lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: 2 Fuzzy, 2 Furious

3/5. Second Squirrel Girl novelization, not nearly as delightful as the first one. See, this book is about a new mall opening, and how the backers start a contest to vote on the mascot, and there's team dog, and team cat, and the two fight like cats and dogs because there's an election, and a villain whose superpower is making everyone fight with each other, and I just. Look, I am not in the mood to read a haha funny book about election tampering. And this one in particular strikes me as poorly-judged. I mean, it's a Squirrel Girl book, so it's not really intended to be deep, but if you think about it for more than a few seconds it seems to be saying that . . . partisanship is stupid and there's no real difference between the camps and we should all just get along? Or possibly that elections are stupid? Ugh. It is simultaneously so on the nose that my nose hurts, and also without any clear meaning.

Points for the title, though.
lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World

4/5. Middle grade novel prequel to the popular comic. My wife loves the comic but hasn't read this. Below is a rough transcript of my commentary to her:

Ahaha, Squirrel Girl has just happened to a bunch of LARPers. . . . Aw, her parents are adorable. So supportive! They remind me of your parents when you came out*. . . . Aw, her deaf new best friend is crabby and adorable. . . . For the record, the villain's name is The Micromanager, just so you know. . . . Aw, she is adorable. . . . Oh now she's chatting with a bad guy about his poor life choices and how he really should be wearing a seatbelt when he's driving like that. . . . Ahahaha, she is texting with The Winter Soldier. Oh, now she's texting with Tony Stark about how she needs help from someone smart and resourceful, and she asked him for Bruce Banner's number, I'm dying, I'm dead. Ahaha she is trash-talking and her trash talk is that the villain "is going downtown without a bus pass."

There was also a longer conversation in there about how it seems that Squirrel Girl exists in a different genre than most of the other people around her. It's actually really interesting – the closer a person gets to her like her parents or her bestie, the more they become realized in Squirrel Girl's genre. That is, aggressively, unstoppably cheerful with a streak of zany. Whereas people in the background – like the mean girls at school – exist in a more typical high school novel whose rules Squirrel Girl doesn't so much ignore as just never notice. My wife says the comic has a similar function in the wider comics universe – Squirrel Girl is a streak of off-beat color in a grimdark sea. And that's the joke. And the not joke.

I loved this.

*She came out when she went home over her first winter break in college and when she got back to her dorm there were congratulations flowers waiting for her. How cute is that?

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