(Today's blog title is a bit of a stretch, but I was going for a play on "spellbound".)
I stayed up later than planned to finish Pansies, the fourth book in Alexis Hall's Spires series of queer books. As with most of Hall's writing, I just couldn't put the book down, especially since I knew I was near the end, and The Sprint took over. There are so many good lines and phrases in the book that I've been highlighting like crazy and even celebrating particularly good ones on my socials. And I've been this way with most of Hall's books - including reading passages aloud to Tobie so he can share my joy. His romances are nuanced and quite realistic. His characterizations are layered and full of meaning.
It's hard to pinpoint what exactly I love about his writing. His language isn't over complex, but it's beautiful in how things come together. He's great with dialogue and making characters feel even more real through brilliant banter. With every new Hall book I read, I find myself puzzling over how he does this so consistently - how does each character end up with such a unique voice, even if it's all written by the same guy? How does he use familiar tropes and yet still turn things on their head to make things feel even more unique and special?
These are the questions of a frustrated writer whenever he reads a good book.
I'm back to reading The Sentence, the current family book club title. It's a bit of a tough read, and we all agree that we'll do our best to see it through despite the difficulty. I've also gotten started on Far Sector, a Green Lantern comic written by THE N.K. Jemisin - how they got her to write a comic book (mini-?) series is anyone's guess. It's quite brilliant.
And I'm listening to an audiobook version of Contact just for the heck of it.
Oh, the mixed blessing of being surrounded by good writing.
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