The VIRTUAL Mount TBR Reading Challenge discussion

#37 - There's No Place Like Home by Eden Lepucki

Borrowed from Amazon Prime Reading, part of the Warmer Collection.

A curious mix of bleak and hopeful, from the point of view of a fourteen year old girl who knows, because of advanced climate change, that she’ll never mature, and likely won’t live a full life. Her father has just committed suicide, and she strikes out to help bring in money to keep her mother and herself alive. In doing so, she accidentally triggers the revelation of *why* he killed himself. It’s just strong enough that I’d like to know more about this cinder of a future.

#38 - Justice League, Vol. 1: The Extinction Machines by Bryan Hitch, etc

New Superman, who dis?

As DC reboots (sort of) again, it’s up to Bryan Hitch to deliver gigantic thrills and spills...which he does, though it makes little sense (and where, in this global calamity, is everybody else?)

Colorful, but, sadly, not really very good.

#39 - Star Wars Tales Vol. 2 by divers hands

Another volume classed under both Legends (the excised EU) and Infinities. Veers between short dramatic pieces and both high and low comedy — the funnier stories usually have an Easter egg or two (sometimes a *lot* more) but overall the stories are mostly short and lightweight and easily passed by.

#40 - Star Wars, Volume 2: From the Ruins of Alderaan by Brian Wood, Carlos D’Anda, etc

Borrowed from ComiXology.

Relegated to Legends status, this second collection of Brian Woods’ take on the post-Yavin period of the story seems stiff and awkward. The story leaps constantly between Luke, Prithi, and Wedge, Leia, and Han, who’s off on Coruscant trying to avoid being killed by Biba Fett. It mostly seems trite, the characters seem off, and Wood hits beats seen many times before.

#41 - S and M Vol. 5 by Mio Murao

The story of Saya’s unhinged revenge on salaryman Mr. Toda continues, growing in complexity. Having unleashed Ms. Tsuboi on Toda, resulting in Toda being caged for several days, Saya has brought in Hayakawa, nicknamed “Ladykiller”, to seduce Sawako, Toda’s wife, a situation that has turned dangerous. Meanwhile, with the help of his boss, Mr. Miyake (whose own wife's a victim of Hayakawa) Toda has escaped and is now trying to find Sawako.

Things are going to hell in handcuffs in this series.

Borrowed from ComiXology.

#42 - Marley's Ghost by Harvey Kurtzman, Gideon Kendall, Josh O’Neill, Shannon Wheeler

Beautifully done adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This was a dream project for Kurtzman, who failed to get it completed and published before his death. Denis Kitchen picked up the project, getting Kurtzman’s adaptation scripted and drawn.

Among the extras is a sample page by Jack Davis that gives us an idea of what we didn’t get. Fortunately Gideon Kendall is awesome.

Borrowed from ComiXology

#43 - Love & Estrogen by Samantha Allen

The story of Allen’s awareness of her gender dysmorphia, her decision to transition, and her eventual sex reassignment surgery and marriage to her wife Corey, dealing with heart issues and a Mormon family along the way. It’s a very positive story, happily enough, and it’s good to read about this progression and transition.

Borrowed through Prime Reading, part of the The Real Thing collection.

#44 - Two Henrys by Kevin Allison

Allison’s story of first discovering his best friend (and unrequited crush, for a while) and then coming to understand that he was gay by the time he was in eighth grade — a confusing and sometimes painful situation for him at the time, though things came right for him.

Borrowed through Kindle Unlimited, part of the Why Is This Happening collection.

#45 - Keridee by Michelle Miller

Unfortunately I saw where this was going as soon as the author trotted out her Donald Trump expie in this story of a not too bright young woman newly minted as a model. I’ve zero love for Littlefingers, but this was just eyeroll territory. That said, I have a lot of empathy for Keridee, and wonder at the rest of her story following the assault.

Borrowed from The Fairer Sex collection via Kindle Unlimited.

#46 - The Witcher, Vol. 1: House of Glass by Paul Tobin and Joe Querio

Based more on the games than the original books. Geralt of Rivia encounters a hunter, Jakob, who has a sad story about his late wife, Marta, undead for nine years, made a vampire by Bruxa living in the haunted forest. Jakob decides he’ll ride with the Witcher for a while...and they go into the forest, soon to be plunged into nightmare. Eventually they find a strange house....

It’s a basic morality play in a mysterious, shifting setting — the truth isn’t hard to figure out, but It’s nested in some twists and turns as the house shifts around them and tells the story.

Borrowed from ComiXology.

#47 - Lauren by Michelle Miller

Borrowed from the The Fairer Sex collection via Kindle Unlimited.

Another short, sharp portrait of a woman abused, this time the trust fund kid art gallery owner raised by a cruel Wall Street trader mother. I’d like to say I have empathy for Lauren, but I don’t; this is functionally a horror story.

#48 - Candace by Michelle Miller

From The Fairer Sex collection, via Kindle Unlimited.

Short, sharp, and very funny. A woman goes on a blind date with a highly intellectual man and finds herself taken with him...until his feminist side comes out. In a flash she re-runs her analysis, makes a few calculations, and....

I liked it.