Signal to Noise was Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s debut novel, and I enjoyed it best out of all her novels that I have read so far (Mexican Gothic, Velvet was the Night and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau). It is a fantasy novel set in Mexico about a teenage girl who discovers that she can perform spells while listening to records.
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You have probably heard of Octavia E. Butler, who was a renowned writer of science fiction novels and who wrote at a time when there was not a lot of female sci-fi writers, let alone Black ones. Sci-fi is not a genre that I gravitate towards, so I had never read any of Butler’s novels. But since I am always expanding my reading horizons, I wanted to give Butler a try and came across Parable of the Sower. It turns out Parable of the Sower is not so much sci-fi as it is speculative fiction. It is set in a dystopian future where climate change has led to the break down of societal and economic norms. I think Parable of the Sower is an interesting novel, and I am glad that I read it, but to be honest, it does not inspire me to want to read the second novel (Parable of the Talents). I kind of wish that I had picked another one of Butler’s novels to read instead.
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The Whispers is the second novel by Ashley Audrain. I have reviewed her first novel, The Push, on this blog. Like The Push, The Whispers is a story about motherhood with a central mystery involving a child. Ten-year-old Xavier has fallen from his third story bedroom window and is in a coma with a traumatic head injury. But how did he fall out of the window? Did he jump? Or was he pushed – by his mother? Sounds thrilling, but The Whispers is not a thriller. The mystery of Xavier’s fall is a catalyst for exploring the different roles that women are expected to take on, and what little satisfaction women get out of juggling these different roles. It also leads to an implosion in the female relationships in the novel.
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Stone Blind is the newest novel by Natalie Haynes. I have previously reviewed her books A Thousand Ships and Pandora’s Jar on this blog, so if you have been following along, then you know that Haynes uses her extensive knowledge of Greek mythology to retell the stories of Greek mythological women through a feminist lens, picking apart the misogynist views passed through time by the white men who originally told their stories. Stone Blind is an interesting read infused with Haynes engaging humour, but it did not inspire any strong feelings in me, I guess because it does not tell me something I have not already learned through Haynes other books and through other feminist retellings of Greek mythology.
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