Review – Hedonism

Posted February 24, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Hedonism

by Chris McCabe

Genres: Poetry
Pages: 101
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
Join a carnival of characters including Bez from Happy Mondays, Jorge Louis Borges, and a medieval pilgrim on a journey to buy a PlayStation, in McCabe's sixth and most daring collection. Part-written in Scouse dialect and invented languages, Hedonism offsets the comic with the elegiac in a spectral and polyphonic work exploring the intersection of grief, place, memory and imagination. This is a book where haunted pasts and futures collide; in a post-Brexit landscape, through cities both imagined and real, McCabe's poems merge through timeslips and ghostly encounters, all the time electrified by the great connector of language at its most radical and unruly. These incandescent poems surge and resist expectation and formula – declaring "can it be, after all, that hedonism is the only activism?"

Okay, I confess, I went into Chris McCabe’s Hedonism pretty certain that it wasn’t going to be my thing, based on the description. That’s the lovely thing about libraries, after all: you can just try something, even if you don’t think you’re going to love it, and sometimes you strike gold.

This time, well, I’m not sure about striking gold, but definitely some kind of precious metal! I didn’t get on with all the poems in here by any means, but there were several that jumped out at me immediately, others that grew on me, and some where I liked parts of them, such as a few lines or phrases, or an image.

Here’s one excerpt I thought was great:

Futurists are living ghosts, like the self-hauntedness of Tony Blair,
spectral / spectographic / sparkplugs of machinistic thought,
medievalists of a culture-to-come, cruising in a six-gear typewriter,
mistaking quick print for acceleration & accumulation for progress,
stalling at time’s hedgerow.

I couldn’t tell you exactly what “the self-hauntedness of Tony Blair” means, but it’s perfect all the same, absolutely. “Medievalists of a culture-to-come” is pretty great too.

Then there was this snippet of a longer poem:

The snow falls as we conjure Robert Denos
His body alive in a dead lover
What is my body doing here packing a bag
Checking a ticket to London
Feet printing out steps
Marking an EXIT that is writ without me
Whose policy decrees we part today?

“Feet printing out steps”… perfect.

A great experiment for me, and a poet I wouldn’t actually mind reading again, even if not all of it was to my taste. I had fun.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, Chris McCabe, poetry

Top Ten Tuesday: Quotations

Posted February 24, 2026 by Nicky in General / 13 Comments

I don’t actually save quotations from books very often, so for this we’re reaching for some snippets I remember (or at least half remember, enough to look them up) to see what’s made an impression on me… let’s see what I can rustle up. Some of these I’ve surely posted before (and am posting again because they remain as vital to me as ever), but some are definitely newer.

From John Green’s Everything is Tuberculosis, because TB remains a terrible and destructive disease that we must all take responsibility for:
We cannot address TB only with vaccines and medications. We cannot address it only with comprehensive STP programs. We must also address the root cause of tuberculosis, which is injustice. In a world where everyone can eat, and access healthcare, and be treated humanely, tuberculosis has no chance. Ultimately, we are the cause.
We must also be the cure.
From Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor, because Maia’s efforts to be better than what was done to him (without it being easy) make him a wonderful character:
“In our inmost and secret heart, which you ask us to bare to you, we wish to banish them as we were banished, to a cold and lonely house, in the charge of a man who hated us. And we wish them trapped there as we were trapped.”
“You consider that unjust, Serenity?”
“We consider it cruel,” Maia said. “And we do not think that cruelty is ever just.”
From Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s Heaven Official’s Blessing, because Xie Lian’s strong determination to save whoever he can is something I aspire to:
“If a day isn’t enough, let it take a month. If a month won’t do, then two months, three months! If I can’t save ten thousand, then I’ll save a thousand. If I can’t save a thousand, then I’ll save a hundred, or ten, or even just one!”
From Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s Heaven Official’s Blessing, because it struck a chord for me in emphasising choice:
“I might not be able to decide whether the road is easy or not, but whether I walk it is entirely up to me.”
From Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, because this scene is actually really important, and we really do have to know when to say sorry:
Wei Wuxian strode over with his hands clasped behind his back. “Young man, sometimes in life, there are a few sappy things one must say.”
“What?” Jin Ling asked.
“‘Thank you’ and ‘I’m sorry’,” Wei Wuxian replied.
Jin Ling clicked his tongue. “Well, I refuse. What’re you gonna do about it?”
“There’ll come a day when you’ll say them through tears,” Wei Wuxian said.
Jin Ling scoffed, and Wei Wuxian suddenly said it himself.
“I’m sorry.”
From Susan Cooper’s Silver on the Tree, because it’s easy to wait for someone else to save us:
“For Drake is no longer in his hammock, children, nor is Arthur somewhere sleeping, and you may not lie idly expecting the second coming of anybody now, because the world is yours and it is up to you. Now especially since man has the strength to destroy the world, it is the responsibility of man to keep it alive, in all its beauty and marvelous joy.
And the world will still be imperfect, because men are imperfect. Good men will still be killed by bad, or sometimes by other good men, and there will still be pain and disease and famine, anger and hate. But if you work and care and are watchful, as we have tried to be for you, then in the long run the worse will never, ever, triumph over the better.”
From Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, because this is the turning-point of the story, and in a way taught me to be less anxious by facing my fears:
“You must hunt the hunter.”
From Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, because it’s true but hard to learn:
“Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life: bright the hawk’s flight on the empty sky.”
From Dorothy L. Sayers’ The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, so that not all of these are serious (and because this, too, is true!):
“Books are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with ’em, then we grow out of ’em and leave ’em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.”
From Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle, because it’s a good one to end on, and a line I will never forget:
Only the margin left to write on now. I love you, I love you, I love you.

With apologies to those who could’ve predicted the inclusion of those quotes from Cooper, Le Guin, Addison, Smith and Sayers…

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Review – Posted in the Past

Posted February 23, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Posted in the Past: Revealing the True Stories Written on a Postcard

by Helen Baggott

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 286
Rating: two-stars

Synopsis:
Posted in the Past - the man who helped prepare Kitchener's last meal and other true stories.

A young pupil writing to a teacher, a courting couple that might get married, a 10-year-old servant working for a laundress in 19th-century Bath, a maid who worked for Edward VII's doctor - all are connected by messages sent using the first real social media phenomenon of the 20th century.

Using a genealogist's toolbox, Posted in the Past reveals the stories behind postcards sent more than a hundred years ago. Families who emigrated across the Atlantic to America and Canada, those who returned, and those who found tragedy aboard RMS Empress of Ireland in an event that could only be eclipsed by that of Titanic's, are remembered through postcards.

The safe arrival of a precious grandchild, a train delayed by the first national rail strike, bad weather, good luck - messages that go beyond 'wish you were here?' and open the door to the past. Weavers, button makers, butlers, motor bus drivers, a fitter of sanitary appliances and even the owner of a steamship - industrious employment from mills to the sea and all revealed in Posted in the Past.

Have you ever watched Who Do You Think You Are? and A House Through Time and thought about researching your own family's history? Perhaps you've started a family tree and soon become stumped? Posted in the Past is sure to ignite your enthusiasm to learn more about your own history. As well as revealing the stories behind the postcards, Posted in the Past also shares how some of the research was completed, providing tips for the beginner genealogist.

The book is illustrated with black and white images of both sides of the postcards and can be viewed in colour on a blog that accompanies the book.

Helen Baggott’s Posted in the Past focuses more on the genealogy of the senders/recipients of the postcards she discusses rather than the actual stories of the postcards themselves. In part that makes a lot of sense — most postcards are fairly prosaic due to the small amount of space to write, and the ephemeral details they often contain are hard to track down.

Still, it doesn’t make for the most riveting reading, alas. Each story is much like the last, varying only in the details, even down to the kind of detective work needed to discover the connections between people. There were some neat connections made — a realisation that one postcard was actually related to another card in the author’s collection — but overall, I found it more interesting to look at/read the postcards and try to fill in the details a bit, rather than reading the genealogy stuff.

I’m certain it has an audience, though, it’s just not me!

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

Tags: book reviews, books, Helen Baggott, history, non-fiction

Fantasy With Friends: The Chosen One

Posted February 23, 2026 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

It’s Monday, so time for more of the Fantasy With Friends discussion meme (hosted at Pages Unbound). This week’s discussion theme iiiis:

“The Chosen One” is an often-mocked trope in fantasy literature. Do you frequently run across this trope in the books you read, or has it been a while since you encountered it? Do you dislike it, or do you think it can be done well? Are there any interesting twists on the Chosen One you’ve seen?

I think the “Chosen One” trope can be a lot of fun whether it’s played straight, subverted, or dissected. I’m actually having trouble thinking up examples right now where it’s played straight, because that was more common in a different era of my reading, and it also depends on how literal you want to be. To hark back to Tolkien, since we were talking about it last week, was Frodo chosen, as Gandalf suggests? Or did he just put his hand up and take it on because he was a good person? Is it kinda both? I know a lot of people read it as Frodo being Chosen, but does that mean he doesn’t have a choice…?

Playing it straight but digging into what it might mean to be Chosen, Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children books try to examine the impact on the the type of Chosen Ones who travel to another world (like the Pevensie kids in the Narnia books, and other portal fantasies), and what happens once their part in the stories is done. What happens if they stop fitting the role, or falter, or slip out of their world?

In more recent reading, I liked the way that Caitlin Rozakis’ The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association handled it. There’s a prophecy, there’s a constant stream of large and small disasters, and the protagonist’s kid is being whispered about as a bringer of calamity (while others are being positioned as potentially Chosen Ones to act in opposition to her). But (spoilers ahead) the prophecy isn’t like that at all, the kids are all just kids, and someone’s benefiting from pretending things might be otherwise.

Another way to play with the Chosen One trope is the accidentally Chosen One. I’m thinking of The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter, where the magical kingdom of Romany use magic to snatch a girl from modern Japan. She’s their Chosen One, but they inadvertently bring along Seiichirou Kondou as well because he sees her being dragged into a magical portal and begging for help, and goes to rescue her. In the end, he’s as instrumental as she is to solving the problem they needed a Chosen One for, if not more — and he makes sure they will never need to do so again, fixes the kingdom’s finances, and pushes along massive technological advances.

Along the way, Seiichirou also warns the girl who is the Chosen One not to blindly help the kingdom without examining what they’re asking of her, which… she doesn’t take well, but is actually a good point. What if you’re chosen for something awful? I think “the Chosen One doesn’t want to be a Chosen One” (for whatever reason) is probably a bit overplayed itself by now in simple forms, but I can think of a bunch of fun ways to play with it still…

On another tangent, I love that in Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, Huiwon gets sponsored by a righteous “constellation”, and gets a skill called “Time of Judgement”, which allows her to fight and destroy evildoers. It’s not quite the same as the Chosen One trope, but she’s chosen by the constellation and essentially becomes his incarnation, so it’s close. The problem is, “Time of Judgement” will only activate when approved by her sponsor and constellations aligned with him, and Huiwon’s definition of evil and evildoers is different from theirs. Early in the story, she frequently tries to call on “Time of Judgement” and is declined, even when she sees things she feels are deeply wrong. So what if you’re a Chosen One, but your intentions don’t fully align with those of whoever is doing the choosing?

So… I think there are reasons to mock or avoid the trope, because it can be really overused and under-examined. For me, though, there are so many ways to put a fun spin on it, or dig into what it might actually mean for the characters, and otherwise do surprising and interesting things with it. I won’t say I’d never read stuff with a Chosen One trope, but I do prefer it when people are consciously playing with it and teasing out the implications!

Tags: books, discussion

Review – And Side by Side They Wander

Posted February 22, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 5 Comments

And Side by Side They Wander

by Molly Tanzer

Genres: Science Fiction
Pages: 112
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
An intergalactic art heist by a ragtag group of underqualified misfits. What could go wrong?

For three hundred years, humanity’s greatest works of art have been on loan at the Museum of the Seed-Born. It was finally time for them to come home...but the alien curators were disinclined to return them.

Force was out of the question. Earth’s government was clear: they were not going to press the issue. So, all we had was guile and hubris to fuel our little intergalactic art heist.

My old friend Tarquin was our leader, but not the captain. That was Tchik-tchik, though whether Tchik-tchik was our insectoid pilot’s name or species is still unclear to me. Misora, with her extremely illegal biotech mods, was our muscle.

Jack was there to hack the security systems of the biggest museum in the galaxy. He was a sensynth, a sentient synthetic being, and the most powerful machine intelligence on Earth uncorrupted by alien technology.

My name is Fennel Tycho. I’d like to tell you I was there because of my expertise in Art History. Truth is, I was there because without me, Jack would not have agreed to go. He was notorious for being difficult to work with—but it was a mistake to think I could make things any easier.

A meditation on the nature of love, life, and the "culture of the copy," And Side by Side They Wander asks the question: In a future where there are clones, androids, and a sentient mycelium that creates fungal simulacra, who is real and what is fake?

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Molly Tanzer’s And Side by Side They Wander is very clearly inspired by the actions of the British Museum, and their subsequent unlikelihood of ever voluntarily returning the items that were taken, though there are a number of other themes and ideas packed in there as well. There are references to Orpheus and Eurydice, musing on whether replicas of art pieces are still as moving and important as the originals, discussion of humanity royally messing itself up, sextuplets all folded up into the same body somehow (and able to separate when needed), the Great Mycelium which is clearly somewhat negotiating with humans… Tanzer’s clearly not short on ideas.

It really worked for me, on the whole; I’ve been fussy about what I want to read lately, having trouble settling, but I slid right into this. It helps that it’s short, of course, and the chapters are short too: it moves quickly and doesn’t linger too long on any one idea. Sometimes I’d have loved more information, but I think it’s a good thing that it doesn’t linger, because that’s not what the narrator’s interested in.

Sometimes the references to the British Museum feel just a little bit too obvious — I don’t want to spoiler exactly what happens, but suffice it to say that the same arguments for not returning art, like “our accessions policy doesn’t allow for it”, are parroted back just as ever by the villain of the piece.

A lot of questions are raised which the story doesn’t even try to answer, and indeed can’t, about what art is exactly, and what it means, but it works — it didn’t feel unfinished to me. Just a glimpse of one life, one perspective, one moment in time. It didn’t need to be more.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, Molly Tanzer, SF/F

Review – Wolf Worm

Posted February 21, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 12 Comments

Wolf Worm

by T. Kingfisher

Genres: Horror
Pages: 288
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
Something darker than the devil stalks the North Carolina woods in Wolf Worm, a new gothic masterpiece from New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher

The year is 1899 and Sonia Wilson is a scientific illustrator without work, prospects, or hope. When the reclusive Dr. Halder offers her a position illustrating his vast collection of insects, Sonia jumps at the chance to move to his North Carolina manor house and put her talents to use. But soon enough she finds that there are darker things at work than the Carolina woods. What happened to her predecessor, Halder’s wife? Why are animals acting so strangely, and what is behind the peculiar local whispers about “blood thiefs?”

With the aid of the housekeeper and a local healer, Sonia discovers that Halder’s entomological studies have taken him down a dark road full of parasitic maggots that burrow into human flesh, and that his monstrous experiments may grow to encompass his newest illustrator as well.

"Kingfisher is not afraid to twist the knife."—The Washington Post

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I wasn’t entirely sure whether T. Kingfisher’s Wolf Worm would be for me: I’m a wuss about horror at the best of times, and given that this one is deeply focused on insects — a major fear of mine, and a particularly gross set of insects at that — it seemed like it might be a bit too much. But I did okay, actually: it’s not that it wasn’t gross/scary, and there were some really disgusting moments that made me very glad that I’m aphantasic… but something about the scientific interest of the narrator spoke to me.

The narrator’s a lone young women who has a skill as a scientific illustrator, but has struggled to find the right way to use her skills. Illustrating insects for a doctor in a half-dilapidated North Carolina manor isn’t great, but it’s the best choice she has, and I loved the descriptions of her enjoyment of and satisfaction in her work (and though I can’t say I enjoyed the portrayal of her feelings when she doesn’t match up to her own expectations, it’s well done). Insects might not be her interest, but she does a thorough job, and takes pride in it.

It quickly becomes obvious her employer’s pretty nuts and that dark and weird things are happening around the estate. I couldn’t quite sympathise with Sonia’s decision to investigate it rather than just tell Mrs Kent what’s going on, but then, I’m a known wuss.

I can’t say too much about how things turn out without spoilers, but when you get to the thing that was surely one of the core ideas, the raison d’etre of this book, it is a pretty cool moment. The science part of it is fairly handwavey, compared to the accuracy about illustrating bugs and researching bug anatomy — Kingfisher isn’t a biologist, and the cracks do show here. It’s a cool idea, though.

If you have phobias about bugs, I suggest you find someone to give some clear trigger warnings about the types of bugs and the way they’re involved in the story. Screw-worms and botflies are the main ick factor, but that’s to gloss over exactly what happens with them. Suffice it to say that your flesh probably will crawl if you imagine things in any detail.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, horror, T. Kingfisher

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted February 21, 2026 by Nicky in General / 28 Comments

Weekend! Whew. It’s been a rough week, and I’m glad to see my weekend and my reading time.

Books acquired this week

I didn’t really expect/intend to get books this week, but it kinda happened anyway. I’d almost forgotten my hold on Murder at Gulls Nest, a book I saw a bunch of other bloggers post about; my wife picked it up for me once I got the notification it was ready! And I got a couple of new options out from the National Poetry Library, too:

I also got approved for another ARC on Netgalley, oops! So there’s this to look forward to as well:

Posts from this week

As ever, I’ve posted a whole bunch of reviews, so let’s start off with the roundup of those:

Romance manga: Star and Hedgehog, by Nayuta Nago (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
SF mystery: The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
Non-fiction: Church Going: A Stonemason’s Guide to the Churches of the British Isles, by Andrew Ziminski (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
Poetry: Afterwardness, by Mimi Khalvati (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
Graphic novel: Bipolar Bear and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Health Insurance: A Fable for Grown-Ups, by Kathleen Founds (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
Fantasy graphic novel: Quince, by Sebastian Kadlecik, Kit Steinkellner and Emma Steinkellner (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
Fantasy romance (danmei): Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (light novel), vol 5, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)

As ever, it’s actually been a while since I read most of these, since I try to hold reviews back and provide some variety (rather than review 40 graphic novels in a row, which I could do with my backlog of reviews!).

I have done some other posts this week, so here they are:

Fantasy with Friends: Tolkien (discussing the portrayal of good and evil in LotR)
Top Ten Tuesday: Books for Armchair Travellers
What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

Work’s been a little, uh, intense this week, so I didn’t get a lot of time for myself — and when I did, I found it hard to get into the mood for reading, alas. Still, I did do some reading in the last week, and as ever, here’s a sneak peek of the ones that I will review on the blog… eventually:

As for this weekend, once I’ve managed to unwind a bit, I hope to spend more time with Julie Leong’s The Keeper of Magic Things, and continue reading the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation manhua. I settled in a bit with Amy Coombe’s Stay for a Spell, so maybe I’ll read more of that too.

It’d be lovely to get a lot of reading done, but I’m conscious of being a bit frazzled, so we’ll see!

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date.

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Review – Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (light novel), vol 5

Posted February 20, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novels, Romance
Pages: 489
Series: Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (LN) #5
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
THE END OF AN EPIC TALE–AND WHAT COMES AFTER

Foes, allies, and one reassembled fierce corpse converge on the Guanyin Temple for a climactic showdown. With decades-long schemes finally unveiled, and dark secrets unearthed, the events of this rain-battered night will decide not just the fate of the entire cultivation world–but also that of a love story two lifetimes in the making.

Also included are eight short stories that focus on the future and the past. From magical incense burners to tense banquets, to lotus-pod hunting and nighttime expeditions with the juniors, these stories span from dawn to dusk and so much more!

It took me a while to get into MXTX’s Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, but by book five I was definitely all in with the main pairing, and feeling a lot of affection for various characters — even Jiang Cheng, who is a brash idiot, but has a lot of love in his heart nonetheless. This book finishes off the main story and then has a bunch of extras.

So, first the main story. It felt like… there was a lot of build-up for not a lot of payoff, plot-wise? It gave time for Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian’s pining to really build itself up, and I can see that it brings all the threads together, but the ending is a lot of talking and it kind of feels like it peters out, despite the confrontations, hostage situations, etc. The fact that it wasn’t all aimed squarely at Wei Wuxian made his and Lan Wangji’s involvement feel a touch… coincidental rather than necessary? It would’ve worked out differently without them, of course — it’s not like they’re superfluous — but… it felt like it was building up to something huge, and what happened felt largely like an explosion of intense interpersonal nonsense between powerful people and… I dunno, I’d been expecting more somehow?

In any case, the relationship between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji finally reaches where it needed to go, and that part is lovely.

The extras mostly expand on that, showing us Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji’s married life. There are some details that I side-eye heavily (Bichen, for one thing, and self-lubrication, for another, along with Wei Wuxian’s tendency to go “no no no” when he means yes) but the emotional notes are lovely.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, danmei, light novels, romance, SF/F

Review – Quince

Posted February 19, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Quince

by Sebastian Kadlecik, Kit Steinkellner, Emma Steinkellner

Genres: Fantasy, Graphic Novels
Pages: 164
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
Lupe is just your average, insecure, well-meaning, occasionally cranky teenage girl whose life is completely turned upside down when she discovers she has superpowers at her quinceañera. Her quince powers only last as long as she’s fifteen, so over the course of this rollercoaster year, we follow the adventures of Lupe as she figures out what it really means to be a hero.

Quince is a fun project which I read in the English translation. Sebastian Kadlecik, Kit Steinkellner and Emma Steinkellner worked together, bringing it out in 15 issues, one issue at a time, on the 15th of each month… Lupe is celebrating her quinceañera when she gets superheroes, and her abuela is there to guide her, recognising her powers as being given to her because she’s going to need them for some reason.

It doesn’t dig an enormous amount into the whys and hows, but I thought the idea of a temporary superhero — with powers only for the year she’s aged 15 — was kinda neat. We don’t hear a whole lot about what her abuela did with her own powers, but the bond between the two of them drives the story… and drives Lupe to fight crime.

I’d say I wasn’t 100% happy with the fact that the story never explains how she gets the powers, why they only last a year, why a teenage girl is the most appropriate, why her abuela is so certain there’s a purpose behind it, but I mostly kinda rolled with it. I found the ending a bit trite, and the lead-in to the social responsibility, volunteering, etc, kinda… cringe? It’d have felt more natural if there was some kind of explanation, like Lupe’s quince powers are intended to instill that in her.

I wasn’t an enormous fan of the art at first, but it really grew on me, and I love Lupe’s character design. She’s a Mexican plus-size superhero with super teenage expressions, ahaha, and the art and colours ended up feeling perfect for it.

Overall, I feel like it’s probably better for younger readers, and I’m hardly the target audience, but I had fun. It was a random pick from Comics Plus to fill a bingo card I was using to prompt me to explore the Comics Plus collection (this prompt being “superheroes, but not published by Marvel or DC”), and I’m glad I gave it a shot.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Emma Steinkellner, graphic novels, Kit Steinkellner, Sebastian Kadlecik, SF/F

Review – Bipolar Bear and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Health Insurance

Posted February 18, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Bipolar Bear and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Health Insurance: A Fable for Grown-Ups

by Kathleen Founds

Genres: Graphic Novels
Pages: 200
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
Theodore is a bear with wild mood swings. When he is up, he carves epic poetry into tree trunks. When he is down, he paints sad faces on rocks and turtle shells. In search of prescription medications that will bring stability to his life, Theodore finds a job with health insurance benefits. He gets the meds, but when he can't pay the psychiatrist's bill, he becomes lost in the Labyrinth of Health Insurance Claims.

This witty and colorful tale follows the comical exploits of Theodore, a lovable and relatable bear, as he copes with bipolar disorder, navigates the inequities of capitalist society, founds a commune, and becomes an activist, all the while accompanied by a memorable cast of characters--fat-cat insurance CEOs, a wrongfully convicted snake, raccoons with tommy guns, and an unemployed old dog who cannot learn new tricks.

Entertaining, whimsical, and bitingly satirical, Bipolar Bear is a fable for grownups that manages the delicate balance of addressing society's ills while simultaneously presenting a hopeful vision for the world.

Bipolar Bear and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Health Insurance is an awesome concept, and it’s worth paying attention to the subtitle too (“A Fable for Grownups”), because it very much is a fable, and aimed at adults (definitely not kids). Kathleen Founds is writing with experience, very clearly, addressing some of the experiences of bipolar disorder, but also of navigating an insurance-based health system (and how bipolar disorder can add its own pitfalls to that).

Obviously it does feel very, very American; some of these problems don’t apply here in the UK, though (as I understand it from my mother, who is a psychiatrist) the problem of e.g. someone deciding they feel well and going off their medication (which is, of course, the reason they felt well) certainly does cause problems here too.

It felt maybe a little long for me, because I could see where it was going; being a fable, it could probably have simplified even more and made its point very well. Still, it’s a fun idea, and I suspect for some it would also be a way of seeing that they’re not alone.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, graphic novels, Kathleen Founds