I seem to have jinxed myself. I dnf'd a lot this month and there are hard feelings too. 🔵 “Operation Bounce House” by Matt Dinniman I’d cross an ocean to get my hands on the next Dungeon Crawler Carl book, but alas, we must simply be patient. So I was happy to pick up a stand-alone novel of his while I wait for the next release in the DCC series. A bit of a miss for me. The humor didn’t reach me, I didn’t like the characters, and there was a lot of lore dump and odd pacing. I don’t think the writing had the emotional depth to deal with its topic. Maybe I’m doing it a disservice expecting DCC quality, but I think where DCC is able to touch hearts and give genuine social commentary, this novel remained shallow. 🟢 “The Art of Patience: Seeking the Snow Leopard in Tibet” by Sylvain Tesson I wanted snow leopards, got a sexist guy making comparisons between female animals and the women around him and his (ex-)lovers instead. Just can’t get through this book because of how creepy and insufferable the author sounds. 🔵 “Penpal” by Dathan Auerbach I was hoping for a thrilling horror book, but this was a slog to get through. I gave up bored around 60%. The writing style was too rough for me. The protagonist explains every action and describes his reasoning for everything. Not only was that tiring, but often these explanations didn’t make much sense either, I would’ve rather simply comprehended the how and why from the context of what’s happening. Children didn’t behave as children, characters weren’t consistent, there’s plot holes, and I noticed a continuity error too. The story is told non-chronologically and I don’t think it added anything to the novel. After putting it away I looked up the ending on Wikipedia and was glad I didn’t finish it. 🟢 “Dog Days” by Emily Labarge An interesting memoir about trauma after surviving a home invasion while on holiday in the Caribbean. Experimental, stream of consciousness, reflective. I liked it. However, about 1/3 of the way through the author brings up an Israeli film about guilt and trauma that ex-IDF soldiers can experience (Waltz with Bashir). For about three pages the author goes more in-depth about the film’s production and backstory. I understand why, a story about (c)PTSD was something that was familiar and understandable for the author while she was still trying to figure out what she was experiencing herself. I assume she’s trying to explain that. But this film and the trauma of IDF soldiers are discussed so uncritically in these pages. That would be frustrating anyway, but especially while the Gaza genocide is ongoing, it really bothered me. It’s been too much. I’ve seen hospitals doing what they can to make Palestinian people survive and failing, I’ve seen people bleed to death, I’ve seen activists return traumatized by prison torture. It's still happening, every day! I don’t have the peace of mind anymore to deal with any kind of sympathy, understanding or uncritical looks at the Israeli war and genocide machine, not even for just a few pages. Even if an Israel-sponsored film is being 'critical' about the damage done by the regime, think about who they're painting as the victims, who they're giving the spotlight to, why they're even funding it. At first I thought I was maybe too quick to judge a whole book on just that and I kept reading, but eventually I gave up a little later. It kept rubbing me the wrong way. What more wasn’t the author critical about? Maybe the social dynamics of being invaded as a middle class family from a Western country on holiday in a poorer country? Maybe other things? I kept reading 2-5 pages, then putting it away again, not feeling like it, so I gave up. Be critical. Even if it's just the tiniest sentence in your work and it's not the central focus. I really think we can't accept otherwise in these dire times, everything has gone too far for too long.