emma's Reviews > How Long 'til Black Future Month?

my becoming-a-genius project, part 5!

in case you somehow missed parts one and two and three and four clogging your feed for the past 4 months (and thank heavens for small mercies), here's the situation:
i have decided to become a genius.

to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity.

i've been meaning to pick up something by NK Jemisin for a long time, but i find long, literary short story collections far less intimidating than huge tomes of high fantasy, so here we are. full of excitement!!!

PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR
PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO
PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON
PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN

DAY 1: THE ONES WHO STAY AND FIGHT
"Now, perhaps, you will think of Um-Helat, and wish. Now you might finally be able to envision a world where people have learned to love, as they learned in our world to hate."
brilliant and melancholy and inspiring. this is off to an incredible start. also, my heart hurts. and my brain is happy.
take that, Ursula Le Guin. Omelas can f*ck off and die as far as i'm concerned. and the ethics class i read it in can too while we're at it.
rating: 5

DAY 2: THE CITY BORN GREAT
the pacing of this was kinda weird but overall this is gorgeousexcitingcreativeamazing. i loved it. kinda nervous this collection might be a 5 star read.
rating: 5

DAY 3: RED DIRT WITCH
not really my kind of story (my fey days are behind me - shoutout to when i was 9 and i thought i could control the wind because my friend grace told me she saw it in a dream), but i can still appreciate this one.
rating: 3.5

DAY 4: L'ALCHIMISTA
not going to lie..........this didn't have much oomph for me. felt like it could have been written by anyone, where the first three were so distinct.
bummer. also now i want pasta.
rating: 3

DAY 5: THE EFFLUENT ENGINE
i do love me some alternate history where the world is more just, even if just as wicked.
not a huge fan of instalove, though. wins and losses and all that.
rating: 3.5

DAY 6: CLOUD DRAGON SKIES
1) great title.
2) great message.
3) good story.
4) more instalove???????????
rating: 3.75

DAY 7: THE TROJAN GIRL
took a day off from this project for Depression Reasons but we're back at it. geniuses don't make themselves.
this is a lovely one.
rating: 4.5

DAY 8: VALEDICTORIAN
today i am feeling: grateful that my mind doesn't work like NK Jemisin's, which, while brilliant and creative and one of a kind, seems also kinda exhausting. and depressing.
rating: 3.75

DAY 9: THE STORYTELLER'S REPLACEMENT
really really really not a fan of this one. sorry.
rating: 2

DAY 10: THE BRIDES OF HEAVEN
okay, fine, it's not day 10. it's not even day 11. it's technically day 12, because i have now skipped two days. but i am powerful and strong and i will try to put three days in one here because i want to catch up!!!
call me prudish, but i've never liked sex and sci-fi to mix. and now we're at 2 in a row.
rating: 3

DAY 11: THE EVALUATORS
i cannot get enough of an unusual format. give me folders. give me text messages. give me confidential documents.
this was fun AND a thinker.
rating: 4.25

DAY 12: WALKING AWAKE
i am a big fan of the central metaphor here.
rating: 4

DAY 13: THE ELEVATOR DANCER
this is a sweet little one.
rating: 3.75

DAY 14: CUISINE DES MEMOIRES
this made me very hungry. and also i adored it.
rating: 5

DAY 15: STONE HUNGER
not going to lie...i did not get this one. on any level. at all.
rating: 2.5

DAY 16: ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER LEX
might have to call it now and say i'll never get sick of stories from death's perspective.
rating: 4.5

DAY 17: THE NARCOMANCER
immediately rude to title a story something this close to "necromancer."
anyway, the instalove in all these stories is really killing me.
rating: 3

DAY 18: HENOSIS
fun unique structure AND a powerful central metaphor i actually understood? we're eating good today.
rating: 4.25

DAY 19: TOO MANY YESTERDAYS, NOT ENOUGH TOMORROWS
more instalove, but with unique blogging/texting formatting.
my enemy meets my great love. how to feel????
rating: 3.5

DAY 20: THE YOU TRAIN
true fans know it's actually day...24, because toward the end of day 19 i spilled a glass of water on my laptop, which i have had for 5 years and love presumably more than some people love their own children. this tragic and untimely death caused me to begin a weekend-long mourning period during which i forgot how to read.
anyway. now i have a borrowed laptop, and maybe i'll try to catch up on this one day soon but today is not that day.
i'm mostly glad this was a short one. re-learning how to read, you know.
rating: 3

DAY 21: NON-ZERO PROBABILITIES
looks like the title is a reference to the chance that i'm once again too lazy to play catch-up today! ayo!
also, as someone who reads universal significance into probably More Things Than What's Healthy, this story hit close to home!!
rating: 4

DAY 22: SINNERS, SAINTS, DRAGONS, AND HAINTS, IN THE CITY BENEATH THE STILL WATERS
turns out this is the last story...so not much catch-up to play after all.
this book really is a love letter to cities in so many ways.
rating: 3.5

OVERALL
NK Jemisin has a totally one-of-a-kind mind, blending sci-fi and reality into beautiful stories that can also be stressful and too intense. this wasn't always a pleasurable reading experience, but it's not really supposed to be - and it was a unique and excellent one.
rating: 4