as a former bookworm and someone who ruined their eyesight by reading for years in the dark past her bedtime, i am disappointed in myself for losing my love of stories. not every book i read will be a masterpiece in fiction and prose, but i hope to keep a log of my reading now that my books are not assigned. i will not torture myself with greek political theory anymore and so hope to renew my passion.
if you wish to leave a comment or recommendation, please do. i feel like commenting is much more fun than sending me a whatsapp message.
butter by asako yuzuki
i am on chapter 2 and am finding it slightly arduous. the descriptions remind me of thomas hardy for some reason, far from the madding crowd. i remember reading that when i was around 17 and having to slog through pages of descriptions of trees. its possible im being hyperbolic though. i am a big fan of japanese literature, but i am not really engaging with this particular story as much, even though i quite like rika. also if you think im being a bit quick to judge on chapter 2 i am over 50 pages in so far. this book is also making me hungry. hmm.
The Southern Book Clubs guide to slaying vampires by grady hendrix (2020)
i bought this book today and finished it in one sitting (on a side note i almost got charged £93,000 for a batman comic as well!!). i have been in a reading slump for so so long and to finally be pulled into a world full of southern belles and vampires was such a relief! i was starting to wonder if i had lost the ability to enjoy reading, especially after some recent half-read books left scattered around my house. i was entertained by this book and found it to be a quick and easy read. i would say that it lacked some of the gut-wrenching, vampiric, southern gothic horror that i was expecting. in addition, i just did not really like the way the author wrote women. i suppose maybe he was trying to do a social commentary on the oppression of the housewife, but it came across in generally one-dimensional, shallow and fickle female characters who never really had each others backs and had to ‘protect their own first’ (aka their rude kids and abusive husbands). in addition, the black characters were constantly shoved to the side and played into harmful stereotypes. also, abuse and assault were used as shock value plot points and the author never really expanded on them or carried the themes forward. its a shame because the book has an interesting premise, although i wont pretend like i wasnt entertained for a few hours. as i said earlier, it was a fun and quick read and i would go as far as saying that i enjoyed it. its a shame there were so many issues with the writing.
past this point i will be discussing potential spoilers !
further discussion
i felt that this was an entertaining book which intertwined the southern gothic aesthetic with the 1980/90’s housewife. although i felt like i was missing the gothic. this book has been nominated for readers favourite horror on goodreads and is labeled as gothic and horror. maybe i did not pick up on aspects of the novel which are obvious to others, but at no point did the hairs at the back of my neck stand up; i don’t even remember feeling unsettled. sure, the descriptions were sometimes quite graphic, such as when the bookclub ladies (and mrs. greene) were chopping up jimmie at the end. but i was not scared. and i quite like to be scared if im expecting to be. dont get me wrong, there were twists in the plot, but i did not feel like i was on the edge of my seat. other than the lack of the southern gothic vampire aspect which i was hoping would be played into slightly more (i imagined a better true blood?), the husbands abused their wives in a multitude of ways, such as physically, financially, emotionally, and psychologically. there was very little time spent on the fact that graces husband hits her, or that kittys husband controls everything she does. we also kind of brushed past patricias husband lowkey drugging her up and painting her out to be insane to everyone she knows, including her kids, tying her down in hospital and delegitimising her every word. also the child abuse that was happening? and the rape as well that was just … not really talked about. this was all quite swiftly moved past in the name of patricia desperately trying to prove over and over that jimmie is a) a child molester b) a drug dealer or c) a vampire / monster / satan (it depends which lady you ask). and no one listens to her, ever. also the author uses the unjust treatment of black communities by the police and general public as a plot point but i feel like it was just very lightly touched on. while all of this sounds very negative, i really did enjoy reading it. the book was fun, the characters interesting, the plot fast enough to keep me hooked but also allowed for the fleshing out of personalities and events. i just wish it was more creepy-southern-gothic! and i wish it went into more detail and carried forward the themes of abuse it used as plot points. i would recommend this for an enjoyable and light read if you want something with vampires and also some good old american southern charm.
Fabulae de Electrum 
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