Hello, There!

And, we’re back. How about that. It’s almost a pattern. Another week with some good variety, let’s get into it.

Rainbow Vol. 2 by Sunny and Gloomy (Scholastic Graphix, 5/6)

So, you remember all those times I’ve reminded you comics are a medium and not a genre? Here we go again. This book, right here. Yes, it has pictures and no, that does not disqualify it from being a book. The pearl clutching room is at the end of the hall to the right if you need it. Nope, further. Further. Further. There you go. Please do let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Are they gone?

Good.

Okay. Yes, Rainbow (both volumes) does have pictures. It is not not for littles. Take me seriously when I say that. The recommended age is 12+ and it deals with some heavy stuff: parental neglect, homophobia, alcoholism, drug addiction, divorce, financial insecurity, bullying… There were parts of it that were hard even for me, and I’m old old (46. I know). This is not, I repeat, not a bad thing; the main characters in Rainbow are teens and, unfortunately, in this world, teens have to deal with a whole lot of garbage. Aside from getting them the help they need - a long, arduous, and frustrating process - one of the most impactful (hate that word but it works here) things we can do is remind them they’re not alone. One of the ways we can do that is to create fictional character who reflect their real lives, even if it’s in a fantasy setting.

“But, Shiri,” I can hear you asking, “doesn’t they just remind them of the scary stuff?”

I have news for you. Kids are really smart. And lies of omission erode trust just as surely as any other sort. When we don’t talk to our kids about things, they don’t talk to us. The reason books like Rainbow are amazing isn’t just because they’re representative (which they are) and because they’re inclusive but because, by not shying away, and sometimes unveiling what’s ugly in kids’s lives, they serve to open an intergenerational discussion from a unique perspective, one that doesn’t fart unicorns or barf empty platitudes, but does allow for hope. Hope that while there’s no such thing as the perfect life, there is such thing as joy.

Because there are moments of real joy amid Boo’s escapist fantasies There is kindness and empathy and care. There are helpers. And while we live in a society that curates its existence to give the best possible impression to the outside world, wherein people care so much about how things look to others they often forget to live, there are those who are there to catch the most vulnerable when they fall, to give, and to create something that, while never Pinterest perfect, is 1000x more beautiful.

So maybe, go read a comic book. And find something amazing.

Rainbow Vol. 1: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rainbow-volume-1-sunny/1143292764?ean=9781339011233

Rainbow Vol. 2: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Rainbow%20vol%202

A Carnival of Atrocities by Natalia García Freire/translated by Victor Meadowcroft (World Editions, 4/1)

An intentionally beautiful book about horrifying things. Natalia García Freire has captured the essence of sin, horror, and cruelty, and the most loathsome aspects of humanity with such poetic language and love for what we can, and might, be were we to take the time to meditate on what we do rather than what is done to us, to look at what we do to the world rather than what we can get from it. Were we to consider the love we find so rarely rather than what we can take from those who give it at no cost to ourselves. Perhaps, then we might be half as deserving of the gift she has given us.

That’s… all I have to say. I’m in love.

I am going to need to find a copy in Spanish as well.

A Carnival of Atrocities: https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9781642861518

Peerless Vol. 3 by Meng Xi Shi

These. Bitches.

I can’t believe I have to wait until June to find out what happens next.

Peerless Vol. 3: https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9798891605879

Antimatter Blues: A Mickey 7 Novel by Edward Ashton

Audio again, same readers as the first and they continue amazing, do recommend. This second book in the gang’s story picks up two years after the end of Mickey 7, with the colony discovering they’re about to be in a lot of trouble vis a vis having enough power to survive another winter and how to retrieve a (redacted) from where a certain no-longer Expendable (redacted) it. Especially when it turns out (redacted) found it in the meantime.

Listen, there are a lot of first contact stories out there you could consume. In my humble opinion, this is one of the best ones I’ve ever participated in. It’s darkly humorous but raises really excellent issues about both ethics and practicality - yeah, the Prime Directive is great and all, did it work? I think if you look back at the many of the most interesting Star Trek episodes the answer is, “Eh?” Because sentients of any kind are going to be complicated. They are, as Steve Rogers once said, “People (general), and people have agendas.” Even good, well-meaning people and it’s hard to be good and well-meaning when you’re stranded years from the next viable planet which might decide to spit lava and turn you into a lump of carbon.

Mickey is the lynchpin though, and while I adore all the whole cast, he’s the reason Antimatter Blues works. And the thing that makes Mickey works is that he does what I think most people in his situation would do: He tries real hard. He really, really does. And in doing so, he’s the inspiration for every sentient being in the book to try real hard too. Do they fuck up? Yup; most of the book is life forms speaking so far past eachother they’re not even landing in the same solar system. But the effort is there. At that’s what you need to get started.

This whole story would be a farce an in any one else’s hands, it would be but in Ashton’s it’s genuine without being sappy, this wonderful melange of weird and heartfelt and absurd and emotional and… well, I’d just really like some more at some point.

Antimatter Blues: A Mickey 7 Novel: https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9781250322012

I’ve started Chelsea Abdullah’s The Ashfire King, (https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9780316369268) so that’s up for next week, along with Nat Cassidy’s Mary (https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9781250265234) on audio. We’ll see what other trouble I can get in to. Talk soon.