I read Zoe Rosenthal is Not Lawful Good the other day and it's entirely charming: a very strait-laced high school senior with an even more strait-laced boyfriend falls into fandom and cosplay, and ... events transpire. It's pretty solidly YA but I would recommend, esp. if you like Rainbow Rowell. It's kind of like that but with lower stakes: it's unlikely to make you cry.

It can be hard to tell if this is a bad book or if this is maybe a pretty good book that I am just not in the mood for right now.

That's a really good point. It's interesting, I pick what shows and movies to watch and what video games to play based on my mood but I don't really consider it with books. I suppose part of it is that books are a larger time investment where my mood can potentially change throughout the reading whereas visual media is generally consumed in smaller bursts.

Zoe Rosenthal is Not Lawful Good

I already love it for the title alone. Also sounds like something I should recommend to my son to read.

Oh, I bought that after reading a review or something and then got distracted (in part by reading the author's autobiographical webcomic which is pretty interesting) and didn't actually read it...thanks for the reminder, Consuela!

Sounds like my jam, I shall put it on the list! RN I’m mostly looking forward to Yuletide.

I like movies that are so bad they are good but not movies that are bad but boring. However with books if I don't enjoy something and can't get into it I'll put it down and not read it.

Which means there are a lot of classics I haven't read because I couldn't get into it and that made it hard to pay attention. I do go back and try some but not books that are just bad.

I thought the second sci fi alien kidnapped book might fall into the so bad it's good territory but no it felt like one of those fanfics where someone will put in the notes or on an AO3 tag that there is no real plot it's just about the smut because the world building and stuff was so thin but the smut was boring. and badly written.

I like movies that are so bad they are good but not movies that are bad but boring.

Totally agree - I would much rather watch a movie where the writer/director is trying to do something ambitious and fails spectacularly than a movie where by the end I still don't know why the creators wanted to make it.

I've been unable to finish many objectively good books recently because the part of my brain that knows how to read anything except category romance has been on sabbatical since June 2020. I can still do audiobooks but I'm incredibly picky about narrators so I have an ever-growing stack of will-get-back-to-after-the-pandemic.

Same here, Jess. Queer romances, not-too-dark mysteries, and children's books have been my mainstay during the pandemic. And fanfic (also largely queer romance). Can't focus on anything too taxing or depressing.

I know completionism is a thing for some people.

The Divergent trilogy may have broken me of that.

Y’all. I checked out the next to last outlander book to remind me what happened, since my hold on the latest one should be coming in soon. I’m like a third of the way in and remembering that this is BANANAS.

I just finished Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I came across a reference to it a while back that made me think I should read it as part of my whole detective fiction project but maybe after I had gotten through Agatha Christie (currently stuck at Mystery of Edwin Drood. I actually just tried starting that but the copy I had seemed very word-salad-y which I *hope* is because I was cheaping out and got the Kindle Unlimited edition. If anyone can recommend a good e-book version I would be grateful!) but also felt hesitant to read because something in whatever review I read made me wary of it although I don't remember what that might have been. Anyway, it went on sale so I went ahead and read it now. It's very meta, which I think I like, but I don't always agree with what it seems to be saying in its meta-commentary, if that makes sense. The actual mystery is pretty good, nicely clued and also good misdirects to keep you from really getting the clues any faster than the narrator does. I am still thinking about it and probably will for a while, so that's probably a bit of a recommendation. Considering reading the second book Moonflower Murders because I'm very curious about how there can even be a follow-up, but that one is not on sale so I probably won't get to it any time soon.

This was the first Horowitz I've read. I guess he created Foyle's War, which I loved, and Midsomer Murders, which I somehow have not watched at all. And is an official continuer of Holmes, which I have no interest in. So I don't think I have a general opinion on his stuff at this point.