Hannah Templer

I didn't much like Patricia Highsmith's Carol (a/k/a The Price of Salt) when I read it in December of last year, but at least now I'm very glad I did read it so as to better appreciate this amazing fictionalized account of the book's creation.

In the late 1940s, Highsmith is begrudgingly writing comic book stories for Standard Comics, publisher of Black Terror, as she sends Strangers on a Train off to her agent to shop for publication. She dreams of day when she can ditch comics and just show more write real books, "good books." Due to self-loathing from the homophobia of the time, she also dreams of ditching the sexual attraction she has for women, seeking the help of psychoanalysts to make her heterosexual. Of course, psychoanalysis is expensive so she seeks extra work from Timely Comics -- leading to a bizarre but true special appearance by Stan Lee -- and as a clerk in the toy department at Bloomingdale's, which is going to trip some alerts for anyone familiar with Carol.

What drew me into the book was the characterization of Highsmith as an angry and bitter jackass who is self-destructive and hateful to those around her but simultaneously rightfully troubled and creative as hell. It reminds me of some of my favorite movies: Amadeus, The Doors, and most pertinently Professor Marsden and the Wonder Women. She blazes through life, leaving scorched earth behind her.

This may not be the way it actually happened, but it's so well told, it's how I hope it did happen. show less

Pat Highsmith is a writer of literary thrillers, but is unfortunately only paid to write comic books. She’s resentful of the (in her view) trash she has to write, of herself for not being heterosexual, of society that won’t allow her to be a lesbian, of the women she sleeps with who go back to their husbands, of Jewish people, of Black people. When her first real novel, Strangers on a Train, finally gets published, she thinks she’ll have the life she wants. But her second novel, Carol, show more which is loosely based on her own romantic experiences, does not have such an easy path.

The real Patricia Highsmith was not a pleasant person, and neither is this very lightly fictionalized one. She had a very hard life, both in childhood and as the struggling young adult here, and lashed out about it at anyone she could. But she wrote a book that resonated with women all over the world, even if she couldn’t publish it under her own name. I really appreciated the author’s thoughtful depiction of a complex person. I loved the illustrations, especially Pat’s mind wandering to thriller plots while she’s trying to do anything else. I’m glad I read Carol/The Price of Salt before this one, as there are many parallels. show less

Five years ago, Pan helped her best friend (and maybe crush?) Tara escape an arranged marriage. A Princess on the planet Viridian, Tara's fate was to be "won" by a Cosmoknight in a futuristic duel (this is the year 2169, after all), and then married off to the Cosmoknight's "sponsor" (read: highest bidder), who gets a royal title in the bargain (or, more likely, just further consolidates the power and wealth of the 1%). Pan's life was underwhelming before The Incident, but now she's a pariah show more on her small planet, adrift and without purpose. That is, until the night Bee and Cass show up on her doorstop.

Known in the ring as Bull, Cass sustained some pretty serious injuries in the last match. Luckily, Pan's mom runs an underground medical clinic. But when these two queer, badass women Cosmoknights move on to the next planet - and match - Pan stows away on their ship. She's convinced that she's found her mission in life - namely, helping them free the princesses they've "won." But a shadowy, pink-haired woman is hot on their tail, with an offer they maybe can't refuse?

COSMOKNIGHTS is all sparkly, fiery, rainbow feminist fun. The artwork is vivid and gorgeous but the real draw is the queer AF vibe and burn-it-all-down, fuck the patriarchy, riots not diets, radical revolutionary spirit. (Insert the "So you're an anarchist?" "You say that like it's a bad thing." panel here.) I live for Cass, Bee, and Pan's impassioned monologues, and Cass's backstory is just *chef's kiss* perfection. show less

Bee, Cass, Kate, and Pan successfully rescued Princess Scottie from being auctioned off by winning her tournament. But Scottie doesn’t want to be rescued - she thinks she can do more good for her people if she marries for money. She activates a beacon, but all that does is alert some local pirates. After fighting them off the team is headed to win the hand of their most powerful princess ever, whose family controls a whole planet full of mines. Scottie warns them that the tournament is show more certainly rigged, but Ren believes that disrupting the galaxy’s biggest business deal is exactly the catalyst they need to bring down the whole system.

Really lovely and long; I loved this just as much as the first book. It’s been obvious from the beginning that Ren’s childhood friend Tara was going to come back at some point, but I expected her to be a princess, not a pirate.. It’s almost 300 pages but never drags. There are beautiful full-page skyscapes and action scenes and cute outfits. There are a couple flashback scenes to characters’ childhoods that are in a completely different style. It’s a work of art, for sure, AND I love the story. And there's a cat! Definitely check this series out if you like comics and spaceships and queer people (though it will probably be a couple more years before we get volume 3).

This book can be read online (albeit awkwardly) for free on the series website: https://www.cosmoknights.space/book-two show less