altlovesbooks

This book is probably a master class in how to write a character who’s neurodivergent (named Sunday) and the struggles she goes through in trying to understand her daughter. A new couple moves in next door to them, and the over-the-top personality of the wife, Vita, entrances Sunday. The two seem to hit it off, but after one rewarding summer for Sunday, she slowly comes to realize that the couple next door isn’t what they appear and her entire carefully constructed life slowly starts unraveling.

I really was incredibly interested in seeing how Sunday navigates her world. Certain colors of foods and things bother her, so that her meals generally all have to be of a certain color for her to eat them. She views life and human courtesies through the lens of an old etiquette book for ladies, and dispenses pearls of wisdom out of a book about Sicilian folklore. She approaches conversations tonally, and habitually taps out speech patterns and imitates the speaker’s lilt in her head. I liked seeing how she tried to adapt to Vita’s unconventional ways, making an effort to get to know her despite being so foreign in mannerisms. It was enlightening getting inside Sunday’s head and seeing how she sees the world.

Unfortunately this only took up half the book. The other half, after the summer Sunday spent with Vita and her husband Rollo, when the wheels start falling off Sunday’s ordered life, wasn’t nearly as interesting to me. Things felt a little repetitive as the same thoughts, ideas, and plot points are reiterated and retread. The buildup to an ending I suspected was coming felt slow, and the payoff at the end felt a little weak. A lot of Sunday’s quirks felt like they were put by the wayside in favor of the plot involving her daughter, not that they stopped existing, but they stopped mattering in the story as much. I don’t know, the second half just didn’t click with me as much as the first half.

But there’s lots here for people to like! I highly recommend giving it a try if the premise still appeals to you, because it may hit you differently than it hit me.

I actually thought this was really good! I'm not the hugest DC fan outside of Batman, but I appreciated the different take on the Superman origin story where the Els have set up a whole kingdom, Bruce is a bastard son, and there's a rival kingdom wanting to bring the whole thing down. There's some really great art here as well, hats off to the artist.

I think my favorite part about this entire thing is Harley's role as an advisor of sorts to Bruce. She's still unmistakably Harley, but there's an undercurrent of actual wisdom and concern to her advice that I appreciated as being different and special.

Just a fun Elseworlds medieval tale, highly recommend.

"That’s what the book’s about, right? The pleasure of finding your people?"

This book is about Artie, a man in New York trying to make it as a writer writing his first book, hanging out with his friends at a local bar, dealing with complex relationship issues, and just generally living life as a gay 20-something in a big city. This book is also about Artie, an approaching-elderly man 30 years later, trying to make the best of things without his close friends and lovers, attempting to make himself useful by volunteering at GALS, the local LGBTQ senior center and falling (literally) into a new group of friends he has to navigate now. We bounce between these two time periods as Artie’s story is fleshed out, following him through high and low points, and just generally getting to know this man’s life story.

I’m not even in the demographic this book is about, and I thought this book was delightful. There’s something about following a person through their life that really gets to me sometimes, and I thought the author did an incredibly good job of making me feel invested in Artie, both in the past 90s period and the current 2022 period. There’s occasional dark moments in Artie’s life, but the author does a good job of making even these low points seem worthwhile and meaningful in his life. The 90s period especially brings up a lot of tough topics surrounding the AIDS crisis and the impact it has on their community, but I thought it was very respectfully done.

Just a book about a guy and his found family, delightful and heartwarming.

I won a free copy of this ARC from Goodreads Giveaways.