Sucker Punch by Laurell K. Hamilton - 2026 Reread

Oh... good... lord... this book is a slog. I hate it, so, so much. I hate it so much that having to reread it for completionist sake made me skip Serpentine on accident. Sucker Punch's looming reread just took up all my headspace. The funny thing is, I did not actually remember it as being so much of a slog. I was just remembering how much Olaf was front and center and how much I fucking hate him.

Seriously, the amount of "No" Anita should have come out swinging with in Olaf's direction is staggering. But instead we're still humoring the SOB and making other people humor him in conjunction. Anita and Edward need to just kill him already. I'm tired of knowing Anita has absolutely zero interest in actually sleeping with him and her also entertaining the idea of a relationship with him. Should have kept that shit at a professional level if you have to have any kind of relationship at all. I'm firmly of the belief that this whole leading him on bullshit is going to spectacularly backfire at some point in the future. It really is leading him on at this point and, as I'm fairly certain Olaf has maintained, women leading men on is one of the reasons he hates them so much.

Other than Olaf's mere presence, the actual slogging part of the book is how many times Newman and Anita have to explain, often to the same characters, why Newman is refusing to "do his duty" and kill Bobby. Over and over and over. Same argument. Every time. Introduce or add a character: "Why haven't you done your duty yet, Win?" I started skipping the conversations after the second time. Skipped a good portion of this book, actually. I would have DNF'd this reread if I hadn't been waiting on another book to be shipped to me.

Last thing, just to reiterate what I said in my first read review: The mystery part of Sucker Punch was incredibly convoluted. The fact that it was largely side-lined did not help. Every single side character from this little town is on my shit-list. They are all unlikable to say the least. Duke is probably the worst and that's only because Muriel and Jocelyn are barely there. Just... ugh.

You can read my first review HERE.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Absolutely delightful. I loved it so, so much. Relatively low stakes, just shy of cozy, I would say, assuming your cozy includes the occasional little adventure. This was just the right blend of realism and sci-fi.

I will say, I was expecting more description of the Kaiju and their parasites, though I guess ultimately my brain would not have done them justice. A rough sketch is good enough, I think. I feel like, unless you’ve actually got a visual, description just won’t do what’s in your head justice. It’s the whole movie monster thing: scarier when you haven’t seen it.

I also really liked Jamie and her friends. Even frigging Sanders had his moments. Scalzi’s character work was quite good.

The Kaiju Preservation Society is honestly one of those books I didn’t have any deep thoughts about. It was fun. It was mostly light. I definitely recommend giving it a read. 

 

Favorite Lines

"I like land," I said. "I don't drown there." - Jamie Gray

"No, they don't. They have shredded orange and white sadness that mocks cheese and everything it stands for." - Jame Gray

"Angrily consume your bacon on the toilet, is my advice." - Dr. Lee 

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Well... that was a good deal more chaotic than I was expecting. I have seen the Studio Ghibli adaptation a fair few times, so I knew the rough outline of the plot going into reading the book. I also knew that, as usual, things had to be trimmed for the adaptation so I was expecting more in terms of detail. I was not expecting a whole rather important chunk of plotline to have been cut for time/content.

Howl's Moving Castle is wonderfully magical and quite fun. I enjoyed most of the stuff that got trimmed for the movie. The tether to the "real world," as it were, was wholly unexpected. I love Sophie's sisters. I do find it a little odd that Martha wouldn't have told Michael to stop calling her Lettie at some point, but apparently that's not a thing for some reason. But otherwise, their inclusion and deceptions were cute.

I found the Witch of the Waste and her demon rather one-note, as far as antagonists go. They really weren't all that interesting in the long run. Now what they did was horrifying. I also feel like the sudden "and then everything just sorted itself out"-ness of the ending was somewhat jarring. Kind of expected more out of that, but I guess I'll just have the wait for the sequels to see.

Mostly, the book was just about as cozy as the adaptation. I quite enjoyed the ride. Also, my edition (The 20th Anniversary Deluxe Limited Edition) of the book is absolutely gorgeous. I love the end-paper art, even if I will never see Calcifer in any other form than the Ghibli version, no matter how often his green hair is mentioned.