Found a new used bookstore with a 5 books for 10 bucks deal and I took advantage. I was delighted to learn about Psycho House aka What If Psycho Became A Small Time Amusement Park, and I gasped aloud to find the tagged book, a Ken Greenhall but for teens that hasn't been reprinted.

Welp, I just bailed on "Beauty Is..." (though my quick scan renders it a darker tale than I was presuming), so this book gets a so-so. The actual "When Darkness Loves Us" novella is a fucked up lil pick. Maybe I'll come back to "Beauty Is..." in the future, but it certainly is cringeworthy.

Hoo boy, I read the opening novella in basically one sitting, but the companion short novel is draaaaaaaggggging...

Time shennanigans? Confined spaces? Of course, three years isn't that much compared to poor Miles' 25. Hard Time is a rough, sad watch and if DS9 were on today they would hopefully deal with Miles' many, MANY traumas.
(Also, I play Star Trek Timelines and I think the teeny tiny modifier on Prisoner O'Brien's diplomatic stat is one of the game's grimmest little nods to the show.)
#startreksummerjune

The first thing that leapt to mind when considering Apocalypse Rising was the Klingon disguises, of course, so this 90s horror paperback fits the bill nicely. I've heard really good things about the Abyss line, so I pick them up when I find 'em. Bonus Trek points: the author has written a number of Trek novels!
#startreksummerjune

This is a volume very close to the top of my tbr amd what is In The Pale Moonlight really but a conspiracy in the stars? People have already said a lot of good stuff about the episode in question, but let me add my voice to the chorus: it's an excellent episode. A minor bit I love: the dipping into the more sinister aspect of Garak. I'm very glad he isn't like this all the time, but he definitely has some darkness in him.
#startreksummerjune

Another tbr pick (which I feel will be coming up a lot in #startreksummerjune ). I don't love the ep Shadows and Symbols - I kind of wish Benny was a one time deal, and I think the stuff with Sisko's mom starts here (and I Don't Like that). Ezri is here though! Hi Ezri!

Last one for tonight - I think Equilibrium offered an interesting Dax wrinkle. They didn't go back to it often (which was likely for the best), but Field of Fire is a good capper. The Joran thing feels a little Hannibal Lecter-ish to me, and at 3 years after the Silence of the Lambs movie it just might be!
Main character of the tagged book does a smidge better than Joran.
#startreksummerjune

Move Along Home! I know people hate it (and it -is- silly) but this episode reminds me of TOS, and I think it's hilarious. Love Move Along Home.
Tagged book is the first thing that came to mind when I thought about novels about gaming. I really like it when I read it, but I feel mixed now because of it still being at Riptide.
#startreksummerjune

I have been pondering the concept of Necessary Evil for #startreksummerjune and I suddenly remembered one of my absolute favs of last year, the novella Holt House. It's about... trapping, of a sort.
I quite like the episode as well! I am very (too?) interested/invested in Quark's life at Terok Nor anf this is one of the rare glimpses. Plus, anything that shakes Odo's certainty is good in my book.

I feel bad because I am having the damnedest time coming up with books that fit for #startreksummerjune and my bad feeling grows because of just how much I love DS9! I will need to try and catch up this week...

A gorgeous, gorgeous book.

The manga just won't stop! Shinichi, a human teen, and Migi, a parasite that fails to take Shinichi over entirely and instead becomes his right arm, certainly count as Strange Bedfellows.
As for the ep about a million things happen in it and I'd say most of them are compelling. Worf & Ezri angst was something I was never on board for and Ezri/Julian? No thanks.
#startreksummerjune

I have finished the first of two novellas, and I gotta say: fucked up!

Squeezed in this perfectly charming short story last night! It's free on Kindle right now!

I cannot think of many marriages in books I've read (which is weird because romance is one of my genres), but I love the marriage of convenience in True Pretenses. What a good romance!
And I'm not trying to imply that Jadzia and Worf's nuptials are convenience based! Cause I would still like to be Cordially Invited!
#startreksummerjune

Oh, I loved this thoughtful look at fandom, the bad of it and the very good. I (like so, so many) don't see myself in pop culture spaces, and (like so, so many) I push back on that constantly and it's fun to remake the and it's frustrating to have to do it. This book feels like that.

Another tbr pick for me, Sisko's search for a lost city goes way better than this one does, I think. I had to look Rapture up to refresh my memory, but of course, it's the locust episode. A damn good one!
#startreksummerjune

Still feeling in a Manga Mood, so consider the way of the warrior that involves rescuing a member of your adventuring party and eating every monster you come across.
I am a person with some mixed Worf emotions (mostly about his Bad Dad status), but I'm not mad he ended up on DS9.
#startreksummerjune

I realized I hadn't put together a tbr for Pride month and while I try to have a healthy amount of queer books year round I think my next short story a day endeavor is this book that is literally on the theme of pride.

I stayed up too late reading this book and THEN I stayed up even lating working on a fix it fic for the ending of Pacific Rim: Uprising that I wrote half of in one furious post-viewing sitting.

I can't say what the precise mixture of internalized misogyny, a desire to avoid liking anime (I didn't need something else to brand me a loser), and my contrary nature, but I didn't get into Sailor Moon as a kid. I am remedying that now, and you know what? It's charming as hell and this Eternal Edition is gorgeous. It's definitely going on my buy list!

Since I have had a positively manga-ful day the first thing my brain siezed on when considering Defiant for #startreksummerjune was the One Piece crew throwing their pirate status and their found family in the face of the world. They -will- take on the World Governemnt!
(Oh Thomas Riker, one of Trek's most visible hanging thread. Can't wait until I get to whatever novel that certainly exists and covers his fate.)

I vowed to make a good faith effort and immediately realized that I COULD NOT with narrative voice for nearly 400 pages. Related: the word "precocious" means nothing to me anymore - that circuit is burnt out (and after only 16 pages!).

This has been sitting on my tbr for approximately a thousand years, and while the marginalia aspect still has me intrigued I'm not sure I'm gonna stick with it. (They say after reading just 4 pages.)

Another grand universe that has been important to me since I was a child, but the difference between The Shepherd's Crown and All Good Things is that I haven't been brave enough to say goodbye to the Disc yet...

I adore All Good Things! A truly wonderful finale that brings me to the edge of tears when I do so much as think about that last scene. I love TNG, flaws and all, and this is a great endpoint for that crew.
#startreksummermay

This is a decidedly wobbly rating. After an absolutely fantastic opening there's just... less Bill Door and more Windle Poons than I want (sorry Windle, but you don't have much of a personality). My memory has expanded the Bill Door portion, providing some of the work the book doesn't do, but that ending, when the dust has settled? Full on punch in the sternum. What can the harvest hope for?
#OokBOokClub

Oh, Journey's End. You're not very good, are you? The movie writers ignore the climatic choice Wes maked and everyone would like to ignore the Indigenous botch job (and I'm including Voyager in this sad shake of my head). Do better, franchise!
Tagged book is one that has been on my tbr for awhile! I hear nothing but good things.
#startreksummermay

A short story by a fav of mine, about an artist who meets and becomes interested in a man who he suspects of being the devil. It's sweet!
Suspicions, as an episode, obviously wasn't meant as a Beverly episode, but I'm glad she got a weird mystery. Plus, we meet scientists from species where we never do! (We will remember you Dr. Reyga 😢)
#startreksummermay

Tagged for The Most Toys due to the Velveteen Rabbit inspired tale that's a real chiller.
I love this episode! I love Data's resistance methods and Kivas Fajoh is a top notch villian.
#startreksummermay

Okay, the evil plant book I read earlier this year doesn't have a lot to do with the communication-focused Loud As A Whisper, but, counterpoint, the plants whisper a lot because they are Evil. (They also graduate to screaming fairly quickly. But every evil plant has to start somewhere!)
#startreksummermay

This is a book I never would have picked up without it showing up in a book box, but I really liked it! Coming of Age as an episode? It doesn't stand out that much. I'll use this opportunity to say that I do not hate Wes - he doesn't always get the best writing but who does?
#startreksummermay

Wuthering Heights is full of some on my favorite, overly dramatic doofuses in school mandated reading, and every last one of 'em has what you might call a Vengeance Factor.
I don't have a lot of thoughts on the TNG ep, since it's been a few years since I last saw it. On the rewatching I'm doing for my podcast I'm finding myself appreciating Riker more, so I'll be interested to get here.
#startreksummermay

I have always loved stories of transformation (and the identity crises that come along with them) - I've mentioned it here before, but I obsessed over this short story collection when I was a child. It's the start of a lifelong affinity!
You know what's nice about Identity Crisis? Geordi has friends! I do remember thinking that it should have been Data and the woman working together that got Geordi back, though.
#startreksummermay

Haven't gotten to this short story collection yet, but global warming/climate change is the first thing that leapt to mind when considering the idea of Disaster. (TNG's Disaster is a good time though!) (Also, my missing so many days in a row is a small scale disaster.)
#startreksummermay

I have decided to make an effort on this reread to distinguish the personalities of the various head wizards and so far I have determined that the Senior Wrangler sucks.
#OokBOokClub

Ah, Ridcully has been tweaked into his true form! I'm glad he gets his football team, eventually.
#OokBOokClub

If we're talking about Inheritance (and its many androids) why not consider R.U.R.? I read this for my Robots in Fiction class and this is possibly the first instance of androids!
#startreksummermay

I don't think about Reaper Man very often, but damn this book opens STRONG
#OokBOokClub

I had a hard time thinking of any books I have read with doppelgangers in them (which is weird? why do all the books fly out of my brain when it's #startreksummermay time?), so instead have a book about twins? I haven't read it in a thousand years but I remember liking it.

Also, there has to be Trek novels about Thomas, right?

I haven't read the noir book set in a city of abandoned imaginary friends, but only because it isn't out yet. Seems like the main imaginary friend (the dino detective on the cover) will be nicer than TNG's Imaginary Friend!
#startreksummermay

Anyway, next up is the next #OokBOokClub selection because I am determined to keep pace!

Somehow I forgot to review this book? It is also wonderful! I adore this series so much and I will quietly hope that Alyssa Cole comes back to it.

Somewhat ironically I did not finish this book about the complications of family when I had planned to because I ran into my ex-stepfather at Epcot and we hung out.

Anyway, this book is wonderful and warm and I loved it.

JACK?!?!?!?

I don't know if this book is weirdly structured or if the description juat doesn't prepare you for the structure it does have, but I liked Tilly's coming of age tale. It had a lot of Trek texture (Trekxture?) which is all I want.

The Devil just might never stop taking in this YA horror, which is legit one of the most unsettling books I have ever read.
(As Qcard trash, my favorite bit of Devil's Due is the suggestion that Ardra is just Q, a fun new way to bother/flirt with Picard.)
#startreksummermay

Oh gosh, this book is introducing the idea that all Federation starships have shirts with their nickname on them, not just the Discovery. Just serious people wearing shirts that say Disco or Dotty on them - I love it.