[book post] February books

Broken Harbor by Tana French (Dublin Murder Squad #4)

In the previous book in this murder mystery "series" (I'm using the term loosely, since you can read these books out of order—but a bit character in the previous book always becomes the main character in the next one, which is kinda cool), we're introduced to Mike Kennedy, a murder detective with the highest solve rate in the squad. In said previous book, Kennedy comes across as annoyingly bullheaded and a bit thick, so when I read that he was the main character in Broken Harbor, I balked for a moment. Not this dude? of all the dudes? surely? maybe I should just read something else?

But, y'know, the viewpoint character in Faithful Place is a biased, judgy asshole, and most people become way more interesting if you actually get inside their own heads, so I decided to give it a shot.

And, hey, I did end up liking Kennedy! Quite a lot! When you're in his own head, his boring by-the-books approach and annoying sense of superiority become both endearing and sympathetic, and French does an excellent job of setting up exactly the perfect plot to push every single one of his buttons—I greatly enjoyed watching this weirdo lowkey control freak getting repeatedly one-upped by reality. Bonus points for the whole setting; "spooky houses abandoned after the 2008 housing crash becoming very literally spooky" hecking rules. I found the book's ultimate "whodunit" it a bit on the cheesy side, and the B-plot was wobbly, in ways both good and bad (without spoiling: Kennedy's got a weird relationship with his sister, and while I really liked some aspects of it—stuff it brought out in Kennedy's character that we never would have seen elsewhere, and a surprisingly sympathetic depiction of a complicated situation in a way I hadn't seen before—but other parts of it landed in a funky way that left a bad taste in my mouth). But if you're looking for "moderately elevated/classy pulp," this fits the bill excellently, and while it doesn't quite pack the emotional whallop that Faithful Place did, it makes up for it in sheer page-turner-y-ness; I could barely put the thing down.

Did not finish: In the Woods by Tana French (Dublin Murder Squad #1)

There's a bunch of times when I really love a book by an author, so I go back and read their debut (from many years prior), and I think to myself, "damn, I'm glad other people liked this, because otherwise this author probably wouldn't have gone on to write the book I actually did like... but, I absolutely would not have picked this one up out of a lineup what the heck."

This is one of those times.

In The Woods has a number of amateurish annoyances which I could've coped with, had they been the only problems: French's prose, which is so vivid and clear in latter books, is purple and overwrought here, and the book's sense of pacing is all wonky (it montages whole weeks that I had actually wanted to see in detail; it keeps coming up with annoying contrived reasons for why our heroes can't interview obvious suspects; the scenes are often too short and break off too abruptly, which really messes with the overall momentum).

But the real issue is that our viewpoint character, Rob, is just flat and inconsistent. French's books are carried by her character's voices, and where Faithful Place's Frank is a compellingly snarky asshole, and Broken Harbor's Kennedy is a compellingly stubborn bulldog, Rob is... overthink-y? artsy? chooses weird metaphors? I couldn't get a handle on what French was trying to do with him, really. He's prone to broad statements like, "[Us detectives'] relationship with the truth is fundamental but cracked, refracting confusingly like fragmented glass", and "In ways too dark and crucial to be called metaphorical, I never left that wood," and "I suppose you could say my real weakness is a kind of long-sightedness: usually it is only at a distance, and much too late, that I can see the pattern," and God I did an involuntary eyeroll just typing those out. (I flipped to a random page for each of those! They aren't hard to find!) The most interesting thing about him is his relationship with his detective partner Cassie—a sort of cozy quasi-sibling closeness—but even that felt like it was painted a bit more with Vibes TM than concrete stuff, if you'll allow the phrasing.

Eventually, I realized I was going to shoot myself if they spent any more time on this one obviously-going-nowhere property management subplot, and if my goal in reading this was "to know enough about Cassie for The Likeness to land properly" (because I know Frank Mackey is featured in The Likeness and goddamn it I want more of him), I was pretty much already there.

So, about halfway through, I went and Wikipedia spoilered myself for the ending and... sigh... I won't spoil it here (feel free to do so in the comments if you'd like to discuss it), but, suffice to say, I'm glad I tapped out early.

I still have high hopes for The Likeness, though. Will report back.

some dude's phd thesis

I wanted to know some more Alaska history! So I read some, and it was fun; here's some highlights.

a fuckload of persona 4 fanfiction

there's a special kind of Vibe TM to inhaling several chapters of a bajillion-word schmoopy hurt/comfort Persona 4 fic while riding in a tiny bushplane over the arctic while experiencing high turbulence. it was good, would repeat that vibe

...does anyone have any particular Persona 4 fic recs? i am a simple woman; i just need to see my boy yosuke either (1) doing horrible things* or (2) getting whumped

* I'm so fucking obsessed with the bit in canon where Yosuke panics and suggests some extrajudicial murder as a solution for their problems??? and it made me realize i have a Type TM; it's called "callow nerds doing awful shit under stress" and i fucking love it