Month: January 2024

Book Review: THE BULLET SWALLOWER by Elizabeth Gonzalez James

| Jessica Crawford

The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Pride has ruined me far more than disease,” he said, “and so I fear it has ruined you.”


Wow! I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this Western (not a genre I feel any particular way about) laden with magical realism (which can be hit or miss for me), but I loved this book!

The author’s great-grandfather was a bandido who escaped from a prison in Texas, survived being shot in the face by Texas Rangers (and thereby earning the nickname “The Bullet Swallower”), and made his way home to Mexico. Using this as a springboard, she has spun a stunning and emotional tale spanning more than a century, transporting readers to a lawless Texas-Mexico border as well as an affluent part of Mexico City, touching on issues of colonialism, racism, and more.

Chapters alternate between film star Jaime Sonora and his ancestor, the eponymous bandido, Antonio Sonora. The latter plans a train heist, hoping to steal enough riches to lift his little family out of poverty, but gaining only a personal vendetta against a trio of Texas Rangers instead. I was completely invested in this story line – the setting was gorgeously depicted, as we blazed trails through the chaparral beneath a luminous sky. I adored the relationship Antonio winds up forging with sharpshooter Peter Ainsley, “The Gentleman Assassin”. The link between Antonio’s story and that of his descendant, Jaime, is the shadow of retribution, a literal dark figure who is tasked with collecting souls, and the Sonoro family is deep in cosmic debt…

[He], for all of his faults, woke up every morning and tried to be better. And maybe that was all there was and all there ever would be: a daily dedication to the light.

Jaime’s chapters didn’t resonate with me quite as much (there were some A-holes in the Sonora lineage, but it hardly seems like every single one of them was evil; and what did the woman who wrote an entire history about their family have to do with them in the first place?), but were still fine, especially in how they represent the completion of Antonio’s story.

The author is without doubt a talented writer, and this story got me right in the feels. And that cover! An all around beautiful book.

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Book Review: I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN by Jacqueline Harpman

| Jessica Crawford

I cannot mourn for what I have not known.

This was a bleak but stimulating look at a potential dystopian future (similar to The Handmaid’s Tale, but much stranger and more disquieting).

I told myself that I’d been hypocritical and, since I had no one to lie to, I discovered that you can lie to yourself, which felt very strange

Groups of forty people (all men or all women) are caged together in bunkers all across the planet. One day an alarm sounds and all the guards run, never to be seen again. Our main character and her fellow prisoners are lucky enough to be in the cage that a guard was in the middle of unlocking when the alarm began to wail. The women don’t know where they are (is it even planet Earth?), where everyone else is, or why they were kept caged for years in the first place. They venture out into the desolate world and find ways to survive for the remainders of their lives. Since the MC is the only one who was a child when their incarceration began, she not only does not remember “normal” life before their imprisonment, she also is very aware that some day she will be the only person left alive.

I am the sterile offspring of a race about which I know nothing, not even whether it has become extinct. Perhaps, somewhere, humanity is flourishing under the stars, unaware that a daughter of its blood is ending her days in silence.

I just wish we got a little more of a hint at some answers about what actually happened to lead to things being the way they are. Beyond “it’s maybe not Earth”, the answers are completely left to the reader’s imagination.

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Book Review: EMILY WILDE’S MAP OF THE OTHERLANDS by Heather Fawcett

| Jessica Crawford

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett is a sequel that manages to be even more charming than its predecessor!

Emily, Wendell, and Shadow are back, and this time they’re joined by Emily’s niece, as well as the Cambridge dryadology department head. Professor Wilde was granted tenure after publishing her encyclopedia, and luckily for us readers, she continues the practice of keeping a journal as it helps to organize her thoughts. The story begins on campus, and so there’s a hint of “magical school” flavor at first. Then it’s off to Austria for another adventure!

The banter is just as hilarious, the romance continues to develop, and the faeries are just as enchanting and horrifying as ever. Poe is just as endearing (yes, everyone’s favorite brownie makes an appearance!) The element of two explorers trapped in Faerie, lost and confused, occasionally popping in and out of the mortal world, and continually just missing each other like ships in the night as they search for one another was wonderfully whimsical.

This book has more of a traditional structure than the first, where things started simply with a scholar doing research. Going into the sequel, we already know that there is a goal of finding a back door into Wendell’s Faerie kingdom. Pretty much straight away here, our protagonists learn that his stepmother has ordered his assassination, moving the timeline forward in an urgent way. And I was hooked!

Emily is determined that it is her turn to save Wendell, and she has learned from her past mistakes—although of course she makes some new ones, too. And with the way this book ends, it seems she will definitely have a chance to learn from those as well! Which is well and good because the parts of the resolution here felt a bit underwhelming, but did a fine job setting up the next part of the story.

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this eARC.

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Book Review: STARLING HOUSE by Alix E. Harrow

| Jessica Crawford

Opal has been dreaming about Starling House for years. It turns out the house has been dreaming about her, too.

This is a modern dark fairytale with a protagonist who has no qualms about lying and stealing her way through life if it means providing a better one for her brother. After meeting the odd inhabitant of the creepy house in the neighborhood, she finds herself in a war to protect the residents of a Kentucky town that didn’t always protect her.

This tale is Gothic and mysterious. It features flawed characters, a sentient house, a hellmouth in a place called Eden, and it addresses whose narrative gets remembered and passed on in society. It reminded me a bit of Ragnar Tornquist’s Dreamfall game, in that (SPOILERS AHEAD) the dreams of a little girl in a dreamland are doing very real damage in the real world–except in the case of Nora Lee in Starling House, the harm is very intentional! (END SPOILERS)

There is a romance aspect to this story, and I got a kick out of how, unlike in most novels, the readers keeps being told how generally unattractive these two lovers are. (Of note, Opal is 26 years old, although the book and everyone in it seem to treat her much younger.) There are some footnotes in this book, which I usually find I really like in novels, but here it seemed kind of half-assed; the point winds up being because the entire account is supposed to be Opal making sure the “real” story gets told, but the book never fully committed to this device.

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Book Review: THE FETISHIST by Katherine Min

| Jessica Crawford

Wow, what a talented writer Katherine Min was! How lucky for us that her daughter, Kayla, put in the work to ensure her mother’s second novel got published posthumously.

This is actually a very grim story, filled with infidelity, suicide, abduction, attempted murder, and more. It revolves around the relationships that violinist and accused Asian fetishist Daniel Karmody has created (and destroyed) over the course of his life. There is revenge, but also repentance, and it does end on an overall hopeful note.

The author had that special kind of skill to write characters that so feel genuinely real, from the ailing concert cellist Alma to the angry punk rocker and anime artist Kyoko, and everyone in between. I liked the structure of the book, as well as the style chosen for the chapter names. And such a way she had with words!

One issue I have is the blurb calling this black comedy and referencing it’s brilliant humour—I think that might be misleading, as I don’t remember anything funny about it (outside of Daniel wearing the Snugli and other QVC acquisitions stored in his prison).

This was truly good literary fiction, and I am so glad to have had the opportunity to read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons (and Kayla) for the opportunity to read this ARC.

My Top Ten Books of 2023

| Jessica Crawford

Here they are, my top ten reads of 2023!

My reading went into sicko mode this year and I read nearly twice as many books as usual. My average rating on Goodreads was 3.6 stars. My most read genre was fantasy, followed by literary and then historical fiction. I wound up reading less science fiction (I’ll have to fix that this year!) and more thrillers and mystery than has historically been the case.

According to Storygraph I “delved into dark and intense narratives, unraveled intricate mysteries, and embarked on exciting adventures”. I preferred emotional stories, which comes as no surprise!

My reading goal for 2024 is to have a higher average star rating (above 3.6) by trying to land on books that are more of a hit for me and my tastes.

What are your reading goals for this new year?

Books pictured: What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher, The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher, If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio, Our Hideous Progeny by C. E. McGill, North Woods by Daniel Mason, Trust by Hernan Diaz, Chlorine by Jade Song, Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, and Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett.

BOTBC Part 3

| Jessica Crawford

Of the books I read last month, only two had alternate cover editions.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden, author of The Winternight Trilogy (The Bear and the Nightingale) is an upcoming historical fantasy novel set during World War I (expected publication February 13, 2024). I think I have to give call this one a tie – I like the US cover because it’s rather unique, but the colors of the UK one are just so darn pretty!

Mrs. Caliban, written by Rachel Ingalls and originally published in 1982, is an interesting novella about a lonely house wife and a frog man. The US covers win this round for me; I like the US hardcover edition best, but the paperback is certainly not without its charm.

And with that, on to a new year of reading!