Romance, engenharia e robôs de batalha com My Mechanical Romance, de Alexene Farol Follmuth

Vocês sabem quando dizem “um pouco de salada, um pouco de droga, pois equilíbrio é tudo”? Então, é mais ou menos assim que eu organizo minhas leituras. Depois do soco no estômago que foi ler A Guerra da Papoula, imediatamente falei “preciso de um romancinho bem água com açúcar”. O escolhido foi My Mechanical Romance, de Alexene Farol Follmuth e sim, eu chamei esse livro de “My Chemical Romance” umas 50 vezes sem querer.

My Mechanical Romance foi, na verdade, o primeiro livro que Follmuth publicou tradicionalmente (ou seja, com uma grande editora), pois até então ela estava publicando de forma independente sob o nome... Olivie Blake! Sim, a autora de A Sociedade de Atlas também escrever romances água com açúcar! E eu, como fã da Olivie desde os tempos que lia as suas fanfics, comprei o livro assim que pude.

O livro conta a história de Bel que acaba sendo compelida a entrar no clube de robótica da escola, mesmo que a contragosto. Ao mesmo tempo que descobre um talento nato para engenharia, Bel enfrenta Mateo Luna, o capitão do time e nerd sem defeitos aparentes (vocês já viram pra onde isso vai, né?). Teo e Bel trazem à tona as inseguranças um do outro, levando a embates com bastante entretenimento.

My Chemical Mechanical Romance é um livro fofo e leve, mas que ao mesmo tempo questiona porque meninas são desencorajadas de seguir seus interesses nas áreas do STEM (ciências, tecnologia, matemática e engenharia). Com uma linguagem mais juvenil, devido a sua classificação etária, a estória demonstra como pressão externa, falta de apoio e sexismo permeiam muitas das interações entre meninas com as áreas de exatas.

Mas, além disso, também nos serve rivais-acadêmicos-que-meio-que-se-gostam, batalhas de robôs, Taylor Swift e dois jovens que, sob a superfície, estão lidando com suas próprias questões de confiança, pressão familiar, divórcio e expectativas como filhos de imigrantes.

Para mim, foi uma leitura agradável e rápida, um respiro perfeito após as tensões d’A Guerra da Papoula. As relações da Bel e do Teo com suas respectivas famílias, e da Bel com a Neelam, a outra engenheira do clube de robótica, foram minhas partes favoritas. As batalhas de robôs eram dinâmicas, as personagens secundárias interessantes (até as que me irritaram) e o livro atendeu todas as minhas expectativas de romancinho-água-com-açúcar.

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Um soco no estômago d'A Guerra da Papoula, de R. F. Kuang

Lá em Janeiro, quando eu ainda estava motivada a ler coisas muito sérias e pensando em completar meu desafio de ler 80 livros no ano, resolvi começar o ano lendo talvez o melhor (e mais impactante) livro que lerei este ano: A Guerra da Papoula, de R. F. Kuang.

A Guerra da Papoula conta a história de Fang “Rin” Runin, uma garota orfã e pobre, que mora com seus tios adotivos. Defrontada com uma proposta de casamento asquerosa, Rin faz de tudo para reescrever o próprio destino, estudando obsessivamente para entrar na mais importante academia militar do Império Nikara. Porém, uma vez que entra na academia, Rin percebe que terá que continuar provando seu valor custe o que custar.

Se eu tivesse que definir A Guerra da Papoula em uma palavra, escolheria “raiva”. Rin é agressiva, obsessiva, movida pelo fato de ter sido sempre subestimada e considerada descartável. A raiva de Rin permeia cada página de A Guerra da Papoula e a transforma em uma personagem estranhamente carismática. Sua garra não é inspiradora, mas dolorida e desconfortável.

Ao seu redor, as rachaduras de uma paz tênue entre o Império e seu vizinho, Mugen, começam a aparecer até explodirem em cenas horrendas de guerra, morte e sangue. A Guerra da Papoula certamente não é uma leitura leve. As descrições de Kuang não tentam atenuar a realidade de uma guerra, mas sim destacá-la. Tanto que, mesmo sem qualquer problemas com gatilhos, tive de pausar a leitura algumas vezes e ver alguma coisa fofa, como cãezinhos (inclusive, recomendo ter vídeos fofos a mão quando se está lendo algo mais sério).

Kuang sabe criar tensão e destacar o caráter acinzentado de qualquer batalha. “Vilões” e “heróis” se chocam e se confundem ao longo da história, até que seus títulos se tornam irrelevantes face aos horrores que ocorrem no calor da guerra. A isto, adiciona-se um sistema de magia cujo preço é a sanidade seus praticantes, impondo uma nova série de sacrifícios às personagens.

Com um enredo excelente, personagens que alternam entre o enervante, o carismático e o horrível e um mundo rico, A Guerra da Papoula foi certamente um início promissor para 2023 (que prontamente degringolou para leituras muito menos promissoras, mas isso fica pra depois). Chorei, sofri junto com a Rin, desejei a morte de 20 personagens diferentes e depois me arrependi, torci a favor de Nikara, torci contra Mugen (sim, são coisas diferentes), pedi magia, pedi o fim da magia e, no fim, queria apenas uma pausa pro meu cérebro pois nossa, que livro tenso. 

 

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I was deeply uncomfortable reading Juniper & Thorn, by Ava Reid

Photo: Amazon

I saw Juniper & Thorn pop up a couple of times amidst my never ending scrolling on TikTok, and it specially caught my eye when I saw it recommended alongside Uprooted, by Naomi Novik, and Deathless, by Catherynne Valente, two of my all-time favorite books. I decided to go in blind, only with the knowledge that it was for fans of folklore/fairy tale retellings (check) and that people highlighted the trigger warnings in the book. 

Trigger warnings (taken from Ava Reid’s website): child abuse, sexual abuse, rape, gore, body horror, incest, antisemitism, xenophobia and scientific racism, physical and psychological abuse from family members, gaslighting, self-harm and suicidal ideation, bulimia with graphic descriptions of vomiting and animal death.

Please take these seriously, as all of these are featured heavily in this story. 

Needless to say, reading this book was not a walk in the park, and, in fact, it was very much outside of my comfort zone or what I usually read, since it pulled a bit more towards gothic horror rather than fantasy.

All of which are clear in the book’s marketing, by the way, but, again, I decided to go into this book mostly blind, but here’s a synopsis in case you do not wish to do the same.
Juniper & Thorn is the story of Marlinchen, who lives with her two sisters and her wizard father in the country of Oblya. As the last witches of Oblya, they provide services to their fathers’ clients, but are viewed as a little more than an amusing tourist attraction. 

Marlinchen, the youngest of the sisters, is a timid, repressed girl whose narrow understanding of the world has been dictated by her xenophobic, tyrannical father, whom she tries to placate on a daily basis. One night, Marlinchen and her sisters sneak out of their house to attend a ballet performance, and Marlinchen becomes enthralled with Sevastyan, the principal dancer of the ballet and a man with his own share of trauma. 

Between the threat of her father’s magic, a mysterious monster that lurks in the night and her own growing desire for liberation, Marlinchen must grow into her magic in order to save the city and herself.
The tale is based on The Juniper Tree, a fairytale that was completely unfamiliar to me until after I read the book, but is one of those that were definitely not meant to comfort children.

My thoughts on Juniper & Thorn are complicated. On one hand, I believe that Reid is a master of building tension. She kept me engaged through a lot of the book and curious about how the story would develop.Her writing is superb and I think she set a melancholic mood early on that fit perfectly in with the book.

On the other hand, there’s so much horrible stuff going on in this book at one point, I was tired. Personally, I don’t have an issue with triggers, nor did I feel triggered by any of the scenes, but between the terrible situations and the dark mood, I found myself having to take a few breaks during the book because it was just too overwhelming. 

But again, this is a horror book. 

I did find myself feeling more sad than terrified, though, which I was thankful for because I’m not a huge fan of feeling terrified. The descriptions of abuse and the trauma it created in the characters did lead me to close the book sometimes and go touch some grass, but that wasn’t really my problem with the book. 

My main issue, and the reason behind my 4-instead-of-5 stars review is that very little happens. Despite all of the warnings and the horrible situations, the book really only picks up about two-thirds of the way in. Besides, although it is her connection with Sevastyan that ultimately causes a change in her, their love story felt very shallow.

So, on one hand, this is a deeply twisted, compelling, well-written tale, with a very interesting setting (that I wish had been more explored), creatures and a fairly upfront magic system. On the other, I had a hard time really connecting with the romantic aspect of it and felt that sometimes the story was meandering. 

Nonetheless, I believe this is, indeed, a good book for gothic horror lovers, people who like bleak, dark books. Marlinchen is, at times, an entirely unreliable narrator, and her struggles with trauma, continuous abuse and her family and family history all made me deeply uncomfortable, but I’m still glad I read this. It was entirely unexpected in a lot of ways and way out of my comfort zone. 

Would I read more Ava Reid? Absolutely! In fact, I have The Wolf and The Woodsman in my ever-growing TBR. Will I read approximately 15 rom-coms in order to rid myself from the icky feeling some scenes in this book gave me? Also yes!

Icon: dmitri13

I was brought back in time by Rookie On Love, edited by Tavi Gevinson

Photo: Amazon

Rookie On Love is a book I got for Christmas in 2020, then proceeded to thoroughly ignore for the next two years. Its beautiful cover taunted me daily, but a mix of Kindle Unlimited reverse harem books and YA fantasy kept me entertained enough that I ended up forgetting about the book altogether.

Until last week.

I decided I had had enough of staring at screens and decided to both reorganize my shelf and give a physical book a chance again. I chose Rookie purely because I found myself in the mood to read short things, rather than commit to a full novel.

To give you context, Rookie On Love is a collection of essays, poems, art and comic strips from 45 authors, edited by Tavi Gevinson (blogger, writer, actress and founder/editor-in-chief of online magazine, Rookie). Back when it was still ongoing, Rookie was described as a magazine for teenagers, by teenagers, which I always thought was empowering in a way only adolescence can be. It includes some very interesting names amongst its authors, such as Gabourey Sidibe (actress), Emma Straub (writer), Florence Welch (lead singer of Florence and the Machine)  and Mitski Miyawaki (musician), aside from other contributors, including Rookie readers.

As its name suggests, all of the different pieces in this collection have one common theme: love, in all its forms. As a hopeless romantic, who also highly values reading about non-romantic love, I was curious to see how all of these different authors would add their own spin on the topic. 

And oh, what an experience it was. 

Reading this book made me feel thirteen years old again, when I once sat in my then-best friend’s room and we poured over two volumes of TigerBeat her aunt had brought us from the States (it’s worth noting that writing this review led me to find out TigerBeat is still going as an online magazine). It made me nostalgic for adolescence and possibilities and crushes that feel like true love and then become the best sort of memory.

My crush back then was named Daniel, and was also my best friend’s crush, something we never truly fought about because neither of us really had the courage to even speak to him. To be honest, I don’t really remember much about Daniel other than his name, but I remember the butterflies, and the fact that I arrived at school way too early, partially because he arrived at school way too early too. 

Of course, I was partial to some of the pieces over the others. I’m not much of a poetry girl (in spite of my attempt-at-songwriting phase), so I breezed through those with a little less interest than the essays, but still it didn’t deter my enjoyment of the book. 

My favorite essay of all had absolutely nothing to do with crushes or romance, though. In her essay, Mitsky talked about her love of music in a way that reminded me how thoroughly convinced I was that I would someday become an international rock star. It tugged at my heartstrings and reminded me that I met some of my oldest and dearest friends through music, and how it’s still a love filled with memories I deeply cherish in my heart.

I would also highlight Emma Straub’s contribution, as it speaks of her love of books (and lo’ and behold, this is a book blog). Though short, I really liked how Straub wrote about authors and the hint of humor that shone through in the essay. This one in particular solidified my wish to read The Vacationers, by Straub. Maybe you’ll see a review for it in this blog sometime (though that too might be subjected to a two-year delay). 

Overall I highly recommend this book. It connected me to my teenage self in a very warm, beautiful way, but also entertained the current me immensely. The essays are well written, diverse and interesting, the artwork is cool, and compliments the pieces beautifully and I liked the mix of formats, even if I prefer some of them over the others.
 

Storms are brewing in The Darkening, by Sunya Mara

Photo: Amazon

Ever so often, I go on Goodreads rabbit holes, that include me reading the description of every book with a pretty cover and adding a bunch of them to my “want to read” only for them to never be looked at again. 

I might have a problem managing my Goodreads, actually.

The Darkening escaped this fate by scratching a very particular itch of mine: defining the “big bad” as an amorphous, possibly sentient storm that curses whoever touches it. Look, give me sentient amorphous beings and I’m sold (looking at you, Uprooted). And truly, the world that Sunya Mara built is quite interesting.

But allow me to give you context. The Darkening is the story of Vesper Vale, a daughter of failed revolutionaries, who lives with her father in a sanctuary for those touched by the Storm. After evading them for twelve years, the queen’s soldiers finally catch up to Vesper’s father and end up arresting him in the palace, leaving Vesper behind with nothing but a book of ikons, magical runes that she isn’t entirely sure how to use. 

All in all, this book is a pretty standard YA fantasy. Not much of this story took me by surprise, nor was it unexpected. Nonetheless, I still really liked the book and the lore, and thought this was a fun read with enough tension to keep me interested.

The book features four main characters, Vesper, prince Dalca and two Wardana (the special knights in charge of controlling the Storm and its monsters), Casvian and Izamal. Personally, the highlight of this book for me was Vesper's internal conflicts. She is caught between wanting revenge for her family, wanting to save the city from the storm and her own feelings of inadequacy and powerlessness. 

However, Izamal and Casvian were also really interesting characters (Izamal more so than Casvian), who presented compelling stories and positions in the kingdom’s society. Izamal struggles with his feelings as a member of the fifth ring, home of the poorest people and the closest ring to the Storm, and how he is seen as an outsider even as a Wardana. Casvian, on the other hand, is an absolute asshole who I eventually came to like as he was the character I, weirdly enough, felt had the most development throughout the book.

Unfortunately, the book did fall short in some stances. First, I wasn’t a fan of the romance in it. Though it is written as a very cookie-cutter enemies-to-lovers, I felt that Dalca wasn’t a compelling enough character to make me root for him. While his internal conflict with his duty as a prince could have been interesting, it seemed very shallow, especially when pitted against Vesper and Izamal  who had gone through very traumatic experiences. 

Furthermore, I just didn’t see the chemistry between him and Vesper. They don’t really have that compelling back-and-forth banter that makes enemies to lovers interesting (especially since the “enemies” bit feels very one sided, since Dalca isn’t really aware of who Vesper is until halfway through the book). Their interest in one another feels forced by the plot, and at one point Dalca's actions become nonsensical, serving only as the catalyst to the book's final cliffhanger.

Though I do think it’s unlikely,  I wonder whether Mara will pull a switcheroo on book 2 and introduce a different love interest, or a love triangle of some sort. If not, I hope we see a lot more development from Dalca or at least more consistency from his actions. 

All in all, though, I still consider this a good story, with an interesting magic system and worldbuilding. I will definitely pick up book 2 once it’s out, as I’m really curious as to where Mara will be taking these characters in the future. 

Who even reads blogs, anyway?

Photo: Pexels (by Min An)

Here's a tidbit about me: I love blogs. 

This is, most likely, a byproduct of my mid-90s-early-2000s upbringing, during which I not only read a massive amount of books, but also got slightly obsessed with the lives of bloggers, which seemed much more glamorous and fun than mine was (and, let’s be honest, still is). Those blogs provided me with snippets of fun-filled personal stories, tales of exclusive fashion-people-only parties and practical manuals on how to translate trends into my personal wardrobe.

Though I’m afraid that last one never really took off with me, personally.

Since then, the internet has grown at a frankly scary pace. We got social media, and high-quality video and images at the tip of our fingers and, with it, much of blogging has, unfortunately, died away. 

Let me be clear, I don’t think this is a failure of any kind. Yes, I find it unfortunate that blogging isn’t as popular or as “cool” as it once was, but I am happy many of the iconic bloggers I used to read went on to become very successful social media stars, or business owners and that I can still follow them on alternative platforms.

However, I still find a certain allure in the exercise of writing my thoughts and throwing them into the void of internet blogs. And it may be the recent revival of early-2000s trends spurring me on, but I just couldn’t resist creating a blog again this time. 

So, what will this even be about?

Well, books. Books I’m reading, books I want to read, maybe characters I like and why I like them, with maybe some personal anecdotes added, just to keep it interesting. I’ve fallen back in love with reading recently (thanks, in no small part, to booktok, of all things) and decided to go back to my days of dissecting these stories and reviewing them to post them here. 

This post, however, is just a hello. So hello! I’m Pris, I’m 29 and ever so often I fall in love with fantastical stories and cannot shut up about them. Most likely I’ll talk about fantasy books, as that is my preferred genre, but every now and then you might find contemporary romance, spicy reads and even the odd essay or short story collection. 

I hope, dear reader, you find some enjoyment reading my thoughts, maybe even drop a comment or two, and that you can find your next read, or identify with some of my opinions.