Antkind by Charlie Kaufman (2020)

Finished: 8/12/20

Grade: B+

A cartoonishly pretentious film critic with delusions of grandeur discovers a 3 month long animated film that he believes will be his ticket to greatness. After the film is destroyed in a fire, he spends the rest of his life trying to remember it.

With an unreliable narrator in an unreliable world that includes time travel, alternate realities, dream-states, hypnotism, drug trips, meta fictional elements, cartoonish exaggeration, and magical realism, this is a novel with no solid ground. It is a nervous breakdown, or a fever dream, or maybe 6 different books put into a blender.

A good portion of this massive novel feels like a famous screenwriter throwing spaghetti at the wall because he knows he can get away with it, but you can make it through the first 300 pages (and abandon any hope of a satisfying conclusion) Antkind unfolds into something wild and wonderful.

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemison (2015)

Finished: 7/25/20

Grade: A

A densely packed sci-fi adventure, set in a world of constant environmental collapse, where a race of weather-controlling humans is oppressed by powerful political forces.

This book is what you might call "a page-turner." Luckily this is the first book in a trilogy so there is plenty more pages for me to turn. My friend, NICK HART, says that they "get sad." And here I thought it was already kinda sad! I guess we'll see where it goes!

The Bear by Andrew Krivak (2020)

Finished: 7/01/20

Grade: B+

The last two humans on earth, a young girl and her father are living off the land in a forest beneath a lonely mountain. With the rest of the human race wiped out, harmony returns to the world, and they must come to terms with the harsh realities of nature.

A quick and lovely read, with some truly touching moments, but the plot was kinda predictable.

Big ups to Ida Cuttler for giving me this bad boy!