Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra

 A Serious Novel. You can tell it's serious, because there's not a lot that happens in it. Or, there's a lot of people running around, and a narrative voice that head-hops as though Marra wants to be writing in the 19th century or something. It's not a novel without decent characters, interesting people (two overlapping, non-identical groups) and it's not exactly true that nothing happens, just that pretty much everything that happens in it happens at about the same level of tension. The authorial voice is pleasant enough, and there are some decent enough turns of phrase, but there's probably not enough to this to justify 400 pages.

Unruly by David Mitchell

 A breezy, kaleidoscopic, flippant history of the British monarchy through the death of Elizabeth I. A pretty enjoyable read, but there is--completely reasonably, it would make the book something like fifty times the size--so little context for most of what's in it that I don't expect much to stick for me. That's probably fine, because much of the point of the book, per the Afterword, is that kings and queens aren't really all that important, unless the people around them make them so; that's a sentiment I can get behind.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

 

It's Scalzi being Scalzi. His books are immensely readable--witty and quippy and sparkling and poppy--and this is him, at his Scalziest. This is not a novel that needs to be taken seriously--it's probably not even a novel that's good, if it's taken seriously--but it's very definitely a novel that's fun, and there's probably some depth to it that'll reward paying some attention to it. Very worth reading.

Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman

 

A Horror novel with an interesting enough premise--what if there were a drug that let you see the dead, and what if it let the dead see you--that, sadly, doesn't matter to do much with it. The characters are never really likeable (but perhaps people that young and as privileged as the narrator shouldn't be) and the fact the novel so closely parallels addiction narratives of the most Drugs Are Bad, MmmKay? type doesn't help. It's not a *bad* novel, but it's not really a *good* one, either.

The Hard Stuff by David Gordon

 

So, this is a sequel to The Bouncer, and it's clear at the end it's setting up for at least one more sequel, and that's pretty OK. Gordon's got an engaging voice and the characters here are pretty likeable and interesting, and it's clear the situation as it is cannot stand in several important ways; this does not feel as though it will be an interminable series. The eventual endgame is plausibly clear, here, and I'm kinda hoping Gordon gets to it pretty quickly--though I'd be willing to take some winding paths there, if need be.

American by Day by Derek B. Miller

 

So this is a kinda light-hearted novel with crime at--or at least near--the center of it, but it's completely aware of the seriousness of things. Has things to say about race in America, from a White (ish) POV, many of which are conviniently spoken in the text by a non-American character--it's easier to see from outside, I expect. Also has things ot say about idividualism as the cause of (and maybe solution to) many of America's cultural/social problems. Also also has a good story in it, and some genuinely excellent characters I'd be happy to see in their own books.

Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

 

Another starkly beautiful novel about crime and pain in rural Virginia; there's vengeance at the end, but the novel is more about family and the difference between who we tell ourselves we are and who we are--the latter writ large because with gangsters the difference is such a chasm. Violent and brutal, and very worth reading, with an ending that seems more open-ended to me than the author maybe intended.