Siavahda's Blog, page 50

An Epic Dawn: Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott

US cover (left); UK cover (right)Unconquerable Sun (The Sun Chronicles #1) by Kate Elliott
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: East Asian-coded cast, sapphic MC, F/F, bi/pansexual secondary character, secondary polyamory/polygamy, extremely minor nonbinary rep
PoV: Third-person, past tense; first-person, present-tense; multiple PoVs
ISBN: B07WPNFXN6
Goodreads

GENDER-SWAPPED ALEXANDER THE GREAT ON AN INTERSTELLAR SCALE

Princess Sun has finally come of age.

Growing up in the shadow of her mother, Eirene, has been no easy task. The legendary queen-marshal did what everyone thought impossible: expel the invaders and build Chaonia into a magnificent republic, one to be respected—and feared.

But the cutthroat ambassador corps and conniving noble houses have never ceased to scheme—and they have plans that need Sun to be removed as heir, or better yet, dead.

To survive, the princess must rely on her wits and companions: her biggest rival, her secret lover, and a dangerous prisoner of war.

Take the brilliance and cunning courage of Princess Leia—add in a dazzling futuristic setting where pop culture and propaganda are one and the same—and hold on tight:
This is the space opera you’ve been waiting for.

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~blink-and-you’ll-miss-them dinosaurs
~America’s Got Talent, but it’s princesses outwitting treachery
~literally two-faced characters
~all the intrigue you could possibly ask for
~Persephone, the goddess of snark

If you’ve heard of Unconquerable Sun before, you’ve probably heard it described as ‘genderbent Alexander the Great in space!’ That was how it was pitched to us, the general internet, years before it arrived on shelves.

And I’ll confess right now: I don’t know a whole lot about Alexander the Great. Baby!Sia was only interested in him at all because one of her books insisted that Bucephalus, Alexander’s famous steed, was a unicorn. (A factoid with a 99.9% likelihood of being, alas, untrue.) Later, he came into my orbit again as having been a massively influential queer man, at a time when I was looking for queer historical figures. (Unlike the unicorn, his being queer has a 99.9% probability of being true.) I know he conquered a whole swathe of the world known to him, is said to have mourned the destruction of the Sacred Band of Thebes by his own army, and that there are/were probably quite a lot of Libraries of Alexandria, actually, because he left a city called Alexandria everywhere he went. (And presumably at least some of the non-Egyptian ones had libraries too!)

That was more than enough to know that I desperately wanted to read this book!

(And if you know nothing about Alexander the Great at all? Fear not! Because you do not need to.)

Princess Sun is the coolly reserved yet powerfully charismatic heir to the republic of Chaonia, a small coalition of planets caught between much larger powers. She is eager to prove herself in battle – for one thing, no one can claim the throne without having demonstrated martial prowess; but on a more emotional level, she’s also fervent to earn the approval of her war-hero mother. (Not that she would ever admit it; this is not a young woman who reveals her vulnerabilities, ever.) There’s some interesting confliction here, though; her mother, Eirene, is a military genius, and Sun has the (somewhat valid!) concern that by the time she takes the throne, there won’t be anyone left to fight. But should she really be hoping that her Republic faces more war in the future?

Things are complicated still further by the fact that Sun is half-foreign; superpatriotic Chaonia is borderline xenophobic, and Sun’s father is a prince of the Gatoi, a space-faring people that are mostly allied with the Phene Empire – Chaonia’s ultimate enemy. (More on this in a bit.) There are quite a lot of people who don’t want to see a half-Gatoi princess on the throne.

In other words, Sun has even more to prove than your average Chaonian heir.

Despite having acquitted herself well in battle just previous to the start of Unconquerable Sun, Sun and her Companions – selected peers from the Honourable Houses that make up the Chaonian government, whose first loyalty is to Sun rather than their noble families – are sent away on a propaganda tour at the beginning of the book. Toward the end of which, one of her Companions is murdered, kicking off the fast-paced, high-tension main plot of this trilogy opener.

When I first read Unconquerable Sun, it became an instant fave; rereading it in preparation for Furious Heaven, the sequel, I can see why I loved it so much. Elliott’s usual intricate and detailed worldbuilding is on full display here, and while we get the greatest amount of insight into Chaonia, Elliott also manages to quickly and deftly make the other cultures we encounter, even just in passing, feel real and organic too. Sun herself does come across as a military prodigy (a character-type many authors don’t manage to write convincingly), and I really enjoyed the dynamic between her, her Companions, and the cee-cees (Companions’ companions, ie the Companions’ bodyguards). The way they interact as friends versus how they work together as a team when confronted with threats, and how seamlessly they move between the two states, was just *chef’s kiss* That being said, I thought it was an interesting (and great) choice to not make Sun especially likeable; her whole Thing of being Coolly Reserved means there’s not much for a reader to latch on to, in trying to make an emotional connection to her. But it very much feels like a deliberate choice on Elliott’s part, not poor writing; I think we’re meant to admire Sun, or at least aspects of her, but Sun isn’t interested in being liked (although I do wonder how much of this might be her own inability to connect deeply with other people outside of her Companions) and that very much comes through.

Kind of on the same note; I missed it entirely the first time I read this book, and it’s much more prevalent in the sequel, but Chaonia itself is also not very likable – and I don’t think we’re supposed to think that it is. Sun and her Companions get a bit of a crash-course in Chaonia’s dirty secrets, hypocrisy, and darker underbelly across the course of Unconquerable Sun, but even the public face Chaonia turns to the cameras (and there are a lot of cameras) is pretty awful when you stop and think.

I love it. Not Chaonia, but the fact that Elliott is bucking convention this way, quietly making it clear that the ones we would be rooting for in any other story are…perhaps not the ones we should be rooting for.

I think where some readers may trip up is the fact that there is so much going on. There’s a great deal of politicking – Sun’s father is both working to ensure Sun inherits the throne and conducting secret research to help his people; Eirene takes a new consort, which is a Whole Thing; Sun and co go on the run; this generation’s daughters of Lee House are illegal just by existing, although they don’t know it; there are assassination attempts from several sides; a super-secret romance that absolutely cannot be discovered; and, at first inexplicably, we follow a newly-graduated fighter pilot of the Phene Empire to her first posting. There are a few others I can’t mention at all because spoilers, and I’m sure I’m still forgetting a few.

No wonder I completely missed the existence of dinosaurs in Chaonia the first time around!

Personally, I thought all the different plotlines were balanced and interwoven very well, and I didn’t have much trouble following what was happening and who was involved at any given point. But I cannot in good conscience describe Unconquerable Sun as an easy read; this is not a book you want to pick up when your brain is tired and would like something simple, please. (Even if Persephone, our one and only first-person PoV, thinks she’s funny.)

As for flaws, my only critique is that Elliott sometimes over-explains, tells us too much in a way that feels forced – often through dialogue. This isn’t something I’ve seen in any of her other books, which is part of the reason it stood out so much for me.

That doesn’t detract from it being damn excellent sci fi, particularly if you like the sound of fast-moving political intrigue in a highly militarised far-future culture. It’s not beautiful in the way I generally like my SFF to be, and I will admit I did not enjoy my reread as much as I did reading it for the first time. But the book itself is still objectively brilliant.

You know how sometimes, you just know that the book in your hands is exactly what the author envisioned it to be when they first got the idea for it? That they managed to perfectly manifest the story as it was inside their head? The way it felt to them, before they ever started writing it? Unconquerable Sun is one of those, perfectly and unflinchingly itself, and it’s very hard not to love that.

The post An Epic Dawn: Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…How to Get Over the End of the World by Hal Schrieve

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 How to Get Over the End of the World by Hal Schrieve!

How to Get Over the End of the World by Hal Schrieve
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay trans MC, trans love interest
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

Boldly weird, cool, and confident, this YA novel of LGBTQ+ teen artists, activists, and telepathic visionaries offers hope against climate and community destruction. From the National Book Award–longlisted author of Out of Salem.

James Goldman, self-described neurotic goth gay transsexual stoner, is a senior in high school, and fully over it. He mostly ignores his classes at Cow Pie High, instead focusing on fundraising for the near-bankrupt local LGBTQ+ youth support group, Compton House, and attending punk shows with his friend-crush Ian and best friend Opal. But when James falls in love with Orsino, a homeschooled trans boy with telepathic powers and visions of the future, he wonders if the scope of what he believes possible is too small. Orsino, meanwhile, hopes that in James he has finally found someone who will be able to share the apocalyptic visions he has had to keep to himself, and better understand the powers they hold.

How to Get Over the End of the World confirms Hal Schrieve as a unique and to-be-celebrated voice in LGBTQ+ YA fiction with this multi-voiced story about flawed people trying their hardest to make a better world, about the beauty and craziness of hope, about too-big dreams and reality checks, and about the ways in which human messiness—egos, jealousy, insecurity—and good faith can coexist. It also about preserving the ties within a chosen family—and maybe saving the world—through love, art, and acts of resistance.

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I listed Out of Salem, Shrieve’s debut, as one of the best SFF books of the previous decade, so yes, I FREAKED when I heard Schrieve was writing a new book! And after years of anticipation, I stumbled across the page for How to Get Over the End of the World on the Big River site!!!

IT IS POSSIBLE THERE WERE SOME DELIGHTED-EMU NOISES. I AM ENTIRELY UNASHAMED.

And I mean, this sounds freaking epic??? Queer punks and apocalyptic visions and saving the world??? HI YES WHERE DO I PREORDER???

Just kidding – I preordered this weeks ago. BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY.

Now you do it too, so HtGOtEotW is a massive success and Schrieve keeps writing books and publishers keep publishing them AND WE ALL WIN FOREVER!

The post I Can’t Wait For…How to Get Over the End of the World by Hal Schrieve appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #125

FOUR books this week – although in the interests of full disclosure, only two of them are outright SFF!

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

Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder
Genres: Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 21st February 2023
Goodreads

Sister, Maiden, Monster is a visceral story set in the aftermath of our planet’s disastrous transformation and told through the eyes of three women trying to survive the nightmare, from Bram Stoker Award-winning author Lucy A. Snyder.

To survive they must evolve.

A virus tears across the globe, transforming its victims in nightmarish ways. As the world collapses, dark forces pull a small group of women together.

Erin, once quiet and closeted, acquires an appetite for a woman and her brain. Why does forbidden fruit taste so good?

Savannah, a professional BDSM switch, discovers a new turn-on: committing brutal murders for her eldritch masters.

Mareva, plagued with chronic tumors, is too horrified to acknowledge her divine role in the coming apocalypse, and as her growths multiply, so too does her desperation.

Inspired by her Bram Stoker Award-winning story “Magdala Amygdala,” Lucy A. Snyder delivers a cosmic tale about the planet’s disastrous transformation ... and what we become after.

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This has been described as ‘queer eldritch horror’, which, YES PLEASE??? Reviews have been a little mixed, but I’m eager to check it out for myself!

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 21st February 2023
Goodreads

Sister Holiday, a chain-smoking, heavily tattooed, queer nun, puts her amateur sleuthing skills to the test in this debut crime novel.

When Saint Sebastian's School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding community are thrust into chaos. Unsatisfied with the officials' response, sardonic and headstrong Sister Holiday becomes determined to unveil the mysterious attacker herself and return her home and sanctuary to its former peace. Her investigation leads down a twisty path of suspicion and secrets in the sticky, oppressive New Orleans heat, turning her against colleagues, students, and even fellow Sisters along the way.

Sister Holiday is more faithful than most, but she's no saint. To piece together the clues of this high-stakes mystery, she must first reckon with the sins of her checkered past-and neither task will be easy.

An exciting start to Margot Douaihy's bold series for Gillian Flynn Books that breathes new life into the hard-boiled genre, Scorched Grace is a fast-paced and punchy whodunnit that will keep readers guessing until the very end.

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Mysteries aren’t really my thing, but I’m happy to read them when there’s something else about the book to hold my interest – lovely prose, a great setting, interesting SFF elements…

OR, YOU KNOW. A TATTOOED QUEER NUN MAIN CHARACTER.

This sounds like it has a lot of potential to be a ridiculous amount of fun!

Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes
Published on: 21st February 2023
Goodreads

From the diabolical imagination of Edgar Award–winning novelist, playwright, and story-songwriter Rupert Holmes comes a devilish thriller with a killer concept: The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts, a luxurious, clandestine college dedicated to the fine art of murder where earnest students study how best to “delete” their most deserving victim.

Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League” college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.

Prepare for an education you’ll never forget. A delightful mix of witty wordplay, breathtaking twists and genuine intrigue, Murder Your Employer will gain you admission into a wholly original world, cocooned within the most entertaining book about well-intentioned would-be murderers you’ll ever read.

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I love the idea of a ‘Poison lvy League’ (even if poison ivy isn’t particularly deadly…) but the fact that there assassins are training only to kill ‘deserving’ victims does have me raising an eyebrow a bit. Depending on how it’s written, that could be a bit of a cop-out – an attempt to keep characters likable rather than embracing the awfulness of assassination and daring readers to enjoy it. Does that make sense? But I guess we’ll see – I HAVE to check out this premise and see how it goes!

The Fox and the Dryad by Kellen Graves
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 24th February 2023
Goodreads

Briar Hunt has always been lauded for his grace on stage, except by one person from whom he wants it the most. Desperate to earn the affection he craves, Briar makes a late night deal with a high fey lady: If he can perform a single perfect dance at one of her woodland revels, she will make him the most enchanting thing on two legs.

However, Briar quickly learns the fey lady is impossible to please. Not only that, her demands are never-ending, enough to slowly unravel his life and his health. Only when a handsome stranger, Mal, arrives claiming he can help Briar break his deal and earn his freedom back, does Briar think he might be saved.

Lord Malric d'Alarie has finally broken free of dancing on command for his mother at her fey revels. But after hearing he's been replaced, he attends one of her parties to see for himself. The human performing in his place is breathtaking--but Malric dreads what kind of deal the dancer made with his mother in order to be there.

Wanting to rescue Briar from the same woman who stole his own love for ballet, Malric inserts himself into Briar's life from every angle possible. From posing as a dance instructor in the human world to hiding behind a mask in the fey world, Malric promises he can set Briar free of his fateful deal. Malric only has to keep his identity--and his intentions--secret, from both the dancer he's quickly falling for, and his mother, who controls their every move.

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I have a weak spot for stories about dancers, but I don’t see then often in SFF – so my ears definitely perked up at the sound of The Fox and the Dryad! I parted on very poor terms will the last book of Graves’ I read, but I’m hopeful it’ll be different this time around!

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

The post Must-Have Monday #125 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Great Premise, Meh Story: Proud Pink Sky by Redfern Jon Barrett

Proud Pink Sky by Redfern Jon Barrett
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Speculative Fiction
Representation: M/M, nonbinary and trans rep, minor polyamory, background gay and lesbian
PoV: Third-person, past-tense, multiple PoVs
Published on: 14th March 2023
ISBN: B0BFJQJRQL
Goodreads

Berlin: a megacity of 24 million people, is the world’s first gay state. Its distant radio broadcasts are a lifeline for teenager William, so when his love affair with Gareth is discovered the two flee toward sanctuary. But is there a place for them in a city divided into districts for young twinks, trendy bears, and rich alpha gays?

Meanwhile, young mother Cissie loves Berlin’s towering highrises and chaotic multiculturalism, yet she’s never left her heterosexual district – not until she and her family are trapped in a queer riot. With her husband Howard plunging into religious paranoia, she discovers a walled-off slum of perpetual twilight, home to the city’s forbidden trans residents.

As William and Cissie dive deeper into a bustling world of pride parades, polyamorous trysts, and even an official gay language, they discover that all is not well in the gay state – each playing their part in a looming civil war...

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

Highlights

~twinks have their own city district
~so do Daddies
~Cissie is not a sissy but is she cis???

I’m not sure what I think of Proud Pink Sky. I was so excited by the premise – especially when the author assured me that trans and nonbinary people played a central role! – that it was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023.

Now I’ve finished it, I feel a little…underwhelmed?

Proud Pink Sky is an alternate-history novel where Berlin became the world’s first ‘gay state’ in the aftermath of WW2, due in large part to the role the queer community played in resisting the Nazis. (In fact, in this timeline, the Nazis were kicked out of Berlin before the start of the war by the ‘gay brigades’ who had zero time for fascists.) This has in no way endeared or even normalised queerness to the rest of the world, unfortunately, and Berlin sees a huge number of gay and lesbian refugees and immigrants for this reason.

The story takes place over about a year – starting in 1998 and wrapping up in 1999 – and follows three main characters: William and Gareth, teenagers who escape to Berlin from England after their relationship is discovered; and Cissie, a homemaker who moves to Berlin from Ohio with her husband and children because the ‘gay city’ has plenty of great job opportunities, even for ‘breeders’ – although they’re expected to keep themselves to themselves in the hetero district of the city.

(And yes, I laughed at Cissie’s very on-the-nose name. I AM IMMATURE AND EASILY AMUSED.)

Barrett has done an enormous amount of worldbuilding, with this alternate-Berlin’s history mirroring or echoing our real world in some very interesting ways. Despite what you might expect, Berlin is not a glorious, free-for-all queer utopia (alas); instead it’s an incredibly rigid, unforgiving culture obsessed with sticking its citizens in the ‘right’ categories, categories which are even reflected in the city’s geography (as each approved subculture or label is given their own district). Bisexuality is legal, but viewed with immense suspicion, and it’s not safe for m/f couples to be in public as couples (we see one such couple assaulted, harassed, and eventually driven from the bar where Gareth works). Monogamy is mandatory; refugees and immigrants don’t receive full citizenship unless they’re married to someone of their own sex, lest ‘secret straights’ flood Berlin by lying about their sexual orientation. (Why anyone thinks this is a thing, when the rest of the world is still homophobic as fuck, is…well, once upon a time I would have called it poor worldbuilding, but being a bit older and wiser and more cynical, I now don’t find it hard to believe. It makes no sense, but then, bigots panicking about immigration never do.)

The list goes on, but a clear focus of Proud Pink Sky is the trans and nonbinary community. Despite acknowledging that it was trans people who kickstarted the riots that drove out the Nazis (echoing our world’s Stonewall) and the fact that, pre-Nazis, Berlin was the site of the first sex-change operation in the world, in this alt-Berlin it is illegal to be anything but cis. (Or polyamorous.) Anyone who doesn’t fit inside the binary is cast out to the slums, which are enclosed in an 8km wall (significantly shorter than our world’s Berlin Wall, but an obvious nod to it). To be trans and/or nonbinary is to be considered a pervert at best and a member of a queer terrorist group at worst.

And what little plot exists here revolves around Remould, the aforementioned walled-in neighbourhood. Cissie makes her way there by accident, and gradually begins to form relationships with the people there and find meaningful work for herself (not that taking care of a home and children aren’t meaningful, but at least to Cissie they seem meaningful in a different way). William, uneasily aware that he doesn’t fit neatly into Berlin any more than he did back in England, grows increasingly sympathetic towards and drawn to everyone who doesn’t fit neatly into their assigned boxes. Minor spoiler under the cut: [View post to see spoiler] Gareth, eager to embrace all that Berlin is, doesn’t understand William’s reticence, and friction ensues.

That’s…kind of it.

Proud Pink Sky is, honestly, mortally dull. Nothing really happens. Until the very sudden, massively confusing ending, which I think was an attempt to give the book a hopeful ending, but, uh…no. No. That’s not how human beings work. That’s not how people respond to That. That’s not how communities react to That. That? Is not any kind of magic wand that suddenly makes people less bigoted or less afraid. What even.

Possibly this book would hit quite differently if I…didn’t already take it as read that bi/pan, trans, nonbinary, and polyamorous people absolutely belong in the queer community? (As do all those on the ace spectrum, though there’s no mention of them in Proud Pink Sky. Which I can forgive, because this is set in 1998 and the term ‘asexual’ wasn’t in common parlance yet.) If I didn’t already think strict rules about labels, or obsessions with categorising everyone, is fucking stupid? If I wasn’t already aware of the prejudice and struggles bi and trans and poly (and ace) people face within the queer community? If I didn’t already massively disapprove of gatekeeping?

I guess I’m just not really sure who this book is for, or what I’m meant to take away from it. Because it wasn’t entertaining, wasn’t a fun read, but at the same time I’m not sure how great a job it did at…humanising/explaining/showcasing binary-defying queer people. You know? If I handed this book to a TERF, it would not make them question their bigotry. If I handed it to a cishet person who really doesn’t know much about trans or nonbinary people, I don’t think Proud Pink Sky would leave them with a clear understanding, or even answer most of their basic questions.

It’s an Issues book that…doesn’t actually dig into the issues. It’s a homemaker making friends, and two young gay men having to face the fact that Berlin is not the perfect escape they dreamed it would be. Through conversations and glimpses, we are sneakily shown that Berlin is a mass of hypocrisy, in a reveal that was not shocking in the least. And cishet white men continue to be pathetic and awful when they feel their masculinity is challenged. Also not exactly revelatory.

I think it says a lot when the Timeline of Berlin at the back of the book is vastly more interesting than the story itself. I loved those short paragraphs on queers driving out the Nazis, learning how differently WW2 went down in this timeline (Germany developed the nuclear bomb first and dropped one on London, which is never even mentioned in the novel!), and getting a tiny glimpse of the formation of Berlin’s two parliaments (one all-men, and one all-women). The excerpts from the fictional Honest Guide to Berlin, which break up the different Parts of the book, were also great; learning how differently the AIDS epidemic (renamed DISS, Disrupted Immune System Syndrome, in this alt-verse) hit a world with a gay state was awesome, and the passing mentions of queer terrorists, while alarming, also had me rabidly curious.

But Proud Pink Sky doesn’t, itself, touch on any of that. Which seems like such a missed opportunity. This could have been a novel about the formation of the world’s first gay state, for example – or if it really had to be set in 1998, why not have us follow a queer terrorist group? That could have turned into the (eternal) question of when, if ever, it’s acceptable to use violence to claim your rights; it could have been thought-provoking and exciting. You could entwine it with other characters campaigning with non-violent means. You could bring in international politics. You could make it into a book I don’t want to put down.

Instead, this was a book I had a hard time finishing. I was just so bored. None of the characters felt fully fleshed-out, and none of them were interesting, and none of them got up to anything interesting. The prose is very plain and simple; it’s not beautiful or moreish, just extremely basic. Proud Pink Sky illustrates real-world problems that exist within the real-world queer community – biphobia, transphobia, the obsession with labels, an insistence that if we can just be Good Enough Gays the rest of the world will leave us alone – but only in a pointing-them-out way, rather than doing anything with them.

I love worldbuilding, and I have no problem coming up with lands or worlds – will happily spend months on totally trivial details – but I’m pretty awful at thinking up stories to set in them. And it feels like that was the case here: tons of thought and work went into a genuinely interesting alternate Berlin…but there’s barely a story here – not even one that reads as an excuse to show off the setting – and what there is was very good for my insomnia.

It’s not bad, I guess. But it is most extremely meh.

The post Great Premise, Meh Story: Proud Pink Sky by Redfern Jon Barrett appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…Dazzling by Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ

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 Dazzling by Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ!

Dazzling by Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Nigerian cast + setting
Published on: 16th February 2023
Goodreads

Soon you will become the thing all other beasts fear.

Treasure and her mother lost everything when Treasure's daddy died. Haggling for scraps in the market, Treasure meets a spirit who promises to bring her father back - but she has to do something for him first.

Ozoemena has an itch in the middle of her back that can't be scratched. An itch that speaks to her patrilineal destiny, to defend her people by becoming a leopard. Her father impressed upon her what an honour this was before he vanished, but it's one she couldn't want less - she has enough to worry about as she tries to fit in at a new school.

But as the two girls reckon with their burgeoning wildness and the legacy of decisions made by their fathers, Ozoemena's fellow students start to vanish. Treasure and Ozoemena will face terrible choices as each must ask herself: in a world that always says 'no' to women, what must two young girls sacrifice to get what is theirs?

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Dazzling is actually out TOMORROW (in the UK – the US has to wait until December!) and while I did include it in this week’s Must-Have Monday post, I’ve seen so little chatter about this book in my corner of SFF space that I decided to hype it up a wee bit more. I think it deserves it!

What made me sit up and pay attention, when Dazzling crossed my dash, was the reference to Leopard Men in the blurb (‘to defend her people by becoming a leopard’). I won’t pretend for a second that I’m especially knowledgeable about the myths of African countries, but I came across the Leopard Men while researching a project a few years ago and was fascinated. Actually, suggesting there was just one group of Leopard Men is inaccurate, because I’m pretty sure there were several leopard societies in different countries, but the one that’s probably the most well known (in white sources, anyway) is the Anyoto. Honestly, you have to properly dig to get trustworthy sources, because most of what’s written comes from white ‘anthropologists’ in the colonial period, and STRANGELY ENOUGH, it makes them out to be cannibals, savages, etc. Which less biased writings vehemently disagree with. There’s plenty of very cool speculation that Leopard Men might have at least partially inspired Marvel’s Black Panther.

Anyway, the point is: Leopard Men, or Leopard Men Societies, were (and are!) real groups, and the stories about them include the idea that they, you know, turn into leopards to protect their people. And so I’m a) really excited to see Emelụmadụ writing about them, because they’re really interesting and I massively appreciate fantasy that pulls from mythos’ I’m less familiar with (ENOUGH WITH THE GREEK MYTHS ALREADY) and b) even more excited by the idea of a girl finding or making her place in one of these societies, which, as far as I know and as is hinted at in the blurb, were men-only societies. I AM VERY HERE FOR GIRLS TAKING ON THE PATRIARCHY!

Which is clearly going to be a pretty big theme in the book, what with that last bit of the blurb: ‘in a world that always says ‘no’ to women, what must two young girls sacrifice to get what is theirs?’

The reviews have been GLOWING, and you can see what they’re talking about for yourself by reading the except of the book posted to Granta!

If you have access to the UK bookstores, you’ve still got time to preorder your copy; if you buy from the US, keep an eye out. I am VERY sure none of us want to miss this one!

The post I Can’t Wait For…Dazzling by Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #124

TWELVE new releases this week – that’s the biggest Must-Have Monday so far this year!!!

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

Heart, Haunt, Havoc by Freydís Moon
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MC, brown Latine nonbinary love interest
Published on: 14th February 2023
Goodreads

Laced with romance, gothic imagery, Catholic mysticism, diaspora, and horror…

When lonely transgender exorcist, Colin Hart, finds himself challenged by an unruly haunted house in Gideon, Colorado, he’s kept awake by ghosts, demons, ghouls, and the handsome nonbinary owner of the house, Bishop Martínez.

Unlike the simple hauntings Colin is accustomed to, Bishop’s house is a living beacon, attracting a plethora of inhuman creatures, including a vengeful wolf-headed spirit who might be the key to quieting their sleepless nights.

But as a heartbreaking mystery unravels, Colin comes face-to-face with the past Bishop tried to bury, opens a closet full of bloody skeletons, and trips into an accidental romance.

As paranormally skilled as Colin might be, this particular haunting may be too messy for him to handle…

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Moon is an incredible author and I’m ridiculously excited to see their take on a haunted house; especially since we’ve been promised angel magic (maybe Enochian magic?), Catholic vibes, and graverobbing dates!

The Cage of Dark Hours (The Five Penalties, #2) by Marina J. Lostetter
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queernorm world, brown bi/pansexual MC, achillean MC, bi/pansexual secondary character, bi/pansexual love interest, minor intersex rep
Published on: 14th February 2023
Goodreads

Krona and her Regulators survived their encounter with Charbon, the long-dead serial killer who returned to their city, but the illusions of their world were shattered forever.

Allied with the healer Melanie they will battle the elite of their world who have ruled their world with deception, cold steel, and tight control of the magic that could threaten their power, while also confronting beasts from beyond the foggy barrier that binds their world.

Now they must follow every thread to uncover the truth behind the Thalo, once thought of as only a children's tale, who are the quiet, creeping puppet masters of their world.

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This is the (incredible) sequel to The Helm of Midnight, and I would encourage you to try this even if you didn’t completely love Helm – Cage is an easier and, imo, much better read, and you won’t BELIEVE the reveals we finally get!!!

My review!

The Shamshine Blind by Paz Pardo
Genres: Speculative Fiction
Published on: 14th February 2023
Goodreads

A beguiling blend of noir detective story and science fiction perfect for fans of Michael Chabon and Emily St. John Mandel, this unputdownable debut imagines a world where emotions have been weaponized, and a small-town law enforcement agent uncovers a conspiracy to take down what’s left of American democracy.

In an alternate 2009, the United States has been a second-rate power for a quarter of a century, ever since Argentina’s victory in the Falkland’s War thanks to their development of “psychopigments.” Created as weapons, these colorful chemicals can produce almost any human emotion upon contact, and they have been embraced in the US as both pharmaceutical cure-alls and popular recreational drugs. Black market traders illegally sell everything from Blackberry Purple (which causes terror) to Sunshine Yellow (which delivers happiness).

Psychopigment Enforcement Agent Kay Curtida works a beat in Daly City, just outside the ruins of San Francisco, chasing down smalltime crooks. But when an old friend shows up with a tantalizing lead on a career-making case, Curtida’s humdrum existence suddenly gets a boost. Little does she know that this case will send her down a tangled path of conspiracy and lead to an overdue reckoning with her family and with the truth of her own emotions.

Told in the voice of a funny, brooding, Latinx Sam Spade, The Shamshine Blind is “a rip-roaring beautifully crafted mash-up of cop noir, sci-fi, and alt-history that left me dazzled by its prescience and literary zing” (Leah Hampton, author of F*ckface).

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The premise of Shamshine reminds me just a little of HellSans by Ever Dundas – but now instead of fonts, it’s pigments! And not gonna lie, I’m all for spec fic where the USA isn’t a big shot anymore. Really interested to try this!

The Endless Song (The Forever Sea, #2) by Joshua Phillip Johnson
Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queernorm world, bi/pansexual MC, F/F
Published on: 14th February 2023
Goodreads

The second book in this environmental epic fantasy series delves into the mysteries of a world where ships kept afloat by magical hearthfires sail an endless grass sea.

After setting fire to the Forever Sea and leaving the surface world behind, Kindred Greyreach dives below to find a Seafloor populated by roving bands of scavengers. Among them, Kindred discovers a familiar face working to save the Sea from the continued spread of the Greys and the ravages of the world above. But when Kindred finds herself at odds with them, she and her friends will have to use every power available to them—including their link to the surface world—to forestall disaster.

Meanwhile, above, a boy named Flitch, son of the Baron of the Borders, finds himself caught in a dangerous political crisis as survivors from Arcadia and the Once-City arrive on the Mainland. When Flitch begins to receive messages from someone below the Sea, the denizens of the Mainland see it as a sign that ancient enemies from across the Forever Sea are returning. The resulting crisis forces Flitch and his siblings to flee, as they seek out the truth hidden in old stories.

Above and below, Flitch and Kindred will have to work together to save themselves, their loved ones, and the Forever Sea itself.

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I wasn’t originally going to include this, because I was not the biggest fan of the first book in this series, The Forever Sea…but I really adored the worldbuilding, and the ending of book one made it clear we were going to get MUCH more of that incredible worldbuilding in the sequel. SO YES, I’LL BE GIVING IT A TRY. Fingers crossed I enjoy it much more than I did Sea!

World Running Down by Al Hess
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Trans MC, M/M
Published on: 14th February 2023
Goodreads

Valentine Weis is a salvager in the future wastelands of Utah. Wrestling with body dysphoria, he dreams of earning enough money to afford citizenship in Salt Lake City – a utopia where the testosterone and surgery he needs to transition is free, the food is plentiful, and folk are much less likely to be shot full of arrows by salt pirates. But earning that kind of money is a pipe dream, until he meets the exceptionally handsome Osric.

Once a powerful AI in Salt Lake City, Osric has been forced into an android body against his will and sent into the wasteland to offer Valentine a job on behalf of his new employer – an escort service seeking to retrieve their stolen androids. The reward is a visa into the city, and a chance at the life Valentine’s always dreamed of. But as they attempt to recover the “merchandise”, they encounter a problem: the android ladies are becoming self-aware, and have no interest in returning to their old lives.

The prize is tempting, but carrying out the job would go against everything Valentine stands for, and would threaten the fragile found family that’s kept him alive so far. He’ll need to decide whether to risk his own dream in order to give the AI a chance to live theirs.

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This one ended up a not-for-me – you can read about why here – but I think plenty of other readers will enjoy it, so it makes the list!

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi
Genres: Speculative Fiction
Representation: Latina MC
Published on: 14th February 2023
Goodreads

A sumptuous, gothic-infused story about a marriage that is unraveled by dark secrets, a friendship cursed to end in tragedy, and the danger of believing in fairy tales--the breathtaking adult debut from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi.

Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after--and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.

But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor's extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo's dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife's secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage . . . or their lives.

Combining the lush, haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic with the dreamy enchantment of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spellbinding and darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies, secrets and betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

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I adore Chokshi’s prose, so I’m really excited to try her Adult debut! I’m not clear on exactly how fantastical it is, but I guess I’ll find out!

Consecrated Ground by Virginia Black
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC, F/F
Published on: 14th February 2023
Goodreads

Consecrated Ground is a multiracial lesbian paranormal tour de force that will leave you wary of the shadows and absolutely breathless.

Like her father before her, Joan Matthews is a witch. For generations, their family of binder witches has protected Calvert, Oregon from vampires by strengthening the land with spellcraft. Pushing back against tradition, Joan defied her father and left town to become a war witch, one who fights the monsters hand-to-hand. But when her father dies, Joan returns to find her hometown assailed by a vampire lord’s endless attacks—and the answers lie with the one woman who chose a rival over Joan.

Leigh Phan once believed her heart was safe and her future was set. When Joan left town, Leigh’s choices led to ruin and unintended consequences. Now Leigh harbors a dark secret forcing her to live a moment-to-moment existence. Her only hope of survival lies in trusting the war witch who left her behind.

Now it's up to Joan to fight for a town she left behind, while Leigh faces a destiny she never imagined was possible. With Calvert on the brink of total destruction, Joan and Leigh join forces and face inconvenient truths in order to save their town—and each other.

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I included this in last week’s Must Have Monday post, but it looks like the release was pushed back a week, so here it is again! Still sounds like something I very much want to check out!

Hopeland by Ian McDonald
Genres: Sci Fi
Published on: 14th February 2023
Goodreads

They met while London burned. A encounter during a riot brought Amon Brightbourne together with Raissa Hopeland on a mad rooftop hunt for a family heirloom: a Tesla Coil. But there is no such thing as chance where Amon is concerned: he's been exiled from his family home because he's both cursed and blessed with the Grace — he lives a charmed life, but at the expense of those closest to him. The Grace made him fall in love with Raissa, and with her family, the extraordinary Hopelands — a family like stars in the sky, scattered but connected in constellations of affection, parenthood, love and responsibility.
But a terrible misunderstanding tears them apart, and sends Amon on a journey through the ever-extending Hopeland family, touching lives and shaping the course of the unfolding 20th century. Raissa's life is also changed by that moment, from free spirit to major player in the unfolding story of the 21st century in an Iceland transformed by the Artic thaw.

Over twenty years their lives and loves orbit around each other, through climate change, new religions, economic and technological revolution, resource wars and mass migration as Raissa tries to unite her family. there is — and always will be — Hope in her name. They love each other but they can never be with each other — until Amon must choose between family and his fear of what the Grace will do to the woman he has always loved.

Hopeland is a sprawling, picaresque, magical, marvelous novel — love story, family saga, tech thriller, science fiction — that takes you to the heart of the woes and promises of this most astonishing of centuries.

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I’m not all that interested in the central love story, but I’m very intrigued by the Grace and an alternate-to-ours Iceland!

The Beauty Trials (The Belles, #3) by Dhonielle Clayton
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 14th February 2023
Goodreads

In this all-new novel from the world of Dhonielle Clayton’s sweeping, lush Belles series, rebellious, outspoken, fan-favorite Edel Beauregard enters the Beauty Trials―a deadly competition to find the next Queen of Orléans.

Sophia, the dangerous and erratic former queen, has been imprisoned, restoring peace to Orléans. Now her sister, Charlotte, sits on the throne and has decided to invoke the ancient tradition of the Beauty Trials―a series of harrowing tests meant to find the true ruler of Orléans. Edel, who has always aspired to be more than a Belle, decides to enter and, after promising to bind her arcana to keep from having an unnatural advantage, joins a few dozen other hopefuls intent on becoming the next Queen of Orléans.

But the Trials are far worse than any of them bargained for. As the women are put through tasks that test their strength, confidence, composure, and bravery, many perish, and Edel is mysteriously attacked by one of the other competitors―forcing her to use her powers just to survive. Will her subterfuge cost her the crown, or is there a larger conspiracy at play?

New York Times best-selling author Dhonielle Clayton returns to her sweeping, lush fantasy series with an all-new story teeming with high-stakes court intrigue and danger disguised by beauty.

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I only found out last minute that Clayton was coming back to her Belles universe, but I’m so glad she is! Her prose is so gorgeous and she gets to unleash that completely with the beauty-magic of the Belles – I have no doubt that The Beauty Trials will leave me swooning!

The Hidden Dragon by Melissa Marr
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 14th February 2023
Goodreads

A sea-faring girl and her friends take on pirates and grown-ups, and bond with dragons, as they work to make the world a better place, in this spellbinding fantasy by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr.
Otter (short for Ottilie) is a girl who is most comfortable on her family's ship, the Tempest, where she and her fathers collect the dragon hides that protect the queen's guards. But all is not well in the kingdom, and it's not clear if the queen is to blame. The streets are full of homeless kids, and now one of them, a street-smart boy called London, has stowed away on the Tempest. He befriends Otter, and soon they realize that the fate of the kingdom needs to be in the hands of the kids. For in every tight spot--during pirate attacks and navigating the magical land of the Netherwhere, where they get ship-wrecked--it is the quick-witted kids who save the day. As they work to fight injustice and protect the defenseless, they earn the respect of the realm's most magical creatures--dragons and gargoyles--who all bond together as a force for good. Melissa Marr spins another fabulous fantasy, centered on family and friends, and introduces readers to the most splendid magical creatures.

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This looks super sweet, and one I’m definitely going to be getting a copy of for my dragon-loving little sister! (She has excellent taste.)

The Jaguar Path (The Songs of the Drowned #2) by Anna Stephens
Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queernorm world, Central American-coded cast + setting, bi/pansexual MCs, achillean MCs, Deaf MC
Published on: 16th February 2023
Goodreads

The Empire of Songs reigns supreme. Across all the lands of Ixachipan, its hypnotic, magical music sounds. Those who battled against the Empire have been enslaved and dispersed, taken far from their friends and their homes.

In the Singing City, Xessa must fight for the entertainment of her captors. Lilla and thousands of warriors are trained to serve as weapons for their enemies. And Tayan is trapped at the heart of the Empire’s power and magic, where the ruthless Enet’s ambition is ever growing.

Each of them harbours a secret hope, waiting for a chance to strike at the Empire from within.

But first they must overcome their own desires. Power can seduce as well as crush. And, in exchange for their loyalty, the Empire promises much.

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I had SUCH an incredible time with the first book in this series, The Stone Knife (you can read my review here) and after THAT ENDING, I’m dying to dive into the sequel! If you haven’t checked out this series yet, you really must; Epic Fantasy in an ancient Central American setting! Deaf monster hunters and their monster-hunting service dogs! Song magic! Queernorm everything! Just be prepared for some grimdark elements/themes!

Dazzling by Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Nigerian cast and setting
Published on: 16th February 2023
Goodreads

Soon you will become the thing all other beasts fear.

Treasure and her mother lost everything when Treasure's daddy died. Haggling for scraps in the market, Treasure meets a spirit who promises to bring her father back - but she has to do something for him first.

Ozoemena has an itch in the middle of her back that can't be scratched. An itch that speaks to her patrilineal destiny, to defend her people by becoming a leopard. Her father impressed upon her what an honour this was before he vanished, but it's one she couldn't want less - she has enough to worry about as she tries to fit in at a new school.

But as the two girls reckon with their burgeoning wildness and the legacy of decisions made by their fathers, Ozoemena's fellow students start to vanish. Treasure and Ozoemena will face terrible choices as each must ask herself: in a world that always says 'no' to women, what must two young girls sacrifice to get what is theirs?

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Dazzling made it onto my Unmissable SFF of 2023 list, and everything I’ve heard just confirms that it’s a must-read! So excited to pounce on this come Thursday!!!

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

The post Must-Have Monday #124 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Middle-Book Syndrome? Never Heard of It: The Cage of Dark Hours by Marina J. Lostetter

The Cage of Dark Hours (The Five Penalties, #2) by Marina J. Lostetter
Genres: Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queernorm world, brown bi/pansexual MC, achillean MC, bi/pansexual secondary character, bi/pansexual love interest, minor intersex rep
PoV: Third-person, past-tense, multiple PoVs
Published on: 14th February 2023
ISBN: B0927CJP29
Goodreads

Krona and her Regulators survived their encounter with Charbon, the long-dead serial killer who returned to their city, but the illusions of their world were shattered forever.

Allied with the healer Melanie they will battle the elite of their world who have ruled their world with deception, cold steel, and tight control of the magic that could threaten their power, while also confronting beasts from beyond the foggy barrier that binds their world.

Now they must follow every thread to uncover the truth behind the Thalo, once thought of as only a children's tale, who are the quiet, creeping puppet masters of their world.

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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~pocket watches vital to national security
~a stained-glass dress
~blue assassins
~a magic system that runs on secrets
~a very important light fixture

*spoilers for The Helm of Midnight, book one of the trilogy!*

Review of The Helm of Midnight

The first, most immediate thing you need to know about The Cage of Dark Hours is: no, you really can’t just rely on the recap at the start of the book to refresh your memory about the events of book one. You need to actually reread the first book in the series, The Helm of Midnight, before diving in to this.

It’s worth it, I promise. Firstly, because Helm is excellent in its own right. But maybe even more importantly…starting Cage minutes after finishing a reread of Helm?

Means that Cage’s very first line hits you like a bulldozer, turning everything you thought you knew about the world Lostetter has created upside-down and inside-out.

I CANNOT EVEN.

This series reads like the progression of a would-be initiate into an ancient mystery cult; there are layers within layers, circles within circles, and every step towards the centre comes with new revelations. Having made our way through Helm, Cage initiates us into the deeper mysteries of Lostetter’s world – but this secret knowledge raises as many new questions as it answers; far from filling in all the gaps, Cage reveals to us a vastly larger world than we were led to believe existed. We knew things were not as they appeared to the characters of book one, but good gods, we had no idea of what was actually waiting for us behind all the misdirections, myths, and outright lies!

The king of the rats is still a rat, and the cats will laugh when they eat him just the same.”

If we think of the world of the Five Penalties as a skeleton, then the bones of the truth are buried under the skin that is – for lack of a better term – civilisation; a not-always-so-polite fiction that everyone believes in. There’s objective reality, and then there’s what (almost) everyone thinks and believes exists, and which they make into a kind of truth by virtue of thinking and believing it.

And honestly, I’m in complete awe at this entire structure; not just the sheer uniqueness of the world Lostetter has created (although that delights and confounds me endlessly) but the world she’s built on top of that, and how well both fit together. She’s crafted this literally epic – in scale and scope and sheer awesomeness – conspiracy, made it virtually seamless, and made sure there’s no way we’ll ever guess what’s really behind the curtain. The world Krona and the rest of the characters inhabit is every bit as intricate and believable as our world, and then the real world, the world underneath all that, is just–

AHHHH. I can’t talk about it because spoilers, but seriously, WHAT, and HOW, and WTF, and I CAN’T EVEN, and THIS IS SO DAMN COOL.

Even the parts that are horrifying.

“One worry at a time!” Mandip insisted.

“I’m afraid that’s not how worries work.

I know I’ve made it all sound very complicated; it’s actually not. Helm was a book that demanded real work on the part of the reader, with all its different timelines and perspectives and characters who had differing amounts of access to Behind The Curtain. Cage is a much easier read, both structurally – the direction of the plot is much more straightforward than it was in the previous book – and in terms of keeping track of what we know and don’t know. Although we have a handful of PoV characters, there’s really just two you need to keep track of, and it helps that both of them are aware of the Behind The Curtain (albeit to differing degrees) which was not the case in Helm.

The fact that Cage is an easier read really feels like a reward for having made it through the first book without getting lost!

“Never be surprised when the man who cut you off at the knees starts to look like a giant.”

As I said, Cage doesn’t leave us with all our questions answered; by the end of the book, I had more than I’d started with. But I wasn’t frustrated; I was incredibly excited. Lostetter walks a perfect balance between whetting our appetites for answers and leaving us starving, revealing enough to make us reel at the implications without giving the whole game away. Two books into this trilogy, I still don’t feel like I have a clear idea of what the capital-t Truth is – although we certainly know more at this point than we did at the end of Helm. I mean. THE THING. AND THE OTHER THING. AND THE OTHER-OTHER THING. !!! I feel completely RABID for book three, but I know I can wait for it because it’s clear, from the bits of the puzzle that I have, that the pay-off is going to be so worth it. Does that make sense?

And I absolutely loved what we did learn in Cage; both the big, sweeping reveals of the Behind The Curtain stuff, but also the more ‘mundane’ worldbuilding. For example, Mandip, one of the new PoV characters, is a window into the nobility and the workings of government, and I found all of that fascinating; I loved the absolute WEIRDNESS that was the national vault and how all of that was set up (THE MINEFIELD). I greatly appreciated the continuing normalcy of queer people and relationships, and the sneaky little details mentioned in passing (like it being polite to offer luststones to someone you’re about to sleep with!) that padded out the culture and made all these people feel so perfectly real.

Plus, I feel absolutely vindicated re the varger. I KNEW SOMETHING WAS UP WITH THE VARGER.

“Being shameless lets us take advantage of other people’s prudishness. Which–surely you’ve noted–is quite an effective strategy.”

There were quite a lot of laugh-out-loud moments in this book, especially when it came to witty characters (of which Cage features a few!) It broke up the deadly seriousness of the stakes really well, helped diffuse some of the tension so that the reader could occasionally catch their breath – because once things get moving, they really don’t stop. I wouldn’t call it a break-neck pace – Lostetter is careful to give us enough time to absorb and process every left curve she throws us – but it’s definitely not slow. If anything, I thought there were a few points where the story felt a little rushed, but since I was impatient to turn every page and keep devouring the story, it wasn’t really a problem!

Metals were the means of transition. They shifted the nature of things. They were the keys of the soil, the padlocks of stone, the passwords for leaves.

I do feel the need to give a content warning, which isn’t really a spoiler – what it says about the worldbuilding is heavily implied in the first book – but just in case, I’m putting it under a spoiler-cut. [View post to see spoiler]

The biggest con of Helm, for me, was the whole serial-killer plotline, so without that, plus all the jaw-dropping things we learn in Cage about Conspiracies and Magic and Who Is Pulling The Strings – to say nothing of fabulous opera singers, pocket watches that are vital to national security, and, oh yeah, THE GODS – there was no way I wasn’t going to fall head over heels for this book.

I love it. I LOVE it. And since it’s out this coming Tuesday, you can read it and fall in love with it yourself VERY SOON!

The post Middle-Book Syndrome? Never Heard of It: The Cage of Dark Hours by Marina J. Lostetter appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…A Blackened Mirror by Jo Graham

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 A Blackened Mirror by Jo Graham!

A Blackened Mirror (Memoirs of the Borgia Sibyl #1) by Jo Graham
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Published on: 6th March 2023
Goodreads

1489—When Giulia Farnese came to Rome to make an arranged marriage with young noble Orsino Orsini, she dreamed of learning and power in the glittering city of the Renaissance popes. However, her mother-in-law seems frightened, and her husband refuses to consummate the marriage at the direction of the head of his family, Lord Bracciano. But Giulia herself has a secret: she sees visions in mirrors and hears the whispers of spirits, the gifts of an ancient sibyl in an age when magic is heresy punishable by death. Is this ability the reason Bracciano has trapped her in this sham of a marriage?

As she struggles to unearth answers, Giulia finds herself drawn to her mother-in-law's cousin, Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia. Ruthless, sophisticated, and old enough to be Giulia's father, Rodrigo is a humanist, a collector of pagan art and heretical writings, and a loving father to his illegitimate children. He is a bright spot in Giulia's chilly life—but to Bracciano, he's a political rival to be removed. Bracciano's dark rites to summon demons may make Giulia the instrument of Rodrigo's destruction.

Dealing with demons is a mortal sin. Refusing Bracciano would be a fatal mistake. And Giulia’s growing attraction to Rodrigo might be her downfall—or the key to her salvation. To defy the demon's power and seize control of her life, Giulia will need to cross the line between innocence and dangerous knowledge. And once she's descended into that underworld, she is not coming back unchanged.

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I’ve enjoyed Jo Graham’s SFF before, but I have to admit to being especially excited for Blackened Mirror, for a few reasons!

One, this is being published by Candlemark and Gleam, which is rapidly becoming one of my favourite publishers. After the last few years, I have a lot of faith in their taste and standards.

Two, Renaissance settings, particularly in Italy, are a not-very-guilty pleasure of mine. Between the general aesthetic and early reviewers’ promise of gorgeous prose??? *chef’s kiss*

Then there’s this–

Seamlessly fusing magic, legend and history and transposing the myth of Persephone and Hades onto the opulent Rome of the Borgias, A Blackened Mirror is kin to Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel works and Guy Gavriel Kay’s imaginative transmutations.

Listen: I am but a simple Sia. If you comp a book to the Kushiel series? I’m sold. I’m there. I am a sure thing. It doesn’t matter that I’m sure the similarity is more about prose style and maybe aesthetic than it is worldbuilding and plot – that’s actually better. I don’t want to read the same story over and over, but I do want – require, if I’m being completely honest – lush, beautiful prose. Writing style matters more to me than almost anything else when it comes to enjoying what I’m reading, so yes, I’m ridiculously excited for A Blackened Mirror!

(Bonus reason – Persephone and Hades??? I don’t know how that’s going to work but I very much want to find out!!!)

And finally, as if the comparison to the Kushiel series wasn’t enough, Jacqueline Carey herself praised the book! So now that’s it up for preorder in all the usual places, OF COURSE I’m preordering it!

What do you think – do the Memoirs of the Borgia Sibyl sound interesting to you?

The post I Can’t Wait For…A Blackened Mirror by Jo Graham appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #123

NINE releases-of-interest this week!

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

The Way of Unity by Sarah K. Balstrup
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 6th February 2023
Goodreads

The Seven Lands of Velspar put their faith in the Intercessors, a psychic priesthood responsible for the purification of the spirit. Where passion flares, they soothe its intent. Those who cannot be soothed, are cast out, their spirits destroyed by fire.
The Intercessors are mystics of the highest order, but Velspar’s ruling Skalens believe their power has grown too great.

Surviving the Intercessor’s murder plot against her family, Sybilla Ladain rises to power. The Skalens come together under the banner of her grief, bringing the practice of Intercession to its brutal, bloody end.

Yet victory brings Sybilla no peace. In time, she will have to face the people of Velspar, forced to live in a psychically alienated world, and a band of rebels led by an escaped Intercessor set on her annihilation.

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I remember seeing the author talk about The Way of Unity on Twitter, and I made sure to make a note of the release date! Early reviewers have said there’s not much overt magic in this book, but that the worldbuilding is phenomenal, and that’s a trade I can live with!

The Twice-Drowned Saint by C.S.E. Cooney
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Minor nonbinary character, minor M/M
Published on: 7th February 2023
Goodreads

"World Fantasy Award winner Cooney imagines angels as Lovecraftian monsters . . . Plenty of charm!"—Publishers Weekly

"Many have spoken about how angels can be both terrifying yet beautiful, but few have successfully captured the idea well-until The Twice-Drowned Saint, at least. A sumptuous, saw-toothed read, it is a jewel box of a novel, glittering with a thousand details and a bright longing we're all familiar with, this want for a place better than we're in now."
—Cassandra Khaw, Bram Stoker and World Fantasy award-nominated author of Nothing but Blackened Teeth

World Fantasy Award winner C. S. E. Cooney takes readers on a journey of wonder, terror, and joy in this mind-bending, heartfelt novel. Contained inside impassable walls of ice, the city of Gelethel endures under the rule of fourteen angels, who provide for all their subject's needs and mete out grisly punishments for blasphemous infractions, with escape attempts one of the worst possible sins.

"Our narrator is Ishtu Q'Aleth (Ish for short), the new owner of Gelethel's only cinema (having taken over from her father). More importantly, she's also the secret saint of Alizar the Eleven-Eyed, Seventh Angel of Gelethel, and one of the fourteen angels who holds dominion over the city. As Ish explains it, at the age of eight she turned down Alizar's offer to be his saint, but, in a moment that speaks to the novel's charm, the young girl and the all-knowing angel agreed to continue their relationship in secret after bonding over their shared love of cinema. Near thirty years later Ish is desperate to get her sick parents out of the city, a near-impossible task given Gelethel is surrounded by an impenetrable blue serac. But Ish's situation grows even more complicated when a new arrival to the city, a girl named Betony, appears as Alizar's true saint. There's so much to adore about the The Twice-Drowned Saint ... [a] sublime short novel."
—Locus

"With The Twice-Drowned Saint, C. S. E. Cooney once again crafts dazzling feats of imagination grounded in human frailties and plunges her audience inside head-first. Her boldly unique characters live in a fever dream of balletic, graceful description that will make you gasp, even as they find their own escape through the seemingly-mundane world of movies. Like nothing else you've ever read, or will ever read."
—Randee Dawn, author of Tune in Tomorrow

"Fabulous Gelethel is a city of godless angels who intoxicate themselves on human death, but within its icy walls a hidden saint and a dissident angel are hatching a plan. This story left me wrecked and rebuilt: it's a truly glorious tale of family bonds, forgiveness, sacrifice, courage ... and how gods are born. Written with Cooney's signature soaring prose, humor, and imagination, this tale shines a light on cruelties both fantastical and familiar. It honors sorrow and embraces joy-I will treasure it always"
—Francesca Forrest, author of The Inconvenient God

"The way Cooney does world building, she makes the world absolutely gigantic, and then she focuses the lens onto these intimate moments in people's lives . . . My clumsy words don't do justice to The Twice Drowned Saint. Just read it. It is a sunrise, where all things are beautiful and possible, and it is blood on the ground surrounded by those who lap it up, hungering for more. This is one of the best pieces of fiction I've read this year."
—Little Red Reviewer

Cover art, cover design and interior black and white illustrations by Lasse Paldanius.

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I adored this strange, gorgeous short novel about angels and saints in a beautifully bonkers setting! It was a wonderful change of pace to have a 38yo main character, and I was tickled pink by the sacred cinema and the holy popcorn!

You can read my full review here!

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez, Pablo Gerardo Camacho, Megan McDowell
Genres: Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 7th February 2023
Goodreads

“We have children so we can continue, they are our immortality.”

A young father and son set out on a road trip, devastated by the death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travels to her family home, where they must confront the terrifying legacy she has bequeathed. The woman they grieve came from a clan like no other—a centuries-old secret society called the Order that commits unspeakable acts in search of eternal life. For Gaspar, the son, this vampiric cult is his destiny.

Now Gaspar is in danger. As the Order tries to possess him, father and son take flight, yet nothing will stop the Order for nothing is beyond them. Hunted by evil and surrounded by horror, Gaspar and his father attempt to outrun a powerful family that will do anything to ensure its own survival. But can any of us escape the fate that awaits us?

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Enriquez has earned a lot of glowing accolades, and as I’ve been dipping my toes into the Horror genre lately, I am absolutely going to pounce on the first novel of hers to be translated into English! From everything I’ve heard, it sounds absolutely fantastic, and I can’t wait to dive in!

…I just hope it’s not too scary for me…!

Victory City by Salman Rushdie
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Representation: Desi cast and setting
Published on: 7th February 2023
Goodreads

The epic tale of a woman who breathes a fantastical empire into existence, only to be consumed by it over the centuries--from the transcendent imagination of Booker Prize-winning, internationally bestselling author Salman Rushdie

In the wake of an insignificant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for the goddess Parvati, who begins to speak out of the girl's mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana's comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga--literally victory city--the wonder of the world.

Over the next two hundred and fifty years, Pampa Kampana's life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga's, from its literal sowing out of a bag of magic seeds to its tragic ruination in the most human of ways: the hubris of those in power. Whispering Bisnaga and its citizens into existence, Pampa Kampana attempts to make good on the task that Parvati set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception. As years pass, rulers come and go, battles are won and lost, and allegiances shift, the very fabric of Bisnaga becomes an ever more complex tapestry--with Pampa Kampana at its center.

Brilliantly styled as a translation of an ancient epic, this is a saga of love, adventure, and myth that is in itself a testament to the power of storytelling.

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I love the sound of Bisnaga, and Parvati’s injunction to Pampa Kampana, about creating a place where women have equal rights. Plus, I have a major soft spot for the framing device of ‘story that is a translation of an ancient story’!

Consecrated Ground by Virginia Black
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MCs, F/F
Published on: 7th February 2023
Goodreads

Consecrated Ground is a multiracial lesbian paranormal tour de force that will leave you wary of the shadows and absolutely breathless.

Like her father before her, Joan Matthews is a witch. For generations, their family of binder witches has protected Calvert, Oregon from vampires by strengthening the land with spellcraft. Pushing back against tradition, Joan defied her father and left town to become a war witch, one who fights the monsters hand-to-hand. But when her father dies, Joan returns to find her hometown assailed by a vampire lord’s endless attacks—and the answers lie with the one woman who chose a rival over Joan.

Leigh Phan once believed her heart was safe and her future was set. When Joan left town, Leigh’s choices led to ruin and unintended consequences. Now Leigh harbors a dark secret forcing her to live a moment-to-moment existence. Her only hope of survival lies in trusting the war witch who left her behind.

Now it's up to Joan to fight for a town she left behind, while Leigh faces a destiny she never imagined was possible. With Calvert on the brink of total destruction, Joan and Leigh join forces and face inconvenient truths in order to save their town—and each other.

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We’ll have to see what Black’s take on vampires is – that can make or break a story for me! – but everything else about this one sounds fantastic. Families of binder witches! War witches! Dark secrets! Yes, please and THANK YOU!

Wild Massive by Scotto Moore
Genres: Sci Fi
Published on: 7th February 2023
Goodreads

Scotto Moore's Wild Massive is a glorious web of lies, secrets, and humor in a breakneck, nitrous-boosted saga of the small rejecting the will of the mighty.
Welcome to the Building, an infinitely tall skyscraper in the center of the multiverse, where any floor could contain a sprawling desert oasis, a cyanide rain forest, or an entire world.

Carissa loves her elevator. Up and down she goes, content with the sometimes chewy food her reality fabricator spits out, as long as it means she doesn’t have to speak to another living person.

But when a mysterious shapeshifter from an ambiguous world lands on top of her elevator, intent on stopping a plot to annihilate hundreds of floors, Carissa finds herself stepping out of her comfort zone. She is forced to flee into the Wild Massive network of theme parks in the Building, where technology, sorcery, and elaborate media tie-ins combine to form impossible ride experiences, where every guest is a VIP, the roller coasters are frequently safe, and if you don’t have a valid day pass, the automated defense lasers will escort you from being alive.

Wild Massive: The #1 destination for interdimensional war. Rate us on VacationAdvisor!

“This is a stand-alone novel with material enough for six...By the halfway point, it had blown my mind twice... an audacious, genre-bending whirlwind.” —The New York Times on Battle of the Linguist Mages

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I’m a bit wary given that a few early readers have mentioned an unsatisfying ending – but maybe Moore is planning on a sequel? Regardless, this is still too cool of a premise to skip!

Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Genderqueer MC
Published on: 7th February 2023
Goodreads

An accessible, character-driven story set in 2003 New York City about a genderqueer book conservator who feels trapped by her gender presentation, her ill-fitting relationship, and her artistic block, as she discovers a decades-old hidden queer love letter and becomes obsessed with tracking down its author.

It’s 2003, and artist Dawn Levit is stuck. A bookbinder who works in conservation at the Met, she spends her free time scouting the city’s street art, hoping something might spark inspiration. Instead, everything looks like a dead end. And art isn’t the only thing that feels wrong: wherever she turns, her gender identity clashes with the rest of her life. Her relationship, once anchored by shared queerness, is falling apart as her boyfriend Lukas increasingly seems to be attracted to Dawn only when she’s at her most masculine. Meanwhile at work, Dawn has to present as female, even on the days when that isn’t true. Either way, her difference feels like a liability.  

Then, one day at work, Dawn finds something hidden behind the endpaper of an old book: the torn-off cover of a ‘50s lesbian pulp novel, Turn Her About. On the front is a campy illustration of a woman looking into a handheld mirror and seeing a man’s face. And on the back is a love letter.  

Dawn latches onto the coincidence, becoming obsessed with tracking down the note’s author. Her fixation only increases when her best friend Jae is injured in a hate crime, for which Dawn feels responsible. As Dawn searches for the letter’s author, she is also looking for herself. She tries to understand how to live in a world that doesn’t see her as she truly is, how to get unstuck in her gender, and how to rediscover her art, and she can’t shake the feeling that the note’s author might be able to help guide her to the answers. 

A sharply written, deeply evocative story about what it means to live authentically—even within an identity whose parameters have not yet been defined—Endpapers will appeal to readers of queer, nonbinary, or trans fiction like Torrey Peters’ Detransition, Baby as well as anyone who loves character-driven, setting-rich stories like Tell the Wolves I’m Home or The Immortalists.   

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Sure, I mostly read SFF – but a genderqueer book conservator? Who is obsessed with a pulpy queer novel?? Which itself contains a love letter??? GIMME!

Healing Justice Lineages: Dreaming at the Crossroads of Liberation, Collective Care, and Safety by Cara Page, Erica Woodland
Published on: 7th February 2023
Goodreads

In this anthology, Black Queer Feminist editors Cara Page and Erica Woodland guide readers through the history, legacies, and liberatory practices of healing justice—a political strategy of collective care and safety that intervenes on generational trauma from systemic violence and oppression. They call forth the ancestral medicines and healing practices that have sustained communities who have survived genocide and oppression, while radically imagining what comes next.

Anti-capitalist, Black feminist, and abolitionist, is a profound and urgent call to embrace community and survivor-led care strategies as models that push beyond commodified self-care, the policing of the medical industrial complex, and the surveillance of the public health system. Centering disability, reproductive, environmental, and transformative justice and harm reduction, this collection elevates and archives an ongoing tradition of liberation and survival—one that has been largely left out of our history books, but continues to this day.

In the first section, “Past: Reckoning with Roots and Lineage,” Page and Woodland remember and reclaim generations-long healing justice and community care work, asking critical questions like:

The next sections, “Origins of Healing Justice” and “Alchemy: Theory + Praxis,” explore regional stories of healing justice in response to the current political and cultural landscape. The last section, “Political + Spiritual Imperatives for the Future,” imagines a future rooted in lessons of the past; addresses the ways healing justice is being co-opted and commodified; and uplifts emergent work that’s building infrastructure for care, safety, healing, and political liberation.

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I’m a little uncertain about some of the language in the blurb, but I’ve heard incredible things about this book and I’m very eager to read it! Although I have no idea how the authors fit all of that into 300 pages…!

Daughters of Oduma by Moses Ose Utomi
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: West African-coded cast and setting, fat MC
Published on: 7th February 2023
Goodreads

An elite female fighter must reenter the competition to protect her found family of younger sisters in this scintillating young adult fantasy inspired by West African culture, perfect for fans of The Gilded Ones and Creed.

Eat. Dance. Fight.

This is the life of the girls who compete in the Isle’s elite, all-female fighting sport of Bowing. But it isn’t really Dirt’s life anymore. At sixteen, she is old and has retired from competition. Instead, she spends her days coaching the younger sisters of the Mud Fam and dreading her fast-approaching birthday, when she’ll have to leave her sisters to fulfill whatever destiny the Gods choose for her.

Dirt’s young sisters are coming along nicely, and the Mud Fam is sure to win the upcoming South God Bow tournament, which is crucial: the tiny Fam needs the new recruits that come with victory. Then an attack from a powerful rival leaves the Mud without their top Bower, and Dirt is the only one who can compete in the tournament. But Dirt is old, out of shape, and afraid. She has never wanted to be a leader. Victory seems impossible—yet defeat would mean the end of her beloved Fam. And no way is Dirt going to let that happen.

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I’m immediately intrigued by the sport of Bowing, especially since it sounds like only very young girls compete? And I’m curious about what, if any, magical elements are in this story – it’s described as fantasy, but sometimes that just means alternate history, a fictional country that doesn’t exist in our world. I’m crossing my fingers for some magic, but it sounds like it’ll be awesome either way!

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

The post Must-Have Monday #123 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Breathcatching: The Twice-Drowned Saint by C.S.E Cooney

The Twice-Drowned Saint by C.S.E. Cooney
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Minor nonbinary character, minor M/M
PoV: First-person, past-tense
Published on: 7th February 2023
ISBN: B0BKJZBJY2
Goodreads

"World Fantasy Award winner Cooney imagines angels as Lovecraftian monsters . . . Plenty of charm!"
—Publishers Weekly

"Many have spoken about how angels can be both terrifying yet beautiful, but few have successfully captured the idea well-until The Twice-Drowned Saint, at least. A sumptuous, saw-toothed read, it is a jewel box of a novel, glittering with a thousand details and a bright longing we're all familiar with, this want for a place better than we're in now."
—Cassandra Khaw, Bram Stoker and World Fantasy award-nominated author of Nothing but Blackened Teeth

World Fantasy Award winner C. S. E. Cooney takes readers on a journey of wonder, terror, and joy in this mind-bending, heartfelt novel. Contained inside impassable walls of ice, the city of Gelethel endures under the rule of fourteen angels, who provide for all their subject's needs and mete out grisly punishments for blasphemous infractions, with escape attempts one of the worst possible sins.

"Our narrator is Ishtu Q'Aleth (Ish for short), the new owner of Gelethel's only cinema (having taken over from her father). More importantly, she's also the secret saint of Alizar the Eleven-Eyed, Seventh Angel of Gelethel, and one of the fourteen angels who holds dominion over the city. As Ish explains it, at the age of eight she turned down Alizar's offer to be his saint, but, in a moment that speaks to the novel's charm, the young girl and the all-knowing angel agreed to continue their relationship in secret after bonding over their shared love of cinema. Near thirty years later Ish is desperate to get her sick parents out of the city, a near-impossible task given Gelethel is surrounded by an impenetrable blue serac. But Ish's situation grows even more complicated when a new arrival to the city, a girl named Betony, appears as Alizar's true saint. There's so much to adore about the The Twice-Drowned Saint ... [a] sublime short novel."
—Locus

"With The Twice-Drowned Saint, C. S. E. Cooney once again crafts dazzling feats of imagination grounded in human frailties and plunges her audience inside head-first. Her boldly unique characters live in a fever dream of balletic, graceful description that will make you gasp, even as they find their own escape through the seemingly-mundane world of movies. Like nothing else you've ever read, or will ever read."
—Randee Dawn, author of Tune in Tomorrow

"Fabulous Gelethel is a city of godless angels who intoxicate themselves on human death, but within its icy walls a hidden saint and a dissident angel are hatching a plan. This story left me wrecked and rebuilt: it's a truly glorious tale of family bonds, forgiveness, sacrifice, courage ... and how gods are born. Written with Cooney's signature soaring prose, humor, and imagination, this tale shines a light on cruelties both fantastical and familiar. It honors sorrow and embraces joy-I will treasure it always"
—Francesca Forrest, author of The Inconvenient God

"The way Cooney does world building, she makes the world absolutely gigantic, and then she focuses the lens onto these intimate moments in people's lives . . . My clumsy words don't do justice to The Twice Drowned Saint. Just read it. It is a sunrise, where all things are beautiful and possible, and it is blood on the ground surrounded by those who lap it up, hungering for more. This is one of the best pieces of fiction I've read this year."
—Little Red Reviewer

Cover art, cover design and interior black and white illustrations by Lasse Paldanius.

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

Highlights

~38yo MC with 38yo knees
~undercover saints
~the police are possessed (no, literally)
~angels: “BE AFRAID.”
~the waste collectors are a crime family
~holy popcorn

I was so determined to write this book a review that did it justice, I actually ended up reading it twice – once over a period of weeks; the second time, I gulped the whole thing down in a single day.

I REGRET NOTHING.

For real, though: this is a book that lost none of its lustre on a reread, which is a noteworthy accomplishment all by itself. I wasn’t bored for a moment, even when I knew exactly how everything was going to go down; I still felt all the Feels; I still got thrill-shivers at the breathcatching parts. I still loved getting to see an older (‘older’; 38 isn’t actually old, but you know what I mean) protagonist who is equal parts cynical and hopeful, snarky and smart; I was still gleeful over the system of holy benisons-as-currency; I still adored Betony, from her platinum crown to her dusty feet. I still wanted to watch movies at the Quick and wander beautiful, fruitful Bloom and take a peek at what books a public library in a city ruled by angels might hold.

But.

Cooney routinely leaves me speechless, and The Twice-Drowned Saint is no exception – despite having read it twice, I have no idea how to describe, never mind explain, this brilliantly, beautifully bizarre little novel, with its properly unbiblical angels, a possessed police-force, and a sacred cinema of silent, black-and-white movies! What am I supposed to say???

I loved it. Obviously.

I was not completely sure I would, at first! I dove in as excited as I could possibly be, but I was not expecting first-person narration, and was a bit disappointed, since first-person makes it hard to justify the gleefully ostentatious syntactical and lexical extravaganza that is Cooney’s prose in third-person. But I shouldn’t have doubted her; she’s established in multiple short stories that her first-person writing still glitters and gleams and glitzes, and so it does here in The Twice-Drowned Saint. In fact, I might actually recommend this as a good place to start if you’ve never read Cooney before and are wary of the purple prose (a term I use not derogatorily but with love) that I’ve raved about in her other books, because here, the dial’s turned down on the logophilia, but the story still sizzles and sears with Cooney’s signature quixotic whimsy and vivid, fantastical weirdness.

There were two things every Gelthic citizen knew.

One: only saints could see the angels who ruled us.

Two: Alizar the Eleven-Eyed, Seventh Angel of Gelethel, had no saint. He hadn’t had one for a long time.

Now I will tell you what the angel Alizar looks like.

Neither of which would shine quite so brightly seen through the eyes of a lesser narrator, but Ishtu Q’Aleth is a main character whose personality and voice are every bit as uniquely distinct – and perfect for the story she’s telling – as were Maurice’s of The Bone Swans of Amandale or Mar’s of The Witch in the Almond Tree (short stories that can be found in Bone Swans and The Witch in the Almond Tree: and other stories respectively). But rather than being a shapeshifter (Maurice) or a witch (Mar), Ishtu is a little bit of both; a saint hiding in plain sight, having refused the call to serve the angel Alizar – at least, in the traditional way.

I was the Seventh Angel’s best kept secret.

And he was mine.

Instead, she and Alizar are secret besties, while Ishtu runs the only cinema in a literal city of angels and Alizar does his best to mitigate the bloodthirstiness of his peers, the rest of the angels who rule over Gelethel, a rhombus-shaped city surrounded by a ginormous wall of ice in the middle of the desert.

Oh, and there’s holy popcorn.

Are you intrigued yet?

There’s so much to love here – silent movies so lovingly described I wish I could watch them for myself; a crime family that is also a charity family; attention to detail that goes right down to Gelethel’s very unique currency; and of course, the thing I was most excited about going into this book: Cooney’s take on angels. As someone ardently following #biblicallyaccurateangels on every platform that lets you track hashtags, I loved the angels of The Twice-Drowned Saint, because although Gelethel’s angels are not made of wheels and fire, Cooney has absolutely captured the vibe of Eerie Alien Otherness, the visceral feel of terror-glory-horror-awe that imbues old-school angels, and channelled it through her own aesthetic.

The angel Alizar sometimes looked like a human-shaped paper lantern, or a sudden release of soap bubbles, or a cloud. He glowed on the inside as if he’d swallowed a hive of horny fireflies, and on the outside, he looked as if a toddler with a glue gun had gone wild with the craft buckets containing outrageous feathers, and twining golden vines, and trumpet-like lowers, and thin, prismatic insect wings.

Superficially, The Twice-Drowned Saint is about how 38yo Ishtu (I’m still so delighted to see an MC who is neither a teen nor in her 20s!) wants out of Gelethel – which is completely forbidden – to get her ailing parents the medical care they need in some other city (angels, apparently, not being fans of public health care). Due to belonging to what I can only call a charitable crime family, Ishtu and her parents could sneak out – but Ishtu doesn’t feel she can abandon Alizar, who is the least of the angels who rule the city, bullied by the rest.

So it’s a good thing another saint of his appears to get the story rolling.

Because really, The Twice-Drowned Saint is a book about a revolution, a massive subversion of our typical assumptions about strength and power, about the rewards of violence versus the rewards of open hands and open hearts.

“That ain’t weakness, Q’Aleth. Weakness is killin’ someone for their bread. Strength is splittin’ your last loaf with them.

It’s about many different kinds of faith, and the treatment of refugees and immigrants, about the hoarding of resources when there’s plenty to go around. It’s about movie-making and storytelling and upending the status quo.

Of course, the poets and the outlaws won against him in the end. That’s what they did, in movies. Maybe the only place they ever did.

And that’s why we need movies, Uncle Eril had once told me. That’s why it was such a great good thing–the day your father came to Gelethel.

Which is not to say that this is a preachy book bluntly bleating Moral Lessons at you; instead it’s scintillatingly electric, twisty and rich, fierce and gentle and sizzling. This is a book that bats its eyelashes at you and invites you in, then pours a cocktail of invisible wonders and sheer heart-full humanness down your throat; it’s sitting down in a theatre to a black-and-white silent movie and being blasted with sparkling jewel-tones and a full orchestral soundtrack instead. It always feels a little tongue-in-cheek, as though the story is giving you a wink and letting you in on the joke, even as it takes itself seriously with punctilious care.

Which, yes, sounds like a contradiction, DO YOU SEE WHY I’M HAVING TROUBLE EXPLAINING IT???

It’s so weird! It’s so wonderful! It is such a big glorious story somehow distilled into a powerfully short novel, and I am not doing it justice at all, but please believe me when I tell you it is marvellous.

As in, excellent.

As in, full of marvels and miracles.

Alizar the Eleven-Eyed was waiting there to welcome me.

He was there, in the firmament, in the clusters of star-like eyes and the spaces between them. He was also all around me, sitting in my bones: jewel-flame flower bells, feathering ferns, the fluttering of membranous wings, a warm and golden thing, like a lamp filled with fireflies.

Do I have any critiques? Sure, but they’re extremely minor; I found it a little too easy/obvious that Alizar, the one good angel, is also the only angel who is aesthetically pretty – the others we see are all quite horrifying and monstrous. And although the grand finale was appropriately goosebump-giving, I didn’t understand why A Certain Thing was necessary – even on my second read, I didn’t catch any explanation or follow the reasoning.

You know, you gonna be a poet, you gotta get yourself some ink. In the real world, poets are head-to-toe tattoos. ‘War flowers,’ we used to call ’em, in Rok Moris.

But I really don’t care, because literally everything else is freaking EPIC. The surreal, wildly imaginative setting and worldbuilding; the pretty incredible complexity of each member of the cast and their relationships to each other (the uncles!!!)(no for real though THE UNCLES!!!); the frankly ridiculous number of times this book took me by surprise – both in terms of big plot twists and itsy-bitsy details–

And, of course, Ishtu herself.

He was like a cricket some kid had poured diatomite over. He was a murderer. A fanatic for the angels. Worse, a teenager.

Oh, Ishtu. *happy sigh*

In short? Yes, I loved it. Obviously. And I will be reading it again – not least because I caught two Easter Egg nods to Saint Death’s Daughter and Bone Swans, and am sure there are more that I missed!

You can visit Gelethel for yourself on the 7th of Feb – next week! – and I MIGHTILY encourage you to do so!

The post Breathcatching: The Twice-Drowned Saint by C.S.E Cooney appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.