What I Read, March 2025
March was all about Hunger (Games and for flesh), plus two Butler short stories that were published posthumously.
I set the bar low and, boy howdy, I still smacked my head right into it.
Since I’m making a bunch of progress on my new novel and stressing out about the world, I didn’t read much in March and if this pattern continues (likely), I’ll scale these reviews down to be quarterly or whatever makes sense.
In March I read three books:
Unexpected Stories - Octavia E. Butler
I’m reading all of Octavia E Butler this year (here’s why).
This book published not too long after Octavia E. Butler died and contains two stories, neither of which had been published before.
The first, “A Necessary Being”, takes place in the world of her Patternist series and fits right before (and acts as a prequel to) Survivor, the novel she disowned. It’s imaginative and inventive, but without the context of the following book it’s a lot of potential that goes unrealized. Butler disowned Survivor for writing quality and narrative reasons, but in doing so she also cut off a tangent of the Patternist series. Survivor and “A Necessary Being” leave Earth, introducing us to an alien race, the Kohn, thus grappling with a host of other themes and characters separate from the Patternist series. If it weren’t for the events of the Patternist series, Survivor’s narrative wouldn’t be possible. But by removing Survivor from her oeuvre, “A Necessary Being” sort of feels like it’s adrift in space. Both stories are worthy of hunting down and reading, even if that presents a challenge.
The second story, “Childfinder”, was the first story she ever sold (to Harlan Ellison, no less) and while it was never published before, one could make the argument that it was instrumental in her career. While it doesn’t fit into her Patternist series, it could, as it deals with psychic powers and community building. It is a good story, but the ideas are bigger than these pages and ache for wider berth.
Sunrise on the Reaping - Suzanne Collins
Suzanne Collins’ latest entry in The Hunger Games saga, Sunrise on the Reaping, documents the 50th Hunger Games, placing it 24 years before the original trilogy, and 40 years after the Snow-centered prequel, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
This is her most brutal and transparent entry so far, and might be her best.
In the original trilogy, she made many allusions to the events of these games and she was able to include and explain all those details without retconning anything, while still filling the story with surprises.
In many ways, I think this is her final challenge to readers to finally grapple with the stories that she’s been telling us — to face the violence and the horror, something her readers have refused to do. It might be too early to tell, since the book has only been out two weeks, but I think her readers are failing her again and focusing on the intentionally distracting romance.
I hope we get more Hunger Games novels, but I suspect she’s done showing us the games from inside the arena. I think she’s make her statement clear and is waiting for everyone else to catch up.
Fever House - Keith Rosson
I picked up Fever House late last year when I was doing comp research before querying my novel. It didn’t match as a comp, so I stopped but wanted to come back when I had the time. I had the time!
The headline is that Fever House is a zombie narrative, but I think that’s a gross oversimplification and would even say that people who don’t care for zombie stories should keep listening. To me, it’s a glorious combination of Evil Dead occult mystery and Black Ops office drama with sprinklings of mafia intrigue and rock band biography, all told from a writer who isn’t afraid to put his characters through hell (sometimes literally).
It’s beautifully paced, a lot of fun, dangerous, and chock full of entertaining characters. There are a number of musicians, and musician drama isn’t super interesting to me so those chapters were not my favorite, but the rest of it was top tier. The zombies show up later and they’re not your typical hoard; there’s something unique happening here.
There’s also a sequel, The Devil By Name, which is beautifully set up by Fever House’s finale.
TBR April 2025
It’s Q2 which means: my next Stephen King. The Shining is up next, which I’ve started.
I’ve also been making my way (slowly) through Bloodchild and Other Stories, which I hope to finish up soon.
I’m intending to move out of my apartment this month (and across the country), so that might be all the reading I get done. We’ll see! I’ve been collecting some vintage paperbacks and want excuses to read them!! But need the energy, time, and will.