The Boy on the Bridge
M. R. Carey
Genre: Post-apocalyptic, “zombie”
The Boy on the Bridge is a prequel to The Girl With All the Gifts. It tells the story of the crew of the Rosalind Franklin. I have very mixed feelings about this book. It made me cry, but honestly that might have been an anger reaction!
What I liked: Stephen Greaves. I appreciated the representation of an autistic teenager even if, at times, the characterisation seemed a little stereotypical. In particular, I thought Carey did a good job of showing how different Stephen’s inner world was to his external presentation. A lot of Stephen’s mannerisms are very familiar to me as I see them in my son. Others, not at all (every autistic person is different). I also loved the relationship between Khan and Stephen, and I don’t want to stray into spoiler territory so I can’t really keep going. I enjoyed reading the story of Rosie’s crew and what happened to them, and the little foray into the post-Girl world.
What I disliked: I really couldn’t understand the Sealey/Khan thing. There was absolutely no apparent reason for that. It made more sense to me as a one-off, oopsie… but I didn’t buy it as an ongoing thing. I also think Carey didn’t do anywhere as near a good job on the characterisation as he did in The Girl. I hated a lot of the characters and never got any sense of their motivations or their tragedy, like I did in The Girl. That was pretty disappointing. But mostly, I can’t forgive him for what happens at the end of chapter 60. In particular, the last 2 lines of that chapter. No, just no. One, autistic people find change hard but they *can* change. Two, the only reason Stephen struggled so badly was the inexplicable awfulness of the adults around him (except Khan). ANYONE would struggle with that kind of hostility. That bit struck me as egregious ableism and it was personally upsetting. I can think of several different ways that scene could have played out that would have worked for the story and not fallen into a tired trope. So yeah, very mixed.
Resurrection Bay
Emma Viskic
Genre: Crime/thriller?
Sorry about the vague genreisation, it’s outside my usual reading fare. Resurrection Bay has some really cool aspects. I did pick the main twist/reveal pretty early on, not sure how I feel about that. There was a lot to like about this book and I read it quite fast… there was something lacking for me so I wouldn’t say it was brilliant, but very enjoyable.
The Real Boy
Anne Ursu
Genre: Fantasy (middle grade)
The Real Boy caught my eye a while back as a kids’ book recommended for a depiction of an autistic character. While Oscar is never labelled as such within the book (it’s set in a fantasy world, after all) the behaviours and inner world clearly depict a neurodiverse child trying to fit in. I really liked this book, it unfolded in ways I didn’t expect and the slowly blossoming friendship between Oscar and Callie was lovely.
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Jacqueline Kelly
Genre: Historical fiction (middle grade)
Calpurnia is a (white) girl in 1899, in America’s South, and she wants to be a scientist. I’m sure you can imagine her family isn’t too keen on that, except for her grandfather who is himself a naturalist and encourages Callie’s interest. I appreciated the sophistication of the character-building and while at first I was a little let down by the ending, I think there are more books to come that may provide more resolution. My only real criticism was that I think the author backed away from examining racial politics–there was a little bit but not really enough. In all, I loved the book and it’s probably my favourite from the month.
Djinn City
Saad Hossain
Genre: Fantasy (urban fantasy I guess)
This book. Wowsers. Ok it took me a while to read, it was so incredibly dense and unexpected. It was also funny and grim in ways I didn’t anticipate. The story focuses mostly on Indelbed, the son of a human emissary to the djinn, his cousin Rais, and Kaikobad (who is Indelbed’s father). There’s a bit of a mystery going on and everyone is running around trying to put all the puzzle pieces together. It was very well written and so so interesting but the ending made me go aaaargh! I don’t want to reveal too much, because spoilers, but yeah I totally did NOT see it panning out like that and I felt a bit miffed. I only just finished it though so I may mellow with some processing. In all though it’s a very very good book and I’d definitely recommend.
Forego Reality 