Funny Dark Squiggles

I took the day off from work today so I can have a long(er) weekend. I went book shopping in a physical bookstore, which I haven’t done in a while. I wanted to get the second book in the   Alex Stern   duology by Leigh Bardugo and the first two books in Tracy Deonn’s   Legendborn Cycle   series to reread before the third book comes out in March. Mission accomplished! There were a ton of other books I could have purchased if I’d allowed myself, but I reminded myself that I work in a library five days a week and can read them for free. I definitely don’t need to purchase every book I read, heh.

THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS by Jasper Fforde is the third book in Fforde’s Thursday Next series and follows Thursday as she hides away from the real world inside an unpublished book titled   Caversham Heights . While working with Jurisfiction and her mentor Miss Havisham, she discovers a conspiracy involving the release of UltraWord™, a new book operating system with hidden functionality that threatens the integrity of fiction itself. Thursday must also contend with her memory loss concerning her husband Landen, as well as the threat of the villainous Aornis Hades. I’m rereading the Thursday Next series with some folks in  r/Fantasy  in the leadup to Fforde’s newest addition to the series being released later this year, and it’s been really fun to revisit Thursday’s world. The series is set in an alternate history version of Great Britain in the 1980s and includes a lot of literary allusions and witty wordplay. I’m a big fan of Fforde’s writing–British humor always makes me la...

THE BEAR by Andrew Krivak is set in a post-apocalyptic world where a father and his daughter are the last surviving humans, living in harmony with nature. After her father’s death, the girl is forced to find her way home through the wilderness alone, but is guided by a bear and other creatures who help her survive and connect with the world around her. THE BEAR explores the themes of grief, resilience, and humanity’s relationship to nature. At a little over 200 pages, this was a quick read, but that didn’t make it any less impactful. It made me think a lot about how we deal with grief and loss, as well as the ways in which we commune (or not) with nature. I’m one of those people who loves nature from a distance, so it’s always nice to connect deeply with nature vicariously through someone else. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy literary fiction, speculative fiction, and/or post-apocalyptic fiction. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4.5/5)