October 2024 Reads

I didn’t realise JoJo had written a memoir until Audible advertised it to me upon release. I grew up listening to JoJo’s music and watching her star in Aquamarine, RV, and the lesser known True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet, but then she seemed to disappear—and now I know why. I have always been drawn to Hollywood, eager to know more about the film and music industries, and what happens to the stars they chew up and spit back out. It’s brutal but I grew up in the 2000s where the gossip machine truly thrived. It was great to learn more about JoJo, the drive she had, and how fame from an early age impacted her well into adulthood. JoJo was an addict. I’m glad she pulled herself out and got through to the other side. Over the Influence is well-written and the audiobook, narrated by Joanna—her preferred name—herself, is excellent.

Come Closer always appears in lists of horror books you should read, but it turned out to be nothing special. It is, however, an effective and atmospheric demonic horror and it certainly picks up towards the end where it got under my skin a few times. It’s not too scary, but it’s a good pick if you want a short, spooky, supernatural tale to read or listen to during these dark nights.

I’d been looking forward to reading The Moth Diaries for a few years, but it also turned out to be nothing special, despite its intriguing plot. At an all-girls boarding school, a sixteen-year-old girl records her obsession with her roommate, Lucy, and Lucy’s friendship with Ernessa, a new and mysterious classmate who has all the qualities of a vampire. The book is a well-written and quick read. I was always thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it, always eager to return. It opens with a framing device of BPD psychosis, which is certainly an odd if not unique way to frame everything. I don’t think the preface and afterword particularly add much to the story, but I had some fun with this either way. Interesting characters throughout even though our protagonist doesn’t go through much character development. But sometimes teenagers are just like that. The film version isn’t that good either, but I was thrilled to finally watch that also.

After adjusting to the writing style, I was pulled in by Noelle’s stay in the Isle of Brute where she meets Moses, a man who claims to be a vampire. Noelle grew up catholic and has a complex relationship with religion and her parents—specifically her mother. At first I struggled to be interested in lengthy descriptions of Noelle’s past that filled chapters seemingly to no end when I wanted to be in the present reading about Noelle and Moses. Fortunately, the details of the past interwoven with the present became much more captivating and began to feel less like expositional dump. Fragile Animals ended up surprising me. It’s a carefully crafted story about being gay and catholic, with the vampire serving as a metaphor for facing your fears and sins, perhaps? Genevieve Jagger provides some striking lines of prose throughout that aptly capture this experience and succinctly convey the physical pain of emotions such as shame and anxiety. Highly recommend.

I don’t usually read romance but I wanted to check out The Pumpkin Spice Café because it has been everywhere since it came out and is essentially Gilmore Girls fanfiction. The author’s carefully selected penname makes no attempts to hide it. Jeanie and Logan are certainly their own people but it’s clear to see where their personalities and backgrounds have been drawn from Luke and Lorelai who serve as a template of sorts. The book was occasionally funny with some great lines of prose well suited to its genre, but it became boring real quick. I tend to have this problem with the genre. Sometimes I crave a light read but the simplicity of romance doesn’t keep my engaged. Logan’s abandonment issues being the central conflict and feeding into the miscommunication trope became old real quick, and do not even get me started on the last quarter of the book, which was sex scenes and wrapping up the story threads of other characters (the latter of which continued into an unnecessary epilogue). Read like YA. Please don’t let me read a book like this again.

After reading Bonjour Tristesse and The Gigolo, I definitely wanted to read more by Françoise Sagan, which led me to her unfinished novel, The Four Corners of the Heart, published posthumously. The book explores the lives of a bourgeois family after the prodigal son returns from a lengthy stay at a hospital following an accident from which he was never expected to survive. Sagan’s writing is funny and timeless in its portrayal and dissection of family dynamics, relationships, madness, and expectations. I implore you to read Sagan if you haven’t already.

I’m not into fantasy, but The Six Deaths of the Saint is an intriguing short story, if not a bit confusing at times. It’s about a servant girl who is spared by the Saint of War so she can fulfil her destiny as the kingdom’s greatest warrior. It’s told in second person which I hate, but was used as a narrative device which I grew into. Its themes of love, loyalty, sacrifice, and destiny were effective and thought-provoking. Much like with romance, I should probably stop pretending I can get into fantasy. There are always exceptions, but it’s hard to know which until I try one.

Eric LaRocca never disappoints with his disturbing stories. In this short story collection, which is split into three sections, many are told from the point of view of an animal or insect and their connection with a human. The first section alone covers a beetle who falls in love with the female corpse it calls home; the consequences a chimp faces after their human companion dies; a bird powerless to protect her nest; and a meerkat who despises their feeble pup. There’s a tragic story about a lesbian couple, Bird and Bug, while the last felt like it could be adapted into a horror movie. LaRocca is descriptive and disgusting as he showcases the cruelty of humanity with themes of abuse, bestiality, disability, guilt, grief, illness, and forbidden love across a range of strong and weak characters. The tagline read the only thing more brutal than nature is love and the stories explore this concept in such poignant ways. LaRocca holds a magnifying glass up to the behaviour of animals and insects, allowing us to ponder how grotesque love and nature can be. Engaging collection.

Marina Diamandis is an excellent songwriter, but I worried what her poetry might be like after hearing her say she was inspired by Rupi Kaur—a poet with a style of poetry, often dubbed “Insta-poetry,” that I don’t really like. The poems that opened Eat the World confirmed my worst fears, but to my surprise, they improved massively throughout the collection. While not all great, there are some real gems in here. Even the ones that aren’t very effective/fall short possess some great lines and insight that really resonated with me at this point in my life where I’m contending with themes of love, past selves, emotions and illness, who I’m growing into and who I’m not, etc. Marina said she loved playing around with structure, and while it works in some places more than others, I just didn’t get it. It might be worth me listening to the audiobook version to hear how Marina intends for certain poems to be read with their pauses and so forth, but most of the structure organisation appeared performative and juvenile. Eat the World is definitely worthwhile for getting further insight into Marina’s life and personality, but people who dislike Insta-poetry aren’t going to be impressed. That being said, other celebrities have released way worse poetry collections than this. This has depth.