2025 Reading List - January

[chibifukurou]

Reading Goal for 2025 is to read 50 books. Posting here to keep track.

Not everything on this list will be a recommendation. For fiction I tend heavily to first person and books written in non-standard form so even if I rec it you may not find it to your taste.

Other things that will feature heavily; themes of Disability, chronic illness, gender non-conformity, high control groups, found families, and family dynamics.
Prioritization is also shown to woman and marginalized authors.

January

Stage Dreams by Melanie Gillman - Queer Graphic Novel - TW for Civil War era racism/sexism. Injury/Violence

I've read a number of Melanie Gillman's other comics. Most of which have been short comics. running the gambit from a few pages, to a few dozen. Her previously published book,Other Every Afters, was a collection of queer fairy tale comics. Which I read as soon as it came out.She also has an ongoing webcomic called As the Crow Flies.  I have long loved her art style which uses colored pencils, which gives everything a soft, naturalized feel to it. Stage Dreams is a departure both in genre, historical real world fiction, and length 100ish pages from their previously published book. For the story itself, it is a little rushed feeling. Each chapter having its own self-contained characters entering and leaving the narrative. With only the main characters providing continuity. This is likely from the change in format to one long narrative, from previous shorter work. It doesn't hurt the narrative particularly. It's fun seeing different people with different views of what is going on, but it does make it harder to feel completely taken into the stories world.
In addition to the comic itself, there are also a number of pages, including photos and maps which will teach you more about the Arizona Territory during the Civil War that I wasn't familiar with, and I doubt many people were. As well as some information about trans soldiers during that period.
If you are interested in a cute Trans F/F comic, or learning more about the Civil War era out west this is a fun and fast ready.

Olivetti by Allie Millington - Middle Grade Mystery - TW for cancer, near death experiences, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and implied child neglect of a secondary character.

 Clean writing but the pacing is not well done. The big 'Twist' is about 2/3rds into the book. To early for it to be the climax and too late for it to be part of the book's driving point.  Which leaves all the emotional punch, near death experience, etc is jammed haphazardly into the back third. And since the twist isn't really a twist but a reveal of the mother's returned illness that was not well alluded to in the first two thirds it leaves the reader feeling more like the narrative hid the truth, than the reveal of a hinted too mystery
The characters are likable, even if the suspension of disbelief gets pushed pretty far out since they can't reliably reason themselves out of a paperbag. Notably in the first chapter he narrates, the child character notes having the money to pay for an item. And then a chapter or two after impulsively steals it instead...the back third revolves around him having to steal the item so its not story breaking, but indicative of the types of decisions that will be made throughout.

It's possible I'm more sensitive to the gaping plot holes because I'm no longer in middle grade.Given the narrators are half child and half parental non-human and the big name recommendation they have slapped onto the book cover is from Tom Hanks, I don't think that completely hand waves the issue. If you are marketing this as a "can be enjoyed by parents and kids equally!' you should expect some of your target audience to notice and comment on the problems.

Despite the awkwardness that runs from the beginning of the third act to the climax, the ending is a good payoff to most of the threads given. While I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, particularly if you are looking for a book to discuss parental illness with your kiddos as a family read (something despite its premise and marketing it completely failed to do). If you are looking for a quick family read with light mystery elements it might hit the spot.

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The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui - Graphic Memoir - TW Graphic Violence, Partner and Child abuse, War, Child Death
 

A family memior following 4 generations of the author's family. Heavily following her parents through their early childhoods before the War fully started, the  through her families fleeing Vietnam and their first years in America. Using the birth of her first child as a framing device. Looking back at the childhoods that scarred her parents, who brought those scars into her own childhood. And her attempts not to carry that forward to her own child.

The art has a gorgeous flow to it. Done in ink and single color watercolor. It can be a little hard to follow where the emotional feel of an event is prioritized, but these periods don't last long enough to ever make the narrative incoherent. Just so that you might miss a few details.

Particularly the middle periods, covering her fathers childhood, her mother's pregnancies, and then the war are very dark. If you, like me only have a US education on Vietnam before and during the war, you will learn a lot about the background but may not be prepared for how dark portions can be. The author sticks to only the parts of the war her family directly witnessed but that is plenty.

An arresting comic in its entirety, definitely something meant for an adult audience.
 

 What You Are Looking For Is In the Library by Michiko Aoyama - Adult Fiction/Interconnected Short Stories - TW Social issues involving ableism and gender assumptions; second hand embarrassment

A very kind collection of interconnected stories based around a community center in a Tokyo Ward and it's mysterious librarian. Described as anything between Baymax and a Polar Bear. Something not quite of the regular world. This one made it into my Media Recs list, so I'll do a more thorough review then.

 Becoming Toffee by Sarah Crossan - YA Social Issues/Novels in Verse- TW Abuse, mentions of child and parent death, pregnancy, dementia, bullying, class issues
 

The setup of the story is about a girl running away and ending up living with a woman with dementia who mistakes her for an old childhood friend.
While that is the framing device of the story, the author doesn't seem to have the urge to make that the point of the story, despite that being the focus of the blurb. Their relationship is more held up as a means for the young lead to explore what her opinions are both in how families should treat each other, and later in what her morals are when it comes to class, as she tries to make friends with the richer children in the area and finds them careless of her older housemates items. Comparing that with her own history of abuse. A implied lesbian coming out pops up for a bit.
None of this is bad persay. Novels in verse are often more willing to directly contrast ideas than more strictly chronilogical narratives. But in actual practice all the different threads leave the book muddled. Unable to finalize the threads that make up the central portion of the book given the need to close out the framing devices of the initial run away and the dementia. So the discussion of family abuse and class get two quick, unemotional poems. And the crushes on her female classmate and one of the rich kids gets dropped after an oddly placed poem where she flashbacks about needing to kiss a boy when he asked because love hurts.
I can't really recommend the book but if you like the authors other books you might enjoy this one.
 Louder than Hunger by John Schu - Middle Grade Social Issues/Novels in Verse - TW Eating Disorders, OCD, Depression, Cancer, Family Death, Bullying

A semi autobiogeaphical Novel in verse set in the 90s about a boy with an eating disorder and his journey through treatment. Based heavily in the authors own Eating Disorder treatment in his youth this is a fast and engaging read with a fairly standardized poem form.
The author leans heavily on repetition possibly just as a form choice but also remenicent of counting rituals that sometimes proliferate in OCD. While he does explain treatment lingo and bring in things like medications, he does a very good job sticking to close POV. Which lets the story breath as a hard time in his life. Rather than issues fiction where things like 'the proper way to react to treatment' can limit and flatten a story.
About midpoint the character's Grandma passes from cancer while he is in treatment and unable to see her or deal with the more traditional grief narratives like relying on family. Lashing out and indirect self harm follow and can be hard to read.
A solid book if you have a few hours to spare, but dealing with a number of tough subjects that you want to be sure you are prepared for as you or the young reader in your life go into it.

Northwind by Gary Paulsen – Children’s Survival/Nature – TW: Plague, child death, offscreen child abuse, period typical behavior, wild animal violence

 

A story about a Norse boy left to fend for himself in Nature.

Gary Paulsen has made his name with survival against the element’s stories. I’ve been reading them since I was a bitty and they remain a mainstay genre for me, even as I move to a larger variety of authors and older audiences. Northwind is cut from the same cloth in many ways.

Reflecting Paulsen’s deep love of the natural world some of the most beautiful passages render life with coastal whales in full detail. Using the simple and approachable language he is known for, Paulsen explains some of their more unusual feeding and cleaning habits of whales, eagles, and ravens. As well as going into the things like how one kills, guts, cleans, and cooks fish in vivid detail. This is not a sanitized children’s nature tale.

Published in 2022, it is not in direct conversation with the pandemic, but you can feel the fear of illness, the unknown of how it spreads, and avoidance of all other humans that was endemic to 2020 and 2021. While not a major plot point past the inciting incident, the initial illness and death is grim and may be triggering for readers.

 

Recommended for any natural survival fans or anyone with a special interest in whales, this is a fast-paced book that is worth a few hours of your time. Taking you on a long canoe trip through northern climes it will likely teach even adults a little about nature.

The Worst Perfect Moment by Shivaun Plozza – YA Lesbian Fantasy Romance – TW: Teen Death, Bullying, Child neglect

The story about a girl who died and finds herself in a heaven right out of a dark sitcom. Unwilling to accept this is her ‘perfect heaven’ she sets out to prove the angel who designed in is wrong. Leading two a whirlwind trip through some of her darkest memories and a growing closeness to the angel in question.

I’m not much of a romance reader, but when I do seek it out it is based around relationships that start as situationships. Arranged marriages, fake dating, we got trapped on a deserted island, what have you. We got trapped in the wrong heaven was a new take on the genre and I’m glad I gave the book a chance to prove its chops.

You can see her experience with narrative shining through as she weaves together three different timelines. The active narrative of the love story; the visits to the flashback where the main character, Tegan, is both acting as an outside observer and is present in the original memory; and the occasional third person flashbacks showing why exactly this heaven was chosen. Everything fits together well to keep the pace quick without losing the chance for the reader to come to the realizations of what is going on, right along with Tegan.

If you like lighter romance books with fantasy elements, I doubt you will be disappointed. The Good Place sprang to mind a few times while reading the book. I’m not sure if you would be pleased if you were looking for a more strictly romantic book, since solving the issue of the wrong heaven takes up most of the A plot. While the growing relationship remains B up until the last quarter of the book.

Sweeter Voices Still by Various – Multiauthor Essay/Poetry Collection – TW: Period typical queerphobia; discussions of rural life including the violence there in; mentions of gun and other forms of interpersonal violence.

An anthology letting rural, primarily midwestern queer folks talk about their lives and experiences in their own voices through poetry, essays, and memoir.

 

Published by a small, queer press this anthology is a mix of new pieces and pieces gathered from publications of various sizes and genres. This lends it a remarkably broad gaze both in space and time. Since an author may have initially written in the 80 or the late 2010s. And may have been originally speaking of how their religion and queerness interacted. Or their racial and family background and its effect on their queer life. Or just telling a poem about a day of particular importance in their life journey.

While the broadness is deliberate and allows for everyone to find a bit of themselves reflected in their queer elders and peers, it also works against the book. Items like blackout poetry or shape poetry that would be well at home in analog media find themselves truncated through the ebook. As the page setter tried to manage the requirements and limitations. Not always successfully.

Additionally, there is little ability to hold the pieces in conversation. Sometimes the editor would group 2 or 3 stories of a ‘type’ together. Perhaps discussing different religions. But then it would go off for 4 or 5 unrelated pieces. Only to circle back to religion again. The same with discussions of race and immigration. Notably there were two pieces by Chicago religious street activists of color who chose similar paths to their activism, while starting from very different backgrounds. Both exploring similar themes. But separated by half the book each plunked down with very different discussions.

Neither issue is condemnation for creating the book. It follows well in the footsteps of its zine making predecessors. And you will almost assuredly find parts you will enjoy as long as you go into it with the expectations of it as a piece of queer community art. If you can get ahold of it in paper copy that would likely make the illegible portions readable. But given the tiny press size most will be reading this in ebook format.

Magnolia Wu Unfolds it All by Chanel Miller – Children’s Mystery – TW: racism; complicated children/parent relationships.

Chanel is known for her award winning memoir about being a second generation immigrant in America and brings that to her first foray into children’s book writing. Setting the mystery around a New York Chinese immigrant laundry. And the ‘New York sock detectives’. Adorable illustrations help bring the story to life.

Unfortunately, her background with memoir, which allows her to bring characters to life over the course of a single page, hampers her ability to plot the book. Each character gets a few pages of introduction and mention connections to Magnolia and the other characters. But none of that is on screen. We are left bouncing from sock story to sock story with no real connective tissue. As the kids are told Magnolia’s mother’s favorite drink from when she first immigrated or that her father helps nurse injured plants by the adults around them.

It leaves the whole book half baked. Stuck somewhere between proving a point about Magnolia’s lack of understanding of the people around her as individual people with their own concerns and motivations(The narrative conclusion of the book) and the author’s attempts to get closer into Magnolia’s POV where she gets upset, acts impulsively, and generally has the ability to carry off the being a character who can semi-magically locate the owners of lost socks within her neighborhood.

Perhaps happily readable by a younger elementary schooler who is a read along. Able to enjoy the illustrations but young enough they won’t notice the impossibility of some of the stories. Though there are racial aggressions that children of that age may not be ready to discuss.

Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh – Mystery/Horror – TW: unreliable narrator; memory loss/confusion; animal death; fatphobia; uncomfortable racial discussions of the narrator’s ethnic group; WWII mentions; implied infidelity; implied character death; cancer

An elderly woman dealing with the death of her husband moves to a rural cabin to try and gain independence. After a winter of isolation, she notices strange happenings around her. Caught in what she believes is an elderly woman sleuth in a rural town story, her paranoia grows her connection to the factual shreds.

Death in Her Hands is an interesting book. It somewhat defies being placed in a particular genre, but it is still firmly within the Thriller/Horror/Mystery triangle rather than cross genre. I’ve heard some people describe it as satire, and some as domestic horror ala Shirley Jackson. I think, it is probably closer to Shirley Jackson’s investigation of the situationally normal as a means to highlight the horrible and absurd than true satire. The main character does not intentionally notice her own genre defiance, and the extremely close narrative POV means that she isn’t winking out at the reader giving them the nod when things defy standard mystery tropes. Her conclusions and leaps of logic are absurd, but it is very clear that she herself believes them.

Moshfegh does a great job keeping in very tight narrative. Never letting up for a moment on the stream of consciousness and observations the main character, Vesta, makes. Not flinching from cruelty or irrationality Vesta brings to the world, the descriptions are part cutting commentary and part flinching away from Vesta’s own cruelty. Though how much of each side of this personality see-saw has always been part of Vesta and how much is because of her obvious recurrent memory issues is unclear. They certainly become more pronounced in the back third. Which can make the story hard to read, despite Moshfegh’s excellent pacing. If you have issues with paranoia and derealization this may be a book to pass on.

Recommended for anyone who likes domestic horror and doesn’t mind a disjointed and often cruel narrator. Who projects her own issues with her past self onto people in her life. Some of which may or may not be real.

Cloudless by Christine Evans – General Novel in Verse – TW: Racism; Classism; Child Abuse; Implied domestic abuse; Child Death

A tragedy chasing back and forth through time to a single afternoon at the local pool that leads to a child’s disappearance. Following various people as the tragedy is almost avoided and then comes closer. Giving the loss of the child a mythical long goodbye that is never clearly real or imagined.

Set in Perth and very clearly written with that setting and language in mind this is an unusual novel in verse. Moving easily between toddler characters, to older ladies, to an omnipotent narrator looking back from twenty years in the future, Evans does a good job pressing the poems into an order that both highlights the different themes and the inevitability of the very present danger in the main plot.

Because of the focus on a domestic violence refuge in the city in the first half of the book, there are a lot of dark themes. Some shown in full detail, many implied by the negative space of what a given poem talks around. Class and race also play into the setting, though in a way that is less familiar for an American reader such as myself who only has passing knowledge of aboriginal struggles.

Auntie, Sally, and Jerome as the main three that get the most focus as the tragedy unfolds, but the Narrative is big enough to whole twenty plus characters all rendered with a caring hand. From Bat-girl who is some unspecified neurodiverse and narrates events with a focus on the sounds throughout the back half of the story. To Penny who’s sick and tired and tired from being sick, giving insight into the refuge itself before she leaves the narrative as the tragedy destroys the refuge. To Kev, a bus driver, who sees broad areas of the city that no one else pays attention too.

By turns hard and full of love, I would recommend this to anyone who loves novels in verse and is looking for a more unusual representation of the genre.