Hey y'all, I'm looking for recs for books that have a similar vibe to the Dune Prophecy tv show. Something witchy focused on political intrigue, prophecy, and #womenswrongs. The more morally complex ladies the better!
I'm sure I'm not the only one who had those I Spy find the hidden picture books as a kid, and I was wondering, are there any experimental sorts of horror stories that rely on this format? Where some sort of visual scavenger hunt reveals the plot? I could see this being a really cool type of horror, so does anyone know if anything like this exists? If not a published series, online/indie ones would be fine too!
Has anyone else felt like the stars aligned and they got to read a book at exactly the right moment in your life that you needed it? I just picked up Whalefall by Daniel Kraus (congrats to him for winning the hugo award btw!). I bought it totally on a whim- I had just seen Iron Lung and wanted more ocean horror, and Whalefall had a gorgeous cover- but it turns out it was exactly the book I needed to read right now.
I have a terrible and complicated relationship with my dad. He's almost exactly like the father in Whalefall, minus the obsession with ocean diving. The casual cruelty, the flashbacks where every opporutunity to create a fun family memory is just a test to fail and another disappointment to add to the pile- that's exactly what my dad is like. Lately Ive been doing a lot of hard work in therapy to disentangle my sense of self worth from the sense of my worth my dad projects onto me, and very often, it feels like being swallowed alive. My dad doesnt feel like a protector or a teacher or a friend, he feels like a cosmic force like gravity or time. Its inescapable and it will kill you, it's only a matter of when.
So reading Whalefall and- spoiler alert- getting to hear the whales dialogue, getting to experience a modicum of understanding and reconciliation through Jay and Mitt/the whales talks, it rubbed against something very raw in me. My dad is old, he had me late in life, and Ive spent a lot of time agonizing about how to handle his end of life care. Im an only child, it's going to be up to me, but I wrestle a lot with how much obligation I have to the man who ruined my life and inflicted so much pain on me. But I keep coming back to the feeling that I can't make him feel alone and scared and unloved the way he made me feel. I dont want to do that to another person. And seeing Jay go through this, caring for the whale in the end but ultimately still having to kill the whale to survive and reclaim his own life, it's been very cathartic. It feels like lancing an infected scab. Im gonna be mulling over this book for a long time, probably well beyond when my dad finally passes.
I feel like the universe kind of dropped Whalefall in my lap right when I needed to read it most, and this isnt the first time Ive felt Ive been given a book that way. So Im just curious who else has felt like that, and what book it was. I'd love to hear other people's stories.