility of nature stemmed from my recent dive into fantasy again. So let's jump in!

The synopsis for The Memoirs of Lady Trent series, A Natural History of Dragons is by Marie Brennan and borrowed from Goodreads:

You, dear reader, continue at your own risk. It is not for the faint of heart—no more so than the study of dragons itself. But such study offers rewards beyond compare: to stand in a dragon's presence, even for the briefest of moments—even at the risk of one's life—is a delight that, once experienced, can never be forgotten. . . .

All the world, from Scirland to the farthest reaches of Eriga, know Isabella, Lady Trent, to be the world's preeminent dragon naturalist. She is the remarkable woman who brought the study of dragons out of the misty shadows of myth and misunderstanding into the clear light of modern science. But before she became the illustrious figure we know today, there was a bookish young woman whose passion for learning, natural history, and, yes, dragons defied the stifling conventions of her day.

Here at last, in her own words, is the true story of a pioneering spirit who risked her reputation, her prospects, and her fragile flesh and bone to satisfy her scientific curiosity; of how she sought true love and happiness despite her lamentable eccentricities; and of her thrilling expedition to the perilous mountains of Vystrana, where she made the first of many historic discoveries that would change the world forever.

Reference:

Goodreads. Because Goodreads is a wonderful fountain of literature.

Review:

(safe for those who haven't read this book)

        I can honestly say I can't think of the last time a fantasy author took my hand and led me into their story with grace, grit, and wit. Fantasy, as its nature, oftentimes has to deliver a multi-layered world to the reader and yet keep to the plot without drifting too much. Brennan is a phenomenal writer. Through her descriptions of settings and the manner and voice of our narrator Isabella Hendemore, our marvelous Lady Trent before she earned the appellation, Brennan reveals a deep look into this vibrant world that might take another author perhaps twice as long to execute effectively. Set in an alternate Victorian era world, places and names are colorful and familiar and thankfully names I only have to read in my head because if I tried saying them aloud I would likely butcher them. I would suggest that if it helps, it might be useful to write down names for people and places and vernacular until you become familiar with them since Brennan never defines new words, she simply implies meaning with context.
        Unlike many ladies in proper society, Isabella is spellbound by dragons, a species that is rare and mysterious and in a word—destiny—for our young narrator. Throughout the first and second books, she encounters dragons of different sizes and in different environments. She observes some, merely escapes with her life with others, and throughout it all will not think twice about risking her life to relive the experiences again. I admire a woman who is driven, even more so when the topic is as exciting as dragons. 

        The exotic and strenuous environments she is drawn to to study the dragons are as much an obstacle for Isabella and her companions which can make the study of the dragons that much more taxing. Yet she refuses to let a dangerous landscape or a foreign people deter her. I found her encounters and interactions with the mountainous peoples of Vystrana what made me love these books even more. Brennan doesn't make the entire world a single culture, there are other cultures and in ANHoD we live in it for a huge chunk of the book, which only adds to the list of difficulties Isabella and her companions have to learn to adapt to and not in any way easier to tackle because they are the same species.  

        Dragon hunting is not an easy hobby. I can't help but reminded of the Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2 as she angrily commends her son's accomplishments to the king, but Isabella's ambition through precarious terrains and with questionable foreigners really is a remarkable trait. Her goal isn't as simplistic as saving the princess in the locked tower, she has questions to the anatomy, the behaviors, the culture's accepting or antagonistic views toward dragons who more often than not only lead to more questions.
        Isabella isn't just an enthusiast for dragons, she becomes committed to learning the languages of the countries she travels to so that she can contribute and be the most effective in her studies. And Lady Trent notes more than once how language barriers and the limits that poor comprehension translates to transpired in her efforts to accomplish whatever task she was set on. I love reading about new cultures in fantasy, and added with a cast of languages and Brennan's alluring prose, I don't see how I could have walked away from this book disappointed.
        Lady Trent also often references books within the world of the series we will never read but are described so vividly that readers might do a double take to remember those are works of fiction in a fiction. This reminds me of a similar inclusion in Amazon's Carnival Row, another colorful world of high fantasy, where the two protagonists become interested in a work of fiction and how it brings them together. She subtly references scientists and authors that we have never heard of and notes their significance alongside works Lady Trent has published. Little drops of detail like these make this memoir seem that much more realistic despite the topic of discussion. 

        The eponymous A Natural History of Dragons is a scientific text Isabella reads early in her life that becomes a bible that will set her toward the events that unfolds in the series. Being that there are four more novels in this series, I'd like to think this text will reappear later as Isabella ages and learns more about dragons.
        One of the last things I'd like to touch on is Isabella's connections and the relationships she makes throughout the two books. Being a woman of science more than society, social graces aren't what I'd label as Isabella's strong suits and yet she manages to form strong bonds with people native and foreign to her. The camaraderie that develops between certain characters like Tom Wilker and Dagmira were some of my favorites, despite being some of the most difficult for her. There are others who have flatter lasting impressions of friendship or detestation, but the fluidity of these relationships I found to be the most enjoyable to read through.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

Quote:

“But I know, at least, that you would keep a library on the subject, and I hoped that I might be allowed to read from it.”

He regarded me with a bemused expression. “You want me for my library.”

― Marie Brennan, A Natural History of Dragons

~Because Isabella and Mr. Camherst have a relationship to rival many famous literary duos~

My Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7170636-nicole

Next to Read:
The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac

Spoilers:
(unsafe for those who haven't read this book, so don't read this section)

      Brennan must have known how perfect she was making Jacob Camherst when she was writing him. A man who not only shared Isabella's interests but included her when others in society would have shut the door on her. Time and time again we see how much he loved her. He almost always doing what she wanted, which sounds rather boring of him when I say it like that, but as I was reading it seemed very endearing. 

     Something I noticed throughout the book was how often things turned out "okay." There were struggles Isabella and the party faced when studying the dragons, but incidents and problems always righted itself by the end. Rather "easy" from an outsider's point-of-view. There were losses, of course with the obvious being Jacob, however even then it sort of had to happen because if she continued with him at her side, then society would focus more on his accomplishments over hers. I know Tom Wilker joins her in the next novel at least, and it could be said their accomplishments might bring him more into the spotlight than her, however one thing that she mentions on more than one occasion is the fact that he isn't of the same rank as her. Isabella and Tom are somewhat of the black sheep of scientists with being a woman and being of a lower station respectively, but being tied to Jacob and his family's status and reputation elevated her above him. If Jacob were there, he would be the focus. I enjoyed how Isabella and Tom found a common ground in that even though they butted heads in everything else.

     Dragons are one of the most majestic and thrilling creatures to read about in fantasy and I liked how Brennan gave her a little twist to them in her series: dragons leave no trace behind after death save teeth or claws, so studying dragons and their anatomy implies that anyone trying to study them has to work quickly after slaying. Isabella in Lady Trent flair reminds the reader that she has no qualms killing a dragon as long as its in the name of science, and we see her play a hand in the capture of them. Admirer of dragons as I am, I couldn't help shedding a tear every time a dragon was hunted down. I just had to remind myself—it's for science.
     Adventure tales have always appealed to me, but I think one reason why this one did especially was because it reminded me of The Mummy movie series. While set in a Victorian era, several decades before the Mummy movies which were set in the 20s/30s, they both were reliant on scholarship and our characters wished to join the acclaimed ranks of academia, there were limitations technology and transportation offered them, the lands they would explore were populated by cultures not all that friendly to them. The next book is set in the jungle and I can't wait to see how dragons fair in tropical climates and how Brennan unravels more of this fascinating mystery behind the dragon species.

 

Until Next Time,

Nicole Ciel