Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina is an anthology filled with intersectional Australian voices. The idea being to highlight all sorts of marginalised writers. Taken as a whole, this results in a very broad and diverse anthology. Although I am familiar with the two editors from the spec fic books they've authored, most of the stories did not have a speculative bent, although there were a few.

Meet Me at the Intersection is an anthology of short fiction, memoir and poetry by authors who are First Nations, People of Colour, LGBTIQA+ or living with disability. The focus of the anthology is on Australian life as seen through each author’s unique, and seldom heard, perspective.

With works by Ellen van Neerven, Graham Akhurst, Kyle Lynch, Ezekiel Kwaymullina, Olivia Muscat, Mimi Lee, Jessica Walton, Kelly Gardiner, Rafeif Ismail, Yvette Walker, Amra Pajalic, Melanie Rodriga, Omar Sakr, Wendy Chen, Jordi Kerr, Rebecca Lim, Michelle Aung Thin and Alice Pung, this anthology is designed to challenge the dominant, homogenous story of privilege and power that rarely admits ‘outsider’ voices.

Some of the stories were fun to read, some were intentionally uncomfortable, other fell somewhere in between those two extremes and made me think. Note that I use "stories" here in a generic sense to refer to all the pieces in the anthology, even though it included poetry and memoir. My two favourite stories gained that status for very different reasons. ‘Stars in our Eyes’ by Jessica Walton was a delightful celebration of geek culture, while including queer and disabled characters and refreshingly supportive characters. ‘The Last Stop’ by Alice Pung was not at all what I expected from the opening and is a story that firmly fell into the "made me think" category. It tells of the journey of a teen boy who starts off ignorant of Chinese culture but ends up learning that Chinese teenagers are just like him (but live in China). His experiences were starkly contrasted with those of various people around him.

I enjoyed a lot of the other stories too, but since I've written mini reviews of them all, I'll leave them for you to read below if you haven't already seen them in one of my #ReadShortStories posts. I will add, however, that I was a bit sad that the ebook I read didn't include the back cover art, since the (full) cover art is apparently also one of the intersectional pieces making up the whole. It wouldn't have been hard to include the full artwork inside the book (either near the start or at the back) and I'm disappointed that the publisher didn't bother.

Overall, this was a great read. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking to read more diverse voices or stories of Australia's chequered history. I liked how the anthology was structured, with stories grouped thematically, so that it opened with stories by indigenous people, and ended with stories of the migrant experience, with stories about characters who are queer and/or disabled (or overlapping with one of the other groups) in groups in the middle. The whole book is like a thematic rainbow, shading from one group to another, with overlapping stories in between.

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‘Night Feet’ by Ellen van Neerven — A story about a teenaged girl playing soccer. And a bit how poverty and family circumstances are hurdles to that end. I expect the story would be more exciting for people who are into soccer, which I am not.

‘Dream’ by Graham Akhurst — A poem with formatting that didn’t work on my phone screen and was much more powerful when I was able to read it on the iPad. It’s also the kind of poem that becomes clearer with subsequent readings.

‘Dear Mate’ by Kyle Lynch — A distressing story, in some ways, about a young person who wants a job but has little idea how to get one. Although I didn’t realise how young he was until near the end, which did make it a bit less distressing.

‘Embers’ by Ezekiel Kwaymullina — A sad, short poem about dyslexia.

‘Harry Potter and the Disappearing Pages’ by Olivia Muscat — An essay/memoir about the author going blind at the start of high school and the frustrations of being disabled in modern society.

‘Fragments’ by Mimi Lee — The story of a young Chinese Australian dealing with her grandfather’s death and a difficult family situation. This was an interesting read but in some ways (the mental illness ways more than the grief ways) felt like it ily scratched the surface. I wouldn’t have minded it being longer but I can see why it made sense to leave it where it was. 4/5 30/12

‘Stars in our Eyes’ by Jessica Walton — A wonderful story about geeky teens and adults that made me laugh. Certainly the most fun story so far.

‘Trouble’ by Kelly Gardiner — A story of non-conforming girls in 1950s Melbourne. I enjoyed the local colour even if the end was not quite as I had hoped/shipped.

‘Sheer Fortune’ by Jordi Kerr — A more Australian story that I would have expected from a short summary of it, with some strong New Zealish elements thrown in via the second character. Shifters, lesbians, high school. A nice read.

‘Telephone’ by Yvette Walker — A timey-wimey story in which the main character receives a phone call from her teenage self. As she talks to this version of herself that had been trying to call and LGBT support hotline, she reflects on her life and how she got to where she is now (happily living with her wife). A sweet story, overall.

‘DNA’ by Melanie Rodriga — A story about a queer teenage girl and her interactions with her family and one of her teachers. I found it to be a slightly unusual story, full of direct questions and teen anger but not as many answers as I might have expected.

‘Almitra Amongst Ghosts’ by Rafeif Ismail — A kind of depressing story about not fitting in due to race, religion and queerness, all at once. Written in a lovely style.

‘The Other Son’ by Omar Sakr — An autobiographical story about a father’s death and meeting a half brother for the first time, told by the middle eastern author.

‘School of Hard Knocks’ by Amra Pajalic — A Bosnian girl moves to Australia and starts high school in a rough suburb, where she is bullied. Another autobiographical story.

‘Autumn Leaves’ by Wendy Chen — A nice, if bittersweet, story about a Chinese family in Melbourne around the time of Federation. I quite liked it.

‘How to Be Different’ by Michelle Aung Thin — An autobiographical essay about being different, especially as a young child in primary school.

‘The Last Stop’ by Alice Pung — This story wasn’t at all what I expected. Told from the point of view of a bogan or “feral” teenage boy who enters a competition for a laugh and wins a Rotary Club trip to China. Discovering that the ordinary high school kids in China are just like him significantly changes his world view and opens his eyes to racism. A really good read, in the end, though you had to get past some racism near the start to appreciate the change in the character’s perspective.

‘Border Crossings’ by Rebecca Lim — Another autobiographical essay, this morning me focusing on our interactions and reactions to the world, especially with respect to language.

4 / 5 stars

First published: 2018, Fremantle Press
Series: No
Format read: ePub
Source: Purchased from Apple Books

The Unbelievable Gwenpool Vol. 2: Head of M.O.D.O.K by Christopher Hastings

The Unbelievable Gwenpool Vol. 2: Head of M.O.D.O.K written by Christopher Hastings and illustrated by Irene Strychalski and Gurihiru is the second collected volume of Gwenpool comics. I previously reviewed the first volume Believe It, which introduces the character, and a holiday special. Quick background for those unfamiliar with the character: Real World comic fan Gwen Stacey gets transported into comic book world and, recognising the comic book tropes around her, endeavours to become a main character.

What's the best part about living in a world of comic-book heroes? Team-ups, baby! And imagine the awesome when Gwen Poole meets Miles Morales! Spider-Men and Gwens are a match made in heaven, right? Huh. Maybe not always — this one goes to some dark places! Second best thing about living in the Marvel Universe? The job opportunities! She's only been here a few weeks, and now she's got a shot at running her very own Mercenary Organization Dedicated Only to Killing — M.O.D.O.K.! Talk about getting ahead in business! But Gwenpool may not be up to the task! Still, it's always good to be wanted, right? Except when it's by the NYPD. Or aliens. Her only chance? Do something awful and not care about the consequences! Join the Gwenpool army today!

The problem is, Gwen isn't that good at being morally unambiguous and quickly gets on the bad side of the NYPD and also Miles Morales (Spiderman). The fact that she has also become de facto head of a shady organisation doesn't help either. Also, there are alien arms dealers after Gwen, complicating matters.

This was a fun read and I was sad when I got to the end of it because I have not yet bought the subsequent available trades. Sadface. I think this series has jumped to number two on my Marvel priority list after Squirrel Girl, which is not an easy achievement (knocking Ms Marvel, Spider-Gwen and Captain Marvel down a rung).

I recommend this comic and this series to anyone that likes their fiction to break the fourth wall. I also generally recommend starting with volume 1, but I think volume 2 will make enough sense to a new reader to be an OK place to start. There'll just be some missing backstory. I am very keen to read the next volume of Gwenpool, whenever I manage to get my hands on it.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: 2017, Marvel Comics
Series: The Unbelievable Gwenpool, vol 1 of 5 so far (I think), collecting issues #5–10
Format read: Trade papeback
Source: All Star Comics, Melbourne

#ReadShortStories that almost all come from the same book (11 to 15)

It feels strange to review an autobiographical essay, even if it's in an anthology with a few of them and surrounded by fiction. I have mostly gotten around this by not doing it. If you want to know my thoughts on the autobiographical essays in Meet Me at the Intersection, you will have to wait for my full review of the anthology, which should be coming very soon.

School of Hard Knocks by Amra Pajalic — A Bosnian girl moves to Australia and starts high school in a rough suburb, where she is bullied. Another autobiographical story. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Autumn Leaves by Wendy Chen — A nice, if bittersweet, story about a Chinese family in Melbourne around the time of Federation. I quite liked it. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

How to Be Different by Michelle Aung Thin — An autobiographical essay about being different, especially as a young child in primary school. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

The Last Stop by Alice Pung — This story wasn’t at all what I expected. Told from the point of view of a bogan or “feral” teenage boy who enters a competition for a laugh and wins a Rotary Club trip to China. Discovering that the ordinary high school kids in China are just like him significantly changes his world view and opens his eyes to racism. A really good read, in the end, though you had to get past some racism near the start to appreciate the change in the character’s perspective. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

The Princess of the Perfume River by Aliette de Bodard — A very short story about a couple who had been separated by the investigation of an alien artefact attempting to reunite. Source: http://dailysciencefiction.com/hither-and-yon/the-numbers-quartet/aliette-de-bodard/the-princess-of-the-perfume-river

Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend is a book I started hearing a lot of good things about right from when review copies first went out to reviewers, some time in 2017. Back then, when I saw how well-received it was, I started kicking myself for not reviewing it when I had the chance. Fast forward to this past Christmas and I bought a copy for my niece, then decided I should also read it and bought another copy. And here we are.

Morrigan Crow is cursed. Having been born on Eventide, the unluckiest day for any child to be born, she's blamed for all local misfortunes, from hailstorms to heart attacks--and, worst of all, the curse means that Morrigan is doomed to die at midnight on her eleventh birthday.

But as Morrigan awaits her fate, a strange and remarkable man named Jupiter North appears. Chased by black-smoke hounds and shadowy hunters on horseback, he whisks her away into the safety of a secret, magical city called Nevermoor.

It's then that Morrigan discovers Jupiter has chosen her to contend for a place in the city's most prestigious organization: the Wundrous Society. In order to join, she must compete in four difficult and dangerous trials against hundreds of other children, each boasting an extraordinary talent that sets them apart--an extraordinary talent that Morrigan insists she does not have. To stay in the safety of Nevermoor for good, Morrigan will need to find a way to pass the tests--or she'll have to leave the city to confront her deadly fate.

This was a fun book to read. It's a quirky read that I expect will appeal to young (and some older) Harry Potter fans. It's full of all sorts of fantasy tropes, especially children's fantasy tropes, but then so was Harry Potter and that turned out fine. And Harry didn't have a giant cat (a magnificat) for a friend, so in many ways Morrigan is ahead.

Nevermoor is full of magic and adventure and peril, all mostly centred on the fact that Morrigan is cursed. To rescue her from an early death, her benefactor, Jupiter, takes her to Nevermoor and enrols her in the Trials to enter the Wundrous Society. Hundreds of children apply each year and only nine get in, so Morrigan is understandably anxious when she learns that if she doesn't get in she will be deported back to her homeland, where death awaits. The trials are also a bit bonkers, in the quirky and magical way that sets the tone of the whole book.

As I said, this was quite a fun read. Even the episodes of mild peril were enjoyable. I wasn't always in the mood for quirky fantasy while I was reading this book, but when I picked it up anyway (choosing something else to read is too hard), I invariably enjoyed it. I highly recommend this book to young readers and older readers who can see past the existence of a few popular tropes.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: 2017, Hachette Australia
Series: Yes. Book 1 of 2 (so far?)
Format read: Paper, gasp!
Source: Purchased at Target because it was so cheap (but I bought the copy I gave away at a proper bookshop)

#ReadShortStories in mixed batches (6 to 10)

The status of my short story reading for this second batch is that I am nearing the end of Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina and that I am continuing to mix it up a bit with miscellaneous stories. 

DNA by Melanie Rodriga — A story about a queer teenage girl and her interactions with her family and one of her teachers. I found it to be a slightly unusual story, full of direct questions and teen anger but not as many answers as I might have expected. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Almitra Amongst Ghosts by Rafeif Ismail — A kind of depressing story about not fitting in due to race, religion and queerness, all at once. Written in a lovely style. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Forestspirit, Forestspirit by Bogi Takács — An excellent story that brought together many different ideas. Thoughtful, gentle and brilliant while dealing with some heavy concepts like alien invasion and super soldiers. Source: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/takacs_06_15/

Cosmic Spring by Ken Liu — Ken Liu could make the heat death of the universe fascinating. Which is exactly what he did in this story. I loved it. Source: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/cosmic-spring/

The Other Son by Omar Sakr — An autobiographical story about a father’s death and meeting a half brother for the first time, told by the middle eastern author.  Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Paper Girls Vol 5 by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang

Paper Girls Vol 5 written by Brian K Vaughan and illustrated by Cliff Chiang is the fifth volume in the ongoing series. As I discovered after finishing it (and suspected while I was reading) this is actually the penultimate volume of the series. And it shows. In a good way.

Can anyone escape fate? That’s what Mac and her fellow newspaper delivery girls must discover as they escape the year 2000 and travel to the distant future. Plus, the truth behind the mysterious “old-timers” is finally revealed.

After finding the previous Paper Girls volume a little bland, I was pleasantly surprised by how much this one upped the ante. It starts off much like the previous volumes have, with the girls in a new time and finding Cleveland less familiar than they’d like, but quickly raises the stakes. As I was reading, especially towards the end of the volume, I got the sense that the story would be wrapped up soon, which just made it more exciting. The overarching plot, which has always been in the background and has mainly been too confusing for the girls to piece together, is brought to the fore in this volume. Suddenly, a lot of things (almost) make sense and we are made aware of just how badly everything can go wrong. It was an exciting read.

I enjoyed this volume a lot and I definitely recommend it to any fans of the Paper Girls series. If you found the previous volume to be a bit bland, then I urge you to persist. This volume is more interesting and the end of the series is nigh. I am very much looking forward to the concluding volume and am a bit disappointed that I have to wait months for it to be completed.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: December 2018, Image Comics
Series: Paper Girls volume 5 of 6 planned. Contains issues #21–25
Format read: Trade paperback
Source: Purchased at All Star Comics in Melbourne

Paper Girls Vol 4 by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang

Paper Girls Vol 4 written by Brian K Vaughan and illustrated by Cliff Chiang is the fourth collected instalment of Paper Girls comics. This is the kind of comic that tells one continuous story over several volumes, so I don't recommend jumping in at volume 4 if you haven't read the previous three.

The mind-bending, time-warping adventure from BRIAN K. VAUGHAN and CLIFF CHIANG continues, as intrepid newspaper deliverer Tiffany is launched from the prehistoric past into the year 2000! In this harrowing version of our past, Y2K was even more of a cataclysm than experts feared, and the only person who can save the future is a 12-year-old girl from 1988.

This volume continues the story, as expected. This time, the girls find themselves in 1999 on New Year’s Eve when things are a little bit strange. And that’s without the giant robots and other time travellers. To me this volume felt like it was mostly running around and avoiding violence (or not, at times). It did progress the overall story but not quite as much as I would have liked. We did get to meet another future self of one of the girls, which was interesting.

While I wouldn’t say this was my favourite volume, I still enjoyed it and I still intend to read the next volume soon. This is a very sequential series and I don’t recommend staring part way through. New readers are best severed starting with volume 1. For continuing readers still invested in the story, I see no especially compelling reason to skip this issue, so read it if you haven’t already.

4 / 5 stars

First published: 2018, Image Comics
Series: Paper Girls vol 4 of ongoing series, collecting issues 16 to 20
Format read: Trade paperback
Source: Purchased from All Star Comics in Melbourne

#ReadShortStories to kick off 2019 (1 to 5)

A mixed bag of stories in this batch, although most of them are from Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina, an anthology I am approaching the end of. I've also thrown in a few miscellaneous stories since I have quite the backlog of free-floating stories awaiting my attention (as in, not part of an anthology or collection).

Trouble by Kelly Gardiner — A story of non-conforming girls in 1950s Melbourne. I enjoyed the local colour even if the end was not quite as I had hoped/shipped. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Sweet as Sugar Candy by Seanan McGuire — For a story billed as ruining marshmallows, it wasn’t quite what I expected. I’m not sure it was marshmallows, per se, that were “ruined” or the source of the horror. In any case, despite expecting something strange to happen I was a little surprised when it did. A delightful read. Source: Seanan McGuire’s Patreon

Planet of the five rings by Marissa Lingen — A funny flash story about first contact that I found quite unexpected (but was probably quite topical when it was first published). Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/549302a

Sheer Fortune by Jordi Kerr — A more Australian story that I would have expected from a short summary of it, with some strong New Zealish elements thrown in via the second character. Shifters, lesbians, high school. A nice read.  Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Telephone by Yvette Walker — A timey-wimey story in which the main character receives a phone call from her teenage self. As she talks to this version of herself that had been trying to call and LGBT support hotline, she reflects on her life and how she got to where she is now (happily living with her wife). A sweet story, overall. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Catching Teller Crow by Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina

Catching Teller Crow by Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina is a very thoughtful and deliberate YA novel. It tells the story of three girls, Catching, Beth Teller, and Crow and deals with some brutal issues. However, the worst parts of the story and told with symbolism and only partly explained plainly, so I suspect younger readers could read the book without having to deal with the specifics of those parts.

Nothing's been the same for Beth Teller since she died. Her dad, a detective, is the only one who can see and hear her - and he's drowning in grief. But now they have a mystery to solve together. Who is Isobel Catching, and what's her connection to the fire that killed a man? What happened to the people who haven't been seen since the fire? As Beth unravels the mystery, she finds a shocking story lurking beneath the surface of a small town, and a friendship that lasts beyond one life and into another. 

Most of the story is told from the point of view of Beth, a ghost of a girl who recently died in a car accident. She spends her time following around her father, the only person who can now see and hear her. Her father, aside from not coping well with her death, is a detective and is working on a case involving an orphanage burning down and some connected adults being missing. Beth rags along helping him and providing a sounding board. The pivotal moment comes with they interview a witness, Catching, and the book starts having sections from her point of view.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but some aspects of the story were predictable. However, this was more than made up for by the unique way in which the story was told. Beth wasn’t a ghost seeking vengeance for her death and Catching told her story very symbolically. Catching’s version of her story was true, but so was the decoded version Beth’s dad later summarised. While this was a story about horrible things, Beth’s dad always made sure to protect his daughter from what he could (like not letting her see dead bodies), even though she was already dead. On the other hand, Beth and the reader aren’t shielded from discussions of racism and the Stolen Generations, just the more immediate crimes.

This is quite a short book and that meant it moved very quickly through the story. I read it in only two sittings (with a few pages grabbed at other times). I expect the length makes it more accessible to its intended YA audience, especially younger readers and those that might be daunted by thick books. I liked Catching Teller Crow. It was an enjoyable read (without being “fun”) and the story was expertly told in a creative way. I highly recommend it to YA readers who don’t mind a bit of realistic darkness in their books. I also wouldn’t hesitate to give it to most teens; in fact, I can imagine finding it on a high school reading list.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: 2018, Allen & Unwin
Series: No
Format read: Paperback (gasp!)
Source: Purchased from Dymocks

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant is an almost-standalone horror book by the author of several other horror books (and many non-horror books). There is a prequel novella, but it's almost impossible to get (only US-region ebooks are currently obtainable, as far as I can tell) and isn't required reading. I suspect Into the Drowning Deep spoils the impact of the novella too, but that's just a guess. (I would still read the novella if I could.)

Seven years ago, the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a “mockumentary” bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a maritime tragedy.

Now, a new crew has been assembled. But this time they’re not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life’s work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost.

Whatever the truth may be, it will only be found below the waves. But the secrets of the deep come with a price.

Having read two Mira Grant series before, I had some idea of what to expect from this book, style-wise. I got the horrifying mermaids I expected, complete with a relatively plausible explanation for their existence, including comparisons with other marine creatures. I'm not a marine biologist by any stretch of the imagination, but Grant's explanations of these sorts of things always come across and quite plausible or just a few steps away from reality, which makes them creepier.

There several interesting point of view characters in this book. Since it's a horror book, I found myself wondering which of them (if any) would survive until the end, which was a significant source of the tension in the book. It's hard to care very much about nameless background characters having their faces eaten off, but a lot more stressful when it's one of the characters you've become attached to. Also, after the initial wave of deaths, Grant found increasingly interesting ways to off people, which kept things interesting more than I would have expected — since they were also an excuse to further develop the world building.

If you've enjoyed other Mira Grant books, you will probably enjoy this one. If you have a phobia of water or the open ocean etc, this will probably be even scarier for you. Proceed with caution. (But as a note, I read the book far from the coast and it didn't really faze me. I might have found it a little more concerning if I had been able to see the sea.) I am keen to read the prequel novella if I can, even though it's contents are made pretty obvious from the content of this book. I will continue keeping an eye out for future books by Mira Grant.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published:
Series: Yes. There is a prequel novella, Rolling in the Deep, which I haven't read because it's basically impossible to get outside of the US.
Format read: ePub
Source: Purchased from Kobo

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell is a book I've been meaning to read for a while. Some time ago (within the past two years, I think) I acquired the audiobook and now, this past week, I finally had a long car journey in which to listen to it. If you were wondering, the round-trip of driving was only about 41 minutes short of the whole book, so that's pretty convenient.

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan..

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

So. This is a YA (or new adult, perhaps, since it's set in college) novel about a girl who writes fanfiction starting college and navigating that while also dealing with various family and fandom issues. The original work she writes fanfiction of clearly inspired by Harry Potter, as is the general structure of the fandom community. And using that analogy, Cath writes immensely popular Harry/Draco slash and Fangirl is set just before the last book in the series comes out. (Actually, one thing that really bothered me was a throwaway mention of Harry Potter which absolutely cannot coexist in the same world as Simon Snow. The world cannot support both fandom in the same way. Anyway. Throwaway line, as I said, but one that definitely should have been edited out.)

Overall this is a contemporary romance story, dotted with a lot of geekiness. It's also a coming-of-age story about the first year of college for Cath and her twin sister Ren (but mostly focussing on Cath as the only point of view character). It dealt with some hard-hitting issues, liberally interspersed with fanfic-writing issues, which could easily be seen as trivial, but were clearly very important to Cath. The way in which all the issues were presented worked together to make this a book that was sufficiently upbeat (without being saccharine) to listen to on a long car journey. I'm sure I would have also enjoyed it in paper (and probably gotten through it in fewer hours) but it worked well as an audiobook.

I recommend Fangirl to geeky YA readers, especially those with at least a passing awareness of Harry Potter fandom. (That's how I'd classify myself, by the way. I have never gotten into reading or writing fanfiction, but most of my friends have at one point or another, and I'm pretty sure I got all the jokes.) On the other hand, my mother, who was forced to also listen to Fangirl in the car, had no knowledge of fanfiction and still enjoyed the book. It has broad appeal. I am somewhat interested in reading Carry On, a book based on the fic Cath was writing in Fangirl, but not enough to rush out and buy it immediately.

4 / 5 stars

First published: 2013, St Martin's Press
Series: No, although there is a related book (Carry On, supposedly the fanfic Cath is writing in Fangirl, which has spawned its own series)
Format read: Audiobook
Source: Audible (freebie for signing up)

Looking back on 2018

As 2019 kicks off, it's time to look back on all the books and stories I read in 2018.

I only read 78 books, according to my spreadsheet. This includes novels, individually packaged novellas, comics and collections/anthologies of short stories. Slightly more books are logged on Goodreads because some of the short stories I read had their own entries. I find this number a little disappointing since I hoped to read 100 books, but perhaps that number is no longer feasible for me.

I also read 215 short stories from various locations. Many were in anthologies and collections, but a lot were from various online venues. I used Pocket to save most of those to read later, and according to the end of year message Pocket sent me, I read the equivalent of 20 books. I'm not sure how they have defined "book" and I suspect it's a bit more liberally than the editors of the anthologies I read. Overall, the short story reading probably makes up for the book reading, although it's interesting to see that there isn't quite an anticorrelation between books read and stories read. See my monthly reads charts below:

I think the above is more an indication that reading more leads to reading more, not that more short stories mean fewer books or vice versa.

I read 88% ebooks (12% paper, no audio), whereas for short stories it was 62% ePubs (meaning they were probably anthologies, collections or from my Uncanny subscription), 37% web (mostly things I saved in Pocket) and 1% audio. Breaking up the books into forms, I present the following pie chart:

51% novels, 31% novellas, 6% anthologies or collections, 8% comics and 4% magazines.

The gender stats for books are 80% female, 9% male, 1% nonbinary and 10% multiple people of different genders. For short stories, they aren't too different, except that I gave a lot more short story time to men than I did book time. We have 69% female, 23% male, 6% nonbinary and 2% multiple.

When it comes to countries, I remain stuck at around 50% US authors, which I can't seem to be able to shake. Unsurprisingly, short stories are more diverse than books, mostly, I expect, since there are just more of them and hence more chance of them being authored by a non-US author. I present the author-country pie charts below. For short stories the "other" category includes countries from which I read fewer than four stories in 2018. For books I'm pretty sure "other" was two or fewer.

If I have any reading resolutions (other than to more or less keep doing what I'm doing) it's to read a bit more broadly and a bit less US-ly. I feel like I have had that resolution for several years running, though. We shall see. My percentage of US writers has been pretty stable for years now. :-/

I kept track of a few other stats, but I think the above are the most pertinent. I will just mention that 35% of the books I read were review copies, and 44% of the stories I read were (as far as I could determine) by non-white authors.

And that about sums it up. Happy New Year and I hope you liked my graphs!

#ReadShortStories, that are intersectional, as the year draws to a close (211-215)

For all that this post is going up in the new year, this are the last short stories I read in 2018. That brings my short story total up to 215 stories, which I'll go into more detail (and stats) in a dedicated roundup post. In the meantime, these stories all come from Meet Me at the Intersection, an anthology edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina. So far, it's been a lot more contemporary/realist and less spec fic than I usually read.

Dear Mate by Kyle Lynch — A distressing story, in some ways, about a young person who wants a job but has little idea how to get one. Although I didn’t realise how young he was until near the end, which did make it a bit less distressing. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Embers by Ezekiel Kwaymullina — A sad, short poem about dyslexia. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Harry Potter and the Disappearing Pages by Olivia Muscat — An essay/memoir about the author going blind at the start of high school and the frustrations of being disabled in modern society. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Fragments by Mimi Lee — The story of a young Chinese Australian dealing with her grandfather’s death and a difficult family situation. This was an interesting read but in some ways (the mental illness ways more than the grief ways) felt like it ily scratched the surface. I wouldn’t have minded it being longer but I can see why it made sense to leave it where it was. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Stars in our Eyes by Jessica Walton — A wonderful story about geeky teens and adults that made me laugh. Certainly the most fun story so far. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina