In the Club 04/28/21

Otto and Xavier Shin have been gifted a trip on a very special train as a not-honeymoon honeymoon present from their aunt. They appear to be alone on this former tea-smuggling train and soon realize that it’s not your average locomotive; it seems to be customized to their particular tastes in ways that don’t exactly make sense, and they don’t know the train’s destination. Totally normal! Fun! While boarding the train, Otto spots a woman who be believes to be the mysterious owner, a woman who resides on The Lucky Day. She was holding up a sign—but did it say “hello,” or “help?” As the pair tries to get to the bottom of that little mystery, the trip upends everything they think they know about each other and their pasts. Oh and there’s a pet mongoose. Can’t forget the mongoose.

When I think of authors who continually blow me away with their impossibly beautiful sentences and truly weird books, I immediately think of Helen Oyeyemi. The things she does with words! The book asks us to consider what it means to be understood (or not) by the person you most want to perceive you, and I promise, you will find yourself highlighting all kinds of passages.

This question speaks to my soul! I am such a playlist person and music person in general. I’m constantly thinking of book soundtracks in my head when I’m reading and I think a lot of you probs do the same.

Because my job is pretty cool, I got to dream up a playlist for two SFF titles while filling in for Jenn on SFF Yeah earlier this month. It was SO much fun! Do this with book club and see what your playlist looks like. My picks for the super fun space romp with psychic space cats that is Chilling Effect? 1977 by Anna Tijoux / La Torre by Gabriel Rios /Quimbara by Celia Cruz / Ring the Alarm by Beyonce / Bitch Better Have My Money by Rihanna (I could have gone on for days!)

Mike Hayes’s childhood was brutal, dark, and lonely, but that was all before he met the love of his life, Verity Metcalf. With V by his side, Mike has learned how to love, how to care for himself, how to thrive in his career, and turn his life around. Together they will build something beautiful and be happy for the rest of their lives. Never mind that she’s not returning his calls, or that she’s technically engaged to someone else. It’ll all just a part of a secret game they play. Right?

I absolutely picked this one because the ending is super polarizing, and because I would read the crap out of a version of the book told from V’s perspective (assuming the ending is what I interpret it to be). Wish I could say more, you’ll have to read to figure it out for yourself!