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Travelling for Christmas means a different library and different random books to browse, yay.
"What Stalks Among Us" is a YA horror novel about a pair of best friends from Indiana who skip out on their high school trip and get lost in a haunted corn maze. It's a fun look at the time loop trope, and the genre-savvy narrator often describes her possible reactions as video game dialogue trees. The depiction of the setting is very evocative; even though the overall setting is a corn maze, it features various Midwestern gas stations and restaurants inside.
This will be a feature to some people and a bug for others, but it's also very earnest about topics like neurodiversity, body positivity, and (especially) the horrors of abuse and the importance of standing up for oneself to escape horrific relationships. Sadie is a survivor of a toxic long-distance romance, which, as her friend Logan points out, is no less real for having been internet-mediated. Logan, farther in the past, was in a hurtful "friendship" with a kid from a much richer family, and just because people do get out of those situations, it's still true that some of the love was and is genuine, which makes it complicated and the trauma long-lasting. For me, I find this kind of narrative to be overly didactic, but I understand it's fairly frequent in contemporary YA. It wasn't a dealbreaker, I found plenty to enjoy, but if you know that's not your brand you might want to stay away. (Or conversely!)
Bingo: Probably using it for horror or maybe YA, we're at the point where a bunch of stuff is about to lock into place. Could also count as published in 2023. I don't think it quite counts as queernorm (both main characters are happily bi, Sadie has a crush on a girl, but they also occasionally mention biphobia in an Earnest 2023 Culture Warrior way).
"What Stalks Among Us" is a YA horror novel about a pair of best friends from Indiana who skip out on their high school trip and get lost in a haunted corn maze. It's a fun look at the time loop trope, and the genre-savvy narrator often describes her possible reactions as video game dialogue trees. The depiction of the setting is very evocative; even though the overall setting is a corn maze, it features various Midwestern gas stations and restaurants inside.
Now that I'm noticing it, the dining room itself is flipped. I mean, maybe some of the restaurants have the counter on the right and the tables on the left, but it's not what I'm used to. It also doesn't change the fact that all the signage is reversed.
We're in a backward Steak 'n Shake.
I envy the people who experience severe Midwestern weather and turn into storm chasers, or the people who just learn not to care until they spot rotation in the sky. My version of a novelty T-shirt would say something like I grew up in southern Indiana and all I got was this lousy tornado phobia.
He's trying to sound casual, but there're cornstalks lashing over his shoulder. He also apparently doesn't recognize a classic attempt at a Midwestern goodbye when he sees one. What could be clearer than guess we better head on out?
Or maybe he's actually a master of the Midwestern goodbye, and that's why he's drawing out the conversation even more.
This book came out in 2023, and tries to be up-to-the-minute in terms of pop culture references--I'm not sure if it's actually a good depiction of how kids these days sound, but the narrator notes that "Primer" (from 2004) came out before she was born!We're in a backward Steak 'n Shake.
I envy the people who experience severe Midwestern weather and turn into storm chasers, or the people who just learn not to care until they spot rotation in the sky. My version of a novelty T-shirt would say something like I grew up in southern Indiana and all I got was this lousy tornado phobia.
He's trying to sound casual, but there're cornstalks lashing over his shoulder. He also apparently doesn't recognize a classic attempt at a Midwestern goodbye when he sees one. What could be clearer than guess we better head on out?
Or maybe he's actually a master of the Midwestern goodbye, and that's why he's drawing out the conversation even more.
This will be a feature to some people and a bug for others, but it's also very earnest about topics like neurodiversity, body positivity, and (especially) the horrors of abuse and the importance of standing up for oneself to escape horrific relationships. Sadie is a survivor of a toxic long-distance romance, which, as her friend Logan points out, is no less real for having been internet-mediated. Logan, farther in the past, was in a hurtful "friendship" with a kid from a much richer family, and just because people do get out of those situations, it's still true that some of the love was and is genuine, which makes it complicated and the trauma long-lasting. For me, I find this kind of narrative to be overly didactic, but I understand it's fairly frequent in contemporary YA. It wasn't a dealbreaker, I found plenty to enjoy, but if you know that's not your brand you might want to stay away. (Or conversely!)
Bingo: Probably using it for horror or maybe YA, we're at the point where a bunch of stuff is about to lock into place. Could also count as published in 2023. I don't think it quite counts as queernorm (both main characters are happily bi, Sadie has a crush on a girl, but they also occasionally mention biphobia in an Earnest 2023 Culture Warrior way).
