Siavahda's Blog, page 27

Flawlessly Horrifying: Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Genres: Adult, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Korean trans MC, sapphic MCs, Black gay MC, fat/plus-sized gay MC, non-binary MC, assorted queer secondary cast
Protagonist Age: 16-17
PoV: Third-person, past-tense; multiple PoVs
Published on: 11th June 2024
Goodreads

Cuckoo is a searing new novel from Manhunt author Gretchen Felker-Martin, where a motley crew of kidnapped kids try to stay true to themselves while serving time in a conversion camp from hell.

In the late 90s, five queer kids, whose parents want them “fixed,” find themselves thrown together at a secretive "tough love" camp deep in the scorching Utah desert.
Tormented and worked to the point of collapse by hardline religious zealots intent on straightening them out, they slowly become aware that something in the mountains north of the camp is speaking to them in their dreams, and that the children who return home to their families have...changed.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-12T19:25:22+00:00", "description": "A conversion camp is a horrifying thing BEFORE Felker-Martin gets her hands on it.\n\nAfter??? Let's just say I'm NEVER SLEEPING AGAIN.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/flawlessly-horrifying-cuckoo-by-gretchen-felker-martin\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Cuckoo", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gretchen Felker-Martin", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 5, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights

~when they come for you, bite a chunk out of their arm
~stick together or they’ll break you
~that is not science
~pay real close attention to your nightmares
~the real monsters are, as usual, not the actual monsters

I’m really not kidding when I say Felker-Martin’s books don’t need trigger warnings, because her name on the cover IS the trigger warning.

*

Technically, this is a DNF review. Surprising absolutely no one, this book proved too much for me. I wasn’t able to finish it. But I read a big chunk of it, and then the ending, and I have enough thoughts for a full review, so. Enjoy?

*

I am a horror wimp. I’ve said it many times. But I loved Manhunt so much that I thought I could make it through Cuckoo too, and folx, it turns out I Cannot. My stomach is too weak, and my rage is too great. I found the supernatural, monster parts so much less scary than the human awfulness (I would not be surprised if that was deliberate on Felker-Martin’s part), and it turns out I have an easier time reading about apocalypses than I do conversion camps.

It will probably not surprise you when I say that I hate conversion camps. Of course I do. (If you don’t, then wow are you on the wrong blog.) But I knew that Cuckoo was about one, and I thought I was mentally and emotionally prepared for that aspect, going in.

I was not.

It’s not as simple as, this is a Thing for me. I have read other stories about conversion camps that did not make me react this way, that didn’t claw inside me and shred my guts, the insides of my head. It’s all about execution, isn’t it? Two people can write about the same kind of monster, and one will put you to sleep while the other makes sure you never sleep again.

Spoiler: Cuckoo did not put me to sleep.

Felker-Martin’s writing is so immersive that there was just no way to keep any part of myself calmly detached. I had no chance of keeping my chill. She had me going from 0 to 100 in seconds, over and over again, every time some new awful thing happened, and it’s not that I’ve never experienced that (although not often; I can name the authors who get me that hard in Feels on the fingers of one hand), but there was something different about the emotions I felt, reading this.

I mean, Manhunt made me rage; transphobia is personal to me in a way that conversion camps are not; the willingness of a certain kind of ‘polite’ liberal and/or the kind of prim and proper cis LGBs (no T, and by gods no +) to turn their backs on trans and non-binary people is fucking personal; I want every TERF to be roasted to death on a spit.

And yet what I felt, reading Cuckoo, exploded from somewhere even deeper than my feelings about transphobia. There was a different quality to the rage and hate and helplessness this book made me feel, something I’m not familiar with, that I don’t ever remember feeling before. I don’t know how to explain it. I can only tell you that it was kind of terrifying, feeling that. It was a bit addictive and a lot scary. I don’t know when I’ve ever sunk that deep into a story, and it’s not because of the topic, it’s not because the characters are queer. I’ve read things like that before and not felt this. This was wholly Felker-Martin’s unique brand of black magic, is all I can say.

With Manhunt, I couldn’t put the book down because I needed to be sure the main characters were going to be okay. I desperately needed them to be okay. Cuckoo, though, switches POV a lot more often, and although Felker-Martin does a very good job of giving you reasons to care about each character right away, those rapid POV shifts meant it was a bit easier not to get so attached. Combined with the nausea-hate-fury the whole book ignited in me, it was easier to walk away from Cuckoo than it was Manhunt, and I think I needed to walk away.

And I think a big part of that is because [what I read of] the horror in this book is not, as might be expected, the monsters. It’s not even the people running the camp. It’s not even the world outside the camp, which allows places like this to exist. All of those things are horrifying, and they are rage-inducing, but that’s not what got me.

It was the slowly glowing realisation that the real villains here are the parents.

They were talking about pitting themselves against adults, against people whose authority over them was as total as it was unquestioned, who had the right to drive and carry guns and drink themselves stupid without worrying they’d get caught. They were talking, he realized with a cold thrill, about fighting their parents.

In the opening chapters, we see several of the characters being abducted (and it is a fucking abduction, I don’t care that their parents signed permission forms) by the camp guards, thrown into trucks and driven off. Which means we do get a glimpse of a few of the parents – who in those moments are depicted as enragingly pathetic, unable to face the reality of the violence they’ve paid for, but equally unwilling to put a stop to it. As the book goes on, all the characters give us flashbacks (not whole scenes, more snippets of dialogue from past conversations and the like) to their parents, who are, without exception, either actively or passively evil (ie, physically/verbally/sexually abusive, or allowing the abuse to happen). And although on the surface it’s the people running the camp who are the bad guys (and do not get me wrong, they are villains), gradually, it becomes clear that those people are really only stand-ins for the parents.

Because they are, aren’t they? What they’re doing to these kids, the parents have signed off on. They have paid for these people to do these things. They would do these things themselves, if they had the stomach for it. They are as guilty as is the person who hires the assassin; it may be someone else who pulls the trigger, but if you hire a hitman, you, too, are guilty of murder, ethically and legally.

(I want to know: in real life, do any survivors of these places ever sue their parents for abuse? Is that a thing? Do they ever file charges of assault? Are they able to? Does the law even allow for that? I don’t want to look it up, because the search results would break my heart and send my blood pressure through the roof, I’m sure. But I can’t help wondering.)

I think this is brilliant of Felker-Martin. It’s a point I’m not sure I’ve ever seen made about conversion camps/’therapies’ before. We always talk about, how can these places exist, how evil the people running them are. But we almost never talk about those who deliberately and knowingly and nonconsensually send their children there.

When I was about 11, I remember being surprised, and confused, when I discovered that the penalty for buying stolen goods was a much longer prison sentence than burglary/theft was. When I asked why, it was explained to me that if no one bought stolen goods, no one would steal those goods. It was the fault of buyers/the black market that the thefts happened at all.

It’s the same thing here: no matter how you spin it, conversion camps and the like would not exist if no one was willing to send their kids to them. And that places the ultimate responsibility for their existence, and anything that happens at them, on the parents.

Cuckoo is a masterpiece in a whole bunch of other ways. It’s brutal, and gross, and mercilessly incisive. There is delicate and precious love and yearning that will have you tearing up, and none of it is safe. Felker-Martin glories in the body-horror, at which she excels. The monsters – the supernatural ones, I mean – are exquisitely horrifying. Punches are not pulled, no awfulness is flinched away from, Felker-Martin grips you by the hair and makes you look at it all – and there is absolutely no guarantee that everyone is getting out alive. No one and nothing is going to hold you hand. The worst that you can imagine will happen, and then things that are worse than that.

I read the first half, then jumped to the ending. I know.

But it’s the parent thing that’s going to stick with me.

This is an excellent book. It got under my skin, and if you give it a chance, it will get under yours. I couldn’t even read the whole thing, and I know I’m not going to forget a single page of what I read. This is horror at its most horrifying.

I mean, beware of literally all the possible content warnings/triggers. But if you want horror that’s going to give you nightmares, rip your heart out, make you think, and want to burn the whole fucking world down?

Then Cuckoo is simply – terrifyingly – perfect.

The post Flawlessly Horrifying: Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Don’t Trust Me On This One: Road to Ruin by Hana Lee

Road to Ruin (Magebike Courier, #1) by Hana Lee
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: East Asian-coded cast, bi/pansexual MC, bi/pansexual MC, dyslexic MC, pre-polyamory
Protagonist Age: 19; 19; 20ish?
PoV: Third-person, past-tense; multiple PoVs
Published on: 14th May 2024
ISBN: B0CL5FWRR6
Goodreads

An electrifying, gritty fantasy from debut author Hana Lee that takes a royal messenger on a high-speed chase across a climate-ravaged wasteland, featuring motorcycles, monsters, and magic.

Jin-Lu has the most dangerous job in the wasteland. She’s a magebike courier, one of the few who venture outside the domed cities on motorcycles powered by magic. Every day, she braves the wasteland’s dangers—deadly storms, roving marauders, and territorial beasts—to deliver her wares.

Her most valuable cargo? A prince’s love letters addressed to Yi-Nereen, a princess desperate to escape the clutches of her abusive family and soon-to-be husband. Jin, desperately in love with both her and the prince, can’t refuse Yi-Nereen’s plea for help. The two of them flee across the wastes, pursued by Yi-Nereen’s furious father, her scheming betrothed, and a bounty hunter with mysterious powers.

A storm to end all storms is brewing and dark secrets about the heritability of magic are coming to light. Jin’s heart has led her into peril before, but this time she may not find her way back.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-10T08:47:00+00:00", "description": "This is a book I was so excited for...and I don't trust my own opinion on it.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/dont-trust-me-on-this-one-road-to-ruin-by-hana-lee\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Road to Ruin (Magebike Courier, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Hana Lee", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "B0CL5FWRR6" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 3, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights

~magic motorbikes
~dinosaurs in the wastelands
~love letters that don’t know they’re love letters
~the world is a lie
~villains can surprise you

Road to Ruin is a book I have been pining for ever since I saw the publication deal announcement a couple years back – it was pretty clearly going to be polyamorous, and in a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting??? Yes PLEASE!

It didn’t quite live up to my hopes, but it’s still a great adventure-type read that a lot of readers are going to enjoy!

In the aftermath of some unspecified cataclysm, some humans have gained magical talents, placing them above the legions of the Talentless. Human civilisation has been reduced to scattered Kerinas – cities, basically, protected from the deadly mana storms by Shieldcasters – amidst a wasteland populated by dinosaur-esque monsters, cannibal raiders, and the aforementioned mana storms. Each Kerina has its own culture (although all seem to believe in the same gods, even if they worship them/interpret them differently) and trade between them doesn’t seem to exist. The only exception to this are the small, individual packages and letters carried by Couriers from one Kerina to another – there’s no trade in the way we’re used to thinking of it, where cities and countries swap resources and so on. Kerinas are each apparently entirely self-sufficient, although we don’t actually see much of what the quality of life is like inside them – our only glimpses are of the lives of the very wealthy.

Jin is a Courier who’s been taking letters back and forth between Prince Kadrin and Princess Yi-Nereen – who live in separate Kerinas – for years. Because Kadrin is dyslexic, Jin has always read Nereen’s letters aloud to him; because women in Nereen’s Kerina are not taught to write, Nereen has always dictated her letters to Kadrin to Jin. This obviously gives her an inside view of their relationship, and almost makes her a part of it; both Kadrin and Nereen consider her a friend, and their letters to each other often include bits of Jin’s commentary, which she’s been (playfully) ordered to include.

So it’s really not weird at all that when Nereen decides she wants out, it’s Jin she turns to for escape, and Kadrin she looks to for sanctuary. If Jin can just get Nereed to Kadrin’s Kerina, everything will be fine.

Spoiler: things do not go according to plan.

Road to Ruin is a very easy-to-read book, the writing kept simple and accessible, the worldbuilding fairly minimal (although there’s much more of it than there seems at first!) I want to say this is one of those books that would be a good intro for someone who doesn’t usually read fantasy – there’s nothing pretentious about it, and it doesn’t depend on the reader being familiar with genre conventions. You can dive right in, and everything you need to understand what’s going on is squarely between its own pages.

…I was a little bored. And I don’t know why! Because when you look at it objectively, there is plenty going on in this book, complete with twists and a few genuinely surprising reveals. There’s also some really cool groundwork laid for further revelations to come in the sequel/s. I should have been completely hooked.

And I wasn’t. There’s quite a bit I liked in theory, but didn’t really care about in practice – there are Women Belong to Themselves Actually issues, and classism, and twisty religions that have perhaps mutated from what they meant originally, and the mystery of the Road Builders (us??? Is this meant to be set in our future??? Are we the Road Builders??? Very unclear, will probably become clearer later in the series). There is a Completely Unexpected Thing, which I would love to go into more detail on but I can’t see how to do so without spoilering you – Jin and Nereen stumble onto a very cool discovery, there, that’s the best I can do, and I, as a worldbuilding nut, wanted to know so much more about that than we got (although kudos to Lee for believable language barriers; I’m a little tired of fantasy protagonists always being linguistic geniuses and picking up new languages in ten minutes flat).

There are also dinosaurs. They live in the wastes and different ones can be dangerous in different ways. I’m not going to lie, something about the inclusion of dinosaurs really rubbed me the wrong way – maybe because they seemed so random? But if this ISN’T a future version of our world, why NOT dinosaurs??? (Or even if it IS set in our future, can I swear that some twit wouldn’t clone dinosaurs and release them into the wild at some point? No, no I cannot.) I can’t justify my dislike, I just…didn’t like it.

Between every chapter we get one of the letters that have been going between Nereen and Kadrin for years, which were surely there so we could see the development of their relationship – to establish it as established, if you will. But I have to admit that I didn’t end up very invested in the love story, despite being so excited for a polyamorous fantasy. I could see genuine respect and friendship between all three of our protagonists, but romantic vibes and chemistry? Uh, no. Not at all. It fell very flat for me.

I wonder if most of this was more due to the writing style rather than the story itself? Plain, blunt/direct prose generally doesn’t work for me, and even though it felt appropriate to the book’s adventure/action vibes, it may have prevented me from connecting with the story properly. Because I really don’t think this is an objectively bad book. (Although I really, really didn’t understand the bad guy’s plan. Like, at all. The goal, yes, but not how doing what he wanted to do would accomplish that goal.) I think the right reader will find it fun, and enjoy the twists, and all the different plot threads that Lee weaves together.

But for some reason, Road to Ruin didn’t feel twisty to me. Even though it is. It felt straightforward despite not being predictable; it felt simple even though there are so many balls in the air all the time; it felt thin despite having layers and layers of worldbuilding and politics and all going on.

You will notice, this is all about my feelings. Because I can’t point to any particular thing (well, except the bad guy’s plan) and say, this is not good. If I take a step back, and try and look at this book objectively, there’s plenty to be impressed by. And yet I am not impressed. I’m not that interested. It doesn’t feel (that word again!) at all memorable. I do not see myself picking up the sequels.

I don’t know what’s going on, but for whatever reason, I don’t think I’m seeing this book properly. I don’t trust my own judgement on it. That judgement being: it’s perfectly fine, not terrible, not amazing, potentially fun for the right kind of reader.

But I think it might be kind of amazing? Is the thing?

Basically, please read a lot of other reviews for this book before you make your decision on whether or not to buy it. This one time, I’m telling you not to listen to my take. I think I’m wrong, wrong in a very odd way that feels very strange from the inside. And it means my opinion probably shouldn’t be counted.

The post Don’t Trust Me On This One: Road to Ruin by Hana Lee appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Adventures in Discomfort: A Rec List of Disability in Fantasy

This year’s Wyrd & Wonder theme is comfort zone, but there are some people who rarely get any kind of comfort in Fantasy – either in the actual stories themselves, or in the reading of them. I suppose that describes a few different groups, but today, I’m thinking of the disabled community, of which I’m a part.

I’ve put together a rec list of Fantasy books with disabled protagonists, and ended up writing a little mini-essay thing with some of my thoughts (and no clear answers) as a kind of introduction to the topic. Feel free to skip the essay and head straight to the list if you like; it’s not comfortable reading, and I won’t be offended in the least. I just needed to write out some of my thoughts in the hopes of untangling them. (Didn’t really work!)

Thoughts

Last year, for the first time, I read a book where the main character has the same disabling chronic illness that I do: The Undetectables by Courtney Smyth.

It was excellent, accurate representation. And it was…weird. Because it made me realise that I both did and did not want that representation. It’s not that the fibro bogged down the plot or anything, nothing like that, but – I am a soft-hearted wimp. I don’t want people to be in pain, even fictional people. I don’t want anyone to have fibro!

But pretending it doesn’t exist…doesn’t feel right. That’s not a solution either, is it?

I want everyone to have a happy ending. I want there to be a magic cure for Marcy! I want her fibro to be fixed! (This is why it took me so long to understand what there is to be upset about at the lack of disability representation in SFF. I was baffled for a long time. Don’t you want a world where science or magic could cure you, fix you? And I think some of us do, but I understand better now why some of us don’t – more on this in a bit.) But…I might throw the book across the room, if she did. Because I can’t be cured, and I think reading about a fictional cure might wreck me, might make all the misery I shove aside about it on a daily basis (because what good does it do me?) burst up like someone striking stinking, toxic oil – and what good does that do me?

I don’t know if I want the reminder of what I live with in the stories I read. When I read, the real world switches off, becomes very unreal. I don’t want to take my fibro with me. I can’t figure out what I feel about finding it already there, waiting for me.

It’s an acknowledgement that I exist, though. It’s an eye-opener for people who’ve never heard of the condition, or don’t really understand it. Aren’t those things important?

Fantasy has the potential to fix disabilities and cure chronic illnesses – of course it does, it’s fantasy. (Although I do not think the reason disability appears so rarely in fantasy is because the author has decided to hand out magic cures before the story starts. I’m pretty sure most able-bodied authors just don’t think to include disabled people – and that’s the best-case scenario.) And a big part of me wants that. On the other hand, many disabled people don’t feel like they need to be fixed – they just want a world that accommodates them properly and fairly. It’s a difference in opinion pretty perfectly encapsulated by the opposing views of Storm and Rogue on the ‘cure’ for mutants in X-Men: The Last Stand, quickly summarised here, where the two characters stand in (whether intentionally or not on part of the writers, I have no idea) for the two halves of the disabled community: those who are ‘only’ disabled, and those who are disabled by, or have on top of their other disabilities, chronic illnesses.

It’s not about who’s worse off, but I think it’s easy to understand why someone in a lot of pain might want to be ‘cured’, whereas someone in no or less pain, who does not view their body as broken, just different, might reject the idea of being ‘fixed’.

So it follows that we have different opinions on how SFF portrays and deals with (or doesn’t) disability. Those looking for escapism and wish-fulfilment might want to see ‘cures’ (for their own specific disability. No one with any sense or empathy would sweepingly declare that we all need curing/fixing) or just avoid reminders of their own conditions. But another version of wish-fulfilment is in seeing people with your disability getting to have adventures just like everyone else; and/or experiencing fictional worlds that accommodate disability the way queernorm worlds make being queer no big deal.

And every time we see a world where no one is disabled? We know it means one of three things; that the author forgot we exist – the way so many able-bodied people forget about us in real life; or, like a well-intentioned but cringingly wrong Ally, they think a perfect world is one in which we’re all ‘fixed’; or, probably worst of all, they think we couldn’t survive (and thrive) in their world – maybe even that we shouldn’t exist there in the first place.

Something to bear in mind if you write your own stories.

And if you’re a reader rather than a writer – or a reader as well as a writer – maybe think about what it says when you see us – or don’t – in the books you pick up.

The ListThe Undetectables by Courtney Smyth
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC with fibromyalgia, major brown sapphic character, major bisexual character, major gay character, minor nonbinary characters, other minor disability
Protagonist Age: Mid-20s
Goodreads

Be gay, solve crime, take naps—A witty and quirky fantasy murder mystery if a folkloric world of witches, faeires, vampires, trolls and ghosts, for fans of Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey and T. J. Klune's Under the Whispering Door.

A magical serial killer is stalking the Occult town of Wrackton. Hypnotic whistling causes victims to chew their own tongues off, leading to the killer being dubbed the Whistler (original, right?). But outside the lack of taste buds and the strange magical carvings on the victims’ torsos, the murderer leaves no evidence. No obvious clues. No reason – or so it seems.

Enter the Undetectables, a detective agency run by three witches and a ghost in a cat costume (don’t ask). They are hired to investigate the murders, but with their only case so far left unsolved, will they be up to the task? Mallory, the forensic science expert, is struggling with pain and fatigue from her recently diagnosed fibromyalgia. Cornelia, the team member most likely to go rogue and punch a police officer, is suddenly stirring all sorts of feelings in Mallory. Diana, the social butterfly of the group, is hitting up all of her ex-girlfriends for information. And not forgetting ghostly Theodore – deceased, dramatic, and also the agency’s first dead body and unsolved murder case.

With bodies stacking up and the case leading them to mysteries at the very heart of magical society, can the Undetectables find the Whistler before they become the killer’s next victims?

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-09T11:10:22+00:00", "description": "A rec list of Fantasy featuring disabled protagonists - with a little mini-essay of my own thoughts on the topic.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/adventures-in-discomfort-disability-in-fantasy\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Undetectables", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Courtney Smyth", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Literally the only time I’ve ever seen a main character with fibromyalgia, this also happens to be a fun, but surprisingly deep, friendship-murder mystery mix. The worldbuilding looks simple at first, but has unexpected (and much appreciated) depths to it – and there’s no denying Smyth writes an AMAZING ensemble cast!

My review!

Godkiller (Fallen Gods, #1) by Hannah Kaner
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC with prosthetic leg, Black MC, minor Deaf and wheelchair-using characters, queernorm world
Protagonist Age: 26; 30ish; 14ish
Goodreads

Kissen’s family were killed by zealots of a fire god. Now, she makes a living killing gods, and enjoys it. That is until she finds a god she cannot kill: Skedi, a god of white lies, has somehow bound himself to a young noble, and they are both on the run from unknown assassins.

Joined by a disillusioned knight on a secret quest, they must travel to the ruined city of Blenraden, where the last of the wild gods reside, to each beg a favour.

Pursued by demons, and in the midst of burgeoning civil war, they will all face a reckoning – something is rotting at the heart of their world, and only they can be the ones to stop it.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-09T11:10:22+00:00", "description": "A rec list of Fantasy featuring disabled protagonists - with a little mini-essay of my own thoughts on the topic.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/adventures-in-discomfort-disability-in-fantasy\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Godkiller (Fallen Gods, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Hannah Kaner", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

After the events of the prologue, Kissen, an extremely badass godkiller, has a prosthetic leg – which she’s learned to make good use of, but it’s a similar situation to the Winter Soldier’s metal arm: the fact that it’s capable of some impressive stuff doesn’t change the fact that it is a prosthetic, and that requires a person to make all kinds of adjustments to their life. There are things Kissen can’t do, or can’t do as easily or as well as someone with both legs, and there’s physical pain she has to deal with. That does not stop her, though.

Thief Mage, Beggar Mage (Beggar Mage Cycle #1) by Cat Hellisen
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC with chronic pain; queer amputee love interest
Protagonist Age: 34
Goodreads

Tet is no longer a priest-mage; thrown out from his temple and cursed by his gods to return a stolen relic. With every passing year, the curse works deeper into his flesh, breaking and twisting him until finally, driven by pain, Tet makes a drastic play to escape the gods.

His luck turns sour, and the escape costs him his soul, drawing his death even closer when he is captured by the despotic White Prince. In order to escape the prince, retrieve his soul and break the curse, Tet must form a fragile alliance with a man he cannot trust. An alliance made brittle by lies and deception; one that may take his heart as well as his soul.

Thief Mage, Beggar Mage is a lush, queer reimagining of Andersen’s The Tinderbox, embroidered with dreams, secret identities, stolen magic, giant spectral dogs, clockwork monsters, prophetic dragons, and the grand games of gods and humans.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-09T11:10:22+00:00", "description": "A rec list of Fantasy featuring disabled protagonists - with a little mini-essay of my own thoughts on the topic.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/adventures-in-discomfort-disability-in-fantasy\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Thief Mage, Beggar Mage (Beggar Mage Cycle #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Cat Hellisen", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Tet experiences constant chronic pain as part of a curse. He stars in this lush, but sometimes very dark, retelling of the less-well-known fairytale The Tinderbox, but this is not one of those times where you need to be familiar with the original story; there are some Easter eggs for those who know it, but Thief Mage Beggar Mage is so unique and wildly different from its source material that readers who’ve never head of The Tinderbox will be just fine.

And I guarantee you won’t see that ending coming!

My review!

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown cast, queer amputee MC, queer MC, M/M
Protagonist Age: 20s?
Goodreads

Two warriors shepherd an ancient god across a broken land to end the tyrannical reign of a royal family in this new epic fantasy from the author of The Vanished Birds.

The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.

But that god cannot be contained forever.

With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom—and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined.

Both a sweeping adventure story and an intimate exploration of identity, legacy, and belonging, The Spear Cuts Through Water is an ambitious and profound saga that will transport and transform you—and is like nothing you’ve ever read before.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-09T11:10:22+00:00", "description": "A rec list of Fantasy featuring disabled protagonists - with a little mini-essay of my own thoughts on the topic.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/adventures-in-discomfort-disability-in-fantasy\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Spear Cuts Through Water", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Simon Jimenez", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

If you’ve heard people raving about this book: they were right, it really is as mindblowingly amazing as everyone says. If you’re not heard of it before: congrats, now you have! Jimenez broke the mould with this one; he does things with storytelling – as in literally how we tell stories – that I could never have imagined, and if someone had pitched it to me, I would have thought it wasn’t allowed. That one of the main characters (who takes a moment to appear) is an amputee is such a tiny part of what makes it special. The story itself is rich and raw and can’t be comped to anything else; there are some moments of gore and awfulness, so check the content warnings online if you might need to, but this really is a book every fantasy reader should read at least once.

My review!

The Stone Knife (The Songs of the Drowned, #1) by Anna Stephens
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Central American-coded cast, Deaf MC, M/M, bi/pansexual MC, queernorm world
Protagonist Age: Mid-20s; 30+
Goodreads

A fantasy epic of freedom and empire, gods and monsters, love, loyalty, honour, and betrayal, from the acclaimed author of GODBLIND.

For generations, the forests of Ixachipan have echoed with the clash of weapons, as nation after nation has fallen to the Empire of Songs – and to the unending, magical music that binds its people together. Now, only two free tribes remain.

The Empire is not their only enemy. Monstrous, scaled predators lurk in rivers and streams, with a deadly music of their own.

As battle looms, fighters on both sides must decide how far they will go for their beliefs and for the ones they love – a veteran general seeks peace through war, a warrior and a shaman set out to understand their enemies, and an ambitious noble tries to bend ancient magic to her will.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-09T11:10:22+00:00", "description": "A rec list of Fantasy featuring disabled protagonists - with a little mini-essay of my own thoughts on the topic.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/adventures-in-discomfort-disability-in-fantasy\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Stone Knife (The Songs of the Drowned, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Anna Stephens", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

The Songs of the Drowned series is Central American-inspired grimdark, so be warned for all kinds of awfulness and tragedy. But it’s not only the setting that makes it pretty unique; one of the main characters, Xessa, is Deaf, and that means very different things for her in different parts of her world/the story. When we open book one, Xessa is part of…let’s call it a guild of monster-hunters, all of whom are either Deaf or use magic to become temporarily Deaf while on duty, because the monsters use song to hypnotise their victims. There’s even an amazing, monster-hunting-assisting service dog!!! Seriously, I don’t understand how this trilogy isn’t FAR better known than it is!

My review (of book one)!

The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro, Daniel Kraus
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Mute MC, secondary Black MC, secondary gay MC
Protagonist Age: Late-20s?
Goodreads

It is 1962, and Elisa Esposito—mute her whole life, orphaned as a child—is struggling with her humdrum existence as a janitor working the graveyard shift at Baltimore’s Occam Aerospace Research Center. Were it not for Zelda, a protective coworker, and Giles, her loving neighbor, she doesn’t know how she’d make it through the day.

Then, one fateful night, she sees something she was never meant to see, the Center’s most sensitive asset ever: an amphibious man, captured in the Amazon, to be studied for Cold War advancements. The creature is terrifying but also magnificent, capable of language and of understanding emotions…and Elisa can’t keep away. Using sign language, the two learn to communicate. Soon, affection turns into love, and the creature becomes Elisa’s sole reason to live.

But outside forces are pressing in. Richard Strickland, the obsessed soldier who tracked the asset through the Amazon, wants nothing more than to dissect it before the Russians get a chance to steal it. Elisa has no choice but to risk everything to save her beloved. With the help of Zelda and Giles, Elisa hatches a plan to break out the creature. But Strickland is on to them. And the Russians are, indeed, coming.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-09T11:10:22+00:00", "description": "A rec list of Fantasy featuring disabled protagonists - with a little mini-essay of my own thoughts on the topic.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/adventures-in-discomfort-disability-in-fantasy\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Shape of Water", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Guillermo del Toro, Daniel Kraus", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Did you know there’s a novel of The Shape of Water? Because there is, and it’s EXCELLENT, whether you’ve seen the film or not! Seriously, just because you’ve seen the movie doesn’t mean you know exactly how the book will go; they differ in a few ways, which I think is great, and the novel is just objectively incredible. As in the film, our main character Elisa is mute, and it’s so wonderful to get more of her thoughts and inner life in the book, since those are obviously much harder to convey on a movie screen!

Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites by Joy Demorra
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Partially Deaf MC with chronic pain and disabled leg, neurodivergent MC with clinical anxiety
Protagonist Age: Fantasy equivalent of 30s-ish
Goodreads

In a world of dwindling hope, love has never mattered more...

Captain Nathan J. Northland had no idea what to expect when he returned home to Lorehaven injured from war, but it certainly wasn't to find himself posted on an island full of vampires. An island whose local vampire dandy lord causes Nathan to feel strange things he'd never felt before. Particularly about fangs.

When Vlad Blutstein agreed to hire Nathan as Captain of the Eyrie Guard, he hadn't been sure what to expect either, but it certainly hadn't been to fall in love with a disabled werewolf. However Vlad has fallen and fallen hard, and that's the problem.
Torn by their allegiances--to family, to duty, and the age-old enmity between vampires and werewolves--the pair find themselves in a difficult situation: to love where the heart wants or to follow where expectation demands.

The situation is complicated further when a mysterious and beguiling figure known only as Lady Ursula crashes into their lives, bringing with her dark omens of death, doom, and destruction in her wake.

And a desperate plea for help neither of them can ignore.

Thrown together in uncertain times and struggling to find their place amidst the rising human empire, the unlikely trio must decide how to face the coming darkness: united as one or divided and alone. One thing is for certain, none of them will ever be the same.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-09T11:10:22+00:00", "description": "A rec list of Fantasy featuring disabled protagonists - with a little mini-essay of my own thoughts on the topic.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/adventures-in-discomfort-disability-in-fantasy\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joy Demorra", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This is probably the most fun-feeling book on this list – it feels light-hearted even when it touches on heavier topics. I’m not sure how some authors manage that trick, but Demorra has it down. A Scottish werewolf, left disabled after his tour with the military, ends up entangled with a socialist vampire – and both of them get drawn into helping prevent a kind of magically-caused ecological apocalypse. There are many Feels, lots of laughs, and another edition with fade-to-black sex scenes, if you’d prefer that. The first book in a duology, it’s been described as “like reading the queer, goth love child of Terry Pratchett meets Jane Austen,” which honestly hits the nail on the head. I’ve yet to meet anyone who didn’t read this and love it!

Thornfruit (The Gardener's Hand, #1) by Felicia Davin
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC with prosopagnosia (face blindness), brown queer MC
Protagonist Age: 19ish
Goodreads

There were two secrets in Varenx House, and Alizhan was one of them.

Alizhan can't see faces, but she can read minds. Her mysterious ability leaves her unable to touch or be touched without excruciating pain. Rescued from abandonment and raised by the wealthy and beautiful Iriyat ha-Varensi, Alizhan has grown up in isolation, using her gift to steal secrets from Iriyat's rivals, the ruling class of Laalvur. But Iriyat keeps secrets of her own.

When Alizhan discovers that she isn't the only one of her kind, and that a deadly plot threatens everyone like her, there's only one person she can trust.

Ev liked having a secret. None of the other girls in the village had a thief-friend.

Evreyet Umarsad-"Ev" to her parents and her one friend-longs to be the kind of hero she reads about in books. But the rest of the world feels impossibly far away from her life on a farm outside Laalvur. Ev will never lay eyes on the underground city of Adappyr, the stars of the Nightward Coast, or the venomous medusas that glow in the dark depths of the sea.

At least on her weekly trip to the market, Ev gets to see her thief-the strange young woman who slips by her cart and playfully steals a handful of thornfruit. When the thief needs help, Ev doesn't hesitate. Together, they uncover a conspiracy that draws them all over Laalvur and beyond.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-09T11:10:22+00:00", "description": "A rec list of Fantasy featuring disabled protagonists - with a little mini-essay of my own thoughts on the topic.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/adventures-in-discomfort-disability-in-fantasy\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Thornfruit (The Gardener's Hand, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Felicia Davin", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

In Thornfruit, we meet Alizhan, a telepath who’s used to sneaking out secrets for her guardian. She’s also face blind, which I initially thought might be a side-effect of her telepathy, but it’s later made clear that that isn’t the case. Together with Ev, they navigate their world – a planet which doesn’t spin, and thus has areas of permanent daylight, twilight, and darkness – in their efforts to discover what the secrets of Alizhan’s guardian has to do with the cataclysmic tsunamis their people live in terror of…and what other magical powers might be out there beside Alizhan’s telepathy.

Water Horse by Melissa Scott
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bi/pansexual MC missing an eye, M/M, M/F/M polyamorous MCs, queernorm culture
Protagonist Age: 40s+
Goodreads

For the last twenty years, Esclin Aubrinos, arros of the Hundred Hills, has acted jointly with Alcis Mirielos, the kyra of the Westwood, and the rivermaster of Riverholme to defend their land of Allanoth against the Riders who invade from Manan across the Narrow Sea. He has long been a master of the shifting politics of his own people and his independently-minded allies, but this year the omens turn against him. The Riders have elected a new lord paramount, hallowed servant of the Blazing One, a man chosen and fated for victory.

The omens agree that Nen Elin, Esclin’s stronghold and the heart of Allanoth, will fall when a priest of the Blazing One enters its gates. Esclin needs a spirit-bonded royal sword, a talismanic weapon made of star-fallen iron, to unite the hillfolk behind him. But the same vision that called for the sword proclaimed that Esclin will then betray it, and every step he takes to twist free of the prophecies brings him closer to that doom.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-09T11:10:22+00:00", "description": "A rec list of Fantasy featuring disabled protagonists - with a little mini-essay of my own thoughts on the topic.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/adventures-in-discomfort-disability-in-fantasy\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Water Horse", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Melissa Scott", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

One of the main characters of Water Horse, a queer king with a reputation as a trickster, is missing an eye. Given how vital our eyes are to our depth perception, that makes being a warrior-king difficult – so Esclin relies instead on out-thinking his enemies. This is a really beautiful standalone High Fantasy, with much more nuance than I was expecting from an us vs them story. I’m pretty sure Scott drew some inspiration from ancient Ireland for this one, but as usual the world she’s created is very much its own. Possibly the least-well-known book on this list – I need more people to read it!

Stranger (The Change, #1) by Rachel Manija Brown, Sherwood Smith
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy, YA
Representation: Disabled MC, Korean demisexual MC, bi/pansexual hispanic MC, gay Japanese MC
Protagonist Age: 18ish
Goodreads

Many generations ago, a mysterious cataclysm struck the world. Governments collapsed and people scattered, to rebuild where they could. A mutation, "the Change,” arose, granting some people unique powers. Though the area once called Los Angeles retains its cultural diversity, its technological marvels have faded into legend. "Las Anclas" now resembles a Wild West frontier town… where the Sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can warp time to heal his patients, and the distant ruins of an ancient city bristle with deadly crystalline trees that take their jewel-like colors from the clothes of the people they killed.

Teenage prospector Ross Juarez’s best find ever – an ancient book he doesn’t know how to read – nearly costs him his life when a bounty hunter is set on him to kill him and steal the book. Ross barely makes it to Las Anclas, bringing with him a precious artifact, a power no one has ever had before, and a whole lot of trouble.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-09T11:10:22+00:00", "description": "A rec list of Fantasy featuring disabled protagonists - with a little mini-essay of my own thoughts on the topic.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/adventures-in-discomfort-disability-in-fantasy\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Stranger (The Change, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rachel Manija Brown, Sherwood Smith", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Most of the time, when I come across a character with a disability or chronic illness in fiction, they’ve had it for a while. In Stranger, the first book in the Change series, we see Ross get the injury that results in permanent damage to his right hand and arm, and a small subplot over the course of the series is him learning to adjust and finding ways to compensate, coming to terms with the fact that he’s never going to be like he was before. This series manages to balance feel-good with very difficult, sometimes very dark, themes – and the final book is being released this October!

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe (The Salvagers, #1) by Alex White
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy
Representation: MC with fantasy disability, sapphic MC
Protagonist Age: Two mid-20s; rest of cast 30+
Goodreads

Furious and fun, the first book in this bold, new science fiction adventure series follows a ragtag group of adventurers as they try to find a legendary ship that just might be the key to clearing their name and saving the universe.

Boots Elsworth was a famous treasure hunter in another life, but now she's washed up. She makes her meager living faking salvage legends and selling them to the highest bidder, but this time she got something real--the story of the Harrow, a famous warship, capable of untold destruction. Nilah Brio is the top driver in the Pan Galactic Racing Federation and the darling of the racing world--until she witnesses Mother murder a fellow racer. Framed for the murder and on the hunt to clear her name, Nilah has only one lead: the killer also hunts Boots.On the wrong side of the law, the two women board a smuggler's ship that will take them on a quest for fame, for riches, and for justice.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-09T11:10:22+00:00", "description": "A rec list of Fantasy featuring disabled protagonists - with a little mini-essay of my own thoughts on the topic.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/adventures-in-discomfort-disability-in-fantasy\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe (The Salvagers, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alex White", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Boots is the only character on this list to have a fantasy disability – meaning, one that doesn’t exist in our world, but very much does in hers. In a galaxy where everything runs on magic because everyone has it, Boots…doesn’t. And over and over again throughout the trilogy, we see how much that sucks for her, and the complicated, often expensive methods she has to use to manage what everyone else can do or access without thought. Not that that’s enough to stop her from helping save the universe from a bunch of narcissists who are out to make themselves gods…

Honourable MentionThe Library of the Dead (Edinburgh Nights, #1) by T.L. Huchu
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Black MC, secondary sapphic Desi character in a wheelchair
Protagonist Age: 15
Goodreads

When a child goes missing in Edinburgh's darkest streets, young Ropa investigates. She'll need to call on Zimbabwean magic as well as her Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. But as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?

When ghosts talk, she will listen...

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker. Now she speaks to Edinburgh's dead, carrying messages to the living. A girl's gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone's bewitching children--leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It's on Ropa's patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world.

She'll dice with death (not part of her life plan...), discovering an occult library and a taste for hidden magic. She'll also experience dark times. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets, and Ropa's gonna hunt them all down.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-09T11:10:22+00:00", "description": "A rec list of Fantasy featuring disabled protagonists - with a little mini-essay of my own thoughts on the topic.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/adventures-in-discomfort-disability-in-fantasy\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Library of the Dead (Edinburgh Nights, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "T.L. Huchu", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Priya isn’t the main character of the Edinburgh Nights series, but I sure hope she gets a spin-off series of her own eventually! (And she has such a huge role in book two she comes very close to being co-main character with Ropa!) She’s a (brown, sapphic) wheelchair user who is able to get around just fine – including pulling a Spiderman and rolling her chair up walls and across ceilings when required!

(Also no, the character age isn’t a typo. Despite the MC being 15, it’s still an Adult series. Don’t ask me how Huchu makes it work; he just does, he’s that good!)

Do you know of any Fantasy (or Sci Fi!) with great disability rep? Drop any recs in the comments!

The post Adventures in Discomfort: A Rec List of Disability in Fantasy appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 

This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy!

The Sapling Cage (Daughters of the Empty Throne, #1) by Margaret Killjoy
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MC
Published on: 24th September 2024
Goodreads

In the gripping first novel in the Daughters of the Empty Throne trilogy, author Margaret Killjoy spins a tale of earth magic, power struggle, and self-invention in an own-voices story of trans witchcraft.

Lorel has always dreamed of becoming a witch: learning magic, fighting monsters, and exploring the world beyond the small town where she and her mother run the stables. Even though a strange plague is killing the trees in the Kingdom of Cekon and witches are being blamed for it, Lorel wants nothing more than to join them. There’s only one problem: all witches are women, and she was born a boy.

When the coven comes to claim her best friend, Lorel disguises herself in a dress and joins in her friend’s place, leaving home and her old self behind. She soon discovers the dark powers threatening the kingdom: a magical blight scars the land, and the power-mad Duchess Helte is crushing everything between her and the crown. In spite of these dangers, Lorel makes friends and begins learning magic from the powerful witches in her coven. However, she fears that her new friends and mentors will find out her secret and kick her out of the coven, or worse.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-08T19:34:58+00:00", "description": "Margaret Killjoy has written a trans witch novel and called it THE BEST THING SHE'S EVER WRITTEN!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-the-sapling-cage-by-margaret-killjoy\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Sapling Cage (Daughters of the Empty Throne, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Margaret Killjoy", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

You might remember Killjoy as the author of the awesome Danielle Cain novella series, which, if you haven’t read them, you should. The first in that series, The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, was the first thing I ever read by Killjoy, and made it VERY CLEAR that this was an author to keep an eye on.

SO YOU CAN IMAGINE MY FREAKING DELIGHT WHEN I HEARD SHE WAS WRITING A TRANS FANTASY TRILOGY.

Everything I’ve read of Killjoy’s fiction – which is not her entire bibliography, but is most of it – has featured socialist and/or anarchist themes, and queerness, and much critiquing of power structures, so I’m expecting all of that from Sapling Cage. And so I’m very interested in the title of the trilogy, Daughters of the Empty Throne – what is the empty throne??? Is it an anti-monarchist symbol, or is there an actual, literal throne involved somewhere? I would be very surprised if Killjoy wrote a ‘surprise, you’re a princess now!’ story, so I don’t think Lorel will end up in the throne – but maybe she’s a part of emptying it, or keeping it empty?

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

It doesn’t really matter, I was always going to pounce on anything Killjoy wrote, whatever it was about. But it does make me FLAIL WITH EXCITEMENT that she’s described it as ‘the best thing I’ve ever written’, because – I mean, everything she’s written up till now has been AMAZING. So you’re telling me it’s EVEN BETTER THAN ALL THAT HAS COME BEFORE IT???

THAT IS A LOT OF BESTNESS. LIKE. A LOT.

I know Lorel is 16 when the book starts, and this is a coming of age story, but I’m not clear on whether this is YA or not – I’m leaning towards not, because, that cover??? And also Killjoy has never written YA before, as far as I know; this publisher, Feminist Press, has never published YA before that I can tell; and everywhere I can find a preorder listing for Sapling Cage, it’s listed under Fantasy, not YA Fantasy.

I could be wrong, but even if I am – BEST THING SHE’S EVER WRITTEN. I couldn’t care less if it’s YA or Adult or New Adult or some new thing I’ve never heard of, I’M READING IT AND YOU CAN’T STOP ME!

It looks like you can preorder it from most of the usual places already, but Feminist Press will also be doing preorders through a Kickstarter campaign – you can sign up here to be notified when the campaign goes live.

BEST

THING

SHE’S

EVER

WRITTEN!!!

The post I Can’t Wait For…The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #185

Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.

THIRTEEN books this week!

(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)

The Brides of High Hill (The Singing Hills Cycle, #5) by Nghi Vo
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Non-binary MC
Published on: 7th May 2024
Goodreads

The Hugo Award-Winning Series returns with its newest standalone entry: a gothic mystery involving a crumbling estate, a mysterious bride, and an extremely murderous teapot.

The Cleric Chih accompanies a beautiful young bride to her wedding to an aging lord at a crumbling estate situated at the crossroads of dead empires. But they’re forgetting things they ought to remember, and the lord’s mad young son wanders the grounds at night like a hanged ghost.

The Singing Hills Cycle has been shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award, the Ignyte Award, and has won the Hugo Award and the Crawford Award.

"A remarkable accomplishment of storytelling."―NPR on The Empress of Salt and Fortune

"Nghi Vo is one of the most original writers we have today."―Taylor Jenkins Reid on Siren Queen

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-06T08:43:00+00:00", "description": "Zombies, kitsune, peacock monsters, and magic schools!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-185\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Brides of High Hill (The Singing Hills Cycle, #5)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Nghi Vo", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

New Nghi Vo novella! And a return to my favourite story-collecting monk! All the Singing Hills novellas work as standalones, so you can start with this instalment if you like. This one’s supposed to be quite Gothic…which it does sound like, from the blurb!

Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Biracial trans MC, hispanic MC, polyamory
Protagonist Age: late 20s/early 30s; 40s
Published on: 7th May 2024
Goodreads

Paperback reissue of the exciting debut - an edgy, queer cyberpunk detective mystery.

This punk ain’t feelin’ lucky.

It’s 2032 and we live in the worst cyberpunk future. Kiera is gigging her ass off to keep the lights on, but her polycule’s social score is so dismal they’re about to lose their crib. That’s why she’s out here chasing cheaters with Angel Herrera, a luddite P.I. who thinks this is The Big Sleep . Then the latest job cuts too deep—hired to locate Herrera’s ex-best friend (who’s also Kiera’s pro bono attorney), they find him murdered instead. Their only a stick of Nag Champa incense dropped at the scene.

Next thing Kiera knows, her new crush turns up missing—sans a hand (the real one, not the cybernetic), and there’s the familiar stink of sandalwood across the apartment. Two crimes, two sticks of incense, Kiera framed for both. She told Herrera to lose her number, but now the old man might be her only way out of this bullshit...

A fast-talker with a heart of gold, Bang Bang Bodhisattva is both an odd-couple buddy comedy that never knows when to shut up and an exploration of finding yourself and your people in an ever-mutable world.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-06T08:43:00+00:00", "description": "Zombies, kitsune, peacock monsters, and magic schools!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-185\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Bang Bang Bodhisattva", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Aubrey Wood", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I do not generally feature paperback reissues of books, but damn it, Bang Bang Bodhisattva is GODS DAMN AMAZING and NO ONE seems to know about it!!! It’s absolutely PACKED with Feels, manages to be hilarious despite the hellscape near-future setting, there’s an absolutely bizarre murder-mystery, the sci fi aspects are awesome, and the heart of it all is made up of queer joy. Can’t recommend it strongly enough!

Archangels of Funk by Andrea Hairston
Genres: Adult, Sci Fi
Representation: Black MC
Published on: 7th May 2024
Goodreads

Octavia Butler meets Neil Gaiman in a tale about running from your past and hiding from your future.

The Water Wars have scrambled the world. Flood refugees are on the run. Disruptors and the Nostalgia Militia roam the roads wreaking havoc. Invisible Darknet lords troll the internet solidifying their power, while Cinnamon her three Circus-Bots, and two dogs, work with a community of Farmers, Motor Fairies and Wheel-Wizards to provide housing, healthcare and education for flood refugees.

Slipping into periodic despair, Cinnamon’s been hiding out. She’s ready to ditch the Next World Festival she runs―a sci-fi carnival jam featuring music, dance, masked revelers, drum circles and storytellers in a grassy amphitheatre on the farm she inherited. Her elders haunt her, insisting she do the Festival no matter what.

As she confronts threats to the life she’s attempting to live from the Darknet Lords and the Nostalgia Militia, Cinnamon must determine how best to honor her elders and her history, while building a future for herself and her charges.

It’s not going to be easy.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-06T08:43:00+00:00", "description": "Zombies, kitsune, peacock monsters, and magic schools!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-185\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Archangels of Funk", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Andrea Hairston", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Hairston’s Master of Poisons was one of the first books I reviewed for this blog, and convinced me that Hairston was an author to watch. That’s been borne out over the years, and now we have her newest release! Not gonna lie, it sounds like a heavier book than I’m willing to read right now, but it’s definitely going on the tbr!

The Z Word by Lindsay King-Miller
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi, New Adult
Representation: Bisexual MC, assorted queer cast
Published on: 7th May 2024
Goodreads

“Sexy, scathing, delightful, and intimately devastating.”—Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt and Cuckoo

Packed with action, humor, sex, and big gay feelings, The Z Word is the queer Zombieland you didn’t know you needed.

Chaotic bisexual Wendy is trying to find her place in the queer community of San Lazaro, Arizona, after a bad breakup—which is particularly difficult because her ex is hooking up with some of her friends. And when the people around them start turning into violent, terrifying mindless husks, well, that makes things harder. Especially since the infection seems to be spreading.

Now, Wendy and her friends and frenemies—drag queen Logan, silver fox Beau, sword lesbian Aurelia and her wife Sam, mysterious pizza delivery stoner Sunshine, and, oh yeah, Wendy’s ex-girlfriend Leah—have to team up to stay alive, save Pride, and track the zombie outbreak to its shocking source. Hopefully without killing each other first.

The Z Word is a propulsive, funny, emotional horror debut about a found family coming together to fight corporate greed, political corruption, gay drama, and zombies.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-06T08:43:00+00:00", "description": "Zombies, kitsune, peacock monsters, and magic schools!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-185\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Z Word", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lindsay King-Miller", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Apocalypses are terrifying, but if you have to go through one, doing so with a gang of messy queers at least promises to be a lot of fun! Or do I mean drama? I might mean drama. I probably mean drama. But drama is fun when you’re not in it, so I’ll be having fun, even if the characters might not be!

Red Side Story (Shades of Grey, #2) by Jasper Fforde
Genres: Adult, Sci Fi
Protagonist Age: 20
Published on: 7th May 2024
Goodreads

The long-awaited follow-up to the New York Times bestselling Shades of Grey—in an exclusive edition for North American readers, complete with a never-before-published short story

“Fforde's books are more than an ingenious idea. They are written with buoyant zest and are tautly plotted . . . and are embellished with the rich details of a Dickens or Pratchett.” —The Independent

Welcome to Chromatacia, where the societal hierarchy is strictly regulated by one's limited color perception. Civilization has been rebuilt after an unspoken “Something that Happened” five hundred years ago. Society is now color vision-segregated, professions, marriages, and leisure activities all dictated by an individual’s visual ability, and everything run by the shadowy National Color in far-off Emerald City.

Out on the fringes of Red Sector West, twenty-year-old Eddie Russett is being bullied into an arranged marriage with the powerful DeMauve family, purples who hope to redden up their progeny’s color-viewing potential with Eddie’s gene stock. Their obnoxious daughter Violet is confident the marriage won’t hamper her style for too long because Eddie is about to go on trial for a murder he didn’t commit, and he’s pretty sure to be sent on a one-way trip to the Green Room for execution by soporific color exposure. Meanwhile, Eddie is engaged in an illegal relationship with his co-defendant, a Green, the charismatic, unpredictable, and occasionally deadly Jane Grey. Time is running out for Eddie and Jane to figure out how to save themselves. Negotiating the narrow boundaries of the Rules within their society, they search for a loophole—some truth of their world that has been hidden from its hyper-policed citizens.

New York Times bestselling author Jasper Fforde returns to his fan-favorite Shades of Grey series with this wildly anticipated, laugh-out-loud funny and darkly satiric adventure about two star-crossed lovers on a quest to survive—even if it means upending their entire society in the process.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-06T08:43:00+00:00", "description": "Zombies, kitsune, peacock monsters, and magic schools!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-185\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Red Side Story (Shades of Grey, #2)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jasper Fforde", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This was out in the UK earlier this year, but it’s time for the US release! Which includes a bonus short story, so I’m going to have to find a way to get my hands on this edition too…!

If you haven’t read the first book, Shades of Grey, well – you definitely have to read that first, or this will make NO sense, but this is such a bonkers, fun-but-surprisingly-deep series that you’re honestly missing out if you skip it. There’s nothing else like it – I’ve never experienced such incredible whiplash between hilarity and horror as I have with this bizarre dystopia where your place in society is determined by how much of which colour you can see!

A Black and Solemn Silence (Color by Numbers #1) by Danielle Thompson
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Published on: 7th May 2024
Goodreads

ENSNARED BY A SOUL

In the shadows of the forest, two shape-shifting kitsune prowl: Kuro, content with the solitude of the mountains, and his only ally Jaden, a demon with dark dreams for their future.

When a figure from Kuro’s past snaps a photograph of the demon fox, the kitsune are forced to leave their home behind and follow him to Asheville in a bid to prevent its publication.

But trouble has a way of accumulating around Kuro. When police secretary Caroline Lahey sees the kitsune from the top of her barn, she doesn’t hesitate to shoot. Captured, Kuro knows that killing her is his only chance at freedom…but it would also turn him into something he’s not, something that repels and disgusts him.

Someone like Jaden.

As Jaden tries to pull Kuro further into his world of violence, Kuro realizes he can no longer stomach the thought of bloodshed, but neither can he bring himself to reveal everything to Caroline. Forced to rely on her soul for his survival, his life becomes a precarious balancing act of hiding her existence from Jaden…and hiding Jaden’s violence from Caroline.

Soon, Kuro finds himself trapped by his own lies, and when his balancing act fails, Jaden knows that Kuro will do anything to protect the woman he’s fallen in love with.

Even, at last, kill.

A Black and Solemn Silence is a slowburn, paranormal, enemies-to-lovers romance and the first book in the adult urban fantasy Color by Numbers series. It includes adult themes and ends on a cliff-hanger. The Color by Numbers series is perfect for grown-up readers of the Gumiho duology and The Red Winter trilogy; content advisories are available on the copyright page.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-06T08:43:00+00:00", "description": "Zombies, kitsune, peacock monsters, and magic schools!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-185\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "A Black and Solemn Silence (Color by Numbers #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Danielle Thompson", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I haven’t been able to find out much about this one, but ‘join me on the Dark Side’ is something I LOVE to see, so here’s hoping this rocks!

Bird Suit by Sydney Hegele
Genres: Adult, Speculative Fiction
Protagonist Age: 20
Published on: 7th May 2024
Goodreads

A tourist town folk tale of stifled ambition, love, loss, and the bird women who live beneath the lake. Every summer the peaches ripen in Port Peter, and the tourists arrive to gorge themselves on fruit and sun. They don’t see the bird women, who cavort on the cliffs and live in a meadow beneath the lake. But when summer ends and the visitors go back home, every pregnant Port Peter girl knows what she needs to deliver her child to the Birds in a laundry basket on those same lakeside cliffs.

But the Birds don’t want Georgia Jackson.

Twenty years on, the peaches are ripening again, the tourists have returned, and Georgia is looking for trouble with any ill-tempered man she can find. When that man turns out to be Arlo Bloom—her mother’s ex and the new priest in town—she finds herself drawn into a complicated matrix of friendship, grief, faith, sex, and love with Arlo, his wife, Felicity, and their son, Isaiah. Vivid, uncanny, and as likely cursed as touched by grace, Bird Suit is a brutal, generous story as sticky and lush as a Port Peter peach.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-06T08:43:00+00:00", "description": "Zombies, kitsune, peacock monsters, and magic schools!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-185\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Bird Suit", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sydney Hegele", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I can’t explain it, but I’ve been kind of obsessed with this book since I heard about it. I have no idea why! This sounds interesting, but I don’t know what it is about the premise that’s gotten under my skin. Guess I’ll just have to read it and see if it justifies the obsession!

Akmaral by Judith Lindbergh
Genres: Adult
Representation: Central Asian cast and setting
Published on: 7th May 2024
Goodreads

Before the Silk Road had a name, nomads roamed the Asian steppes and women fought side by side as equals with men. Like all women of the Sauromatae, Akmaral is bound for battle from birth, training as a girl in horsemanship, archery, spear, and blade. Her prowess ignites the jealousy of Erzhan, a gifted warrior who hates her as much as he desires her. When Scythian renegades attack, the two must unite to defeat them. Among their captives is Timor, the rebels' enigmatic leader who refuses to be broken, even as he is enslaved. He fascinates Akmaral. But as attraction grows to passion, she is blinded to the dangerous alliance forming between the men who bristle against the clan' s matriarchal rule. Faced with brutal betrayal, Akmaral must find the strength to defend her people and fulfill her destiny.

Drawn from legends of Amazon women warriors from ancient Greece and recent archaeological discoveries in Central Asia, AKMARAL is a sweeping tale about a powerful woman who must make peace with making war.

“Fraught with conflict both internal and external. Thoroughly imagined and vividly described… Fans of Madeline Miller and Natalie Haynes will relish how Lindbergh weaves fact and fiction to craft a gripping saga, a love story, and a convincing portrait of a time and people lost to history.”—Christina Baker Kline, #1 bestselling author of Orphan Train and The Exiles

“Meticulously researched, deeply imagined Akmaral brings the joy and hardship of a nomad woman warrior to vibrant, often aching life.”—Cathy Marie Buchanan, New York Times bestselling author of Daughter of Black Lake and The Painted Girls

“Akmaral delves deep into female power and confronts complex issues about womanhood, motherhood, and the sacrifices women make to protect those they love: issues as powerful today as they were in ancient times. If you love Madeline Miller’s Circe, you must read Akmaral. Lindbergh delivers a breath-taking story filled with vivid characters, haunted landscapes, powerful battle scenes, and a love story you will not soon forget.”—Laurie Lico Albanese, award-winning author of Hester

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-06T08:43:00+00:00", "description": "Zombies, kitsune, peacock monsters, and magic schools!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-185\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Akmaral", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Judith Lindbergh", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I think this is more Historical Fiction than Historical Fantasy? But anything vaguely tied to the Amazons is something I want to read, and this has been getting a lot of praise. Definitely excited to check it out!

Queer Villains of Myth and Legend by Dan Jones
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists
Published on: 7th May 2024
Goodreads

Every good hero needs a villain! Explore the hidden world of magnetic and mysterious villains, often cast aside and misunderstood in tales of mythology and folklore. Through the pages of Queer Villains of Myth and Legend, discover a diverse community of fascinating characters, ranging from seductive and cunning to powerful and awe-inspiring.

Experience the dark allure of Circe and Medusa through to David Bowie's Jareth in Labyrinth and delve into their complex and multifaceted personalities and motivations. Take a deep dive into the intersection of queerness and villainy, re-examine some of our favourite characters, and discover why so many 'bad' characters are queer-coded.

From ancient mythology to contemporary pop culture, Queer Villains of Myth and Legend celebrates the fascinating stories of these often-overlooked characters. Join Dan Jones on a journey of discovery, as he explores the hidden depths of queer villainy and sheds light on the queer identities of these compelling figures. It's a powerful celebration of queerness through the ages in all its legendary complexity.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-06T08:43:00+00:00", "description": "Zombies, kitsune, peacock monsters, and magic schools!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-185\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Queer Villains of Myth and Legend", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Dan Jones", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I mean, this just seems like FUN. Especially for my nerdy little heart! There is apparently also a Queer Heroes of Myth and Legend which was released a few weeks ago, but I missed that one (how?!), so if you want both sides of the good/evil coin, you can nab the pair. But I have to admit to being more interested in the villains, myself!

Spin of Fate (The Fifth Realm, #1) by A.A. Vora
Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: Queer and BlPOC cast
Protagonist Age: 16ish
Published on: 7th May 2024
Goodreads

Magnificent Beasts. Buried Gods. Unforgiving Magic. Epic Battles.

Perfect for fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Naruto, this propulsive high fantasy debut features intricate world-building, and a scientific hard magic system inspired loosely by the law of karma.

The world is governed by Toranic Law, an ancient magical force that segregates people into upper and lower realms based on their morality. It’s said that if the sinful lowers commit themselves to kindness, their souls will lighten, allowing them into the blissful upper realms.

But Aina, one of the few lowers to ever ascend, just wants to go back. Desperate to reunite with her mother, who remains stuck in their horror-infested homeland, Aina joins the Balancers—a group that defies Toranic Law by bringing aid to those condemned to a life of suffering in the lower realms.

Alongside Aina are two new recruits: Aranel, a spoiled noble spying for the upper authorities; and Meizan, a ruthless fighter trying to save his clan from extinction.

Before long, Aina, Aranel, and Meizan find themselves in the midst of a brewing war. On one side, a violent lower king is bent on destroying Toranic Law; on the other, the upper authorities will do anything to stay on top.

The trio must face both sides head-on if they want to stop a conflict that could break not only Toranic Law... but the universe itself.

"An exhilarating series opener." - Kirkus (Starred Review)

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-06T08:43:00+00:00", "description": "Zombies, kitsune, peacock monsters, and magic schools!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-185\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Spin of Fate (The Fifth Realm, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "A.A. Vora", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I have heard NOTHING but adoration for this book from every corner, and I am very intrigued indeed! Everyone has been raving about the worldbuilding, which is apparently really intricate and unique, with Indian and Japanese influences – HEART EYES!!! And the characters sound just as incredible. Also: WHAT IS THE PEACOCK-MONSTER ON THE COVER??? I can’t wait to find out!

Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, YA
Representation: Black MC
Protagonist Age: 17
Published on: 7th May 2024
Goodreads

A teenager on the run from his past finds the family he never knew existed and the community he never knew he needed at an HBCU for the young, Black, and magical . Enroll in this fresh fantasy debut with the emotional power of Legendborn and the redefined ancestral magic of Lovecraft Country.

Ten years ago, Malik's life changed forever the night his mother mysteriously vanished and he discovered he had uncontrollable powers. Since then, he has kept his abilities hidden, looking out for himself and his younger foster brother, Taye. Now, at 17, Malik is finally ready to start a new life for both of them, far from the trauma of his past. However, a daring act to rescue Taye reveals an unexpected connection with his long-lost a legendary conjurer with ties to a hidden magical university that Malik’s mother attended.

At Caiman University, Malik’s eyes are opened to a future he never could have envisioned for himself— one that includes the reappearance of his first love, Alexis. His search for answers about his heritage, his powers, and what really happened to his mother exposes the cracks in their magical community as it faces a reawakened evil dating back to the Haitian Revolution. Together with Alexis, Malik discovers a lot beneath the surface at feuding covens and magical politics, forbidden knowledge and buried mysteries.

In a wholly unique saga of family, history and community, Malik must embrace his legacy to save what's left of his old family as well as his new one. Exploring the roots and secrets that connect us in an unforgettable contemporary setting, this heart-pounding fantasy series opener is a rich tapestry of atmosphere, intrigue, and emotion.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-06T08:43:00+00:00", "description": "Zombies, kitsune, peacock monsters, and magic schools!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-185\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Blood at the Root", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "LaDarrion Williams", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Blood at the Root made it onto my Unmissable SFF of 2024 list when I first heard about it, and nothing I’ve heard since has made me rethink that decision. We’re getting a magic school specifically for Black students! Mysteries involving parents and inter-coven politics! Williams has created a magical society with history, if there are secrets going back to Haiti, and you know I swoon for that kind of worldbuilding. This book has been called ‘genre-breaking’, and Williams has talked a lot about how he didn’t want to write a book that was all about racism, but one anchored in family and cultural history. To say I’m excited is an UNDERSTATEMENT!

You can read an excerpt here!

Death's Country by R.M. Romero
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: Hispanic MC, polyamory
Published on: 7th May 2024
Goodreads

Hadestown meets “Orpheus and Eurydice” when two Miami teens travel to the underworld to retrieve their girlfriend’s soul.

Andres Santos of São Paulo was all swinging fists and firecracker fury, a foot soldier in the war between his parents, until he drowned in the Tietê River… and made a bargain with Death for a new life. A year later, his parents have relocated the family to Miami, but their promises of a fresh start quickly dissolve in the summer heat.

Instead of fists, Andres now uses music to escape his parents’ battles. While wandering Miami Beach, he meets two girls: photographer Renee, a blaze of fire, and dancer Liora, a ray of sunshine. The three become a polyamorous triad, happy, despite how no one understands their relationship. But when a car accident leaves Liora in a coma, Andres and Renee are shattered.

Then Renee proposes a radical solution: She and Andres must go into the underworld to retrieve their girlfriend’s spirit and reunite it with her body—before it’s too late. Their search takes them to the City of the dead, where painters bleed color, songs grow flowers, and regretful souls will do anything to forget their lives on earth. But finding Liora’s spirit is only the first step in returning to the living world. Because when Andres drowned, he left a part of himself in the underworld—a part he’s in no hurry to meet again. But it is eager to be reunited with him...

In verse as vibrant as the Miami skyline, critically acclaimed author R.M. Romero has crafted a masterpiece of magical realism and an openhearted ode to the nature of healing.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-06T08:43:00+00:00", "description": "Zombies, kitsune, peacock monsters, and magic schools!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-185\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Death's Country", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "R.M. Romero", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I don’t usually read novels-in-verse, but come on – can you imagine a version of me that could resist that blurb??? No, no you cannot. This is another Unmissable, as far as I’m concerned, and I can’t wait to finally get to pounce on it!

Snowblooded by Emma Sterner-Radley
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 9th May 2024
Goodreads

The Princess Bride meets Six of Crows in this uproarious fantasy debut set in 18th century Scandinavia full of assassins, magic potions, romance and rivalry.

Valour and Petrichor are esteemed members of the Order of Axsten, an assassin’s guild tasked with keeping order in the rough city of Vinterstock. Plucked from the streets as children and raised to compete for their guild’s approval, Valour uses her brawn to survive, while Petrichor strives to be a gentleman assassin. When they’re given their biggest job yet—to kill Brandquist, the mysterious leader of the city's illegal magic trade—it’s a recipe for disaster. If they can quell their rivalry long enough, the reward will be enough to settle their debts with the Order and start new lives.

If this job wasn’t dangerous enough, Valour is saddled with protecting the aristocrat, Ingrid Rytterdahl. Valour finds her dangerously attractive, but Petrichor can’t wait to be rid of them both. He begrudgingly accepts Ingrid’s knowledge and connections as they navigate the city’s criminal underbelly in pursuit of Brandquist.

As secrets bubble to the surface, the duo must outwit the thugs on their tail, keep Ingrid alive, and—hardest of all—work together without murdering each other.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-06T08:43:00+00:00", "description": "Zombies, kitsune, peacock monsters, and magic schools!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-185\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Snowblooded", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Emma Sterner-Radley", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This sounds ridiculous and ridiculously fun, and I’m here for it. Scandinavian setting! Assassins who suck at teamwork! An illegal underground magic trade! Plus, tell me that’s not a stupidly pretty cover???

Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any releases you think I should know about? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #185 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Come For the Aesthetic, Stay For the Feels: Evocation by S.T. Gibson

Evocation (The Summoner’s Circle, #1) by S.T. Gibson
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, Adult
Representation: Gay alcoholic MC, bisexual MC, Black MC, polyamory, minor trans character
Protagonist Age: 29; mid-to-late 20s for the other two
PoV: Third-person, past tense; multiple PoVs
Published on: 28th May 2024
ISBN: 1915202744
Goodreads

From The Sunday Times bestselling author of B&N's best books of 2022 A Dowry of Blood, comes a spellbinding and vibrant new series.

The Devil knows your name, David Aristarkhov.

As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father’s death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he’s curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society.

But with power comes a price, and the Devil has come to collect on an ancestral deal. David’s days are numbered, and death looms at his door.

Reluctantly, he reaches out to the only person he’s ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend and secret Society rival Rhys, for help. However, the only way to get to Rhys is through his wife, Moira. Thrust into each other’s care, emotions once buried deep resurface, and the trio race to figure out their feelings for one another before the Devil steals David away for good…

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-03T17:15:37+00:00", "description": "This one's all vibes and gorgeous prose and Feels, my friends.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/come-for-the-aesthetic-stay-for-the-feels-evocation-by-s-t-gibson\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Evocation (The Summoner\u2019s Circle, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "S.T. Gibson", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "1915202744" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 4, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights

~when you get brunch in the divorce and your ex shows up anyway
~many magics, pulled from real-world occult
~characters Actually Talking about their feelings!
~some people are just too wealthy
~what’s a deal with a devil you didn’t sign?

I’m not immediately sure what to say about Evocation beyond the fact that I enjoyed the hell out of it. A slightly slow start belied the emotional whirlwind Gibson swept her characters (and me!) up in, and I do think that’s where Evocation really shines – in its emotions, and its characters. This is a much more character-driven book than it is plot-driven – there is plot, but most of it doesn’t begin to feel very urgent until quite close to the end.

In other words, Evocation is for those of us who want the aesthetic, the vibes, and the delicious, meaty emotions tangling our morally-grey characters together.

Bon appétit!

The minutes crawled by on bruised hands and knees.

Not quite as decadent as Dowry of Blood, Evocation comes very close, and the contemporary setting might be more to some readers’ tastes than the historical one of Dowry. There’s an interesting contrast between the familiar everyday concerns of rush hour traffic and brunch, and the world of the occult lying just a breath away from them. The male-only Society David and Rhys both belong to was actually the least interesting aspect of this for me – it was a nice surprise to see that trans men can join, but I admit to having little patience for or interest in this kind of ‘old boys club’, especially in a modern setting, and the Society’s obvious High/Ceremonial Magic influences were actively boring. (Though I am not at all surprised at Gibson’s appreciation for the aesthetic or practice – it fits the interests she’s been very open about to a t!) Maybe Gibson realised that most readers aren’t going to be enthralled by descriptions of Ceremonial Magic rituals, because we actually see very little of it – if I remember correctly, we never get a full ritual on-page.

Much more interesting were the other magical players in this secret world – David’s chaos magician half-sister, for example, who I hope we see more of in future books; and of course Moira, who works with astrology and, like David, can see ghosts and spirits. I actually wish we’d gotten more astrological theory – a lot of the magic is sort of just presented to the reader, when digging into the hows of it all could have been fun. I’m a nerd for this sort of thing, though, so I don’t know if that’ll bother other readers.

(I do feel like Evocation expects readers to already be familiar, at least somewhat, with real-world occult practices and branches – if I didn’t already know how Ceremonial Magic worked, what it was, I really wouldn’t understand what the Society was on about, or how different what they do is from what David’s sister and Moira do. And that…not messiness, but mix of magical traditions, might be why the ending really didn’t work for me – it was all about magic, but what kind? How/why did it work like it did? Gah!)

David had never been in a college frat, but he had been in a men’s acapella group at Williams, and that was basically the same thing.

None of this matters that much, though. The magic is really just backdrop against which the characters shine. Even the struggle over the succession of the Society is really just an excuse to throw David and Rhys together (seriously, we never even see any attempt at campaigning or politicking from either of them), as is the mysterious curse on David growing stronger as his 30th birthday approaches. It all just serves as a great big mixing spoon to stir David, Rhys, and Moira together!

she wanted nothing between them but darkness and devotion.

Polyamory is difficult to write well, I think – maybe nearly as tricky as it is to live it! – but Gibson does a really excellent job in Evocation (unsurprisingly, since she’s written it excellently before). David and Rhys used to be a couple, but that was over a long time ago; now Rhys is married to Moira, who is hands down my favourite of the three. In trying to figure out David’s curse, Rhys starts catching feelings for David again (although did they ever go away, really?), and watching him and Moira talk about that and feel their feelings about it was just superb. Rhys feels guilty! Moira is unsure and upset, but open and honest about it with Rhys and with herself! David is a MessTM and also terrified of wrecking things between Rhys and Moira – and of wrecking his own relationships with them both! There are delicious, messy Feels everywhere, but paired with Actual Communication, which like a fine wine complementing a wonderful meal, raises the whole experience to another level.

(And I don’t even like wine!!!)

In a twist that I find kind of hilarious, my favourite line in this triangle of Feels is the one between David and Moira. Slight spoiler under the cut: [View post to see spoiler]

I will say that I thought Rhys was the weakest of our three protagonists: Moira feels like a complete character, and David started strong and got better as he underwent emotional development over the course of the book – but Rhys…didn’t have a whole lot of personality, to me. I think we were told about him much more than we actually saw him being the things we were told; for example, we get this beautiful passage from Moira’s pov;

She knew exactly what Rhys was when she married him, down to the darkest corners of his insatiable heart. She adored him like this, selfish ambition laid bare by his love for her. Truth be told, Rhys could be a bit of a monster when it came to getting what he wanted, but he was her monster, and what he wanted was her happiness.

but we never actually see Rhys being ‘a bit of a monster’. (Which is a shame, because those kind of characters are often fascinating, and I feel like Gibson could nail it if she’d gone for show-not-tell.) Maybe because, if we did, we wouldn’t like him very much? I don’t know, because I have no idea what level of monster we’re talking about here. But I was left a bit sceptical that both David and Moira could love this man, because he just…left no impression on me. I wasn’t seeing what they were seeing!

two men who had once been as close to each other as blood and breath

The deus ex machina ending – the climax of David’s curse, basically – I loved all the Feels that went into it, but I didn’t love the magic, the actual ‘solution’, of it. I haven’t been able to stop turning it over and over in my brain since I finished reading the book, because it just doesn’t make sense to me. Mild spoiler: [View post to see spoiler]

BUT! None of of my nitpicking – about Rhys’ character, or the ending – changes the fact that I had a great time with Evocation. I said earlier that this book is for those of us who love the vibes, the aesthetic, and the emotions, and if you’re good with a low-plot, high-character development novel, with gorgeous prose and some truly glorious Feels?

Then you’ll have a great time with this one too.

The post Come For the Aesthetic, Stay For the Feels: Evocation by S.T. Gibson appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…Metal From Heaven by august clarke

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 

This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Metal From Heaven by august clarke!

Metal from Heaven by August Clarke
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Lesbian MC
Published on: 22nd October 2024
Goodreads

For fans of The Princess Bride and Gideon the Ninth: a bloody lesbian revenge tale and political fantasy set in a glittering world transformed by industrial change – and simmering class warfare.

He who controls ichorite controls the world.

A malleable metal more durable than steel, ichorite is a toxic natural resource fueling national growth, and ambitious industrialist Yann Chauncey helms production of this miraculous ore. Working his foundry is an underclass of destitute workers, struggling to get better wages and proper medical treatment for those exposed to ichorite’s debilitating effects since birth.

One of those luster-touched victims, the child worker Marney Honeycutt, is picketing with her family and best friend when a bloody tragedy unfolds. Chauncey’s strikebreakers open fire.

Only Marney survives.

A decade later, as Yann Chauncey searches for a suitable political marriage for his ward, Marney sees the perfect opportunity for revenge. With the help of radical bandits and their stolen wealth, she must masquerade as an aristocrat to win over the calculating Gossamer Chauncey and kill the man who slaughtered her family and friends. But she is not the only suitor after Lady Gossamer’s hand, leading her to play twisted elitist games of intrigue. And Marney’s luster-touched connection to the mysterious resource and its foundry might put her in grave danger – or save her from it.

H. A. Clarke’s adult fantasy debut, writing as August Clarke, Metal From Heaven is a caustic, dizzying eco-fantasy that addresses labor politics, corporate greed, and the relentless grind of capitalism, while also embodying a visceral lesbian revenge quest against the people and institutions who control and oppress the helpless.

"A riotous phantasmagoria that epitomizes the phrase 'be gay, do crime.'" - Melinda Borie, Collection Development Librarian, Floyd County Library (New Albany, IN)

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-05-01T19:51:53+00:00", "description": "I'm the living embodiment of the I HAVE A MIGHTY NEED gif right now, and I am not even a little bit sorry.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-metal-from-heaven-by-august-clarke\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Metal from Heaven", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "August Clarke", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This is a slightly unusual post, because usually I don’t do Can’t Wait features for books I have arcs of. And lately I’ve tried to focus on books that are almost out, in the hopes that makes whoever read these more likely to preorder them, instead of, you know, featuring a book so early that by the time it’s released you’ve forgotten about it.

But I just got my arc of this one yesterday, and I really can’t wait, and I need to SCREAM ABOUT THIS BOOK TO ABSOLUTELY EVERYBODY, so.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

august clarke (I always see his name written in lowercase letters, so I assume that’s how he prefers it) wrote the Scapegracer trilogy under the name HA Clarke, and if you’ve hung around here for any amount of time you are probably aware that I love it with the fiery passion of a thousand thousand suns, and seriously what are you even DOING with your life if you have not doused yourself in the razor-sharp glitter that is that trilogy???

My review of book one, The Scapegracers
My review of book two, The Scratch Daughters
My review of book three, The Feast Makers

BUT THAT IS NOT WHY WE ARE HERE

Except it is, a little, because if it wasn’t for Scapegracers I wouldn’t know how impossibly ferally magically perfect clarke’s prose and imagination are, so I wouldn’t know to want Metal From Heaven so damn bad it literally physically hurts

I mean, The Princess Bride crossed with Gideon the Ninth??? I would scoff, if were were talking about almost any other author. Because who could pull that off? It sounds amazing, I want that combination – but come on. Really?

You can read the first chapter over at Paste, so I feel safe saying: yeah, really.

Political fantasy, revenge, class warfare, labour politics, queerness everywhere, a magical metal that makes the colour pink into a danger-signal – all of it in clarke’s fever-dream claws-out blood-between-your-teeth prose???

YES

GIMME

I CAN’T WAIT

I need you to need this book as badly as I do, okay? Preorder it, and then go read the Scapegracers series to tide you over until October!!!

The post I Can’t Wait For…Metal From Heaven by august clarke appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Wyrd and Wonderful Plans!

It’s May 1st, which means that not only is it Beltane – it’s the start of Wyrd & Wonder! This is a month-long event where a bunch of bloggers share thoughts and reviews and rec lists of the fantastical – mostly focusing on books, but other media is welcome too!

To Be Written

This year, the theme is comfort zone, and because I’m a contrary creature, many of the posts I have planned are focused on the outside of the zone – like Adventures in Discomfort, a rec list featuring fantasy with disabled leads, Books That Challenged & Changed Me, and a list of reads spotlighting rare, and rarely-written-about, magical beasties. (Don’t have a clever name for that one yet!)

But I do intend to do a few properly cosy posts too – Fantastical Friends, reccing stories that feature best friends adventuring together, and a list of my own comfort reads (many of which are decidedly non-obvious choices for comfort). If I have the time and spoons, I’d love to put together a rec list of stories meant to be comforting for neurodivergent readers specifically…we’ll see.

And of course, my annual Coolest Magic Systems and Coolest Magical Abilities lists will have their place of honour – I’ve made these for each Wyrd & Wonder I’ve taken part in, and I have no intention of breaking tradition this year!

To Be Read

I have three May releases that need reviewing – and I’ve only finished reading one of them! LE GASP!

So I’ve gotta focus my reading on them for the moment…

…but I also have a lot of arcs to get through this month to be ready for June, which makes their reading and reviewing part of my Wyrd & Wonder activities too!

Nine books??? I can read nine books in a month – the question is, will my ADHD allow it to be THESE nine that I read??? An unanswerable question; we can only see what the future brings. At least I’ve already started most of these. They’re a pretty good mix of squarely inside my comfort zone, and squarely outside. Hopefully I can figure out something clever to say about the contrast.

In Conclusion

Will I get all of this done? Almost certainly not! But as the Finns say, hyvin suunniteltu on puoliksi tehty – well-planned is half-done, so a great plan seems like a great start.

Welcome to everyone participating, watching with popcorn, or following along. It’s going to be a good month!

The post Wyrd and Wonderful Plans! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

In Short: April

This was a rough month – a bunch of different body parts decided to freak out simultaneously, and I spent most of April in a lot of pain. But at least there were books!

ARCs Received

Five VERY EXCITING arcs this month! I dove straight into Saints of Storm and Sorrow, and am already head-over-heels in love with it – and it should go without saying that I can’t wait to get to the rest of these, either. I’m really hoping that Blood of the Old Kings can break the terrible track record I’ve had with books in translation… (The first few pages were very promising!)

And then on the VERY LAST DAY OF THE MONTH, a copy of Metal From Heaven was bestowed upon me!!! Folx, I actually had tears in my eyes, I was (AND AM) that happy!!!!!

Read

Fewer books read this month than last – I still don’t consider myself back to normal yet. But MY GODS, did I read some excellent books!!!

Letters to the Luminous Deep charmed me utterly, as did The Gathering and Notes From the Burning Age – despite the latter two being much darker/bleaker. The Bone Harp is an exquisitely beautiful, soft story of healing, the backstory inspired a tiny bit by the Silmarillion, and it’s been a little while since Frances Hardinge and I hit it off, but Unraveller might be my new favourite of her works. It’s just PERFECT!

And I don’t know where to even START with The Failures – I understand why DAW said they’d never seen anything like it before! Neither have I, which is making reviewing it…interesting!

My last read of the month, Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments, was one of my favourites; I inhaled it in less than 24 hours. How has it taken me so long to get back to this series?!

To the best of my knowledge, 25% of this month’s books had BIPOC authors. Much better than March!

Reviewed

Very pleased with how much I got written this month! There are always more books to review than I have time to write about (or that my hands can handle typing up) but eight is VERY respectable! And that’s without counting my DNF reviews…

DNF-ed

I was so looking forward to both of these, but alas, they both proved disappointments. So it goes!

ARCs Outstanding

I have so much reading to do in May, to make sure I’m not scrambling in June! But good luck getting me to admit I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. *rubs hands together in glee*

Unmissable SFF Updates

My Unmissable SFF of 2024 list continues to be updated with newly revealed covers, and even one or two new books! This brings us to a total of 95 Unmissable books!

How did my predictions/anticipated reads for April go? I declared nine books Unmissable for this month, and–

three were five star reads (Someone You Can Build a Nest In, A Sweet Sting of Salt, and A Letter to the Luminous Deep)one was a four and a half stars read (Sheine Lende)one was a three and a half star read (Merciless Saviors)one I have no idea what to do with, it was so completely not what I was expecting (Dayspring)one I have not gotten to yet (King of Dead Things)two were complete disappointments ( The Jinn Daughter  and In Universes)

Four out of nine…is technically more than half? Much better than my most anticipated reads for March, anyway!

Misc

, and I have already completed four squares! Yesssssss. That being said, some of the prompts are FAR outside my comfort zone this year – it’s going to be genuinely difficult to find books I want to read for a few of them!

I encourage people to check it out, though – it’s fun, and helpful if you have trouble deciding what to read! It’s not any kind of competition, it’s just between you and your tbr! I’d love to know if any of you decide to give it a go, though, so leave a comment if you do. Maybe we can brainstorm ideas for some of the prompts!

*

At the suggestion of a reader of my blog, I’m going to be adding Adult/New Adult/YA as genres, and Protagonist Age (estimated if it’s not explicitly mentioned in the book) to my reviews. You might have noticed me doing it already – I think my mini-reviews and DNF reviews this month were where I started trying it out. The moment it was brought up I realised I should have been doing something like it all along – it’s a great idea, especially since I often don’t make it clear whether a book I’m reviewing is Adult or YA or what!

I probably won’t be going back to edit old reviews – there’s just too many of them at this point – but definitely including it in any new reviews from now on!

*

Next month is Wyrd & Wonder, which is always a ton of fun. Luckily I’ve been prepping for a while now, so I should have some interesting rec lists and such coming up, including my annual recs of the most interesting magic systems and magical abilities!

Looking Forward

There’s plenty to look forward to in May! Not least a new Singing Hills novella, queers surviving the zombie apocalypse together, and magic gems picking queer teens to save the world!

May we all have a marvellous May!

The post In Short: April appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

April DNFs

Could have been much worse!

A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon, Anton Hur
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, New Adult
Representation: Korean MC
Protagonist Age: 29
Published on: 30th April 2024
ISBN: B0CG6BGRBN
Goodreads

A millennial turned magical girl must combat climate change and credit card debt in this delightful, witty, and wildly imaginative ode to magical girl manga.

Twenty-nine, depressed, and drowning in credit card debt after losing her job during the pandemic, a millennial woman decides to end her troubles by jumping off Seoul’s Mapo Bridge.

But her suicide attempt is interrupted by a girl dressed all in white—her guardian angel. Ah Roa is a clairvoyant magical girl on a mission to find the greatest magical girl of all time. And our protagonist just may be that special someone.

But the young woman’s initial excitement turns to frustration when she learns being a magical girl in real life is much different than how it’s portrayed in stories. It isn’t just destiny—it’s work. Magical girls go to job fairs, join trade unions, attend classes. And for this magical girl there are no special powers and no great perks, and despite being magical, she still battles with low self-esteem. Her magic wand . . . is a credit card—which she must use to defeat a terrifying threat that isn’t a monster or an intergalactic war. It’s global climate change. Because magical girls need to think about sustainability, too.

Park Seolyeon reimagines classic fantasy tropes in a novel that explores real-world challenges that are both deeply personal and universal: the search for meaning and the desire to do good in a world that feels like it’s ending. A fun, fast-paced, and enchanting narrative that sparkles thanks to award-nominated translator Anton Hur, A Magical Girl Retires reminds us that we are all magical girls—that fighting evil by moonlight and winning love by daylight can be anyone's game.
Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-04-29T20:00:00+00:00", "description": "Just two DNFs in April!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/april-dnfs-3\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "A Magical Girl Retires", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Park Seolyeon, Anton Hur", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "B0CG6BGRBN" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 2, "bestRating": "5" }}

The premise for this is RIDICULOUSLY cool – but the reading experience was just painful. It’s impossible for me to say how much of this is the fault of the translation, but the sentence structure, the way things were worded, just sounded off, the way a song does when you hear it in the wrong pitch. Clunky and weird and nothing like the way people actually speak, which, when a story’s written in first-person, is kind of a problem.

Both the worldbuilding and the info-dumping that conveyed it to us seemed really poorly done to me. If you’re writing an Adult novel about Magical Girls, then you either have to go sarcastic and scathing (which seems like a shame to me) or lean in and embrace the glitter and jewels and over-the-top-ness. A Magical Girl Retires read like it couldn’t decide which it wanted to be – maybe trying for both? There was definitely a strong flavour of apathetic cynicism running through it – see the MC’s ‘wand’ being a credit card – but then we also had different Magical Girl characters being very obliviously perky, and earnestly trying to explain how they needed our main character to save the world, and it was a very oil-and-water situation. Forget not mixing well, they don’t mix at all.

The prose itself, besides having a very jarring rhythm, is very dry, which, again, seems like an odd choice when half the fun of Magical Girls are the costumes and accessories and sparkly superpowers, all of which deserve to be lavishly described. But there was basically no description at all here. Maybe this could be explained away by our MC’s depression – the book opens with her about to commit suicide, and people in the grip of depression generally don’t care much about glitter. But even if that’s the case, it’s a) not clear, when I feel like it could have been explicitly stated that that was why the MC wasn’t vibing with it all, and b) still a very lame reading experience.

And I’m not even going to get into how rushed everything was. It’s not obvious on my ereader, but I think this is quite a short book? If so, it ought to have been longer, giving all the various facets of the story time to shine (and breathe!), giving the reader time to take everything in and process it and form attachments to the characters, etc. As it was, everything’s going at warp-speed, so I had no chance to come to care about anything before the next thing was happening.

I was desperate to get out long before the 25% mark (which was as far as I could make myself go). Sigh. This could have been so great!

The Jinn Daughter by Rania Hanna
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Middle Eastern cast and setting
Protagonist Age: 30s/40s?
Published on: 2nd April 2024
ISBN: 1649033648
Goodreads

A stunning debut novel and an impressive feat of storytelling that pulls together mythology, magic, and ancient legend in the gripping story of a mother’s struggle to save her only daughter

Nadine is a jinn tasked with one job: telling the stories of the dead. She rises every morning to gather pomegranate seeds—the souls of the dead—that have fallen during the night. With her daughter Layala at her side, she eats the seeds and tells their stories. Only then can the departed pass through the final gate of death.

But when the seeds stop falling, Nadine knows something is terribly wrong. All her worst fears are confirmed when she is visited by Kamuna, Death herself and ruler of the underworld, who reveals her desire for someone to replace her: it is Layala she wants.

Nadine will do whatever it takes to keep her daughter safe, but Kamuna has little patience and a ruthless drive to get what she has come for. Layala’s fate, meanwhile, hangs in the balance.

Rooted in Middle Eastern mythology, Rania Hanna deftly weaves subtle, yet breathtaking, magic through this vivid and compelling story that has at its heart the universal human desire to, somehow, outmaneuver death.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-04-29T20:00:00+00:00", "description": "Just two DNFs in April!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/april-dnfs-3\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Jinn Daughter", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rania Hanna", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "1649033648" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 3, "bestRating": "5" }}

This was another case of a first-person voice that did not work for me, and prose that was really blunt and plain when the story itself begged for lush description. Everything about this premise sounded enchanting, but it read like a fruit with all its juice sucked out of it. I don’t know where the magic went.

Also, I’m really tired of stories where the MC has to tell their kid not to stand up for themselves because ‘we can’t draw attention’. Ma’am, you’re a jinn. Everyone seems to know. Why is this a problem, and if it is, why are you living so close to humans at all? Why not move somewhere you and your daughter can be by yourselves, and Layala doesn’t have to be smothered in order to fit in? I didn’t realise that was going to be a part of this book, or I might not have picked it up at all.

I think this has the potential to work for readers who are not as gods-damn picky about their prose as I am? But I couldn’t stand it long enough to even see the story get going properly. Nope.

Did you DNF anything this month?

The post April DNFs appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.