Lea Seidman

I want more of this!

Revisado: 02-04-23

I really liked this. The horror built well, the narration was perfect.
I’d love to read more about Persephone and Alonzo.

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Magical Girls with lots more blood

Revisado: 10-12-22

Gideon the Ninth was Goth Horror Revolutionary Girl Utena in a haunted mansion. Harrow the Ninth was every Sailor Moon series/movie when Usagi is guided by the spirits of unalived Scouts, but with so much more body horror.
Nona is like Little Witch Kiki, but instead of a charming pseudo-European village setting, the whole fucking world is lava, and the shit duelists from Utena show up just to be fabulous dickheads. Nona is a darling born-yesterday screaming superweapon that loves dogs and wants a birthday party.
After I listened to Nona, I had to re-read Gideon and Harrow to unconfuse myself. Boo-hoo, so terrible enjoying the books again.
Conclusions:
John is such a gigantic douche. His jokes deserve to die so horribly.
Everything is better with Gideon.
Love them all, now I need a good lie down, because these books are intense af.

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Liminal Hopepunk

Revisado: 07-18-22

Prayer for the Crown-Shy is a really good examination of “why do I feel bad when all my needs are met?” set against the backdrop of a world where humans have dodged extinction, pollution has been cleaned up, and robots were set free when they gained sentience.
I really related to Dex’s struggle with becoming successful, but finding themselves hollow. Mosscap the robot is charming and funny, and similarly seeking.
Chambers (and Charlie Jane Anders’) works are a lovely antidote to YApocalypse and antique sci-fi.
It’d be wonderful to see hopepunk replace the uniformly depressing classics used in high school lit.

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A Balm of a Psalm

Revisado: 07-24-21

(Possible spoilers ahead.)
I’m always ready for a Becky Chambers book. Where The Wayfarers was about finding family in an exciting but high-stakes and sometimes brutal future, A Psalm for the Wild-Built is pastoral and meditative in a setting where humanity managed to unf*ck itself.
Human Dex is a monk who travels and serves tea and comfort and is successful in their service to others, but finds themselves empty and depressed. Dex’s future is comfortable and safe: when robots gain sentience, humans set them free, and humans radically reboot their lives to sustainability.
Dex recognizes that they have everything they need, and are furious that they have an emotional pain they can’t heal no matter what they try. Readers will know long before Dex does that Dex is burnt all the way out from caring for everyone but themselves.
Dex meets and travels with Mosscap, a guileless, gentle, and annoyingly curious robot that has volunteered to leave the wilds to see what humans need.
When Dex reveals to Mosscap why Dex is confused and hurting, I was full on crying. I was touched by Chambers’ depiction of Mosscap’s kindness, and related so much to Dex’s fear of starting over.
Emmett Grosland was fantastic at bringing Chambers’ words and characters to life. Not gonna lie: I adore Mosscap as Grosland portrays them. What a pure robot.

Highly recommended.

Something that doesn’t have anything to do with the writing or performance that I think is worth mentioning is the unevenness in the sound quality. Some sections of the audio were fuzzy, and others clear, and it was unrelated to the text. Emmett Grosland would sound like two different performers, because the recording gave them two different pitches. This didn’t ruin the book for me, but it was baffling given that this is an audiobook from a major publisher.

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Good AND Helpful

Revisado: 03-07-21

As my daughter put it, Everybody Has a Podcast... is the inverse of MBMBAM: good advice over laughs, as opposed to laughs over good advice.
(My daughter and I spent an hour debating “a year of Taco Bell or a year of growing and hunting your own food” that was brought up in MBMBAM 550 the night before I wrote this review.)
I bought this book because I like the bros, I like their activism, I like that they are willing to learn, and that their podcasts are entertaining. I figured they knew a few things about podcasting, and I needed a refresher course.
One of the things I love about this book is the leavening: realistic expectations, the message that you can start with whatever you have to record on, and to respect that listeners have given you the one thing they can’t get back: their time.

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Best Book This Year

Revisado: 07-07-20

I’m so glad I bought this from my wish list. Bahni Turpin is the BEST narrator I have ever listened to, making each character distinct. The story itself is engaging, and often laugh out loud funny.
If you liked THE INCREDIBLES or THE IMAGINARY DETECTIVE, this is your kind of listen. If you got boring chores or drives, ANDREA VERNON will make you look forward to them.

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Delightful, Heart-Tugging, and Inventive!

Revisado: 03-14-20

The Imaginary Corpse is full to bursting with ideas, characters, sadness, unexpected humor, and love.
You know you’ve got a delicious book on hand when you realize you can’t say anything about it online or in person without spoiling the delight of discovery for someone else.
Tyler Hayes did an incredible job of inventing worlds within worlds, some slyly referencing things we already know, and some wholly new and gorgeous.
It’s my favorite of all the books I’ve listened to in the past year.
James Fouhey’s reading is the best I’ve ever heard. He’s amazingly versatile, capturing hard-boiled but cuddly Detective Tippy, the eagle Freedom Frieda, very young imaginary friends, and inscrutable ones.
(For another Fouhey fix, check out “Puffs” on Amazon.)

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Haunting

Revisado: 11-02-17

"Every Heart a Doorway" left me wanting more stories about the Wayward Children, so I was happy to find this sequel.
What makes this story stand out is the message that children should be allowed to choose who they want to be, and the dire consequences that come from controlling instead of guiding them.
McGuire's prose is gorgeous; she writes even grotesque things with beautiful detail.
Even though I know how things went for Jack and Jill in "Every Heart", this book, set in a Hammer Horror world, made their back story compelling.

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