Siavahda's Blog, page 28

April 29, 2024

Must-Have Monday #184

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.

FOUR books this week!

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

The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa, Ranya Abdelrahman, Sawad Hussain
Genres: Adult, Speculative Fiction
Protagonist Age: 30s/40s?
Published on: 30th April 2024
Goodreads

A perilous and fantastical satire of banned books, secret libraries, and the looming eye of an all-powerful government.

The new book censor hasn’t slept soundly in weeks. By day he combs through manuscripts at a government office, looking for anything that would make a book unfit to publish―allusions to queerness, unapproved religions, any mention of life before the Revolution. By night the characters of literary classics crowd his dreams, and pilfered novels pile up in the house he shares with his wife and daughter. As the siren song of forbidden reading continues to beckon, he descends into a netherworld of resistance fighters, undercover booksellers, and outlaw librarians trying to save their history and culture.

Reckoning with the global threat to free speech and the bleak future it all but guarantees, Bothayna Al-Essa marries the steely dystopia of Orwell’s 1984 with the madcap absurdity of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, resulting in a dreadful twist worthy of Kafka. The Book Censor’s Library is a warning call and a love letter to stories and the delicious act of losing oneself in them.

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I’m not sure this is precisely genre-fic, but I’ve been hearing amazing things about it, and the premise is kinda fascinating. Plus, I definitely need to be reading more translated works!

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: Black bisexual MC
Protagonist Age: 16/17?
Published on: 30th April 2024
Goodreads

In a country divided between humans and witchers, Venus Stoneheart hustles as a brewer making illegal love potions to support her family.

Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her.

Then an enemy's iron bullet kills her mother, Venus’s life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother's killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost? Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.'s most influential politicians.

As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it's hard to tell who to trust…Herself included.

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Everything about this sounds epic??? I did have a go at reading the arc earlier this year, but it hit a few triggers for me; the actual writing, though, seemed great, and I loved the cast! Definitely encouraging anyone interested to give it an go; just pay attention to the content warnings at the start of the book.

To a Darker Shore by Leanne Schwartz
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Representation: Plus-sized/fat autistic MC
Protagonist Age: 16/17?
Published on: 30th April 2024
Goodreads

A da Vinci-esque teen girl inventor on a Dante-esque journey through hell to save her best friend.

Plain, poor, plus-size, and autistic, Alesta grew up trying to convince her kingdom that she’s too useful to be sacrificed like so many of their country’s poor to appease the infernal monster across the poison sea in hell.

When Alesta’s attempt to prove herself with inventions goes awry, her best friend and heir to the throne, Kyrian, takes the blame expecting leniency―and ends up tithed in her place.

To end the sacrifices forever, Alesta plans to kill the monster that killed her friend. She travels to the depths of hell only to find Kyrian, alive, but monstrously transformed.

There’s no escaping hell or their deeper feelings for one another, and the farther they go, the closer they come to uncovering a truth about the tithings that threatens to invoke the wrath of not only monsters but the gods as well.

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Another amazing-sounding YA fantasy this week! An autistic inventor out to rescue her turned-into-a-monster bestie/love interest? From the Underworld??? Yes PLEASE!

Infaust by T.D. Cloud, Ambi Sun
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 1st May 2024
Goodreads

A witch with a dead familiar is an outlier and an ill-omen to every village they pass through. Rehan Nadir is one such witch. The only jobs available to him are terrible ones, and vagrancy is his only recourse… At least, it was until he heard tell of the town of Hamelin’s plight. Stories of a malicious entity, a chaos god, have tormented the village for hundreds of years, and like clockwork tragedy has struck once more: while the adults gathered elsewhere, the children were spirited away. No trace of them has been seen since. The town is desperate to bring them back. Very desperate.

Finding and returning the lost children would be just the thing to give Rehan a new chance at the life he lost after the death of his familiar, and if all it takes is killing a god of chaos, then he’s more than ready to take the plunge and open that door.

Unfortunately, he just didn’t anticipate opening a few more in the midst of dealing the finishing blow.

Infaust is a dark romance recounting the tale of the witch Rehan Nadir and the elusive chaos god known only as the Piper. Trapped in a world where even the very dirt wants them dead, the two must depend on one another to escape—and along the way realize that perhaps the definition of a happily ever after really is a subjective one.

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In describing this, the author said ‘if you love your doves dead, seasoned, and served on a magic-tinged platter, look no further’, which, not gonna lie, is IMMENSELY intriguing to me. Also, calling it ‘enemies-to-enemies that fuck very unhealthily’ makes me want to laugh out loud. It’s Faust crossed with the Pied Piper, a legit CHAOS GOD is in the mix, and, just for the icing on the cake, that freaking COVER?! I am all but FOAMING AT THE MOUTH for this one!!!

Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!

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Published on April 29, 2024 01:05

April 28, 2024

Sunday Soupçons #30

soupçon/ˈsuːpsɒn,ˈsuːpsɒ̃/ noun
1. a very small quantity of something; a slight trace, as of a particular taste or flavor

Sunday Soupçons is where I scribble mini-reviews for books I don’t have the brainspace/eloquence/smarts to write about in depth – or if I just don’t have anything interesting to say beyond I LIKED IT AND YOU SHOULD READ IT TOO!

One book I struggle to describe, and one very immersable YA!

The Innkeeper's Song by Peter S. Beagle
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Brown MCs
Protagonist Age: three early 20s; the rest 30s/40s
ISBN: 9780451454140
Goodreads
three-stars

The Innkeeper’s Song is the story of young Tikat’s search for the lover whose death and resurrection he witnessed. It is a search that will lead him into a world of magic and mystery beyond his comprehension, for his wild ride sets him on the trail of three women who are blessed—or cursed—to undertake an impossible mission of their own.

Each of the three has secrets—from the world, from the two others, from herself. Each is followed by demons she can never escape. And all their destinies will be irrevocably linked in a far distant inn, when hunted and hunters finally meet. Karsh, the innkeeper, has no choice but to let the tangled drama unfold beneath his roof; his stable boy, Rosseth, is so mesmerized by the three cloaked women that he is soon finds a way to uncover what is perhaps their deepest secret; and Tikat continues his journey, refusing to let death bring an end to his love.

But it is not until the once-powerful man who has called the three women joins their number that the true quest will begin. And this is a challenge that may claim all their lives before they are done. For he who has been their mentor in the past, he who has been the greatest of wizards, lingers now at the very edge of death. And only they can save him from the enemy who has brought this doom upon him, an enemy who is heir to all the ailing man’s magic, an enemy whom even Death has not been able to defeat…

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Despite being a hardcore unicorn-lover, I actually don’t like The Last Unicorn very much (blasphemy, I know). Somewhere along the line, though, I got it into my head that The Innkeeper’s Song was considered Beagle’s best work??? I have no idea where I picked that up, but it put the book on that vague Books You Know You Should Read tbr we all have at the back of our minds.

Anyway, I finally got to it – mostly because it filled a bingo square in the 2023 Fantasy Book Bingo hosted by r/Fantasy – and… I don’t know if I liked it, but I also did? I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book with so many PoVs – all of which are impressively distinct – and this definitely didn’t feel like ‘normal’ fantasy, even if I don’t really know what that means, or how to articulate what I do mean.

It’s…odd. It’s untraditional. There’s an adventure that isn’t really an adventure; there are a couple of things that might be considered quests, but aren’t really; there’s a wizard, and a girl brought back from the dead, and unstoppable assassins…none of which fit together in the way you’d expect. I think Beagle might have been deliberately subverting more than a few tropes with this one, and the result is not bad. It’s something I’d recommend for writers and aspiring writers, just because you should always read things written in weird styles in order to expand your own, and Inkeeper’s Song…there’s something about it that feels experimental, even though the actual writing is (mostly) pretty straightforward.

GAH. I don’t even know. I think this one has to be read, folx, rather than explained. But it’s not going to be a satisfying read for anyone looking for a lot of action – it’s sort of slow and a bit dreamy and introspective, but also conversational – all of the PoVs seem to be talking directly to the reader, which is interesting when there’s so many of them providing so many different perspectives on the same events. I admit to having to force my way through it – if it hadn’t been a bingo square I definitely would have DNFed it, because it feels thick and heavy, and getting through it was work. It sent me to sleep more than once, although less often after the halfway point.

I don’t know. It’s odd. It bucks expectations in a whole bunch of ways. I liked that it thumbed its nose at convention, but didn’t find it inherently that interesting. But it might be a good read for someone in the mood for something quite different from the norm.

Cute Mutants Vol 1: Mutant Pride by S.J. Whitby
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi, YA
Representation: pansexual female/non-binary MC with anxiety, trans male side character, Kiwi-Chinese questioning asexual female side character, bisexual Pacific Islander female side character, lesbian Korean female side character, sapphic female side character, biromantic asexual nonbinary parent
Protagonist Age: 16/17?
PoV: First-person, present-tense
ISBN: 0473528665
Goodreads
four-stars

My name is Dylan Taylor, human incarnation of the burning dumpster gif, and this is my life.

I always wanted to be an X-Man. Except people and me never got along, and apparently you need social skills to run a successful team. Cue Emma Hall's party. One hot make out session with the host herself, and I can talk to objects like my pillow (who's far too invested in my love life) and my baseball bat (who was a pacifist before I got hold of him). Now there's a whole group of us with strange abilities, including super hot ice queen Dani Kim who doesn't approve of how reckless I can be. The bigger problem is a mysterious mutant causing unnatural disasters, and we're the ones who have to stop him. Except trying to make a difference makes things blow up in my face and the team's on the verge of falling apart. Can I bring them back together in time to stop the villain from taking revenge? Have I mentioned I'm not a people person? Magneto help us.

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Cute Mutants: Mutant Pride probably couldn’t be more different from The Innkeeper’s Song if it TRIED, but it is indeed very cute and I loved how loud and distinct the MC’s voice was! Dylan is an awesome, and awesomely relatable, character, even for us grown-ups – so long as you remember how gods-damn chaotic and messy puberty was.

This is superficially quite wacky – Dylan’s superpower is talking to objects like pillows and trash cans and baseball bats! – but it actually gets pretty deep with various flavours of Feels, and questioning the ethics, practicalities, and alternatives to vigilantism and violence. It’s big on made-family – although Dylan’s pare (pronounced ‘pear’, for non-binary parent) is legitimately awesome, her love for the X-Men and her intense desire to turn this sudden crop of teenagers with superpowers into a team is clearly all tied up with a craving for friendship and belonging. Typical YA themes, but presented a lot more authentically than most authors manage – I really felt for Dylan, and Whitby did an amazing job at making me feel with Dylan too: I was excited when Dylan was, anxious when she was, cheered her on when she was kicking ass and ached when she got kicked down.

That’s not something I experience all that often – not this intensely – especially not with YA!

And push comes to shove, this book is fundamentally FUN. Even if it gets a little deep, a little raw, sometimes, it’s also so incredibly funny. It’s so easy to read – the story just rolls along, asking nothing of you, not needing you to work to keep up with it. It’s a bit popcorn and a bit bubblegum, but it under that is this huge heart that elevates it into something kinda special.

Heartily recommended for superhero fans, and anyone who likes hilarious heroines ready to make on bad guys with a bat!

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Published on April 28, 2024 03:01

April 26, 2024

Chillingly Awesome: The Gathering by C.J. Tudor

The Gathering by C.J. Tudor
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Plus-sized/fat sapphic MC
Protagonist Age: 50+
PoV: Third-person, past-tense; multiple PoVs
ISBN: 0593356608
Goodreads
five-stars

A detective investigating a grisly crime in rural Alaska finds herself caught up in the dark secrets and superstitions of a small town in this riveting novel from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man.

In a small Alaska town, a boy is found with his throat ripped out and all the blood drained from his body. The inhabitants of Deadhart haven’t seen a killing like this in twenty-five years. But they know who’s responsible: a member of the Colony, an ostracized community of vampyrs living in an old mine settlement deep in the woods.

Detective Barbara Atkins, a specialist in vampyr killings, is called in to officially determine if this is a Colony killing—and authorize a cull. Old suspicions die hard in a town like Deadhart, but Barbara isn’t so sure. Determined to find the truth, she enlists the help of a former Deadhart sheriff, Jenson Tucker, whose investigation into the previous murder almost cost him his life. Since then, Tucker has become a recluse. But he knows the Colony better than almost anyone.

As the pair delve into the town’s history, they uncover secrets darker than they could have imagined. And then another body is found. While the snow thickens and the nights grow longer, a killer stalks Deadhart, and two disparate communities circle each other for blood. Time is running out for Atkins and Tucker to find the truth: Are they hunting a bloodthirsty monster . . . or a twisted psychopath? And which is more dangerous?

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~50yo lesbian detective is Done With Your Shit
~#VampyresArePeopleToo
~NOT the cosy kind of small-town story
~can you hear the whispers?
~watch out for gold teeth

I still don’t know what made me pick this up, because at a glance, this looks like something that should bore me to tears: a murder mystery (I couldn’t care less about murder mysteries) in a tiny town (I hate tiny towns) in ALASKA (I hate freezing cold settings) with vampires – I don’t hate vampires, but it’s been a while since I saw an interesting take on them, and nothing about that cover or blurb made me think The Gathering would surprise me.

I WAS VERY VERY WRONG!

The Gathering has the addictive quality of a Dan Brown novel, except that it’s actually, you know, excellent. Tudor somehow manages to create a popcorn-like moreishness despite all the objectively terrible things happening – as stated above, pretty much everything about this book shouldn’t have worked for me, most especially the really awful hatred these small-town Alaskans have for their vampyre neighbours. What can I say, I don’t like reading about bigotry! Even fantasy bigotry! And there’s quite a lot of it here; we have one character who refuses to get the police involved when shenanigans occur because the cops would take away the stuffed and mounted vampyre heads he has on his wall if they discovered them. The local bar has vampyre femurs worked into the beer taps. There’s a great big cross outside the church made up of used vampyre-hunting stakes. It is honestly nausea-inducing, and I found it even harder to understand than the usual monster-speciesism, because – well, a shifted werewolf doesn’t look like a human. Orcs are green with tusks. They’re visibly not-human, you know? But these vampyres are fully capable of passing for human, and there’s a big part of me screaming about how you can justify putting what is indistinguishable from a human head on your wall?!

Which I realise is naive of me; humans are terrible to other humans all the time, so looking like a human isn’t enough to save you from that kind of hate. But still: extra nauseating.

I think Tudor actually does a fair job at helping us understand the fear that’s at the core of the vampyre-hate, without ever excusing it or trying to depict it as rational. The story is kickstarted by a human teen being murdered by a vampyre, after all; clearly vampyres are fully capable of being very dangerous. ~~But so is literally everyone in a country where gun ownership is as easy and legal and common as it is in the US???~~ It’s still not rational, and what’s worse is that vampyres have a very strange legal standing; they don’t have the rights of humans, and seem to have the legal status of rare, dangerous wildlife. So the murder at the start of the book has the locals clamouring for a Cull, which is legal mass-murder, basically, in which a whole vampyre community is ‘put down’. HI, THIS IS NOT A THING WHICH SHOULD BE LEGAL, WTF, I HATE IT HERE.

Let kids be kids and they’ll burn the whole damn world down.

Except I don’t, which is largely down to a) Barbara, our MC, the vampyre specialist brought in to investigate the murder, and b) the lore and worldbuilding Tudor created for this new setting. (I am PASSIONATELY hoping for sequels!)

Barbara is The Best: she’s an overweight, middle-aged lesbian, and much better than I would be at not telling the locals to shove their bigotry up their collective ass. Keenly aware of how isolated she is – far from her own coworkers and anyone she can actually trust, her presence resented by literally everyone, in a town without real medical care should an emergency occur – Barbara does a good job of being polite while making it clear that she’s not signing off on a Cull until she has diamond-solid proof that one is necessary. The locals can’t believe she has the temerity to actually investigate, but she does, and what looked like a simple case rapidly comes apart the moment someone unbiased starts poking at it. (Obviously. What kind of murder mystery would this be if it didn’t?)

But fundamentally, she is Tired, deeply unimpressed with her assignment, and able to hold her ground when she’s challenged. She’s willing to be polite; she’s not willing to back down, or handwave anything, or accept the easy answers. I loved how grouchy she was internally, and admired the balancing act she managed between getting her job done without outright insulting the locals. (I still don’t know where she got the patience.) That being said, she doesn’t let the potential danger to herself stop her from digging into ugly secrets and pasts that the town REALLY want to stay buried. I’m not sure I’d call her a fun character, exactly, but she is incredibly relatable and wonderfully competent and no-nonsense, and characters like that always make me happy.

Onto the worldbuilding: even before the story starts, Tudor genuinely wowed me here. The book opens with three quotes from fictional, in-universe texts, and I was just so impressed with how quickly and easily those quotes gave me all the historical and current context I needed to understand the world Tudor had created. It avoided any need for exposition or info-dumping! It’s such a simple thing, but it meant that I could hit the ground running and dive right into the story – and who doesn’t want that?

The vampyres in this world tend to live in groups called colonies, can reproduce sexually as well as Turn humans, have their own written and oral language, and they’re not actually immortal – they just live for a really long time. I really liked Tudor’s take, especially with how sly and sneaky it is; while at first vampyres are presented as completely non-supernatural, over the course of the book, Tudor makes you wonder how many of the legends Barbara dismisses as superstition might actually be based on something real – or be outright true. One of the biggest reasons I want a sequel is that I’m dying (if you’ll excuse the pun) to know more about vampyre culture and abilities. But it’s the tiny details that make the vampyres come to life (ahem), like the way that newly Turned vampyres and born-vampyres who’ve come of age receive special rings, with their names engraved in the vampyre language. Things like that just…imply so much history and culture, without anyone needing to write us an essay on it. I approve!

Even if it does make it a little tricky to know what genre this is. I’ve tagged it horror, but more because of how much of what was in it horrified me than because it really fits on that shelf, as it were. The Gathering isn’t really contemporary fantasy, either, even if the vampyres are potentially supernatural in nature. It’s definitely a police procedural/murder mystery, but those don’t usually have vampyres!

This genre-blurriness amuses me, for the record. I’m very okay with storytellers mixing genres together, but I figured it was worth mentioning in case it might bother anyone else. The Gathering pretty much refuses to be neatly pigeon-holed.

Which is only emphasised by the multiple perspectives we get on the story. Barbara’s our main character, but we do get the PoVs of several locals, which helps colour in the sketchiness going on, as well as conveying something of what it’s like to live in such a small, rural area…and the complicated relationship between the town and the local vampyre colony. Which, whatever you’re guessing it might be – it’s worse than that. SO MUCH WORSE.

I didn’t see the reveal coming, but I never do, so I can’t say whether more eagle-eyed readers will put the puzzle together before it all comes to light. I can’t judge it as a mystery, because I’m terrible at mysteries. But as a story, it’s damn awesome – it managed to hold my attention when I didn’t feel like I could focus on anything at all, completely sucking me in – I think I read the whole book in under 24 hours. It’s easy to read, you know? That X Factor quality that means your mind can just relax into the story, despite how horrible a lot of it is; so compelling that you keep turning pages far past bedtime.

I loved it, and like I said, I’m hoping for sequels – let this be just the beginning of Barbara’s adventures with vampyres, please and thank you!

Trigger warnings: including but not limited to, hate-speech, references to the rape and torture of vampyres who look like young children, and human scum who think it’s fine to mount the heads of actual vampyre kids on their walls.

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Published on April 26, 2024 13:18

April 24, 2024

I Can’t Wait For…The Girl in the Bog by Keith Donohue

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 Girl In the Bog by Keith Donohue!

The Girl in the Bog by Keith Donohue
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Horror
Published on: 13th August 2024
Goodreads

Ancient heroes from Irish mythology and folklore come to life in the modern world in this dark, atmospheric story. At once a thrilling chase novel and a wry reimagining of Ireland’s oldest epic, it is sure to enthrall readers of Neil Gaiman and Cassandra Khaw.

Everybody is after the girl in the bog.

One morning in a field in Connemara, a farmer unearths the body of a young woman, two thousand years old, preserved under layers of peat. Later that evening she awakens in unfamiliar modern Ireland, ripping a hole through space and time and setting awhirl old animosities and long-held grudges.

Shadowy figures follow her from the pagan past, and each emerges with a claim on the girl from the bog. With help from a trio of wannabe teenage witches, she goes on the run. Joining in the chase is an American archaeologist, who wants to keep the discovery for herself, and two befuddled farmers trapped in the plot. Hosts of fairies out for the night work their magic and mischief, and in the blue hour before sunrise, the saga unfolds in a battle for the ages.

Part fantasy, part mystery, part thriller, part send-up, this comic and poignant love song to Irish literature and the gift of gab does not merely bend genres, it braids them into Celtic knots.

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I read Donohue’s Stolen Child when I was a teenager and enjoyed it a lot – it’s still one of the only books I’ve encountered that centres the changeling in the narrative. So I was intrigued when I saw he’d written a new book.

Then I read that blurb, and folx, I am SO SOLD!

I’m half-Irish and spent a lot of my formative years in Ireland, and it’s disappointing that Irish mythology is such a clear influence in modern fantasy, but that’s so rarely acknowledged – never mind Irish myths actually being featured! So The Girl in the Bog promising me ancient Irish legends getting all tangled up in the present??? MY GODS, GIMME IMMEDIATELY!!!

Teen (wannabe) witches helping a(n ancient) woman flee the people who’ve ALREADY KILLED HER TWICE?! I’m sorry, WHAT?! Who are these witches and who on EARTH are these people who keep killing the poor woman from the bog? Why do they want her dead? Who is she, that her existence (or lack of it?) would allow someone to rewrite myth???

And speaking of – according to the Goodreads version of the blurb, it’s rivals from the past who are out to rewrite myths. So – beings who are potentially in those myths? Is this going to be a situation where the stories told about a god/figure affect that god/figure? Because that’s the first reason that jumps out at me as to why you’d want your own myth rewritten, yes? American Gods isn’t my favourite example of this trope but off the top of my head I can’t remember what my favourite is (I’ll edit it in later if I remember) and the fact is that I do love that, when human stories shape (or even straight-up create) gods etc. So I’m going to cross my fingers that that’s what’s going on here!

Also: of course there’s an obsessed foreign archaeologist. Of course there is. I wonder if Donohue’s going to have any commentary on the often-dodgy nature of non-native archaeologists studying cultures that aren’t theirs??? (Also often NOT-dodgy, to be clear. But let’s be real, historically speaking a lot of ‘outsider’ archaeologists, usually white ones, have messed up archaeology for everyone else. *gestures at the Victorians*)

But – befuddled farmers! FAIRIES! A battle for the ages! Yes, yes, Sia NEEEEEEEEEEEDS!

Interestingly – and making me a little bit wary – The Girl in the Bog is marked as Horror as well as Fantasy. The comparison to Cassandra Khaw in the blurb is making me raise my eyebrows a little bit. I love Khaw’s prose, but I doubt Donohue’s suddenly writing in Khaw’s style (le sigh) so this is most likely referring to Khaw’s flavour of Horror. Which…has forced me to give up on books before, because I am a horror-wimp, we’ve been over this many times. So how scary is The Girl in the Bog going to be???

Maybe not too much, since it’s also ‘part send-up’ and ‘comic’ and is evidently big on ‘the gift of gab’. And I’m all for all of that!

Can’t wait to get my grubby paws on this!!!

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Published on April 24, 2024 04:45

I Can’t Wait For…The Girl In the Bog by Keith Donohue

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 Girl In the Bog by Keith Donohue!

The Girl in the Bog by Keith Donohue
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Horror
Published on: 13th August 2024
Goodreads

Ancient heroes from Irish mythology and folklore come to life in the modern world in this dark, atmospheric story. At once a thrilling chase novel and a wry reimagining of Ireland’s oldest epic, it is sure to enthrall readers of Neil Gaiman and Cassandra Khaw.

Everybody is after the girl in the bog.

One morning in a field in Connemara, a farmer unearths the body of a young woman, two thousand years old, preserved under layers of peat. Later that evening she awakens in unfamiliar modern Ireland, ripping a hole through space and time and setting awhirl old animosities and long-held grudges.

Shadowy figures follow her from the pagan past, and each emerges with a claim on the girl from the bog. With help from a trio of wannabe teenage witches, she goes on the run. Joining in the chase is an American archaeologist, who wants to keep the discovery for herself, and two befuddled farmers trapped in the plot. Hosts of fairies out for the night work their magic and mischief, and in the blue hour before sunrise, the saga unfolds in a battle for the ages.

Part fantasy, part mystery, part thriller, part send-up, this comic and poignant love song to Irish literature and the gift of gab does not merely bend genres, it braids them into Celtic knots.

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Then I read that blurb, and folx, I am SO SOLD!

But – befuddled farmers! FAIRIES! A battle for the ages! Yes, yes, Sia NEEEEEEEEEEEDS!

Maybe not too much, since it’s also ‘part send-up’ and ‘comic’ and is evidently big on ‘the gift of gab’. And I’m all for all of that!

Can’t wait to get my grubby paws on this!!!

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Published on April 24, 2024 04:45

April 22, 2024

Must-Have Monday #183

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.

EIGHT books this week!

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

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: MC with clinical anxiety, possibly ace-spectrum MC, sapphic MC, MLM MC, background F/F and M/M, queernorm world
Published on: 25th April 2024
Goodreads

Dive into the curious correspondence of Sylvie Cathrall’s delightful debut novel, A Letter to the Luminous Deep.

A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.

Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.’s home, and she and Henerey vanish.

A year later, E.’s sister Sophy, and Henerey’s brother Vyerin, are left to solve the mystery of their siblings’ disappearances with the letters, sketches and field notes left behind. As they uncover the wondrous love their siblings shared, Sophy and Vyerin learn the key to their disappearance – and what it could mean for life as they know it.

Perfect for fans of A Marvellous Light and TJ Klune, A Letter to the Luminous Deep is a whimsical epistolary fantasy set in a mystical underwater world with mystery and heart-warming romance.

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This book is a true delight – it’s even more charming than the blurb makes it sound! I loved it, and strongly recommend it for anyone looking for a sweet, gentle read that is low-plot but never boring!

My review!

The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills
Genres: Science Fantasy
Published on: 23rd April 2024
Goodreads

[STARRED REVIEW] “A triumphant debut novel.” —Booklist
[STARRED REVIEW] “An absolute must-read.” —Kirkus
[STARRED REVIEW] “Intricate and intriguing." —Publishers Weekly
[STARRED REVIEW] “Complex and haunting.” —Library Journal

In this gripping debut novel from acclaimed Nebula, Sturgeon, and Locus Award-winning author Samantha Mills, a disgraced soldier fights to make sense of her world and the gods who abandoned it. The Wings Upon Her Back is an action-packed, devastating exploration of the brutal costs of zealous loyalty.

Zenya was a teenager when she ran away to join the mechanically-modified warrior sect. She was determined to earn mechanized wings and protect the people of Radezhda, the city she loved. Under the strict tutelage of a mercurial, charismatic leader, Vodaya, Zenya finally became Winged Zemolai.

But after twenty-six years of service, Zemolai is disillusioned with her role as an enforcer in an increasingly fascist state. After one tragic act of mercy, she is brutally cast out and loses everything she worked for. As Zemolai struggles for her life, she is must question her sect, their leader, and even the gods themselves.

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I’ve become kind of obsessed with this book – between the premise, the excerpt, and the reviews I’ve read of it, I’ve become so grabby-hands it almost hurts. Pleeeeeeeeease let it live up to my hopes!!!

Necrobane (The Warden, #2) by Daniel M. Ford
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC, F/F
Published on: 23rd April 2024
Goodreads

"Omigosh! I've just found an author to put on my list of I've got to read everything they ever wrote! The Warden is a gem of the first order. Aelis is my hero."—Glen Cook, author of The Black Company, on The Warden series

"These books are addictive and I can’t wait to see what Aelis and the gang get up to next.”—C.L. Clark, author of The Unbroken

Aelis de Lenti, Lone Pine's newly assigned Warden, is in deep trouble. She has just opened the crypts of Mahlgren, releasing an army of the undead into the unprotected backwoods of Ystain.

To protect her village, she must unearth a source of immense Necromantic power at the heart of Mahlgren. The journey will wind through waves of undead, untamed wilderness, and curses far older than anything Aelis has ever encountered. But as strong as Aelis is, this is one quest she cannot face alone.

Along with the brilliant mercenary she's fallen for, her half-orc friend, and a dwarven merchant, Aelis must race the clock to unravel mysteries, slay dread creatures, and stop what she has set in motion before the flames of a bloody war are re-ignited.

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The first book in this series, The Warden, was so much fun! I mean, everyone said it was, but I still wasn’t expecting it to be that much fun! And the ending was a hilarious cliffhanger, so I am most eager to dive into book two!

Ocean's Godori by Elaine U. Cho
Genres: Sci Fi
Representation: Korean MC
Published on: 23rd April 2024
Goodreads

Ocean Yoon has never felt like much of a Korean, even if she is descended from a long line of haenyeo, Jeju Island's beloved female divers. She's also persona non grata at the Alliance, Korea's solar system-dominating space agency, since a mission went awry and she earned a reputation for being a little too quick with her gun.

When her best friend, Teo, second son of the Anand Tech empire, is framed for murdering his family, Ocean and her misfit crewmates are pushed to the forefront of a high-stakes ideological conflict. But dodging bullets and winning space chases may be the easiest part of what comes next.

A thrilling adventure across the solar that delivers hyperkinetic action sequences and irresistible will-they-won't-they romance alongside its nuanced exploration of colonialism and capitalism, Ocean's Godori ultimately asks: What do we owe our past? How do we navigate our present while honoring the complicated facets of our identity? What can our future hold?

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Everything about this sounds wonderful??? And the excerpt absolutely sold it to me – Ocean already seems like a character I’m REALLY going to get along with!

Dragon Rider (The Soulbound Saga, #1) by Taran Matharu
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 23rd April 2024
Goodreads

New York Times bestselling author Taran Matharu’s debut adult fantasy series introduces an immersive story written in the tradition of the viral cultivation genre. Discover a rich world of magic, warriors, and dragons, in which a fearless orphan and an ambitious handmaiden flee from the empire that would imprison them, with a dream to return to their homelands and a determination that’s unbreakable…

Can an orphan captive learn the secrets of the Dragon Riders to stand up and avenge his people?

Jai lives as a royal hostage in the Sabine Court—ever since his father Rohan, leader of the Steppefolk, led a failed rebellion and was executed by the very emperor Jai now serves.

When the emperor’s son and heir is betrothed to Princess Erica of the neighboring Dansk Kingdom, she brings with her a dowry: dragons. Endemic to the northern nation, these powerful beasts come in several forms, but mystery surrounds them. Only Dansk royalty know the secret to soulbonding with these dangerous beasts to draw on their power and strength. This marriage—and the alliance that forms—will change that forever.

But conspirators lurk in the shadows, and soon the Sabine Court is in chaos. With his life in danger, Jai uses the opportunity to escape with the Dansk handmaiden, Frida, and a stolen hatchling. Hunted at every turn, he must learn to cultivate magic and become a soulbound warrior if he has any chance of finding safety, seizing his destiny…and seeking his revenge

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I’m using the UK cover, because I hate the US one – but the story itself? Sounds EPIC! And the reviews for it have been very promising. It’s been too long since I read a dragon book!

Off With Their Heads by Zoe Hana Mikuta
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic Korean-coded MCs
Published on: 23rd April 2024
Goodreads

Fans of Chloe Gong and Judy I. Lin will devour this Korean-inspired Alice in Wonderland retelling about two very wicked girls, forever bonded by blood and betrayal . . .

In a world where Saints are monsters and Wonderland is the dark forest where they lurk, it’s been five years since young witches and lovers Caro Rabbit and Iccadora Alice Sickle were both sentenced to that forest for a crime they didn’t commit—and four years since they shattered one another’s hearts, each willing to sacrifice the other for a chance at freedom.

Now, Caro is a successful royal Saint-harvester, living the high life in the glittering capital and pretending not to know of the twisted monster experiments that her beloved Red Queen hides deep in the bowels of the palace. But for Icca, the memory of Caro’s betrayal has hardened her from timid girl to ruthless hunter. A hunter who will stop at nothing to exact her On Caro. On the queen. On the throne itself.

But there’s a secret about the Saints the Queen’s been guarding, and a volatile magic at play even more dangerous to Icca and Caro than they are to each other…

Lush, terrifying, and uncanny, Zoe Hana Mikuta—author of Gearbreakers and Godslayers —takes a delicate knife straight through the heart of this beloved surrealist fairytale.

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The reviews are a bit mixed on this one, but I’m hopeful – there’s been lots of references to heavy-duty worldbuilding, which we know is my catnip! Also, wildly unlikable characters have been promised me; I intend to collect!

Blood Justice (Blood Debts, #2) by Terry J. Benton-Walker
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black cast, MLM MC
Published on: 23rd April 2024
Goodreads

Blood Justice is the hotly anticipated sequel to Terry J. Benton-Walker’s Most Anticipated debut Blood Debts.

Praise for Blood Debts: “A conjuring of magnificence.” ―NIC STONE • “A force.” ―ROSEANNE A. BROWN • “An extravaganza.” ―CHLOE GONG • “Powerful.” ―AYANA GRAY • “Sings with hope and rage.” ―TJ KLUNE • “An unforgettable thrill ride.” ―J. ELLE • “Steeped in magic.” ―ALEXIS HENDERSON • “Crackles with mystery and ferocity.” ―MARK OSHIRO

Cristina and Clement Trudeau have conjured the impossible: justice.

They took back their family’s stolen throne to lead New Orleans’ magical community into the brighter future they all deserve.

But when Cris and Clem restored their family power, Valentina Savant lost everything. Her beloved grandparents are gone and her sovereignty has been revoked―she will never be Queen. Unless, of course, someone dethrones the Trudeaus again. And lucky for her, she’s not the only one trying to take them down.

Cris and Clem have enemies coming at them from all directions: Hateful anti-magic protesters sabotage their reign at every turn. A ruthless detective with a personal vendetta against magical crime is hot on their tail just as Cris has discovered her thirst for revenge. And a brutal god, hunting from the shadows, is summoned by the very power Clem needs to protect the boy he loves.

Cris’s hunger for vengeance and Clem’s desire for love could prove to be their family’s downfall, all while new murders, shocking disappearances, and impossible alliances are changing the game forever.

Welcome back to New Orleans, where gods walk among us and justice isn’t served, it’s taken.

Most Anticipated from Publishers Weekly, Bookpage, TheGrio, and more!

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I have not let myself read the blurb for fear of spoilers – I haven’t finished Blood Debts yet! (I know, I know – major Sia!fail!) But what I’ve read so far has me very sure the sequel will also be worth reading!

A Whisper in the Walls (Waxways, #2) by Scott Reintgen
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 23rd April 2024
Goodreads

In this sequel to the New York Times bestselling, “pulse-pounding” ( Publishers Weekly ) A Door in the Dark , Ren’s intellect and cunning are stretched to the limit in her quest to take down the system that stole her father’s life.

Ren Monroe is a wolf among lions. After infiltrating one of the greatest Houses in Kathor through her successful bond with Theo Brood, she finds Theo’s father is two steps ahead. He exiles Theo and isolates Ren, strategically working to break her unwelcome grasp on his son—and foiling Ren’s first step to enacting the revenge she’s been planning her whole life.

Ren might have more resources than she’d ever imagined growing up, but she’ll still get nowhere without allies. Enter House Tin’Vori. Years ago, House Brood led an unprecedented raid to destroy a fellow House of Kathor. But a few siblings survived, and they haven’t forgotten the horrors waged against their family. Quietly, they’ve plotted their own revenge, waiting for the right moment to strike. And Ren Monroe might be their best chance.

Like fire, the Tin’Vori siblings are as dangerous as they are useful, both gifted in rare magics. Ren must decide how to unleash them against House Brood without hurting Theo in the process. Her feelings for Theo are growing past the boundaries of their bond, and Ren finds herself balanced on a knife’s edge, a breath away from immense power or utter ruin.

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I’m still very surprised – and delighted! – that we’re getting a sequel to Door in the Dark; I was so sure it was a standalone! But I’m so glad it’s not, because I so desperately wanted to know what would happen next – and now we will!!! EEEEEEE!!!

Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!

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Published on April 22, 2024 01:11

April 19, 2024

Sweetly Shining: A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall

Dive into the curious correspondence of Sylvie Cathrall’s delightful debut novel, A Letter to the Luminous Deep.

A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.

Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.’s home, and she and Henerey vanish.

A year later, E.’s sister Sophy, and Henerey’s brother Vyerin, are left to solve the mystery of their siblings’ disappearances with the letters, sketches and field notes left behind. As they uncover the wondrous love their siblings shared, Sophy and Vyerin learn the key to their disappearance – and what it could mean for life as they know it.

Perfect for fans of A Marvellous Light and TJ Klune, A Letter to the Luminous Deep is a whimsical epistolary fantasy set in a mystical underwater world with mystery and heart-warming romance.

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.

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~an underwater house
~an archipelago in the sky
~mysterious eels
~academia politics
~a love letter to questions

You know the craving you get for books that make the inside of your head go quiet? The kind that softly, gently make the world around you disappear, so all there is is the story? A story which is like cashmere wrapped around your brain, a story which is never boring but also never…never stressful? One that never feels like work to read, that manages to be pure, warm escapism like a mug of your favourite hot chocolate?

Hi, let me introduce you to A Letter to the Luminous Deep.

The title is apt in more ways than one, and I decided to use that as the framework for this review. Thus!

Reason the First

The first reason the title of this tale is so perfect is that the book is literally made up of letters (…not the alphabet kind)(I mean, obviously those too!) as the style is epistolary, each chapter comprised of missives and notes passed between E and Henerey, and between E’s sister and Henerey’s brother, with the occasional interjection of letters and reports from others, like E’s brother or honorary aunt. I happen to really love epistolary stories, but I think that even if you don’t, Luminous Deep is likely to convert you; and if you’ve never read an epistolary novel before, then this is a pretty excellent introduction to the form. Each character has a very distinctive voice (vitally important when all we have is their first-person communications!), and each missive is clearly marked with sender, receiver, and date, making it very easy to keep track of who’s talking to whom and when. And though I do not think first-person is a guaranteed way to make the reader feel more connected to the character/s, Cathrall made me feel like I was a part of the conversation the characters were having, not a witness to it but participating in it, and that’s not a common writerly magic!

It doesn’t hurt that the cast is packed full of lovely people that I loved getting to know. E has intense clinical anxiety and has been a shut-in for years, but she’s very brave (even if she doesn’t think so) and fiercely curious about the world around her (one of my favourite character traits, in real and fictional people both): she kickstarts the whole story by writing to a naturalist – Henerey – about a sea creature she’s seen that might not yet be known to science! Henerey proves to have been a good choice to write to, as he’s a wildly enthusiastic sweetheart, who’s not very socially adept but is more than smart enough to see how wonderful E is, which would earn him major points with me even if he wasn’t also the human equivalent of an excited, lovable puppy.

Alongside these two are our other main characters; Sophy, E’s sister, and Vyerin, Henerey’s brother. The conceit of Luminous Deep is that, a year after E and Henerey mysteriously vanish, Sophy and Vyerin get in touch to try and figure out what happened, sharing with each other the correspondence their respective sibling sent to the other’s. The two timelines are completely interwoven; Sophy and Vyerin communicate back and forth in the same chapters as E and Henerey do, so that a quick note to Sophy often directly follows one of Henerey’s long letters to E. In the hands of a lesser writer, this could have been confusing or messy, but happily it was nothing of the kind, and Sophy in particular became very dear to me. She’s much more vivacious and outgoing than her sister, whereas Vyerin is a little more withdrawn (at least until he gets to know Sophy better) but feels things just as intensely, even if he isn’t always able to commit them to paper. Sophy also has her own story going on while Henerey and E were communicating; a scientific endeavour during which she met her now-wife, and during which she and E often exchanged letters too. Henerey and E’s developing friendship, then near-romance, is charming and delightful; Sophy’s adventure is fascinating, but also anchored in emotion and human relationships, which I appreciated.

(There’s also E and Sophy’s brother, who is a bit of an ass, but luckily we don’t have to deal with him very often.)

Reason the Second

As for the second reason as to why the title is so appropriate; not only is this a book written in the form of letters, the vast majority of those letters are going down into the depths of the ocean. E lives in Deep House, a large and cosy one-of-a-kind home on the sea floor designed by her (now-deceased) mother. It is not, however, at the bottom of any of our oceans.

I wasn’t sure what to expect re the setting, going into this book, but Cathrall has created an entirely new, separate planet for her debut; a world that is almost entirely covered in water, with very little natural land accentuated by a handful of artificial islands, and a fair few communes built or lashed together that float along on the ocean surface. That already makes for an interesting set-up, but what made my jaw drop was learning that humans aren’t native to this world at all.

Hi, I love this??? The reveal that humans came from elsewhere is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment – it’s really not relevant to the plot, or the characters’ lives, at all – but it’s the kind of detail that just makes me light up. And it does help explain how the society of this world is the way it is, and it’s the kind of thing that might be very relevant indeed further down the line – my personal theory is that the big mystery E and Henerey uncover is Not Unrelated. But that you’ll have to read about for yourself, because that definitely would be a spoiler.

A not-insignificant number of letters go deeper still into the waters – more Depths! – following Sophy while she is part of a scientific team exploring something similar to the Marianas Trench of our world. It’s the deepest humanity has ever gone in this world’s oceans – a Very Big Deal indeed! – but thankfully, Cathrall declines to write this plotline like some kind of The Meg (2018) nonsense; far from being some kind of thriller-horror mess, this, like the E-and-Henerey storyline, is quiet, almost cosy, focused on the interactions, emotions, and developing relationships between the different Scholars (as this world names its scientists) as well as the sheer joy of scientific discovery.

Which segues nicely into…

Reason the Third

I’ve often seen (and you probably have too) artworks called ‘letters’ or ‘love-letters’ to different topics or themes. And that’s the third way in which this book’s title is perfect for it, because Letters to the Luminous Deep is in itself a letter – a love-letter to wonder and curiosity, questioning and discovery, to diving into the depths of the unexplored or unexplained or even completely unknown, and celebrating the urge to learn, learn and share what has been learned. This is a love story, yes, but not only because what E and Henerey have becomes a romance, or because of the wife-to-be Sophy meets in the darkest part of the ocean – it’s a love story because it is a story about the love of learning. That’s what brings E and Henerey together; it’s what brings Sophy and Niea together; and it’s woven into every page of the book. Luminous Deep fairly glows with it – pun unintended.

I don’t know if I’ve seen that before – a book that celebrates curiosity and the yearning to know and the delight of discovery. I can’t think of another example, and that’s sad, because these are qualities, concepts, things that we should celebrate, and that I would love to see more often in my sci fi. I feel like this should be a foundational aspect of science fiction, actually, now that I think about it – every piece of sci fi is fundamentally an answer to someone’s what if?, is it not? Then what could be better, or more natural, or more correct, than science fiction that is not just an answer to someone’s what if?, but also encourages the audience to ask their own questions? Not just of that particular piece of art, but of the whole world?

Which is to say: this is a warm, lovely book that will not hurt you, that manages to be soft even when it is a little bit scary, that is charming and fun and wonderfully readable. It is not action-packed; there is not even much in the way of actual plot for at least the first half of the book. And it would be enough – more than enough! – to ‘just’ be soft and sweet. We need more of that in the world.

But Letters to the Luminous Deep manages to be soft and sweet, and to celebrate and encourage curiosity and learning. Which I think makes it something very special.

Honestly, I think it’s utterly perfect, and you’ll be seriously missing out if you give this one a skip.

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Published on April 19, 2024 12:01

April 17, 2024

I Can’t Wait For…This Fatal Kiss by Alicia Jasinska

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 This Fatal Kiss by Alicia Jasinska!

This Fatal Kiss by Alicia Jasinska
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Polyamory
Published on: 10th September 2024
Goodreads

Spirit away with a whimsical fantasy filled with dark magic and flirty, polyamorous romance.

Cursed to haunt the river running through the magical spa town where she drowned, Gisela is a water nymph who dreams of returning to the living world and the family she left behind. All it takes to regain her humanity is a kiss from a mortal...but everyone sees her as a monster.

And then there’s Kazik, the brooding, interfering, spirit-hunting grandson of a local witch. He's determined to rid the world of unholy creatures like Gisela. After Kazik botches Gisela’s exorcism, she strikes up a deal. She won’t tell the other spirits that he’s losing his magic, if he agrees to play matchmaker and helps her get a kiss. But Gisela’s plan goes awry when Kazik also falls for the devilishly handsome young man that she sets her heart on—someone who could be linked to Gisela’s troubled past.

Finely crafted with a magical setting, this delectable quest through the spirit world is an enchanting read for fans of queer romantasy.

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ALICIA JASINSKA IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Her debut Dark Tide is still one of my all-time faves, and her second novel was an amazing story about monster girls falling in love while trying to kill each other: in other words, SUBLIME!

‘Whimsical’ suggests Fatal Kiss might be a bit less feral than her previous books, but that’s okay! It sounds – kind of adorable??? A failed exorcism, oh my gods that must be embarrassing! Does Kazik mind that he’s losing his magic, apart from the embarrassment factor, if he thinks beings like Gisela are unholy? Like, is magic also unholy? I doubt his grandmother would approve of that opinion.

Also, I’m guessing people don’t realise how easy it is to turn a water nymph back into a human? I mean, why doesn’t Kazik just kiss Gisela? Unholy creature is gone! Ta da! Where once there was a nymph, now a human! I’m genuinely interested in finding out why a kiss from Kazik isn’t an option…the blurb doesn’t mention it needing to be true-love’s-kiss, but maybe it does need to be?

I didn’t catch it the first time I read the blurb, but – excuse me, this is set in a MAGICAL SPA TOWN??? This delights me, for some reason??? I just love the idea of it! What do magical spas look like/consist of? INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW!

And all of this wrapped up in poly. JASINSKA, YOU SPOIL US!

The one thing I’m worried about is that, with Jasinska’s books so far, both have had very unfinished endings. (I’m still begging for a Dark Tide sequel!) So I have my toes crossed that our latest throuple will get a proper, all-threads-neatly-tied-off ending!

Regardless, I’m slamming the preorder button. SIA NEEDS!

The post I Can’t Wait For…This Fatal Kiss by Alicia Jasinska appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

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Published on April 17, 2024 01:01

April 15, 2024

Must-Have Monday #182

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.

SEVEN books this week!

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

A Wolf Steps in Blood by Tamara Jerée
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black sapphic MCs
Published on: 16th April 2024
Goodreads

Yasmine is a red wolf girl stuck in rural Alabama. Her world is small: pick up shifts at the greasy late-night diner and endure her pack’s petty squabbles. She’s not good at being a wolf or being human, directionless in life and disconnected from her ancestors.

Blessed by a century-old enchantment, the local red wolves have escaped extinction by blending into the human world. But with the old witches’ blessing wearing thin, the wolves face an uncertain future.

An answer arrives in the form of an exiled blood witch whose magic is steeped in reckless grief. Kalta rides into town in her dead brother’s truck, prophecy following on her heels. Despite the danger Yasmine can smell swirling around the witch, a fated bond tangles their futures—and those of all the wolves.

After an accident threatens the wolves’ secret, Yasmine has no choice but to join Kalta on the road, carving a path through the South’s backroads and hoping the magic brewing between them is enough to overcome their bloody pasts.

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I’d have been vibrating with excitement for this WHATEVER it was about, because it’s by Tamara Jerée and after The Fall That Saved Us, I will read anything and everything they publish! But even aside from that, A Wolf Steps In Blood sounds amazing – red wolf shapeshifters! Who might not be shapeshifters for much longer! Renegade blood witches! A roadtrip that might be tied in with a prophecy! I NEED THIS IMMEDIATELY, PLEASE AND THANK YOU!

The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar
Genres: Sci Fi
Published on: 16th April 2024
Goodreads

“I am in love with Sofia Samatar's lyricism and the haunting beauty of her imagination. Her stories linger, like the memory of a sumptuous feast.”―N. K. Jemisin

Celebrated author Sofia Samatar presents a mystical, revolutionary space adventure for the exhausted dreamer in this brilliant science fiction novella tackling the carceral state and violence embedded in the ivory tower while embodying the legacy of Ursula K. Le Guin.

"Can the University be a place of both training and transformation?"

The boy was raised as one of the Chained, condemned to toil in the bowels of a mining ship out amongst the stars.

His whole world changes―literally―when he is yanked "upstairs" to meet the woman he will come to call “professor.” The boy is no longer one of the Chained, she tells him, and he has been gifted an opportunity to be educated at the ship’s university alongside the elite.

The woman has spent her career striving for acceptance and validation from her colleagues in the hopes of reaching a brighter future, only to fall short at every turn.

Together, the boy and the woman will learn from each other to grasp the design of the chains designed to fetter them both, and are the key to breaking free. They will embark on a transformation―and redesign the entire world.

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I’m not sure I’ve ever come across sci fi dark academia before, but apparently that’s what this is? Intriguing! And of course, it’s Sofia Samatar, which makes it a mandatory read!

Smile and Be a Villain by Yves Donlon
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Ace-spectrum MC, bisexual MC, major trans character, major Black character, major Jewish character
Published on: 16th April 2024
Goodreads

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark… and that 'something' is magic.

HELSINGØR, 1536.

Ophelia is a disgraced handmaid to the queen, the cast-off lover of Prince Hamlet.
She is also a witch, and a good one at that. And she can see that Denmark is rotting from the inside out, afflicted by dark magic.

WITTENBERG, 1536.

Hamlet is a useless son, a failed heir. He is the prince of a nation about to fight a war they won't win.

He doesn't know about magic, but if he did he would use it to destroy their enemies—no matter the consequences.

As Hamlet and Ophelia find themselves increasingly torn apart, they must decide: how much are they willing to sacrifice in order to save Denmark?

And, by the end of it all, will they be beyond saving?

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Hamlet seems to be a very popular story to retell the last few years, but I find Smile and Be a Villain a very interesting title. (It’s also a quote from the play, which I’m sure is no coincidence.) Who’s going to be the villain here? And if Ophelia’s a good witch…where’s the bad witch?

Earthflown by Frances Wren, Litarnes
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Ace-spec MLM MC, gay MC with depression, M/M, minor sapphic characters
Published on: 16th April 2024
Goodreads

Featuring over 60 illustrations, Earthflown is a love story that tries – and fails – to leave the water crisis behind. Set in post-flood London, futuristic medicine meets a bit of magic in Frances Wren's bittersweet debut.

When Ethan saves the life of a firestarter, it's nothing unusual. He's the only healer on call at the hospital – and that gunshot wound isn't going to regenerate itself. But his patient turns out to be Corinna Arden, heiress to a pharmaceutical empire controlling Britain's water supply. Her twin, Javier, is a man who (a) starts sending Ethan flowers at work, (b) seems terrified of a secret, and (c) has the cheekbones and earnestness to make up for both.

Ethan indulges in (what he thinks will be) a brief, harmless romance – but is swept up in a deadly collusion over Project Earthflown: the largest reconstruction tender since London clawed its way out of the rising sea.

Determined to follow the money, Ollie is a journalist who finds a corpse at the end of a too-convenient tip. The fate of water – and who profits – might depend on the perennial question: has Ethan lost his mind, or is he just an idiot?

‣‣ "A mesmerizing blend of sci-fi, fantasy, and crime noir that transcends genres. Absolutely captivating." — AIDEN THOMAS, New York Times bestselling author of Cemetery Boys.

‣‣ “This darkly thrilling novel examines both the climate crisis and the human heart with immense tenderness. Gorgeously original.” — ESMIE JIKIEMI-PEARSON, inaugural Future Worlds Prize winning author of The Principle of Moments.

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There seems to be a little confusion over the release date for this: I think the illustrated paperback may already be available, but it might be another week or two before we get the non-illustrated paperback and ebook. REGARDLESS, this book needs to be on your radar – it’s not exactly what the blurb makes it sound like, but it is really, really excellent!

My review!

Sheine Lende (Elatsoe, #2) by Darcie Little Badger, Rovina Cai
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Lipan Apache MC
Published on: 16th April 2024
Goodreads

Darcie Little Badger's Elatsoe launched her career and in the years since has become a beloved favorite. This prequel to Elatsoe, centered on Ellie's grandmother, deepens and expands Darcie's one-of-a-kind world and introduces us to another cast of characters that will wend their way around readers' hearts.

Shane works with her mother and their ghost dogs, tracking down missing persons even when their families can't afford to pay. Their own family was displaced from their traditional home years ago following a devastating flood - and the loss of Shane's father and her grandparents. They don't think they'll ever get their home back.

Then Shane's mother and a local boy go missing, after a strange interaction with a fairy ring. Shane, her brother, her friends, and her lone, surviving grandparent - who isn't to be trusted - set off on the road to find them. But they may not be anywhere in this world - or this place in time.

Nevertheless, Shane is going to find them.

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I am SO EXCITED to be returning to Elatsoe’s world; and even more so that this time the story will follow her amazing grandmother!!! I suspect that you can enjoy this one just fine even if you haven’t read Elatsoe, but you should absolutely read Elatsoe asap, because it’s amazing.

Merciless Saviors (The Ouroboros #2) by H.E. Edgmon
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans nonbinary Seminole demiromantic pansexual MC, polyamory, brown trans love interest, plus-sized Indigenous trans love interest, polyamory, QBIPOC cast
Published on: 16th April 2024
Goodreads

That day at the First Church of Gracie changed everything for Gem Echols, and not just because Marian and Poppy betrayed them. Forced to use the Ouroboros knife on Zephyr, who had kidnapped their parents, Gem now has the power of the God of Air.

While for any other god things might work out okay, the Magician—whose role within the pantheon is to keep the balance—having the power of another god has thrown everything into chaos. The Goddess of Death can now reanimate corpses; the God of Art’s powers are now corrupted and twisted, giving life to his macabre creations; and, while the God of Land has always been able to communicate with creatures of the Earth, now everyone can hear their cries.

As Gem, Rory, and Enzo search for a way to restore the balance without sacrificing themselves, new horrors make them question how far they're willing to go. In the end, Gem may be forced to fully embrace their merciless nature and kill off their own humanity—if it ever really existed in the first place.

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The second and final book in the Ouroboros duology! DO NOT EVEN READ THE BLURB IF YOU HAVEN’T READ BOOK ONE YET.

GO READ BOOK ONE IMMEDIATELY INSTEAD.

My review!

Moon Dust in My Hairnet by J.R. Creaden
Genres: Sci Fi
Representation: Autistic MC
Published on: 19th April 2024
Goodreads

Moon Dust in My Hairnet is a fresh, hopeful, and diverse sci-fi romp following an autistic lunar lunch lady as she juggles relationships and threatening corporate overlords, all while adjusting to life on Lunar Trust One.

20-year-old Lane was perfectly happy living in her big sister's shadow. The great Faraday Tanner, who invented the gravdrive and inspired the movement to found the moon's first independent colony, was the unequaled voice of the post-melt generation. That is, until an unimaginable tragedy cut Faraday’s legacy short.

Wracked with survivor's guilt and desperate for her sister's utopian dream to succeed, Lane embraces her job on the moon: lunch lady—which is more than her parents think she can handle. Her boyfriend's supportive at least, when he's not drooling over one of the new recruits. Lane tries to put the past behind her, committed to enjoying her kitchen work and dating her boyfriend and his new crushes. She even participates in planning Faraday's memorial, forcing herself to grapple with monumental loss.

But when colony goods go missing and vital equipment gets tampered with, Lane can't accept the events as mere pranks, banding together with new and old friends to save their home.

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It’s hard to see how autistic MCs in space can go wrong, and I’m under the impression this is supposed to be quite a hopepunk/optimistic book, which would be lovely. It’s nice to have main characters who work normal-people jobs too – when did you last see a SFF novel featuring a lunch lady?

Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!

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Published on April 15, 2024 01:11

April 13, 2024

Learning Love and Mercy: Merciless Saviors by H.E. Edgmon

That day at the First Church of Gracie changed everything for Gem Echols, and not just because Marian and Poppy betrayed them. Forced to use the Ouroboros knife on Zephyr, who had kidnapped their parents, Gem now has the power of the God of Air.

While for any other god things might work out okay, the Magician—whose role within the pantheon is to keep the balance—having the power of another god has thrown everything into chaos. The Goddess of Death can now reanimate corpses; the God of Art’s powers are now corrupted and twisted, giving life to his macabre creations; and, while the God of Land has always been able to communicate with creatures of the Earth, now everyone can hear their cries.

As Gem, Rory, and Enzo search for a way to restore the balance without sacrificing themselves, new horrors make them question how far they're willing to go. In the end, Gem may be forced to fully embrace their merciless nature and kill off their own humanity—if it ever really existed in the first place.

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.

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~Everything Gets Worse
~hearts slay monsters
~never trust a Magician
~my OT3 is the best OT3
~surprise!Chosen One (not how you think)

:this review contains spoilers for Godly Heathens!:

The first book in this duology, Godly Heathens, blew me away and scored a spot on my Best of 2023 list. Unfortunately I can’t say that I enjoyed Merciless Saviors as much, even if I thought the messaging was powerful and beautiful.

Gem fucked up in the climax of the previous book, making the wrong call out of pain and betrayal and fury. It was a truly glorious moment, though; I had no difficulty understanding and even sympathising with Gem’s choice, and there’s something toxically exhilarating in seeing a character Choose Wrong – not least because they so rarely do, in the kind of fantasy I read. There’s always a last-second Morality Moment, where the hero completely fails to behave like a real person and somehow rises above things like mere human emotion to be the Bigger Person.

So I loved that Gem didn’t do that.

I did not love that we didn’t get to experience the fallout. The blurb mentions how the goddess of death (aka Poppy) can reanimate corpses now, etc…but we barely get a glimpse of all that, because Gem gets zapped into a magic coma (or so I will call it, for ease of writing about it) and wakes up two weeks later to discover how everyone’s powers have now gone haywire.

So we don’t actually see everyone discovering the new ‘balance’ and coming to terms with it. We just…timeskip past all of that.

Um???

I’m not a fan of timeskips at the best of times, and this was not that. In fact, Edgmon employs multiple timeskips over the course of Merciless Saviors, and while most of them allow us to gloss over things like travel time – which I get is difficult to write without boring the reader to tears – they all felt really graceless, clunky and handwavey in a way I vehemently disliked. If you need your characters to get from Point A to Point B, it’s your job to figure out how to keep it interesting.

It’s really difficult to talk about Merciless Saviors because most of the things that happen are massive spoilers. So forgive me for being vague, but I kind of have to be.

The last thing I see is Christ on the cross above me.

My last thought is that this god did not die for my sins. But others have. And more will yet.

Gem’s self-loathing spirals fully out of control under the stress and pressure of the unbalanced Balance, what it’s done to Rory and Enzo, and the mundane consequences of murdering Zephyr (who did, after all, have both a human identity and far too many witnesses/hostages for everyone to pretend he just conveniently disappeared). Between all of that, and all the awfulness stirred up in their head during their coma, they implode.

But, uh. What happens as a result of that implosion does not make sense, and never gets explained. The effect it has on the rest of the pantheon – not just Gem themself – also does not make obvious sense, and that’s not explained either. In fact, I’m not even sure if Gem’s actions affected the whole pantheon, or if the rest of the pantheon replicated Gem’s actions after somehow (how?) seeing what it did to Gem and therefore did it to themselves.

???

I’ve gotta be honest: I was not impressed. Not just re the lack of explanations for how The Thing happened/worked, but The Thing itself was…I don’t think predictable is the right word, but…kinda? It was a turn in the story I didn’t like – I might have enjoyed it if it had happened differently, under other circumstances, but I just didn’t like it going down this way. Especially with the damn statues.

But I think I can be objective enough to say that it wasn’t bad writing, just not how I personally would have liked the story to go.

“You might be the devil. But even Lucifer was carved by the hand of god, and we both know I could cut your wings if I wanted to.”

We learn a lot more about the Ether – the pantheon’s homeworld/world of origin – in this book, and I’ve gotta say, I was massively disappointed by it. In Godly Heathens, the worldbuilding – specifically re the gods – looked simplistic at first glance, but was actually very deep and thoughtful, with some very cool and interesting interpretations of various concepts and their connections to each other (the romance between Battle and Death, for instance, and the complicated and messy dynamics between the gods of the different aspects of Nature). The worldbuilding for the Ether itself…I mean, there barely is any worldbuilding. It’s our world with a few tweaks; there was no sense of it being alien and other, nothing to make it unique, nothing that even created a real sense of place. It doesn’t feel like another world at all, and although Edgmon floats the very meta idea that maybe the Ether doesn’t exist at all, but is just a creation of traumatised-Gem’s mind – uh, no. I mean, that would explain why it’s so much like our world, but if the Ether is only Gem’s invention, then Rory and Enzo wouldn’t exist except as hallucinations, which they most definitely are not.

Rory has blood on her hands. Just like Enzo. Just like me. It doesn’t mean any of us are undeserving of another chance. But maybe it means we don’t get to demand that chance from the same people whose blood it is.

And the decision Gem, Rory and Enzo make regarding the Ether and their connection to it… I still don’t understand their reasoning, but at the same time, wow, saw that decision coming from a mile away. Is it bad writing? I’m not sure, but I know it felt too simple and easy to me, especially after how unabashedly complex Godly Heathens was.

Hey. Hey, self?

What the fuck are you doing?

We also finally discover what the deal is with the Heartkeeper – the deity who seemingly remained in the Ether while the rest of the pantheon was dragged to Earth, and whom Gem couldn’t seem to remember or think about for more than a second or two at a time in the previous book. Again: major disappointment. I didn’t like the reveal, the attempt at drama was entirely predictable and pointless, and after setting the groundwork for something Deeply Mysterious to be going on in book one, the actual Heartkeeper (and their story) was really boring.

Merciless Saviors does a pretty hard 180 from Godly Heathens when it comes to monstrousness and being (or not being) a good person. Although I think Gem’s growth in this book is really important, and the intrinsic message – that you can fight tooth and nail to become a good person even if you aren’t one – was powerful and beautifully conveyed, I was a) not completely clear as to how exactly Gem reached this conclusion, and b) disappointed again. I loved Gem’s ‘dark side’ in Godly Heathens, how they were drawn to the Shade’s monstrousness, how they did terrible things unrepentantly. It was interesting. But Merciless walks that all the way back, and again, I’m not saying this was the wrong choice for the story, but it was one that I personally felt let down by. I want to read about monstrous characters, okay? I want to read about unrepentant monsters. Instead, Merciless became very much about declawing one’s monstrousness and investing in being a good person, and yes I understand that that’s the ethically correct choice in real life, but it is very boring to read, no different to a thousand other books I’ve read.

And yet, I can’t deny that the character work was wonderful. Even if I’d prefer my monsters stay monsters, I still deeply appreciated Gem’s arc, and even more so the deepening and enriching of the love story tying them, Rory, and Enzo together. I may not have cared much for what was going on around these characters, but what was going on inside them? Beautiful, perfect, flawless in every way. Edgmon still had my heart wrapped around their finger, and they still hit me with gut punch after gut punch in the Feels. My e-arc of Merciless Saviors is covered in highlights, lines that spoke to me, passages so gorgeous they hurt, and just plain brilliant ways of phrasing vitally human emotions and experiences. To quote Simon Jimenez a moment, ‘this is a love story to its blade-dented bone’, both in the sense of the obvious, breathlessly compelling romance, and also in the sense that Gem really, desperately has to figure out how to love themself. And every bit of that, both those entwined storylines, made me ache in the very best way.

Plus, the epilogue was epic. I hated that we got yet another timeskip, but nothing can make that ending not utterly fabulous.

That’s all I’ll say about that!

So…did I like Merciless Saviors? I…really don’t know. From an objective, writerly perspective, I think there were some not-great choices made, and a lot of deus ex machina-type reveals that didn’t land the way I think they were supposed to. At the same time, I think the messaging, Gem’s arc and growth, were really beautiful, really important, and very powerfully written; as was the love story between Gem, Rory, and Enzo. (There’s one passage where Gem describes what the three of them are to each other that I’m seriously considering getting tattooed.)

(I’M SO HEART-EYES MY HEART-EYES HAVE HEART-EYES, OKAY?)

From a completely subjective, personal perspective, the story took turns I found dull but that were not objectively bad – probably lots of other readers will enjoy them immensely. And there were some turns I liked very much indeed! (HANK.)

So I’m pretty torn.

If you loved Godly Heathens, then you ought to read this one too, because honestly, how could you not? This may not be exactly the book I wanted, but the love poured into and shining out of it is more than worth the clunkier bits.

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Published on April 13, 2024 01:51

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