Book Bites: The (Most Unusual) Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy

The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy by Roan Parrish
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy feels like two novels. On one hand, we have an adorably sweet romance between cat cafe worker Edgar and professional haunter Jamie. They meet at Jamie's burlesque show and have to navigate the sometimes-tricky ground of queer love (Jamie is trans, Edgar gay, both their families are a mess), yet their steamy romance never feels anything other than grounded and cozy and real. On the other hand, we have a ghost story; Edgar sees ghosts that scare him to the point he avoids leaving his house. While the spooky novel does interface a bit with the romance, it doesn't sparkle in the same way. The plotting drags and the denouement is oddly passive. Make no mistake, Edgar Lovejoy is still a wonderful spooky romance novel, more romance than spook.

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Book Bites: Levels of the Game

Levels of the Game by John McPhee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Levels of the Game is masterful sportswriting. Through McPhee’s telling, Arthur Ashe’s US Open Semifinal match against Clark Grabner wasn’t just a tennis match but a battle of archetypes; old versus new, black versus white, liberal versus conservative. The action is propulsive and McPhee wisely uses backstory as a highlighter.

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Book Bites: One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against this is required reading. At what cost do we purchase our normalcy, purchase our comfort within the status quo, when that normalcy also includes genocide? Omar El Akkad, through reporting, through lived experience, presents a powerful treatise on what it is to resist the systems that would eat our souls. Whatever sand is in your hand, throw it in the cogs of the machine. It's not a walking away from capitalism, from society, but a walking toward something better. Like the Transatlantic Slave Trade, like the theft of Native Lands, and now like the Genocide of Palestinian people and the uncaring capitalist systems that support it, one day, everyone will have always been against this.

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Book Bites: Three Bags Full

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Three Bags Full is a delightful premise that fumbles its execution. A flock of sheep investigating the murder of their shepherd should be a whimsical romp. The issue is that Swann doesn't fully lean into her premise. The sheep--of which there are probably too many to fit the narrative--lack agency. The mystery only unfolds with the intervention of humans, and even then it's mostly sheep overhearing conversations. There is a detective, but he is a token at the very end; it would have been more satisfying for the sheep to use the detective as their pawn throughout the narrative. The dénouement is clumsy, plot threads left dangling. The tone aims for depth but only manages to skip across the surface. The sheep are wonderful characters, the mystery well set up, I only wish Three Bags Full embraced the silliness of its premise and allowed the sheep to solve their own mystery.

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