Scan barcode
A review by poultrymunitions
How We Began by Annabeth Albert, Vanessa North, Geonn Cannon, Amy Jo Cousins, Alexis Hall, Edie Danford, Delphine Dryden
4.0
all proceeds from the sale of this book benefit the trevor project, which supports LGBTQ youth in crisis.
***NOW AVAILABLE!!! MAKES A GREAT HOLIDAY GIFT!!! YOU SHOULD TOTALLY BUY ONE OR TWO!!! OR SIX!!! JUST SAYING!!!***
i'll be reviewing these as i read them; stay tuned.
TruNorth, by [a:Alexis Hall|7032108|Alexis Hall|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1424386893p2/7032108.jpg].
excesses in voice and lapses in copy editing and proofing proved extremely distracting, while obvious parallels to current pop-culture touchstones were sometimes as unintentionally funny as they were effective at defining the focus of the story.
and yet despite this indifferent execution i found myself occasionally both entranced and moved by a carousel of memorable side-characters, sliding in and out of the narrative like clever stage props, to leave their mark on what turns out to be—in the main—a lovely story.
for instance, the culture of the cabaret, while almost carelessly rendered, nonetheless so strongly reminded me of the doomed love affair in baz lurmann's moulin rouge that i arrived at this story’s ending already singing the wistful chorus of rufus wainwright’s version of complainte de la butte:
imperfect, like my singing voice. but simultaneously bleak and lovely, like my memories of that film. two stars.
Unexpected Dragons, by [a:Delphine Dryden|2975763|Delphine Dryden|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1413950808p2/2975763.jpg].
...yikes. at least hall's slapdash story had a plot, even if it was dangerously close to I Stalk Because I Care.
this one is a series of lectures that were so crushingly dull i fell asleep on three separate occasions trying to read it.
no plot. nothing happens. just, you know, conversations, and then The End.
the fourth time i treated it like assigned reading, grimly working my way through a number of after-school specials that appeared to be chiefly concerned with whether this dragon shifter teen would be allowed to be an accountant in his dragon-shifter village of dragon-shifter warriors and dragon-shifter croftsmen and whatnot.
[idek, i never got why they were all there or who they were supposedly there to guard or what; i was just too thrilled to have gotten through it at all on the fourth try to bother with picking obvious nits.]
but man, this one was brutal.
i mean, the overriding message here was literally 'yes, you can be a dragon-shifter accountant! follow your heart!'
which.
like.
...wut?
dragons have long been famed for their ability to value gems and precious metals, but tax planning—that's the stuff, amirite?
meanwhile, in the land of stories that make actual sense, you got every teenager in the history of ever like OMG I DON'T WANT TO BE AN ACCOUNTANT WHY CAN'T I JUST BE A DRAGON? one star.
A Song For Sweater-Boy, by [a:Vanessa North|6436063|Vanessa North|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1403298176p2/6436063.jpg].
you know a short story is good when your pleasure in it is only matched by your desperate unhappiness when it ends.
every scene hinges on an achingly familiar dynamic i remember from my own terribly awkward and tempestuous youth, and to see these things written so deftly and with such compassion was to feel as if i'd been given the warmest hug.
written with respect, too.
vanessa north never makes the mistake of pretending a teenager is unaware of sex, or of how sex can be fun, or an exploration, or a promise of love. and because these characters are in this way authentic—real to me—they feel as much like bits of myself as they feel like my friends.
i'm not autistic. and i'm not a bisexual goth with a tongue-piercing, nervously licking his lips.
but reading this story made me forget i wasn't—and for a few glorious pages i was living in the skin of those two boys and of my former self as intensely as i live in this old bag of bones now. five stars.
***NOW AVAILABLE!!! MAKES A GREAT HOLIDAY GIFT!!! YOU SHOULD TOTALLY BUY ONE OR TWO!!! OR SIX!!! JUST SAYING!!!***
i'll be reviewing these as i read them; stay tuned.
TruNorth, by [a:Alexis Hall|7032108|Alexis Hall|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1424386893p2/7032108.jpg].
excesses in voice and lapses in copy editing and proofing proved extremely distracting, while obvious parallels to current pop-culture touchstones were sometimes as unintentionally funny as they were effective at defining the focus of the story.
and yet despite this indifferent execution i found myself occasionally both entranced and moved by a carousel of memorable side-characters, sliding in and out of the narrative like clever stage props, to leave their mark on what turns out to be—in the main—a lovely story.
for instance, the culture of the cabaret, while almost carelessly rendered, nonetheless so strongly reminded me of the doomed love affair in baz lurmann's moulin rouge that i arrived at this story’s ending already singing the wistful chorus of rufus wainwright’s version of complainte de la butte:
the stairway up to la butte
can make the wretched sigh
while windmill wings of the moulin
shelter you and i
imperfect, like my singing voice. but simultaneously bleak and lovely, like my memories of that film. two stars.
Unexpected Dragons, by [a:Delphine Dryden|2975763|Delphine Dryden|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1413950808p2/2975763.jpg].
...yikes. at least hall's slapdash story had a plot, even if it was dangerously close to I Stalk Because I Care.
this one is a series of lectures that were so crushingly dull i fell asleep on three separate occasions trying to read it.
no plot. nothing happens. just, you know, conversations, and then The End.
the fourth time i treated it like assigned reading, grimly working my way through a number of after-school specials that appeared to be chiefly concerned with whether this dragon shifter teen would be allowed to be an accountant in his dragon-shifter village of dragon-shifter warriors and dragon-shifter croftsmen and whatnot.
[idek, i never got why they were all there or who they were supposedly there to guard or what; i was just too thrilled to have gotten through it at all on the fourth try to bother with picking obvious nits.]
but man, this one was brutal.
i mean, the overriding message here was literally 'yes, you can be a dragon-shifter accountant! follow your heart!'
which.
like.
...wut?
dragons have long been famed for their ability to value gems and precious metals, but tax planning—that's the stuff, amirite?
meanwhile, in the land of stories that make actual sense, you got every teenager in the history of ever like OMG I DON'T WANT TO BE AN ACCOUNTANT WHY CAN'T I JUST BE A DRAGON? one star.
A Song For Sweater-Boy, by [a:Vanessa North|6436063|Vanessa North|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1403298176p2/6436063.jpg].
you know a short story is good when your pleasure in it is only matched by your desperate unhappiness when it ends.
every scene hinges on an achingly familiar dynamic i remember from my own terribly awkward and tempestuous youth, and to see these things written so deftly and with such compassion was to feel as if i'd been given the warmest hug.
written with respect, too.
vanessa north never makes the mistake of pretending a teenager is unaware of sex, or of how sex can be fun, or an exploration, or a promise of love. and because these characters are in this way authentic—real to me—they feel as much like bits of myself as they feel like my friends.
i'm not autistic. and i'm not a bisexual goth with a tongue-piercing, nervously licking his lips.
but reading this story made me forget i wasn't—and for a few glorious pages i was living in the skin of those two boys and of my former self as intensely as i live in this old bag of bones now. five stars.