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Commencing my horror fiction phase... loving this so far

I'm part way through reading this. Highlight so far is The Centre by Alison Whittaker.

I was stuck in airport hell for several hours and was about to finish my other book, so I bought this cheap edition to keep me going. It worked a treat! This is a short, easily digestable mystery involving bodies - and orchids - appearing at the premises of a Milan fashion house. It has the right balance of giving enough information to form a theory, then our hero detective letting rip with the solution right at the end. I'd read another one of these for sure next time I want something light and entertaining.

It took me a few weeks to read Authority whereas I got through Annihilation very quickly. In retrospect I would've enjoyed this more if I read it quicker and got more immersed in it as a result. I did enjoy Annihilation more, for the most part. Much of Authority involved spending time with the unlikeable Control with a growing sense of things not being quite right. It's interesting, weirdly bureaucratic and the ending is excellent. Definitely going to read Acceptance now.

This is probably my preferred flavour of sci-fi - concise and straight to the point, with an interesting concept at the core. It feels premature to review it while I'm still reading the trilogy (currently half way through Authority).

While I found this 3-part book engaging, and I don't mind writing that is exploratory in nature, in the end I did wonder what the point was. There was potentially interesting stuff about power imbalances and alternative histories/futures, but never really followed through with.

I also got the vibe that the author is channelling some self-loathing of her own in the way that she gives characters no hope and/or makes fun of them.

On my third Yangihara book. She tackles very difficult topics and is interesting on power differentials.

Fairyland is good, and despite being [checks watch] 27 years old it doesn't really feel dated. Things I particularly liked were the pacing of the story - action unfolds and then the story skips forward years at a time to when the action unfolds again in a different setting. I also liked the characterisation, it was well done and kept me interested. I would probably have liked it even more if I was a bigger sci-fi fan.

Set in gold rush era New Zealand, it reminded me more than a little of the series Deadwood despite being on the other side of the world. It's brilliantly written and is very deliberate and interesting in form - structured according to astrology and the chapters flipping upside down as the book progresses. The mystery was original and unpredictable, but kinda low key.

I've started this but am neglecting it.