Book: Solutions and Other Problems Author: Allie Brosh Release Date: September 2020 Source: own Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
If you’re familiar with the name Allie Brosh, you know where this is going. Allie Brosh maintained a blog called Hyperbole and a Half, which was half personal essay, half comic (drawn with child-like simplicity). The blog discussed her rather unusual childhood, her struggles with severe depression, and her very silly dog. It was at turns hilarious, heartfelt, sobering, and very very recognizable to those of us who also deal with severe depression.
In October 2013, her first book was published, also titled Hyperbole and a Half, which contains some essays/comics from her blog, as well as new material. It did very well. She went on book tours and all that. And then she disappeared, seemingly off the face of the planet, for seven years.
When Simon & Schuster announced the imminent release of her new book (I think I first heard about it no sooner than July of this year), it was a SHOCK! There had been no news of Allie Brosh for AGES. I had wondered often how she was doing, and if she had perhaps lost her battle with depression and suicide ideation after all. And suddenly here she was again! I was ecstatic! And I still am.
Her new book, titled Solutions and Other Problems, covers a lot of ground. It covers the reasons for her long disappearance, including severe physical health issues (she nearly died!), a divorce, and the death of her sister. It also covers, in far more detail than her first book, how truly strange she was as a child (and still is!). Just like her first book, and the blog before it, it is both hilarious and sobering. And heartbreaking. I laugh so hard during the first few chapters I could barely breathe. A few chapters later, and I was crying.
The simplistic child-like drawing style is the same, and her characteristic wit and humor are still there, but this book is angrier and sadder than her first book. And for good reason, as you’ll see if you read it.
And yet, it is still laugh-out-loud hilarious. I’m not sure how she manages to hold these conflicting tones and feelings in balance, but she does. Constantly. I suspect it is how she lives her whole life, and is probably the only way she has managed to survive as long as she has.
Now, to help you understand the true hilarity and insanity of this book, I would like to share just a bit of the second chapter. In this chapter, Allie Brosh explains how she discovered she could sneak into the cat door of her neighbor’s house, and proceeded to…. go insane… It is probably the funniest chapter in the book. Here is just ONE page to illustrate:
I need you all to understand that this is pretty early-on in the proceedings. It gets a LOT more insane from here…
In any case, if you want to laugh and cry and have your heart ripped out of your chest; if you’ve dealt with depression, or the death of a loved one, this book (and her first book) might just be for you.
I wanted to write a book review for The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. But I find that as I think and talk and write about this book, I am also thinking and talking and writing about a handful of other books, so you’ll have to forgive me for being more scattered than usual. Because, you see, I loved this book. I loved this book madly. And I loved this book for some of the same reasons I have for some other books I also love madly. And so they have all become a bit tangled in my brain now.
The House in the Cerulean Sea came out in March, and my friend and employer, Mary, read it and recommended it to me. I put a hold on an audiobook copy at the library, but the waitlist was ENORMOUS and I waited over three months before I finally received it this past Thursday. The audiobook is approx 12.5 hours long. I listened to 3.5 hrs on Thursday evening. I finished the last 9 hours in one go on Friday. I DEVOURED this book, my friends. I adored it.
Having said that, let me backtrack a tad, and talk about myself a tiny bit. I do not feel like a main character. Not in my own story. Not in anyone else’s. For the most part, people like me do not tend to make it as main characters in stories, but every once in awhile I read a book or a see a movie (but it’s usually a book), and I see myself. At least a bit. There are some characters that I feel so much kinship with that it is mildly embarrassing, and that usually means I will end up loving that book like a piece of my own soul, because in these books this person who looks and feels like me somehow actually gets their happy ending.
Characters like Anne Eliot, from Persuasion by Jane Austen. Like Bastian from Neverending Story. Lirael from Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series. Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle. And now, Linus Baker from The House in the Cerulean Sea.
These characters are intelligent, and honorable, but they are quiet, and painfully shy; they are awkward, or bullied, or ignored, or invisible; they are sad and gray and desperately lonely, and resigned to their fates.
And perhaps it is melodramatic to say that that is also me. But something can be a tad melodramatic and also be true.
I see these characters like me, who live quietly desperate routine lonely lives with no hope of being or doing anything special, and then I see these characters GET TO LIVE and to LOVE. The adventure finally comes. The world finally sees them. Love finally finds them. And it gives me hope. (Though I’ll admit that often, once I finish a book with this character, I also find myself weirdly depressed, as I reflect on the fact that I am not likely to ever get a similar happy ending. I am more like these characters at the beginning of their stories, when they are sad and lonely and resigned, than I will ever be like them at the end of their stories.)
So, to return to The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune.
Book: The House in the Cerulean Sea Author: T.J. Klune Release Date: March 2020 Source: borrowed from the library Rating: 6 out of 5 stars (can I do that? Guess, don’t care! Just did!)
The House in the Cerulean Sea follows main character Linus Baker: Linus is overweight and out of shape, he’s forty, he’s desperately lonely, and resigned to his fate. He is a case worker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, because in this version of Earth (it IS Earth, they have computers, and record players, and Linus’s favorite music is oldies like The Big Bopper and Sinatra), magical beings exist. But these magical creatures are heavily monitored; they have to be registered and they are not allowed to hold positions of power or authority (in other words, they are a hugely oppressed minority). Linus inspects orphanages for magical youth (not all magical children are orphans but many of them are), but unlike most case workers, Linus really cares about the welfare of the children, and looks for problems like Masters who abuse or take advantage of the children under their care.
With a reputation for being objective, keeping distance from the children, and very thorough, Linus is brought before Very Upper Management, and given a top secret case: to go visit and live at a top secret orphanage on an island, run by a man named Arthur Parnassus, who has six children under his care. Linus is supposed to look for any issues, because Very Upper Management has “reasons for concern.” It seems pretty clear from the get-go, however, that they are just looking for an excuse to shut it down.
Linus arrives at the orphanage to discover that the children there are unlike any other magical children he has ever seen or heard of. These children are: a female garden gnome with the beard and everything!, a Forest sprite more powerful than any other he’s met, a wyvern (whom people used to think of as animals, but do in fact have intelligent and complex emotions and language, just not human language), a tall shy black kid who is a were-POMERANIAN!, a green blob named Chauncey whose greatest ambition in life is to be a BELLHOP, and a six year old boy who is the literal Anti-Christ.
And then there is the Master of the orphanage, Arthur Parnassus, who is very charming and cares deeply for the children under his care. Linus, unsurprisingly, immediately develops a crush on him.
And folks, it just gets more adorable from there!
This book is funny, and charming, and quirky, and delightful in ways I cannot begin to express! It deals with deeply emotional issues like child abuse, and racial (or in this case, SPECIES) prejudice and oppression, and despite this it manages to be one of the happiest, most hopeful books I’ve read in YEARS. I smiled like a madwoman through the whole thing. And when I finished the audiobook from the library and returned it (and saw that there was now a six month wait on the book!), I immediately bought the ebook AND audiobook so I can read it again.
I identified so strongly with poor, put-upon, lonely dumpy Linus — who is finally given the opportunity to show how honorable and good and kind he is while staying at the orphanage — that it is mildly embarrassing. And I fell in love with Arthur and the children right along with Linus, the whole way through. I am a sucker for quirky odd funny characters, and found family tropes, and this book gave it to me in SPADES. I think this might end up being my favorite book of the year. (Unconquerable Sun held that honor a few months ago, and that is still definitely near the top as well!)
I have a handful of books that I love dearly, and will go around used bookstores buying up paperback copies just so that I can hand them off to people I love, whom I want to share my favorite books with. I don’t do this with some books I love that are so well known, I have no doubt most people have at least heard of them, if not read them (so for instance, I don’t generally do this with Dune or Watership Down, even though they are my favorite books of all time, because most people are already familiar with them). Instead, I do this with books I adore that have not gotten quite the same circulation. Books like Sunshine by Robin McKinley, and Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn, and We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, and Neverending Story by Michael Ende (though the movie is so well known, not nearly as many people have read the book!). I can guarantee that as soon as the paperback version of House in the Cerulean Sea is released next year, this book will definitely be added to that prestigious list. In the meantime, since I cannot buy every single one of you a copy to read (I’m poor, people! Or I totally would!), please please please go do yourselves a favor and GO BUY IT NOW! Or borrow it from the library! Either way, just READ IT!
Edit at 4:20pm: I bought the ebook and audiobook for House in the Cerulean Sea, but I SWORE to myself that I wouldn’t read them until after I finish the other three books I’m SUPPOSED to be reading right now (those being: Name of the Wind, The Arrest, and Hall of Smoke)… but… that resolve may end by tonight… I just LOVED IT SO MUCH FOLKS!
Well, folks, we’re two weeks into NaNoWriMo now. We have officially hit the halfway point. Which means I SHOULD be at approximately 25k words in my novel by now. Alas, that is not the case. I am currently at approximately 17k words right now, which means I am around 8k words behind. The last week especially has been very slow going. I’ve only been managing around 400-700 words per night lately. Partly because I am EXHAUSTED from work, but mostly because I am very stuck. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m totally pantsing it this year. Usually I am a big planner, with lots of outlines and character profiles and chapter breakdowns, etc. I have none of that this year, and its really getting difficult now. I have no clue where I’m going. I’ve been forcing myself to write SOMETHING, ANYTHING, the last few nights, but it has resulted in mostly talking around in circles and not advancing the plot in any useful way.
I’m hoping I can work out at least a few rough sketchy outline-y bits and pieces this week. Even if it just gets me a few steps ahead of where I’m at, that would be a huge help. Because I am very very lost right now.
I have settled a few sort of general VIBES I’m going for in this story though. I’m definitely leaning into the shonen anime feel of it. But I’m also REALLY digging into a “found family” sort of thing, and probably a little queer romance subplots as well. I think.
In the meantime, if you’re curious, I put together a story mood board for The Onyx Seal on Pinterest, which can be found here: https://pin.it/1rcu9TT (The assortment of images there probably doesn’t make any kind of thematic sense to anyone but me, but I’m ok with that.)
In other news: I’ve also been reading a fair bit, and hope to have a couple book reviews up shortly. Hopefully within the next few days *fingers crossed* provided that I can a) find some energy after work, and b) fit regular blog writing into the Nano-packed schedule.
That’s all for now! If any of you are doing Nano and want to share your projects, please feel free! I’d love to hear what you’re working on!
Hey there, folks! Sorry I’ve been radio silent for so long. First, I was elbow deep in work (October was absolutely NUTS folks, and I’m still in the process of getting totally caught up). And THEN, NaNoWriMo started last Sunday, and that’s been keeping me busy too.
I think most people know what NaNoWriMo is these days, but just in case: NaNoWriMo stands for “National Novel Writing Month,” which takes place every November. It’s an event that started in 1999, and the challenge is to write 50,000 words (which is considered the average length of a novel) in just one month, from Nov 1st through 30th. It’s a ton of fun for those of us who are writerly types. You can find the website and more info here: nanowrimo.org
This year is my fifth attempt to “win” Nano (by winning, we mean actually completing the 50,000 words — while the organization has partnered with some places that provide fun prizes for winners, such as a discount to purchase the writing program Scrivener and such, its really just a personal victory sort of win). The only time I actually finished and won was during my very first attempt back in 2010. Since then I have barely even come close to finishing 50k words — in fact, last year I only managed about 7k for the whole month. I try not to put too much pressure on myself, after all I am working and this is mostly supposed to be fun, but I am determined to make a real push for 50k words this year! *fingers crossed*
My project this year is a secondary-world fantasy, with the tentative title The Onyx Seal. I’m usually a very serious planner, with lots of outlines and chapter break-downs ready long before the month starts, but this year I came up with the story idea late in October, and have done almost NO planning whatsoever. I’m pretty much totally pantsing it this year, which is both terrifying and exciting! So far, I’m pretty much right on track with the daily word goal (I fell a tiny bit behind the word count last night, but I should be able to get caught back up today).
Also, because I am addicted to the Penguin Classics Cover Generator (found HERE), I made myself a book cover for my project:
If you’re a Nanoer, I wish you the best of luck with your project! If you’re not, but you’re intrigued, I hope you’ll take a look at the website, and come join us (either this year, or next year!).
Amanda Haimoto Rudd 