X-Gender, Vol. 1

[cornerofmadness]

X-Gender, Vol. 1 by Asuka Miyazaki
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'll be honest that second star is only there because I feel bad giving a memoir a single star but good god is this thing miserable. Please there is so many other better life as a nonbinary out there. This is misogynistic, biphobic, self loathing and just plain depressing (and there a few more phobias in this against the LGBT side of things)

Our narrator volleys in the beginning between explaining what various LGBT categories are (and not being nice about any of it) and their own life. In more detail than you want. Do I need to know what position they masturbate in? Is it to prove they aren't female because they do it in a more male position? (do people just masturbate in one position? I know my answer to that, no).

They are more than nonbinary. They are definitely sex-opposed, at least vaginal sex and they are quick to tell you they won't even put their fingers in there, let alone anything else.

The story starts off with them finding out a former girlfriend who dumped them is now married and just had a baby and a mutual friend had to warn them off contacting her because she wasn't going to allow them to upset her so we get a glimpse of how toxic this must have been. They go off on various rants about women who go from women back to men (so very biphobic) and we get discourse on how they're better friends with gay men than anyone but by then I didn't care. There's more of this series. Yeah hard pass. Go find something that actually celebrates being nonbinary rather than this cruel thing

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The Cat Who Saved Books

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The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this for the popsugar challenge of healing fiction and that's about the only reason I finished this. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad. It was ....forgettable. In a way, it felt like a bunch of short stories hastily knitted together than a cohesive novel. I feel that way because every time we go on another adventure with the cat we have to hear about how he feels about Sayo, how his grandfather felt about books and how he's a Hikikomori which is someone who has severe social withdrawal preferring to never leave their home.

Orphaned Rintaro Natsuki has been raised by his grandfather who owns a small used book store, Natsuki books, and even before grandfather's death,, Rintaro has been evidencing his hikikomori tendencies. Now after his grandfather's death, he is totally withdrawn from school, just going through his grandfather's daily rituals while his aunt (who he doesn't know) is coming to collect the young teen. His class president whose name I've already forgotten. I'm calling her Sayo because it was something like that. Anyhow she is bringing him classwork to encourage him to return to school.

Into this enters Tiger, a talking cat who needs his help to save books. There will be three quests, all of which have the potential to be dangerous and they might not return. In each case they have to convince the person to stop harming books (even though they think they're helping) I do think the author is very earnest in the expressed concern in each case, that no one has time to read any more and books are dying.

On the other hand there is a lot of repetition in this even with Sayo getting drawn into this too. Tiger actually doesn't do much and everything is solved by talking. So much talking. In theory the three people are 'healed' as is Rintaro . it's rather sweet but it's also not nearly as exciting as one would hope.



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The Gallery Assistant

[cornerofmadness]

The Gallery Assistant by Kate Belli
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to love this as I do love art and mysteries but Chloe instantly put me off and I'm not entirely sure why. The fateful morning an up and coming abstract artist is murdered (and Chloe's gallery was set to host her), Chloe can't remember what happened the night before because her method of dealing with the trauma of 911 is to get blackout drunk.

Which, I have to keep reminding myself 24 years ago acceptance of mental health issues AS healthcare wasn't what it was today so it's not unusual for Chloe to be refusing to seek help and self medicate with booze. Because you're going to get a lot of scenes like this. A good part of the first quarter of the book is in a bar.

This is a problem for Chloe because she was at the artist's party. She might be the last person to see her. Friends who were there are less helpful than she'd want them to be. The police are zeroing in on her as the killer so Chloe has to look for clues herself because she finds herself in the frame. Also her friends and coworkers are acting odd so she has no idea who to trust.

My main issue with this isn't the mystery. That was good. It was somehow I didn't feel empathy for Chloe and it kept throwing me out of the story which is more a me issue I suspect than a problem with the book. (that said that I couldn't bond to someone who was in the towers when they came down might be an issue in general). This just wasn't the book for me but thank you to Netgalley for the arc.

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