ARC Review: Unbirthday by Liz Braswell

Title: Unbirthday
Series: A Twisted Tale
Author: Liz Braswell
Source/Format: Netgalley; eARC
More Details: Fantasy; Retelling; Young Adult
Publisher/Publication Date: Disney-Hyperion; September 1, 2020

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

What if Wonderland was in peril and Alice was very, very late?
Alice is different than other eighteen-year-old ladies in Kexford, which is perfectly fine with her. She'd rather spend golden afternoons with her trusty camera or in her aunt Vivian's lively salon, ignoring her sister's wishes that she stop all that "nonsense" and become a "respectable" member of society. Alice is happy to meander to Miss. Yao's teashop or to visit the children playing in the Square. She's also interested in learning more about the young lawyer she met there, but just because she's curious, of course, not because he was sweet and charming. But when Alice develops photographs she has recently taken about town, familiar faces of old suddenly appear in the place of her actual subjects-the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, the Caterpillar. There's something eerily off about them, even for Wonderland creatures. And as Alice develops a self-portrait, she finds the most disturbing image of all-a badly-injured dark-haired girl asking for Alice's help. Mary Ann.
Returning to the place of nonsense from her childhood, Alice finds herself on a mission to stop the Queen of Hearts' tyrannical rule and to find her place in both worlds. But will she able to do so . . . before the End of Time?

I’m always on the lookout for a good retelling, especially for Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, which is one of my favorite classic stories. I’ve enjoyed a few retellings for it in the past—like L.L. McKinney’s Nightmare-verse series. So I had high expectations for Unbirthday. Unbirthday feels very much like a continuation of Disney’s 1951 film, Alice in Wonderland. The characters—Mad Hatter, Dormouse, and Dodo—have many similar characteristic (namely in appearance and behavior) to the characters of the movie or they could also more closely resemble those from the original story. With the story being set 11 years after Alice’s initial adventures in Wonderland, so there were differences, namely in the contents of the story. And overall I enjoyed Braswell’s take on an older Alice.

Alice is eighteen in this story, remembers Wonderland fondly as a dream, and looks for magic in her every-day surroundings. Overall, I enjoyed Alice’s perspective here. There was a blend between her regular life as well as her fantastical adventures once she returns to Wonderland. The transition between the two settings was done quite well, and I enjoyed many of the new characters introduced early in the story. Wonderland was full of nonsense and whimsy, and it was all-around pretty fun to read about. Due to the story, however, there was a much darker tone to Wonderland as a whole—in fact, it was downright sinister.

There was a part of the story that dealt a lot with politics—elections, rallies, the candidate, and social injustice—and many of those aspects mirrored real issues that are currently happening. In Unbirthday, Alice was involved with it, and it did take over much of the story outside of Wonderland. However, I did enjoy the complicated connections Alice formed with those around her, and some of my favorite characters included her aunt, Vivian, as well as Katz.

Unbirthday was a great Alice retelling. It had the whimsy and the wonder—and the randomness that’s a hallmark of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland—but it also didn’t shy away from the more serious aspects of its story.

About the author...

After the sort of introverted childhood you would expect from a writer, Liz earned a degree in Egyptology at Brown University and then promptly spent the next ten years producing video games. Finally she caved into fate and wrote Snow and Rx under the name Tracy Lynn, followed by The Nine Lives of Chloe King series under her real name, because by then the assassins hunting her were all dead. She also has short stories in Geektastic and Who Done It and a new series of reimagined fairy tales coming out, starting with A Whole New World—a retelling of Aladdin. She lives in Brooklyn with a husband, two children, a cat, a part-time dog, three fish and five coffee trees she insists will start producing beans any day. You can email her at me@lizbraswell.com.

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Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by the publisher (Disney-Hyperion) via Netgalley for this review, thank you!

ARC Review: Fangs by Sarah Andersen

Title: Fangs
Series: n/a
Author: Sarah Andersen
Source/Format: Publisher; eARC
More Details: Fantasy; Comic
Publisher/Publication Date: Andrews McMeel Publishing; September 1, 2020

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

A new gothic romance story from the creator of the enormously popular Sarah's Scribbles comics. 

Vamp is three hundred years old but in all that time, she has never met her match. This all changes one night in a bar when she meets a charming werewolf. FANGS chronicles the humor, sweetness, and awkwardness of meeting someone perfectly suited to you but also vastly different.

Fangs is short collection of slice-of-life style comics by Sarah Andersen. I know Andersen through her other series, Sarah’s Scribbles. I was particularly excited to give this one a read because of the paranormal elements—like vampires and werewolves—which are some of my favorite types of characters to read about. I have to say that I enjoyed reading Fangs. I had a lot of fun with this one, and it had a lot of the hallmarks of a good paranormal romance. By that I mean it was quite literally a romance between a vampire and a werewolf. The kind of jokes that came from that set up sometimes had me laughing out loud. So really, what’s not to like?

Fangs was a quick read. Each page was set up in an episodic format, where it had individual stories connected by a common subject to the rest of the collection. The relationship was the focus here. So it was good that I liked the main characters too. Jimmy and Elsie were both fun to read about, and I liked the design of their characters.

What was so great about Fangs was its delivery on characters and themes. It was done with the kind of wit, charm, and humor common to Andersen’s comics. And if you’ve read any of them before—like Sarah’s Scribbles—then you’ll likely like Fangs too.

About the author...

Hello! I’m Sarah and I’m a cartoonist and illustrator. I graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2014 and currently live in Brooklyn. My comics are semi-autobiographical and follow the adventures of myself, my friends, and my beloved pets.

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Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by the publisher (Andrews McMeel Publishing) via netgalley for this review, thank you!

Music Monday (129):Zella Day, Disclosure, Fatoumata Diawara, Jack Harlow

   Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: There has been so much good music released in the past week, so it's hard to pick one song. That being said, I'm going to go with one of my favorite songs from Zella Day's new EP (Where Does The Devil Hide), My Game. 

Adri: This week I'm listening to Disclosure. I forgot they were having a new album, but I did get around to listening to it. I love all the songs and it felt very energetic. I mean it is called Energy after all. Anyway, I'm only choosing two songs. The first one is Douha (Mali Mali) featuring Fatoumata Diawara. I thought it sounded familiar to Ultimatum before I realized it was the same artist.

And my second pick is Thinking 'Bout You (Interlude), which reminds me so much of Lo-fi.

Andrea: I hadn't heard of Whats Poppin until I saw the teacher's remake of this song. I love the original and the remake. You can listen to the original song below. You can check out the teacher's remake HERE. 

Is there any new music you're listening to? If so, leave your recommendations in the comments. 

Short Stories I Read in July

Today is the 29th of August, so it’s time for me to discuss the short stories, miscellaneous posts, and podcast episodes I read and listened to in July.

The Husker by Jessica P. Wick (Strange Horizons; Issue: 1 June 2020) 

The first short story I read in July was The Husker by Jessica P. Wick. It was very short, but it was still a great read. And I enjoyed it. The writing was straight to the point, and it was the kind of haunting story that read like it belonged as a story told over a campfire or as some local legend.

Once More Unto the Breach (But Don’t Worry, the Inflatable Swords are Latex-Free) by Tina Connolly (Uncanny Magazine; Issue Thirty Five, July 7, 2020)

By the title, I didn’t know what to expect from Once More Unto the Breach (But Don’t Worry, the Inflatable Swords are Latex-Free). I had some idea, but it wasn’t what I got. I’m happy about that too, because this was a fun read. The story was kind of dramatic and unpredictable—I mean it was set at a birthday party. There also happened to be monsters, inflatable swords, axes, and hammers. Overall, Connolly did an excellent job, and I’m looking forward to reading more work by this author.

The Parts That Make Us Monsters by Sheree Renee Thomas (Strange Horizons, Issue: Fund Drive 2020)

The Parts That Make Us Monsters was another story I read in July that was more on the short side. I had to think about what I read, and I also had to let the story digest before I could think of what I wanted to say about it. Some stories are just like that, and this was one of them. I enjoyed The Parts That Make us Monsters. It was written well, and it was a very immersive story. Parts of it could be vague, but the overall intent of the story was clear. I honestly enjoyed Thomas’s approach to the themes and characters.

From Around the Web…

• Print Run Podcast episode #133
• “We Are Each Other’s Harvest”: Akwaeke Emezi’s Pet (Alex Brown; Tor.com, July 7, 2020)
• Hands On (Caitlin Starling; Uncanny Magazine, Issue Thirty-Five, July 7, 2020)
• Francesca Momplaisir’s My Mother’s House Confronts Generation Trauma Head-On (Mary Retta; Tor.com, July 7, 2020)
• The Soul of a City: The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin (Tochi Onyebuchi; Tor.com, July, 7, 2020)
• Print Run Podcast Episode #134
• “Evil Earth”: Linguistic Worldbuilding in N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy (CD Covington; Tor.com, July 27, 2020)

The Friday 56 (184) & Book Beginnings: The Case Study of Vanitas volume 2 by Jun Mochizuki

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you're reading.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

Now installed at a hotel in Paris with the help of Count Orlok, Noé and Vanitas take their awkward partnership on the road...to a vampire masquerade ball! The order of the evening may be small talk and hobnobbing with fellow guests, but the mystery of the curse-bearers is never too far behind. The intrigue swirls as quickly as the dancers twirl, a blue moon ascends upon the guests...and all hell breaks loose!

Beginning: "After Noe left him behind in chapter 3......Murr went back to Orlok."

56: "Borders are believed to have been generated all over the world by the experimental accident known as "Babel." Only vampires, who were created by Babel, are able to cross them."

Comments: I read volume 2 of The Case Study of Vanitas a while ago, but I forgot to do a Friday 56 for it. Volume 2 is one of my favorites so far, because it covers the vampire masquerade ball. The art is totally gorgeous, it kept the story moving, and it revealed more of the vampires side of the story. What are you reading this week?