Ms. Hen reviews Mirror Mended

 

Mirror Mended

Alix E. Harrow

Tordotcom

2022

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she read the other one in this series, SPINDLE SPLINTERED, and loved it. That was a modern day version of SLEEPING BEAUTY, and this book contains the same characters, but is a spin on SNOW WHITE.

Fairy tales are all stories that have changed in different ways throughout history. The Brothers Grimm wrote down the stories that had existed for years and years, and put them into print, but no definite variation on each tale is solid. Disney might have tried to make audiences believe that their stories are the true ones, but they are farthest from the truth.

This novel takes us back to Zinnia Gray, who has become a SLEEPING BEAUTY hopping savior, fixing each story, so the endings are what they should be. Her friend, Charm, married a princess, Prim, and is living life in the suburbs. Zinnia gets sent to a SNOW WHITE world by the evil queen through a magic mirror. The queen wants to know how Zinnia travels from world to world.

The queen captures Zinnia, and almost kills her. The two travel around to different SNOW WHITE worlds, and meet different incarnations of Snow White and the evil queen. They try to save a young girl from a queen who is a cannibal, and they almost get murdered. Zinnia and the queen realize they have more in common than they thought.

Ms. Hen loved this novel. She adored seeing SNOW WHITE from a different perspective. Zinnia is queer, and likes to fight, and save people, even though she is sick, and should be taking care of herself. Ms. Hen doesn't know what the Brothers Grimm would think of this new queer spin on the fairy tales they put into print, but tales change over time, and people change as well.

Ms. Hen thinks fairy tales are important because they show us a stories that we know are already true somewhere in the universe. Fairy tales are like a magic mirror, that show us honesty, similar to the queen's mirror that shows the truth. The truth is difficult to see, but necessary and painful and lovely all at the same time.

Ms. Hen reviews Dawn

 

Dawn

Octavia E. Butler

Hatchett Book Group

1987

Ms. Hen decided to read this book, because she was browsing in the library in her city, and she was looking for a particular book that was supposed to be there, but was not, but she came across this author in the science fiction section, and she has read several books by her before, so she picked this one up, and checked it out. When she was checking out her book, a little girl nearby said, "Do people actually get books here?" Ms. Hen worries for the future of the world when she hears things like this. Does this child think a library is a place to plug in her phone?

This novel is about a woman named Lilith who is trapped in what she thinks is a prison for a long time, but she finds out later that she is on a space ship, and is being held by aliens. A nuclear war on Earth devastated the planet, and most of the inhabitants ended up dead. These extra terrestrials rescued some, and put them in stasis, waiting for the Earth to be able to repopulated again.

The aliens, called the Oankali, want to take genes from humans and mix them with their genes to make a better race. They decided that Lilith should be their leader, and instructed her to awaken a group of humans. At first, Lilith is angry that she was captured by aliens, but eventually she accepts it. She works to wake up the other humans on the ship, and they prepare to go to Earth, but conflict occurs.

Ms. Hen thinks this might be the most uneventful novel about abduction by aliens that she has ever read. The first half of the book is very slow, and she almost gave up reading it. This novel gets better in the middle when the other humans wake up, and they have to decide how to work together. None of them want Lilith to be their leader, because they think she's one of the aliens.

Ms. Hen continued reading this because she is a huge fan of Ms. Butler, and admires her other books. She understands that some authors write bad books at times, but there are four in this series. She doesn't think she could read the rest, at least not any time soon.

At the Boston Public Library

Ms. Hen's Top Ten 2022

 

Ms. Hen's Top Ten Books 2022

Ms. Hen put together her top ten list for this year, and she can't believe the year is gone already. It always happens, though, and it happens faster and faster as the years go by. She wishes you a happier new year than last year, and possibly the year before. She hopes that the world can come out of the darkness, and into something better. But it's not a matter of how dark thing are, it's how we react to the darkness and despair that counts. Ms. Hen doesn't need to read self-help books to learn that, it's something she was taught a long time ago.

Here is Ms. Hen's top 10, in backwards chronological order:

Leading Men by Christopher Castellani

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/12/ms-hen-reviews-leading-men.html

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/11/ms-hen-reviews-moon-of-crusted-snow.html

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/11/ms-hen-reviews-dutch-house.html

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/10/ms-hen-reviews-bloody-chamber.html

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/09/ms-hen-reviews-light-from-uncommon-stars.html

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/06/ms-hen-reviews-boy-snow-bird.html

The Doll's Alphabet by Camilla Grudova

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/05/ms-hen-reviews-dolls-alphabet.html

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/03/ms-hen-reviews-red-clocks.html

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/02/girl-in-pieces-kathleen-glasgow-penguin.html

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/01/ms-hen-reviews-paper-menagerie-and.html

Ms. Hen says happy new year, and she hopes you read a lot of great books this year, and laugh a lot, and eat a lot of great food!

Best,

S.O.

Ms. Hen reviews The Marrow Thieves

 

The Marrow Thieves

Cherie Dimaline

Cormorant Books

2017

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel, because she read about it on the back of MOON OF THE CRUSTED SNOW, which she read recently. She is always interested in dystopian fiction, and she thinks that Native American depictions of this are especially interesting. Going back to the Native ways when the world is ending is a fascinating idea.

Francis, or Frenchie, is a teenage boy who is running from the Recruiters, people who catch Indigenous people to harvest their bone marrow to acquire their dreams. Most of the people on Earth have lost the ability to dream, since the environment has gone to ruin. He meets up with a group of people and they become a family; they run, and they hunt, and attempt to survive in the world. The elders, Miigwans and Minerva, guide the young people in the group.

The family suffers losses, but also experience happiness. Frenchie falls for Rose, a part Black Native who he thinks is beautiful. The members of the group tell their coming to stories to each other. They almost get caught several times, but make it through. They hear stories of the schools, where their dreams are harvested, and fear what will happen to them if they get caught.

This novel is like many other post-apocalyptic novels Ms. Hen has read, but with an Indigenous twist. It reminds her of THE ROAD, obviously, and also STATION ELEVEN, and MOON OF THE CRUSTED SNOW. But this is different because it has many different layers; it's about forming a family, and the importance of dreams. If people lose their dreams, they lose their ability to free their minds and truly rest in sleep.

This is a young adult novel, but Ms. Hen thinks anyone could read it. This is a great example of writing about young people: their nuances, and how they act, their exuberance and excitement at the newness of seeing the world. It's been a long time since Ms. Hen was a teenager, but she thinks that these depictions are realistic.

This novel is dark, but hopeful. Ms. Hen thinks it's important because it's a twist at looking at the post-apocalyptic world. This novel should get attention, and is has, because the future is coming, and we don't know yet what it will bring. 

Ms. Hen reviews Leading Men

 

Leading Men

Christopher Castellani

Viking

2019

Ms. Hen found this at a Little Free Library near where she lives. She has seen the author around Boston many times at events, but never got around to reading his books. She doesn't know what took her so long, but when something is meant to be, it happens.

She happened to be reading this at the same time she was watching the second season of HBO's WHITE LOTUS, which also takes place in Italy, and the two works complimented each other. Ms. Hen could smell the warmth of summer as she read this novel, and as well as the sea and the wine and marinara sauce.

This novel is about Tennessee Williams, and his lover Frank Merlo, while they stay in Italy in the 1950s. They go to a party in Portofino given by Truman Capote, and meet a Swedish mother and daughter who appear to need help. The mother, Bitte, wants to marry a rich man, and the daughter, Anja wants to be an actress. Tennessee and Frank decide to assist Anja with her career.

The narrative travels back and forth between time when Tennessee and Frank first meet Anja, to Anja in present day, and also to when Frank is sick with cancer in the hospital in New York. Anja in present time is over eighty, and becomes friends with the son of Sandro, a man she met in Italy when she was young. She tells him about Tennessee's last play that is in her possession, and he tries to convince her to produce it.

Ms. Hen adored this novel. She loves reading about writers and how quirky and unstable they are, the way they work, and their habits, and lifestyles. The world was different in Tennessee Williams' time, not better or worse, but different. Women had it worse, and were not respected, but the gay men in this novel admire straight women, and enjoy their company.

This novel gives an excellent example of writing in varying timelines. Ms. Hen got to see Anja as a young woman, then an elderly woman, and she saw how she had evolved, and the world had transformed around her. Experiencing characters at different phases of life, not gradually, but with sharp lines between the chapters is an exciting way to read. There's a lot to Anja, and the other characters, that occurs that is not mentioned, but is written between the lines. Ms. Hen likes not having the whole package handed to her neatly.

Ms. Hen read this novel slowly, because she did not want it to end. She wanted to keep living in this world, with Tennessee and Frank and Anja and Sandro, because it's a beautiful world, full of artists and the possibility of beauty. Artists create beauty, but the world around them is not always beautiful. Ms. Hen dreams of a beautiful world, and this novel helped her experience that for a little while.

Ms. Hen reviews Virginia

 

Virginia

Edna O'Brien

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

1981

Ms. Hen stumbled upon this book in a small used bookstore in Concord, MA, called Barrow Books. She has read a lot by Edna O'Brien, and is very interested in Virginia Woolf, and she was excited to find a play about her. When she bought the book, she discovered it had been autographed, which made it even better.

This play is an autobiographical look at Virginia Woolf's life. No dates are given in the play, she exists in different time periods throughout the play. She marries her husband, and they have a difficult life, but they entertain each other. He publishes her books, and she does what she wants.

She meets Vita Sackville-West, and they have an affair, though they are both married to men. Virginia had spent time in a psychiatric hospital, and was troubled. She is talented, but haunted. She can't handle that England has entered another war and commits suicide by walking into a river with stones in her pockets.

Ms. Hen does not know what to make of the Virginia of this play. She is almost jealous of her, because she has the freedom to do what she wants with her life, and does not have to pretend to be a normal person. Ms. Hen does not like the idea of pretending to be sane; she thinks people should be able to be themselves. But that is not possible in the real world. Virginia did not live in the same world as everyone else.

Ms. Hen enjoyed this play, and spending time with Virginia. She thinks that O'Brien did a decent job writing about her, and Ms. Hen would like to see this play. She thinks reading drama takes imagination, and Ms. Hen has plenty of that. Ms. Hen can imagine what it's like to be in Virginia's wild mind, somewhere floating into space.

Ms. Hen reviews Interior Chinatown

 

Interior Chinatown

Charles Yu

Vintage Contemporaries

2020

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel after she heard it mentioned on the podcast SFF Yeah! on the website Bookriot. She learned it is going to be a TV series. She is interested in different types of books about minorities, and also ones written in alternative styles. This novel is written partly as a film script for a TV show, but the characters live in the show.

This novel is about an actor who plays Generic Asian Man, in its variations on several different TV shows, but primarily BLACK AND WHITE, a show about a white cop and a black cop trying to solve mysteries in Chinatown. The character, whose name is Willis, has spent his entire life in Chinatown, and has not had an opportunity to leave. He thinks that if he works hard enough, he will be able to play Kung Fu Guy, and become a star.

Willis doesn't realize that he will never get the chance he wants. He doesn't know that he will always be seen as generic, and in the background. He meets a woman, and falls in love, but refuses to leave Chinatown, because he perpetually thinks his big break is around the corner.

This novel is complicated; it is about how Asian people are seen in this country, and in the media. It discusses how Asian people on TV are usually in the background, or they play specific parts, such as Delivery Guy, Pretty Oriental Flower, Asian Seductress, Wizened Chinaman, Old Asian Guy, and the list goes on. The novel is satire, and difficult subjects are talked about in a dark, humorous way.

The characters don't seem to be able to get out of their comfort zones, until Willis runs away to find his daughter, and gets in trouble. This novel is about fighting against what is expected, and finding a new path. It's difficult to start a new life, and sometimes a person needs a jumpstart, like these characters on the TV show.

This novel reminds Ms. Hen of other novels written in a film script or play form. Some novels break into a play in the middle, like ULYSSES. Ms. Hen does not read a lot of drama, because she prefers to watch a play or a movie, but she is not averse to it.

Ms. Hen thinks this novel is wonderful, difficult, and beautiful, all at the same time. The world is dysfunctional, and Hollywood is even more so, but this is the only world we have. So far.