September Wrap-Up (2019)

Thanks to this month being my first ever September *not* back to school (and now job hunting) I read a LOT!

What I loved:

Among Others was a gorgeous slice of life novel with a hint of fantasy, in the form of a diary of a teen disabled Welsh girl passionate about science fiction and fantasy novels. It dealt with a lot of dark subjects but was a really great read I still find myself thinking about.
A Conspirary of Truths was also a new favourite and you can find my review here. Its sequel, A Choir of Lies, was even better!
Pet was a gorgeous short young adult novel that I reviewed here.
Piecing me Together was also a super great slice of life contemporary novel about a black teen girl going to a mainly white school and dealing with lots of complicated feelings. The way the novel explores her relationships with her friends from her former school, her new white friend, her family and her black mentor from a higher social class made for a great exploration of black identity. I also loved how the novel showed the main charcter’s love for art and languages.
Gloutons & Dragons is a fantasy and food manga making an hilarious mix, I reviewed it here in French.
I read Shuri: The Search for Black Panther Vol.1 as single issues on the Marvel Unlimited app and reviewed it here, I loved it!

What I liked:

Gender Queer is a great memoir about a non-binary asexual artist and eir journey of self-discovery. It was beautiful but also hard to read at times, obviously because of the society we live in that isn’t always welcoming or understanding of people who differ from what appears as the « norm ».
The Dark Fantastic is a great book about the way black people are treated in science fiction and fantasy, taking four major examples with Harry Potter, Vampire Diaries, Merlin BBC and Hunger games. The language is very academic and sometimes hard to grasp when not used to it, but I learned a lot.
Taproot was adorable and perfect for October with both a cute and scary gay love story between a garderner and a ghost.
Délius: Une Chanson d’Été is an older french fantasy novel, it caught my eye since it’s being re-issued with a new gorgeous cover and the author preferred name. I went to the library and borrowed the first edition since the text didn’t change! It was a bit all over the place but original.
Harry Potter was a buddy-read with friends from uni, it was really great to discuss how much we love it but also all the way it fails with “modern” expectations.
Crocodiles was a necessary read, full of testimonies about rape culture and street harassment, with all men drawn as crocodiles to show the threat can come from everywhere.
Descender‘s fourth volume kept the story moving forward and I can’t wait to keep reading!
Mooncakes was a really cute story, here’s my short review on goodreads!
The New Suns anthology has a great diversity of voices and several days later I’m still thinking about some of these stories.
Emergency Skin was a must read since it comes from N. K. Jemisin, even though it’s a kindle exclusive short story. The narrator is an AI from a hateful society and made it hard to read at first but the future it explores for Earth is also very hopeful and made for a rewarding reading experience in the end.

What was okay:

La Géopolitique du moustique was interesting. I’m (still) being eaten alive by mosquitoes so I thought it would be great to take the chance to learn more about these little creatures monsters.
Poussière Tome 2 wasn’t as compelling as the first since every questions was answered and no new thing introduced, and I also missed the main characters from the first volume.
Le Jour le Plus Long du Monde was weird? I like the visuals and how it conveyed the story without text but was confusing to me.
Since it was mostly flashbacks, Descender‘s third volume was great to get back in the story after I read the first two volumes a while ago, but I didn’t felt like it added a lot, it could have been better.
Naïade was okay, nothing ground-breaking and I think the cover doesn’t reflect well the story and setting.
How to be Remy Cameron was cute and I loved the conversations about the main character’s identity, from being gay to being adopted in a white family, but the writing was weak and many (not all) dialogues felt off.

What disappointed me:

A Matter of Oaths is an older scifi novel and was re-published last year with a non-whitewashed cover and an introduction by Becky Chambers, an author I love. So obviously I had high expectations. I found the characters lacking and their relationships felt forced, while I also struggled to understand what was going on at all times with the technology and politic landscape barely explained.
Raven felt like a cliché YA story written more than ten years ago, and the art felt rushed.
I like reading about magical societies but I didn’t love how most stuff was used for shock value in the Magic Order comics.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone had an entertaining story and the main character was really cool but the last part of the novel took a weird turn and I didn’t care for any of it. Though the writing sure is good. Not sure I’ll finish this trilogy, too bad since I really loved Strange the Dreamer and I heard its sequel had a bit of a link with this first trilogy.