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The Ferryman Institute – Colin Gigl

About the Book

In this stunning, fantastical debut novel from a bold new voice in the bestselling traditions of Christopher Moore and Jasper Fforde, a ferryman for the dead finds his existence unraveling after making either the best decision or the biggest mistake of his immortal life.

Ferryman Charlie Dawson saves dead people—somebody has to convince them to move on to the afterlife, after all. Having never failed a single assignment, he’s acquired a reputation for success that’s as legendary as it is unwanted. It turns out that serving as a Ferryman is causing Charlie to slowly lose his mind.

Deemed too valuable by the Ferryman Institute to be let go and too stubborn to just give up in his own right, Charlie’s pretty much abandoned all hope of escaping his grim existence. Or he had, anyway, until he saved Alice Spiegel. To be fair, Charlie never planned on stopping Alice from taking her own life—that sort of thing is strictly forbidden by the Institute—but he never planned on the President secretly giving him the choice to, either. Charlie’s not quite sure what to make of it, but Alice is alive, and it’s the first time he’s felt right in more than two hundred years.

When word of the incident reaches Inspector Javrouche, the Ferryman Institute’s resident internal affairs liaison, Charlie finds he’s in a world of trouble. But Charlie’s not about to lose the only living, breathing person he’s ever saved without a fight. He’s ready to protect her from Javrouche and save Alice from herself, and he’s willing to put the entire continued existence of mankind at risk to do it.

Written in the same vein as bestselling modern classics such as The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde and A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore, The Ferryman Institute is a thrilling supernatural adventure packed with wit and humor.

432 pages (ebook)

Published on September 27, 2016

Published by Gallery Books

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

—

The Ferryman Institute is the kind of book that appealed to me instantly. It’s urban fantasy, but of the off the beaten path sort, and promised some introspection and some humor. Count me in.

Charlie is a ferryman. In fact, he is the ferryman. He is the highest ranked ferryman in the business and has spent 200+ years wowing his superiors with his skills. The Ferryman Institute is actually incredibly complex, and really interesting. There are a lot of ins and outs to it, plenty of rules, lots of lines that people have to toe. Charlie’s job is to convince a soul to cross into the afterlife of their own free will. He works with a navigator, whose job is to determine when exactly this moment will occur, and there are plenty of other details involved, too.

So Charlie has been dealing with death for a long, long time, and it’s been getting him down. He’s been trying to transfer out of the Ferryman Institute, but he keeps getting his transfer requests rejected. He has a lot of humor, but he’s also a rather tortured soul, as anyone would be if they’ve been dealing with all sorts of different kinds of death for such a long, long period of time.

Events transpire, and Charlie is given an out. It’s rather surprising, but he gets a letter from the president of the insitute that gives him the option to help a suicidal Alison’s soul pass into the afterlife, or find her beforehand and save her, which would cause him to stop being a ferryman. And this is really where the book starts to take off.

There are some parts of the book, especially toward the beginning, where this dilemma that Charlie faces is sort of dissected a little too much, but after that the book sort of switches focus. Charlie and Alison make a fantastic pair. They are both such unique characters, each with their own set of memorable characteristics. And quickly after that the focus turns from Charlie’s life dealing with death, to the business of dealing with life.

The antagonist is fantastic, and it is obvious that Gigl worked hard to portray a protagonist that his readers would understand, but also sympathize with. His actions were understandable, and his motives were something that I could realte to in some way. That’s not saying that I really liked him or agreed with him, but he was a really well crafted antagonist and I absolutely love it when authors create a good antagonist.

This book is funny, and that surprised me. There are a lot of small details scattered throughout that just made me laugh. There’s a moment regarding meatloaf in the beginning that made me laugh. Charlie’s form of entertainment by basically throwing himself off a cliff to pass time was both morbid and humorous. And while a lot of the topics in this book are rather weighty, it’s balanced quiet well with a nice dash of humor that I really found refreshing. Gigl strikes a nice balance between morbid and lighthearted.

At the heart of it, Gigl makes readers analyze what makes life so worth living, and he does it in a way that will make you laugh, and I appreciated that. Sometimes it’s nice to pick up a rather lighthearted read that easily sweeps you along, and that’s exactly what The Ferryman Institute accomplishes.

This is a surprisingly fun book. It’s well written, full of action and laughs, and plenty of adventure. Gigl manages to make readers think about heavy topics in a lighthearted way, and I appreciated his nice balance of the two. Some parts of the book were a little predictable, and I felt a little hit over the head with some of the information, but other than that, this book was superb, and the characters were just as fantastic and memorable. If you’re in the mood for something different, lighthearted and thought provoking, check out The Ferryman Institute.

 

4/5 stars

Chapel of Ease – Alex Bledsoe

About the Book

When Matt Johanssen, a young New York actor, auditions for “Chapel of Ease,” an off-Broadway musical, he is instantly charmed by Ray Parrish, the show’s writer and composer. They soon become friends; Matt learns that Ray’s people call themselves the Tufa and that the musical is based on the history of his isolated home town. But there is one question in the show’s script that Ray refuses to answer: what is buried in the ruins of the chapel of ease?

As opening night approaches, strange things begin to happen. A dreadlocked girl follows Ray and spies on him. At the press preview, a strange Tufa woman warns him to stop the show. Then, as the rave reviews arrive, Ray dies in his sleep.

Matt and the cast are distraught, but there’s no question of shutting down: the run quickly sells out. They postpone opening night for a week and Matt volunteers to take Ray’s ashes back to Needsville. He also hopes, while he’s there, to find out more of the real story behind the play and discover the secret that Ray took to his grave.

Matt’s journey into the haunting Appalachian mountains of Cloud County sets him on a dangerous path, where some secrets deserve to stay buried.

320 pages (hardcover)

Published on September 6, 2016

Published by Tor

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

—

I absolutely love Alex Bledsoe’s Tufa novels. Each one seems to be better than the last, and this one was probably my favorite so far. It stands apart from the others for numerous reasons, all of which makes Chapel of Ease something quite special.

One thing that makes this novel so different than the others is the fact that the protagonist, Matt, is an outsider who is sort of thrust into the role of looking in on the Tufa and their lives. Matt is an actor in New York City. He meets Ray, who is writing a play about his people (The Tufa). They become friends, but Ray mysteriously passes on from this mortal coil and Matt decides that he wants to take his ashes back to his family in Tennessee.

So right off the bat, this book is from an outsider’s perspective, and I found that to be incredibly refreshing. It’s not that I’m tired of reading about the Tufa and their adventures, but Matt added a rather diverse, unique perspective to things that really made me appreciate just how magical these books really are.

And really that’s what Matt and this outsider’s perspective did for me. These books are absolutely enchanting and there are so many reasons why I love them – many of which I will go into shortly. However, Matt really reminded me just how magical this world that Bledsoe has created really is. Matt is this fantastic merging of our world, the mundane world, with the magic of the Tufa and the high mountains that they live in.

Chapel of Ease is a bit of a mystery wrapped up in an all-too-human drama. There’s love and loss, and then love again, and plenty of mystery as well as some confrontation. Bledsoe really manages to keep his readers hooked on the immense power of emotions that infuse every page of this book. I really can’t highlight that enough. This book is packed full of emotion, and it’s not just emotion, but it’s the kind of emotion that gets under your skin, worms its way into your heart, and forces you to feel exactly what these characters are feeling. It’s…. wow. It’s incredibly well done.

As I mentioned above, there is this merging of mundane and magical, and these powerful emotions are one of the subtler, but important, parts of this. It’s interesting to see just how similar people live on both sides of this magical divide. The city of New York, of course, is a bit flashier, but the human drama, the love and loss and tension involved in that, is all too similar to the simpler, but just as dramatic lives in Tennessee. The juxtaposition was very well done, and really hit me pretty hard (in the best sort of way). It made the love story and intense connection that takes place that much more delightful. It’s two people from two worlds that really aren’t that different after all.

The mystery involved with the chapel is handled absolutely perfectly. Bledsoe refocuses what the mystery is really about, and narrows the focus to what really matters (but is often ignored). It’s not about the ending, it’s about the journey, and that’s really the message that this book drives home. I never did get a satisfying answer to all things involving the chapel, but I didn’t mind in the least. The journey to get to that wonderful ending was so amazing, intense, and wonderful that I didn’t really care about what was buried in the chapel.

Chapel of Ease was incredible. I love every one of Bledsoe’s Tufa books, but this one really hit it out of the park. It’s diverse, and different. This book is a graceful merging of magic and mundane that charmed me to my core. Matt is a fantastic protagonist, who reminded me of just how magical this world is. Bledsoe reminds readers that it isn’t necessarily about the ending, or having all of your questions perfectly answered – it’s about the journey.

I can’t praise this book enough.

 

5/5 stars

Behind the Throne – K. B. Wagers

About the Book

Meet Hail: Captain. Gunrunner. Fugitive.

Quick, sarcastic, and lethal, Hailimi Bristol doesn’t suffer fools gladly. She has made a name for herself in the galaxy for everything except what she was born to do: rule the Indranan Empire. That is, until two Trackers drag her back to her home planet to take her rightful place as the only remaining heir.

But trading her ship for a palace has more dangers than Hail could have anticipated. Caught in a web of plots and assassination attempts, Hail can’t do the one thing she did twenty years ago: run away. She’ll have to figure out who murdered her sisters if she wants to survive.

413 pages (paperback)

Published on August 2, 2016

Published by Orbit

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

—

Behind the Throne is one of those novels that I dashed through really, really quickly. It’s an easy book to sink into and enjoy. The writing is accessible, the plot is fast moving and absorbing.

Behind the Throne starts with an action packed scene with Hailimi, our protagonist, who was once a princess of the Indranan Empire, is now an infamous gunrunner, fugitive, and all around freelancing woman who lives life on the edge and lives life by her own rules. She’s found by some trackers sent to bring her back to her family, where she learns that she’s suddenly inheriting the throne due to a series of incredibly unfortunate events.

While there is action throughout the novel, it’s mostly concentrated at the start and end of the book. The rest of the book really focused on family dynamics, and political drama. That isn’t to say that there isn’t plenty of action throughout the book, it’s just a different kind of action than I expected.

This story is told through a first person perspective, so readers are right on the front row while all the action unfolds, and Wagers has a really evocative, emotionally packed way of writing that brings everything to vibrant life for readers. You don’t miss a thing, and while Wagers has a tendency to over-dramatize or turn things a little purple, the writing style really works well to suck a reader in and really punch them with the intensity, both physical and emotional, of the story being told.

In my mind, this book is really focused more on family dynamics and personal growth and exploration more than any intergalactic exploration, space battles, and wham-bam action. While that does exist in the novel, the real tension and growing pains are felt as Hail tries to find her place in palace life, despite the twenty years she spent as a fugitive gunrunner.

While that might make some readers a bit reluctant to actually read this book, I don’t want it to put you off at all. The action is a bit different than you might expect, and I think comparing this novel to Star Wars is a misnomer in some respects, but it is quite an intense, riveting story that I couldn’t put down no matter how hard I tried.

And the truth is, I can see that this series is building up to all that Star Wars style action. Behind the Throne was riveting, but it is obviously the precursor to all that stuff that people will probably expect to find in this book (and only actually see it more concentrated toward the end). The ending nicely wrapped things up, and hinted at some of what is probably going to come next. I was left with the very real sense that space battles are in the future. With the time and effort spent to build the empire, family dynamics, and Hail’s efforts to figure out who she was before all those space battle erupt, the rest of the series promises to be incredible. All good series need a detailed, strong foundation to build on, and Behind the Empire is exactly that, a solid foundation for all the wonderful things about to come.

To sum things up, Behind the Empire was a shockingly absorbing book with an addicting plot and a protagonist whose voice gripped me from page one. It wasn’t what I expected it to be, but the politics and family dynamics were just as interesting as any space battles. The emotions got a little over-the-top at points, and sometimes the prose turned a bit purple, but that was easy to overlook in favor of the gripping plot and dynamic empire building taking place.

 

4/5 stars

Announcing the winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Coloring Book

Alright folks, the other night I turned on my trusty laptop, went to random.org, and figured out who was the lucky winner of the Edgar Allan Poe coloring book.



Congratulations, Mercedes Yardley!

And thanks to everyone who entered!

Editing: It’s time to jump

I’ve always wanted to be an editor. All this time that I’ve been reviewing books, I’ve been learning. Reading and learning, learning and reading. I’ve been trying my hardest to know this genre inside and out so that someday when I got brave enough I could put everything I’ve learned into good use for others.

Anyway, events have transpired. Basically things culminated and I realized I was at a shit or get off the pot moment. I either had to try this editing thing out, or I had to move on. There was no time left for hemming and hawing and wondering if someday someone would discover my talents and use me the way I wanted to be used. I either had to blaze my own path, or shut up and sit down.

I’ve been spending these past few weeks talking to some professional freelance editors, gaining insights, getting advice from people who work behind the scenes, and setting up my own gig just in case this crazy idea actually pans out. It’s been busy, but I figure if I’m going to do this thing, I need to do it right.

Then, miracle of miracle, I just signed my very first client and not ten minutes later another author hit me up to get rates and details, and I had this incredible moment of, “This might actually work! This dream of mine might pan out!” But the truth is, nothing will ever happen if I don’t take a chance and put myself out there to sink or swim on a moderately public stage.

If you look at the link bar above this post, right below the logo, you’ll see an “Editing Information” tab now. Yes, folks, I am officially open for business. A sad truth is that I’m not a good salesperson. I don’t like standing in front of people and saying, “Look at how wonderful I am.” That makes me uncomfortable in the extreme, so I kept my pitch short and sweet on that little page (and I will inevitably edit and tweak it as I get more familiar with this whole thing). I figured that those who were interested could hit me up and we could talk dirty details in private.

Basically this whole thing can be summed up this way:

1. I have always, always, always wanted to be an editor.

2. I am finally taking a chance, gambling, and reaching for that dream.

3. I am open for business (FYI: I consider myself more of a developmental editor than anything else)

4. I’m incredibly nervous.

Click here for more information!

Upcoming Reads: A Grand List of Literary Things

I’ve fallen a bit off the wagon since my baby had her kidney issues. It’s been… rough. I’m taking her to the pediatric urologist on Thursday, and I’m already feeling this huge relief with knowing that in a few days I’ll not only have every answer I need, but a game plan, and I’ll know if she’s going to need corrective kidney surgery sooner or later.

There is a huge, huge relief with getting solid answers, folks.

But I’ve been in a bit of a funk due to this whole thing. The constant worry has really weighed me down, and I haven’t really been able to concentrate on any serious books recently. I’ve completely derailed and I’ve started binge reading paranormal romance, which is weird until you consider how therapeutic that mental vacation has been for me, and how nice the happily-ever-after endings have been.

Today I woke up, and I just feel better somehow. Like my mental fog is lifting, and I’m finally ready to really dive back into this website/reading/reviewing stuff. Bonus: I’m finally also really sitting down with myself and ironing out my editing gig. I have a few books lined up already, which is hugely exciting and I’m glad I’m finally getting on my feet enough to really embrace it all. Anyway, today I started organizing my books into a pile of the ARCs I want to read soon. I also started reading The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu (I can’t recommend it highly enough), and god does it feel good to be back into things – to see a pile of books and want to run toward them rather than away. It’s like I’m coming home.

It has kind of amazed me that I’ve had so many health issues, and they’ve all derailed me a bit, but this one with my kid has been the roughest by far. It’s a million times worse when it’s your kid, folks.

Anyway… here is my stack of ARCs that I plan on churning through in quick order, in no particular order (except for The Wall of Storms, which is on top because I’m currently reading it. Also, this is not including eARCS, which I haven’t gone through yet.). Any of these look good to you? Any that I should add to my stack? (Not shown, The Three Body Problem, which I’ve already read but I loved it so much I got the audiobook and I’m looking forward to reading the entire trilogy back to back.)

(Added note: I plan on starting up content on Our Words when my life evens out a bit more… hopefully within the next few weeks, IF anyone cares, which I really, really doubt.)

Everfair – Nisi Shawl

About the Book

Everfair is a wonderful Neo-Victorian alternate history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium’s disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier. Fabian Socialists from Great Britian join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo’s “owner,” King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.

Shawl’s speculative masterpiece manages to turn one of the worst human rights disasters on record into a marvelous and exciting exploration of the possibilities inherent in a turn of history. Everfair is told from a multiplicity of voices: Africans, Europeans, East Asians, and African Americans in complex relationships with one another, in a compelling range of voices that have historically been silenced. Everfair is not only a beautiful book but an educational and inspiring one that will give the reader new insight into an often ignored period of history.

384 pages (hardcover)

Published on September 6, 2016

Published by Tor

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

—

Everfair is a book that got my attention right away. I am a huge fan of alternative history, but I have never read one dealing with the Congo. I know pathetically little about that area of the world, but I know enough to know that it has a tragic history, and a tragic present, and most of it is due to colonization.

In my mind, the true sign that an alternative history novel is any good, is how much it makes me research the actual history of the time period that is being touched on in the book. I can honestly say that right now I know more about King Leopold and the Congo than I have ever dreamed I’d know. This book really put a bug in me to learn all I could.

Everfair surprised me for another reason. I really don’t like steampunk. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. I just don’t. It’s not me. When I realized this book was a steampunk novel, I almost didn’t read it. But I decided to give it a shot. Let me tell you, this is unlike any other steampunk book I’ve ever read before, and it is honestly the first one where the steampunk elements didn’t annoy me at all. In fact, they felt incredibly natural, like that was the natural evolution of technology at the time, and in many ways the steampunk was understated, which just made it work that much better.

This novel is shockingly human, involving a few different perspectives. At the start of the novel it’s hard to picture how all of these lives and individual stories will come together, but Shawl wastes no time in weaving all of the threads into a tapestry that tells a really engaging, compelling story. But the bonus in all of this is that these people are so well crafted that they are actually real, and it turns so many aspects of this conflict from something abstract, a compelling idea, into a narrative that actually matters and makes a solid impact on the reader.

Everfair is incredibly well written. It’s the kind of book that you can enjoy for the prose as much as anything else. There are a lot of plot points in this novel, and Shawl really takes an honest look at a lot of important problems like race, sexuality, gender roles and so much more, as well as other more obvious issues involving colonization and political issues. There are a lot of ways Everfair could have turned out, but Shawl’s ability to look in the face of so many important issues turned a book that could have been interesting to something completely compelling and enthralling.

There are some aspects of Everfair that will either be hit or miss with readers. The book spans an impressive number of years and follows this one colony from its foundations, and through its various growing pains. This book, while being a good size, isn’t really extremely long. Some of the events are summarized and alluded to rather than allowing readers to experience them as they happen. This might annoy some readers who will encounter changes of opinions or situations and wonder just when (whatever) happened, as it didn’t obviously occur in the narrative. IE: Some things happen off stage, and while that didn’t bother me in the least, I can see that annoying some readers, so be aware.

Aside from that, Everfair was a staggering work of genius that highlights a period of time that doesn’t get nearly enough attention. Shawl took a dark, tense world, and shined some necessary light on it, and never once shied away from some impressive, intense and important issues that transcend time. The writing is superb, and the characters leap off the page. This is the first book by Shawl that I’ve read, but I can absolutely guarantee it will not be my last.

 

4/5 stars

GIVEAWAY | Edgar Allan Poe Adult Coloring Book

I love adult coloring books. I love them. I plug myself into an audiobook, brew me a gigantic pot of tea, and zone out. They are just about the best things that ever happened to me and I’m incredibly glad they are a trend right now.

The other day this little beauty showed up at my front door. You guys, it is stunning. Everything about it is amazing. It’s high quality, with a nice flow, delightfully gothic, and beautiful artwork. This is, hands down, my favorite adult coloring book yet.

So I’m THRILLED to be giving away one copy to one lucky individual!

Giveaway Details: 

This contest is open to residents of the United States and Canada only. To enter, leave a comment on this post (I usually approve comments every few days, so if you don’t see it posted right away, it’s not lost. I’m just slow. Feel free to nudge me on Twitter, or Facebook, or wherever.). You have until Midnight, mountain time, on Friday, September 16 to enter. One lucky winner will be randomly chosen from the entries. I will email the winner, and they will have 48 hours to respond before I select another winner.

Good luck to all who enter!

—

Official Information: 

Dive into the macabre, mysterious world of Edgar Allan Poe’s chilling tales with popular coloring book artist Odessa Begay (Little Birds). Inspired by Poe’s beloved stories, Begay has created images that reference settings, motifs, and details that fans will recognize.

Contributor Information: 

Odessa Begay resides in Philadelphia, PA. She is a graduate of NYU/The Tisch School of the Arts where she studied photography and imaging. She has licensed her work widely in the children’s/baby markets, as well as botanicals for home décor, paper, and fabric. Learn more about her at odessabegay.com.

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Ninth City Burning – J. Patrick Black

About the Book

Centuries of war with aliens threaten the future of human civilization on earth in this gripping, epic science fiction debut…

We never saw them coming.

Entire cities disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving nothing but dust and rubble. When an alien race came to make Earth theirs, they brought with them a weapon we had no way to fight, a universe-altering force known as thelemity. It seemed nothing could stop it—until we discovered we could wield the power too.

Five hundred years later, the Earth is locked in a grinding war of attrition. The talented few capable of bending thelemity to their will are trained in elite military academies, destined for the front lines. Those who refused to support the war have been exiled to the wilds of a ruined Earth.

But the enemy’s tactics are changing, and Earth’s defenders are about to discover this centuries-old war has only just begun. As a terrible new onslaught looms, heroes will rise from unlikely quarters, and fight back.

544 pages (hardcover)

Published on September 6, 2016

Published by Ace

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book was sent in exchange for an honest review by the publisher.

—

Ninth City Burning is one of those interesting novels that is part social experiment, part young adult, part adult, set in a science fiction world roughly 500 years into the future. It’s incredibly well done, and shows a shocking amount of creativity, especially in the world building.

The first thing you should be aware of is that this book is told from multiple first person perspectives – seven, if I remember correctly. Black does a great job at making all of their voices different so none of them really blend into each other. My one complaint in this department is that the word “like” is used way too much in the Torro chapters, it did get quite distracting after a while. That being said, each character is uniquely themselves, and it’s interesting to see how these seemingly diverse storylines merge together.

The world is quite creative. There is a war against an alien race. Precincts are in charge of producing the goods and supplies for the war. An alternative energy has been found that allows humans to control an incredible amount of power. Unincorporated tribes sort of roam the globe living a nomadic life largely forgotten by everyone else. It’s a bloody way of life, and they spend most of it fighting it out with the other unincorporated tribes they meet. And, lucky us, we have perspective characters with unique insights into just about every aspect of everything I listed in this paragraph.

The plot is pretty dynamic, and it gets going quickly. It’s interesting how well Black wove together so many different aspects of this novel, and how quickly he managed to do it. Most of the characters are pretty young – it seems like seventeen is the median age (again, if my memory is correct). That breathed some fresh air into the novel, and I enjoyed how their youth seemed to infuse the plot with a bit more energy, which in turn made the book feel a bit less cynical than I’d probably expect with an older cast. That being said, this book did feel a bit like a YA novel. That’s really not a bad thing, but readers who aren’t really into that should be aware.

Ninth City Burning is surprisingly layered. History plays a very important role here, and Black seems to know exactly how to measure out how much information he gives readers, and when he gives it. Some readers might be able to pick out where things are going early on, but that doesn’t really take away from enjoying the book. There is quite a buildup as the book progresses. It becomes obvious that not everything is as it seems, and it’s not really all revealed by the end of this book. It left me hanging, and while that usually bothers me, it worked here – it makes me even more excited to read the next book in the series.

Black has a knack for knowing when to let things go. The book’s natural progression and flow was really wonderful. I never felt like he hung onto any one scene for too long, or breezed through any important parts too quickly. And more importantly, I never really felt like Black was doing something obvious to keep me from seeing the man behind the curtain (ie: I never felt like he was saying “Hey, look over there!” which is an obvious distraction from important things happening over here…). So basically, the incredibly creative world building mixed with the flawless pacing really made this novel work for me.

So, is everything perfect in Ninth City Burning? No. But is this book incredibly enjoyable? Hell yeah. This book is creative, and rather shocking, and so delightfully engrossing. It reads like a sort of YA/new adult hybrid, but that’s not a bad thing in the least. In fact, I enjoyed the youthful enthusiasm that really permeated the pages of this book. Black is a fantastic writer with some real skill. This book, series, and author should be watched.

 

4/5 stars