Fantasy

Book Review: STRANGE ANIMALS by Jarod K. Anderson

| Jessica Crawford

Strange Animals by Jarod K. Anderson is a 320 page novel with a publish date of February 10, 2026 from Ballantine Books.

Genre:

Fantasy, Urban/Contemporary Fantasy, Magical Realism

Synopsis:

An ordinary man discovers a hidden world of wondrous supernatural creatures—and an unexpected home—in this enchanting contemporary fantasy debut.

one who studies cryptids; an expert in or student of supernatural history.

After a series of inexplicable encounters upends his life, Green finds himself alone and terrified in the Appalachian mountains, full of questions about the transformation he’s undergoing and the impossible creatures he’s starting to see.

When he meets a hermit named Valentina, he realizes that something more than chance has brought him to her door. For she has devoted centuries to researching the hidden world of cryptids that Green is only now beginning to perceive.  

As Green begins his studies beneath her watchful eye, he comes face to face with time-stopping giant moths, cyclops squirrels, and doorways to elsewhere. Along the way come clues about his own nature and the powerful beings who led him here—and, most wondrous of all, a sense of fulfillment like nothing he’s felt before.

But Green’s new happiness promises to be short-lived, because alongside these marvels lurks a deadly threat to this place he’s already come to love.

Featuring incredible creatures and an unforgettable cast of characters, Strange Animals is a charming, addictive fantasy about the magic all around us.

Opening Line:

Green died and then he didn’t.

My Thoughts:

It is not always in our power to decide what a thing is…But what a thing means? That power may often be claimed.

What a surprising little gem of a novel!

The main character, Green, has a very strange (near?) death experience, after which he feels called to reconnect with nature, to rediscover his true self and the things in life that actually matter. He finds himself staying at a campsite in the Catskills, an area populated with some colorful characters.

“I got blood on your coat.” “It’ll wipe off. Or add character. Whichever.”

On his first night there, Green encounters a glowing deer and a horned wolf with mutable shadowy flesh. One of these creatures is a monster, one is prey – but each may not be the one you expect. Not everyone can see these beasts, and this is how Green learns he is a born cryptonaturalist. Thankfully, one of his new neighbors can teach him just what that means. Together, they work to try to protect the mountains and their inhabitants from preternatural dangers.

The characters in this book are interesting, and the dynamic between teacher and pupil is amusing at times. The details of the plot are rather original, and I enjoyed the fanciful elements of “cryptonature”. There is a sort of found family piece of the story that I very much appreciated as well. The author’s love for nature is on clear display in this tale.

How humbling is nature? How many lives could you spend studying a single tree and still feel yourself a neophyte in the school of its character? What a gift it is to know that the ship of our curiosity will never run aground in the seas of Earth’s mysteries.

This book seems to be a standalone, but I would gladly read any sequels further detailing Green’s adventures. If you find yourself drawn to the idea of an urban fantasy (but that takes place in the wilderness!) with engaging characters and a lot of heart, I definitely recommend picking this one up.

Many thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

Book Review: THE EVERLASTING by Alix E. Harrow

| Jessica Crawford
Image made using Canva’s generative AI

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow is a 320 page standalone novel published by Tor Books in 2025 and based off of her short story, The Six Deaths of the Saint

Genre:

Fantasy

The Blurb:

From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part–even if it breaks his heart.

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters―but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.

Centuries later, Owen Mallory―failed soldier, struggling scholar―falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives―and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.

But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend―if they want to tell a different story–they’ll have to rewrite history itself.

Opening Line:

It begins where it ends: beneath the yew tree.

My Thoughts:

You had to die, and I had to watch you die, and then I had to wipe the blood from my hands and make sure it had been worth it.

Bestill, my heart!

The other two novels I’ve read by this author were fine, but not standouts for this reader. Her short stories, however, are absolutely fantastic – and The Six Deaths of the Saint remains one of the most impressive things I’ve ever read. So when I learned this novel was based off of (inspired by?) that, I was equal parts excited and nervous – the latter because it was already so perfect as it was!

I will say that I still love the short story version best, because the shorter format means the incredible storytelling packs more of a punch. But this book is also amazing! In fact, I’m already fairly certain it will be one of my top ten reads of the year.

“There are only two kinds of story worth telling: the ones that send children to sleep, and the ones that send men to war.”

I struggle knowing what to say about this book without being too spoilery, so I feel it’s safest to share what the author herself has written about it: told in alternating second person POV, Alix E. Harrow describes it as the tale of a big sad lady-knight stuck in a time loop and the anxious historian trying to save her, and says it’s about the endless cycle of authoritarian abuse which fabricates the past in order to justify the present, but made more fun by the inclusion of a romantic arc and some sword fights.

“You know that history is mostly happenstance…It is not a lesson, until we learn it. It is not a story, until we tell it. And every story serves someone.”

I LOVE LOVE LOVED this smart, emotional time loop story about the power of narratives and an epic romance. That being said, it’s obviously probably not the best book for readers who get frustrated with time loop stories. But if that doesn’t bother you, and you love getting your heart ripped out before being placed back inside your chest (possibly with the addition of a little something extra???), you should definitely give this book (and The Six Deaths of the Saint!) a read.

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Book Review: SNAKE-EATER by T. Kingfisher

| Jessica Crawford

Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher is a 271 page standalone novel published in 2025 by 47North.

Genre:

Horror(-adjacent), Urban Fantasy (but in a small desert town)

The Blurb:

In an isolated desert town, a young woman seeking a fresh start is confronted by ancient gods, malevolent supernatural forces, and eccentric neighbours. A witty horror-tinged fantasy, perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Chuck Tingle, and Rachel Harrison.

When Selena travels to the remote desert town of Quartz Creek in search of her estranged Aunt Amelia, she is desperate and short of options. Fleeing an unhappy marriage, she has exactly twenty-seven dollars to her name, and her only friend in the world is her dog, Copper.

On arrival, Selena learns Amelia is dead. But the inhabitants of Quartz Creek are only too happy to have a new resident. Out of money and ideas, Selena sees no harm staying in her aunt’s lovely house for a few weeks, tending to her garden and enjoying the strange, desolate beauty of the desert. The people are odd, but friendly, and eager to help Selena settle into her new home.

But Quartz Creek’s inhabitants share their town with others, old gods and spirits whose claim to the land long predates their human neighbours. Selena finds herself pursued by disturbing apparitions, visitations that come in the night and seem to want something from her.

Aunt Amelia owed a debt. Now her god has come to collect.

The Opening Line:

Selena picked her new home for no better reason than the dog laid down on the porch.

My Thoughts:

“Meep meep, motherfucker.”

Oh, how I love Kingfisher’s writing! Especially in her horror stories (although this one I would argue is only “horror-adjacent”.) Of the many books of hers that I’ve read (she is an autobuy/preorder author for me), I have awarded all but one 4 or 5 stars (usually 4 stars to her fairytale retellings and 5 to her horror novels). Snake-Eater continues that streak!

The main character in this one is Selena, a thirty-year old neurodivergent woman. When she realizes her relationship long ago reached the point where her partner was tearing her down instead of bolstering her up, she makes the decision to leave behind her life as she knows it with only $27 to her name and her loyal pooch by her side. She makes for the desert town of Quartz Creek, where her aunt lives. Unfortunately, it turns out Aunt Amelia passed away the year before. Selena finds herself at loose ends, but Amelia’s house in the historic zone is sitting empty, and the welcoming townspeople assure Selena she can stay as long as she needs to while she figures out her next move.

Over time, her lovely new neighbors begin to convince Selena that she is not as terrible at peopling as her ex always told her she was. She and her dog Copper could really get used to life in Quartz Creek, growing squash and selling corn smut, helping to craft authentic folk art for sale, sharing biweekly potluck meals at the church with her new friends.

That is, if it weren’t for the vengeful personified spirit deity of roadrunners who seems to be holding a grudge…

Kingfisher’s afterwords often make me laugh out loud just as much as her stories do. In this one she explains that when she told people she was writing a story with a roadrunner villain, they pictured the comedic cartoon bird instead of what she describes as a cross between a velociraptor and a chicken with a shiv. Seriously, these guys kill and eat rattlesnakes for breakfast!

The magical realism in this book, manifested via the mythology and folklore of the American Southwest, successfully sets a tone both whimsical and spooky as Selena works to understand the startling things going on and why she seems to be their target. As usual for a Kingfisher novel, this story features an inclusive cast of absolutely delightful characters. There is healing, growth, and a message that forging connections with people is its own act of courage.

And when Snake-Eater comes to collect, it might just be these bonds that save the day.

Disclaimer: The woman in the image looks nothing like how I pictured Selena, but this is what I wound up with while trying out Canva’s generative image feature (AI) when asking for an American Southwest desert background template.

Book Review: GRACELESS HEART by Isabel Ibañez

| Jessica Crawford

Graceless Hearts by Isabel Ibañez is a 488 page standalone novel with a publish date of January 13, 2026 by Saturday Books.

Genre:

Historical Fantasy, Romance

Synopsis:

A lush, atmospheric and achingly magical standalone adult fantasy romance set in Renaissance Italy from a #1 New York Times bestselling author.

In 15th-century Volterra, sculptress Ravenna Maffei enters a competition hosted by a secretive, immortal family who offer an invaluable boon to the victor. Desperate to win so she can save her brother, Ravenna reveals a rare magical talent-a dangerous act in a city where magic is forbidden. Her revelation makes her a target, and she is kidnapped by the Luni family and taken to Florence, a city of breathtaking beauty and cutthroat ambition.

There, Ravenna is forced into an impossible task where failure means certain death at the hands of Saturnino dei Luni, the family’s enigmatic and merciless heir. But under his cold reserve hides a vulnerability that draws her closer than she ever intended.

Meanwhile, Ravenna’s forbidden magic does not go unnoticed. The Pope, waging war against Florence, the Medici, and magic itself, has his own interest in her abilities, seeing her as a potential weapon in his ruthless campaign.

As alliances shift and war brews on the horizon, Ravenna must navigate the treacherous line between survival and betrayal, between love and duty. With time running out and her every move watched, the choices she makes will determine the fate of not just her own life, but the fragile balance of magic and power that could unravel Florence itself.

Opening Line:

Ravenna Maffei disliked magic because her parents did, but on the day her aunt took her to visit the quarry for the first time, she learned what it was to truly loathe it.

My Thoughts:

First of all, Readers, let’s please take a moment to appreciate the stunning cover of this Historical Romantasy novel. So pretty!

Okay, now with that out of the way…

Sculptress Ravenna’s story takes place in a version of fifteenth century Italy that includes elements of the supernatural and the magical: fae, witches, and vampyres, oh my! This captivating set dressing adorns a tale deeply rooted in actual history. There is a large focus on the political unrest that featured Lorenzo de Medici and his various family members and associates at its center. The story takes us from Volterra to the glittering jewel of Florence during the height of the Renaissance…and then there’s the pope of unholy greed. He condemns anything that bears even a whiff of magic, while using its power to his own benefit. Our main character Ravenna has inherited a hint of magic herself, and thus becomes a pawn in the machinations of powerful people.

The premise of this story is great, and the setting is ::chef’s kiss::. Unfortunately, I felt the romance part of the tale leaves much to be desired, and between that and what seemed to me an unnecessary length for the story being told, my final rating dropped down a star.

It was a bit frustrating that so much of what Ravenna does in this story she is forced to do by one party or another, rarely having any agency of her own. And while I often dig the morally gray characters and antiheroes, I have to agree with another reviewer that what homegirl actually experiences with Saturnino here is Stockholm Syndrome, not true love with her captor for showing her a couple acts of kindness amidst regular abuse. And while this is an “Adult” romance due to a few spicy scenes (mostly blanketed in euphemism, so not terribly explicit), the romance aspect came across to me as sort of…unsophisticated? I just mean that, although the characters were certainly unique, the writing specific to their romance felt like the same stuff I’ve read a hundred times before. It seemed like I could predict what would be said next in the writing, just when the hero would lean back against the wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest and his legs crossed at the ankles and say something condescending while looking smoldering hot and smelling like snow-covered pine trees. Really, in general this felt more like a YA book, but marketed as Adult simply so the sexy scenes could be included.

Additionally, when the switch flipped in the relationship between Ravenna and Saturnino, it was a sudden and complete 180. And I just couldn’t understand why Ravenna did some of the things she did, like so often doing risky things when she feared he was in mortal danger, despite knowing that he is, you know, immortal.

I also think the pacing here fell a bit short. After things being drawn out for so long, all of a sudden a lot of major things happen near the end – at least, the reader is told they are, without actually being shown much of it happening. At least up until the climactic scene, which was good (although I did predict the “twist” at least a couple hundred of pages earlier).

So there was certainly a lot to enjoy here, but by the end I felt let down. Still 3 solid stars for the things that worked well, though.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press/Saturday Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

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Book Review: THE WORKS OF VERMIN by Hiron Ennes

| Jessica Crawford

The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes is a 432 page standalone novel published by Tor Books in 2025.

Genre:

Fantasy

Blurb

He was sent to kill a pest. Instead, he found a monster.

Enter the decadent, deadly city of Tiliard, a metropolis carved into the stump of an ancient tree. In its canopy, the pampered elite warp minds with toxic perfume; in its roots, gangs of exterminators hunt a colossal worm with an appetite for beauty.

In this complex, chaotic city, Guy Moulène has a simple goal: keep his sister out of debt. For her sake, he’ll take on any job, no matter how vile.

As an exterminator, Guy hunts the uncanny creatures that crawl up from the river. These vermin are all strange, and often dangerous. His latest quarry is different: a centipede the size of a dragon with a deadly venom and a ravenous taste for artwork. As it digests Tiliard from the sewers to the opera houses, its toxin reshapes the future of the city. No sane person would hunt it, if they had the choice.

Guy doesn’t have a choice.

Opening Line

Tiliard, known as the Deathbed of Tulips, straddles the river gorge like a half-submerged stump.

My Thoughts

The past is only ever populated by strangers, Guy had told her once, referencing some pompous corpse or another.

Holy moly, this book! A great story that was a taxing process to tunnel my way through.

This author’s previous novel, Leech, is an absolute favorite of mine. There are things I really like about this one here, but boy were there challenges, too. Mostly I just had a very difficult time picturing the things the author describes (e.g. do they live in the roots or on the roots, and if the stump is half-submerged then aren’t the roots underwater?) Primarily it was the setting itself that I struggled to get a handle on, but the details of the toxins and perfumes and everything were just a lot. Many times I found myself rereading lines to make sure I was actually understanding what they were trying to say.

Somewhere around two-thirds into the book I had a major “Aha!” moment, but I hesitate to call this a twist or a big reveal because I honestly can’t say for sure if it was something that was already supposed to have been clear and I just failed to pick up on it.

BUT, all that being said, it’s a fantastic (if extremely complex) world the author has built here, and the story was very good. The characters were pretty wonderful (the undercity exterminator willing to do anything to keep his little sister from a life of working off debt, the perfumer who makes the perception-altering and subtly mind-controlling scents worn by the Grand Marshal Revenant, all those contaminated by the toxin used to literally reshape the city and its people during the last coup–all splendid!) I would call this grimdark fantasy and not horror, although there are most definitely body horror elements. There’s LGBTQIA+ representation, and some truly great lines amidst the pulchritudinous prose.

He is the best Grand Marshal the city has ever seen. He is exactly as a Grand Marshal should be: dashing, competent, tough, ruthless or bloodless depending on necessity. He expresses the tenets of Revivalism in the sculpture of his own body, in his elegant and irresistible strategies. Bullets seem to pass right by him. Poison seems not to sicken him. He is so successful, so well-suited for life, that when in his fifth year of office he writes a solemn note and ingests enough tranquilizer to kill a team of horses, he only wakes up the next morning slightly better rested than usual.

My overall experience with this book was definitely a good one, but my troubles wrapping my head around the particulars drops it to 4.25 stars for me.

Book Review: THE WHITE OCTOPUS HOTEL by Alexandra Bell

| Jessica Crawford

The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell is a 369 page standalone novel with a publish date of 10/28/25 by Del Rey

Genre:

Fantasy/Magical Realism

Subgenres:

Historical Fiction, Romance

Blurb:

Journey to a magical hotel in the Swiss Alps, where two lost souls living in different centuries meet and discover that behind its many doors, they may just find a second chance.

‘Have you travelled a long way?’ she asked carefully. A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. ‘Well, yes,” he said slowly. ‘Yes, you could say that. But it was worth the wait.’

London, 2015

When reclusive art appraiser Eve Shaw shakes the hand of a silver-haired gentleman in her London office, the warmth of his palm sends a spark through her.

His name is Max Everly – curiously, the same name as Eve’s favourite composer, born one hundred sixteen years prior. And she can’t shake the feeling that she’s held his hand before . . . but where, and when?

The White Octopus Hotel, 1935

Decades earlier, high in the snowy Swiss Alps, Eve and a young Max Everly wander the winding halls of the grand belle epoque White Octopus Hotel, lost in time.

Each of them has been through the trenches – Eve in a family accident and Max on the battlefields of the Great War – but for an impossible moment, love and healing are just a room away . . . if only they have the courage to step through the door.

Opening Line:

Eve didn’t want to turn around because then she would see it.

My Thoughts

What a special story this was about regret and finding a steady hand to hold yours in the dark! It’s got:

✓ A magical hotel
✓ Time travel
✓ Scavenger hunt/puzzles
✓ Working through grief

Eve Shaw is haunted (quite literally) by a tragic event from her childhood, and she would do anything to change what happened. When she finds herself transported back in time to a magnificent hotel known to house various magical objects, she might just get that chance.

I will say that I think this book took too long setting up before starting the meat of the story. Even without reading the synopsis, the story has the reader expecting Eve to travel to the White Octopus Hotel and to the past, but this doesn’t actually happen until around 40% into the book. Up until that point I thought the book was just fine, but that’s when it got good–and then, as I read on, it wound up being something rather extraordinary!

We have Eve, an artwork appraiser at an auction house in 2016 whose octopus tattoo moves itself around her body at will, and who finds herself participating in a scavenger hunt at the White Octopus Hotel in 1935 for the chance to win a magical object that could allow her to rewrite her past.

And then we have Max Everly, music composer and junior officer in World War I who is sent to the hotel in the Swiss Alps in 1918 to convalesce as a POW.

These two meet multiple times throughout history (but it’s always only the first time for one of them!) The bond between them acts as a light in each of their lives, and “after all, a single candle could make all the difference in the dark”. Eve eventually is forced to reckon with the knowledge that changing her own story will have consequences that ripple through time. Either way, someone she cares for is going to have to get hurt.

I really loved the specifics of the different magical aspects in this story. Was I left with some questions, for logistics? Sure. But the helpful tentacles, the creepy yet sympathetic Eavesdropper, the war horse returning lost objects in the steam baths–delightful!

Personally, I don’t usually appreciate comps because so often they set me up for disappointment, but for readers who look for that kind of information I will say that this book had me at different times feeling hints of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Warm Hands of Ghosts vibes.

In all I found this to be an exciting, touching, and hopeful magical love story with an overall theme of making peace with the past. I plan to check out more of this author’s work for sure.

Now, if I may share a couple of quibbles, which obviously were not egregious enough to drop my rating from 5 splendid stars. The writing itself was not bad by any means, but it was just a bit basic. And this last bit could be considered a tad spoilery, so please avoid if that bothers you, but it was odd to me that Eve, despite already having a crush on Max before meeting him, did not form any romantic feelings for him when she knew him in his thirties and he pledged to help her with whatever she needed, but then fell in love with him while he was a traumatized teenager in the midst of a mental health crisis. This seemed a bit ick to me.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to Del Rey and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review!

Goodreads

Book Review: HEMLOCK & SILVER by T. Kingfisher

| Jessica Crawford

Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher is a 368 page standalone novel published in 2025 by Tor Books.

Genre:

Fantasy, Fairytale Reimagining

Synopsis:

From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Hemlock & Silver, a dark reimagining of “Snow White” steeped in poison, intrigue, and treason of the most magical kind

Healer Anja regularly drinks poison.

Not to die, but to save—seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on.

But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja’s unorthodox methods can save her.

Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick.

Or it might be the thing that kills them all.

Opening Line:

I had just taken poison when the king arrived to inform me that he had murdered his wife.

My Thoughts:

Five isn’t a lot when it’s grains of rice, but a great deal when it’s bites of hemlock or forty-foot monsters.

Another lovely story from one of my autobuy authors! This one includes:

➼ A thirty-something big and tall scholarly female main character
➼ The mystery of how a twelve year old princess is getting poisoned
➼ Frightening magic mirrors (just wait until you meet the mirror-gelds!)
➼ A dash of romance
➼ A very special and cryptic cat

Hemlock & Silver is a reimagining of the story of Snow White (not the Rose Red version, although this Snow does in fact have a sister named Rose). Kingfisher’s signature wit is on display as she weaves her tale about an expert in poisons and antidotes being brought in by the king to try to save his daughter. The scope of this fantasy story is limited to a city called Four Saints and a private villa called Witherleaf, but there is plenty of worldbuilding in regards to the theology and customs of the land. And, of course, some laugh out loud lines sprinkled throughout the narrative.

There were no severed limbs and faces lying on the ground below, which was a relief, and also not something that I’d ever had to worry about before.

I have to admit, though, that the pacing of this one felt a bit off to me. I grew a tad bored at times. Additionally, I had a hard time following some of her descriptions of how things worked with the mirror world, so just had to shrug and go along for the ride. But things got exciting by the end, and when I was finished with the book I had the urge to to hug it–always a good sign!

Maybe the point of gods and saints is that they can make the monstrous choices that people can’t.

Kingfisher’s autobuy status continues!

Goodreads

Book Review: GIFTED & TALENTED by Olivie Blake

| Jessica Crawford

Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake is a 512 page standalone novel published in 2025 by Tor Books.

Genre:

Contemporary Fantasy

Synopsis:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes the story of three siblings who, upon the death of their father, are forced to reckon with their long-festering rivalries, dangerous abilities, and the crushing weight of all their unrealized adolescent potential.

Where there’s a will, there’s a war.

Thayer Wren, the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology, is dead. Any one of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne.

Or at least, so they like to think.

Meredith, textbook accomplished eldest daughter and the head of her own groundbreaking biotech company, has recently cured mental illness. You’re welcome! If only her father’s fortune wasn’t her last hope for keeping her journalist ex-boyfriend from exposing what she really is: a total fraud.

Arthur, second-youngest congressman in history, fights the good fight every day of his life. And yet, his wife might be leaving him, and he’s losing his re-election campaign. But his dead father’s approval in the form of a seat on the Wrenfare throne might just turn his sinking ship around.

Eilidh, once the world’s most famous ballerina, has spent the last five years as a run-of-the-mill marketing executive at her father’s company after a life-altering injury put an end to her prodigious career. She might be lacking in accolades compared to her siblings, but if her father left her everything, it would finally validate her worth—by confirming she’d been his favorite all along.

On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins—but which Wren will come out on top?

Opening Line:

Meredith Wren, a fucking asshole, not that it matters at this stage of the narrative but it’s worth pointing out, sat blinded by the overhead lights from the stage, squinting unflatteringly into the brand-new, state-of-the-art auditorium that had just been completed on Tycho’s unethically verdant campus.

My Thoughts:

I guess I felt sorry for them, the Wrens. Which you shouldn’t do. Lord knows they don’t need your sympathy. If you give a mouse a cookie…you know how that turns out.

But hey, a bad dad is a bad dad.

The Wren siblings each have their own curious magical ability, as well as their individual contentious familial relationships. Having been raised with every resource available to the wealthy and respected, you would think they would naturally have had a step up to reaching the heights of success themselves. And yet…

He had simply believed, in his heart or possibly somewhere even dumber, that she could do anything…

This book tells the story of what happens when their father dies and they gather for his funeral and the reading of his will. Each sibling comes with their own attendant companions as well – various spouses, exes, mistresses, etc. Some of the characters can be very irritating, and yet the writing and especially the narrative voice (utilizing a clever twist on the omniscient narrator) in this book are spectacular. I’ve seen this story described as “magical Succession“, and certain bits about the nabob family reminded me of Mike Flanagan’s television adaption of The Fall of the House of Usher.

“I didn’t want happiness, for fuck’s sake–I wanted an A!” She felt sick with herself, with the repulsion of having seen her insides. “I wanted to get a good grade in life, in adulthood, in existing–but who was ever going to give me that?

Through a fairly angsty process, Thayer Wren’s adult children are forced to face their own personal hang ups, the joys and disappointments they’ve been served within their family. The angst, some characters being pretty unlikable, and the lack of satisfying explanation as to why some people seem to have a singular specific magical ability prevented this from being a 5 star read for me, but the clever writing and amusing voice that had me letting out the occasional startled laugh brought it pretty close.

In this version of the story, [she] might rewrite her selfish behaviors and her narrow concern for the mere aesthetics of life in favor of seeking redemption and accountability, having been suitably visited by the ghosts of Christmas past and/or a mental health professional.

Book Review: OF MONSTERS AND MAINFRAMES by Barbara Truelove

| Jessica Crawford

Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove is a 407 page standalone novel published by Bindery Books through Ezeekat Press in 2025.

Genre:

Science Fiction, Fantasy

Synopsis:

Spaceships aren’t programmed to seek revenge—but for Dracula, Demeter will make an exception.

Demeter just wants to do her shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying—and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire decided to board Demeter and kill all her humans.

To keep from getting decommissioned, Demeter must join forces with her own team of A werewolf. An engineer built from the dead. A pharaoh with otherworldly powers. A vampire with a grudge. A fleet of cheerful spider drones. Together, this motley crew will face down the ultimate evil—Dracula.

The queer love child of pulp horror and ​classic ​sci-fi, Of Monsters and ​Mainframes ​is a dazzling, heartfelt odyssey that probes what it means to be one of society’s monsters—and explores the many types of friendship that make us human.

Opening Line:

Awaiting input…

My Thoughts:

From the laugh out loud humor to the nerve-wracking escapades, the hodgepodge group of vibrant characters to the heartening narrative threads of love and found family, this story is an absolute delight!

I hate it. I hate is as much as I hate docking systems that put zeros on the end of my name. I hate it more because it destroyed my spider drones, who were only ever polite and useful, and killed my passengers, who were neither of those things but were mine to look after. I hate it as much as I’ve ever hated anything. I hate it as much as I hate Dracula.

Demeter is the AI of a large passenger ship that shuttles people between Earth and habitation units lightyears away. She always tries her best within the confines of her programming, and it’s really not her fault that all the humans onboard are slaughtered by the ancient vampire who stowed away in a container of soil in the cargo hold before reaching their destination. Or that almost all of her next group of passengers fall at the hands (paws?) of a werewolf. But unfortunately for her, the humans don’t believe in the existence of the supernatural, and assume Demeter’s programming is faulty in some way and she has been malfunctioning.

After a few more similar encounters with the preternatural (not all of whom are necessarily enemies), Demeter winds up with a ragtag crew that, in some ways, have become family to one another. They set out for revenge on the creature who started Demeter’s downward spiral into infamy, the one that earned her the nickname of ghost ship and got her painfully optimized by the engineers of the transport company that owns her: they are going to take down Dracula.

The chapters (many of which have hilarious names – for instance, one chapter ends with the question, “Am I desperate enough to go along with it?”, and the next chapter title is, “Yes.”) cycle through several POVs throughout this book. Two of these characters are AI, and in some ways this fact along with the humorous style brought The Murderbot Diaries to mind, only in a somewhat less satisfying way as these AIs seemed a bit more anthropomorphized (i.e. Demeter’s disks shake with relief and terabytes of fear run through her wires) (also, disks in a computerized spaceship several centuries in the future?). But it was still quite entertaining.

Even though this adventurous tale has some intense moments with high stakes, it’s told in a style that had me laughing regularly. Like when Demeter says,

Agnus says she is not as smart as Isaac. I inform her this faulty assessment is likely the result of a rounding error.

or when the ship’s medical AI asks her since when she was programmed with a desire for adventure and she answers, “I’m writing the code right now”.

So we’ve got the action, adventure, and humor, but this book also delivers some really sweet messages about love, familial/platonic as well as romantic. The relationships and the lengths the characters go to for one another despite being so drastically different from one another in a multitude of ways were really very heartwarming.

“Yes,” I say. “I…I thought I was protecting my family. But I wasn’t, because I wasn’t protecting you.” “Error. I am not your fam-” “Shut up, bitch. You’re family.”

I am truly impressed with this author for producing a story that is so equally fun and touching, and I look forward to reading more of her work. Three cheers for Barbara Truelove and Of Monsters and Mainframes!

Thank you to NetGalley, Bindery Books, and Ezeekat Press for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.